SECME Summer Institute 2013
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| Click on the first picture to flip through a photoalbum of the 2012 SECME Summer Institute |
UNSEEN FORCES: Air Resistance
With some strips of paper and a few paper clips, you can create a mini papercopter that spins like a real helicopter.
eGFI: Fly a Paper Helicopter
NASA: http://marsrover.phys.uh.edu/docs/Handouts/Test+Copters.pdf
Discover Primary Science: Paper Helicopters
UNSEEN FORCES: Magnetic Fields
Design Squad - Misson: Solar System Inspector Detector
Challenge: Design and build a device that can pass above a surface and detect magnetic fields. In this video, kids design and build magnetic-field detectors and use them to find hidden magnets. The video shows kids using the engineering design process, applying a variety of science concepts (e.g., force, magnetic fields, mapping), and learning about how a planet's or moon's magnetic field gives NASA scientists insights into its structure and how it formed.
Extensions
Science: how is the Inspector Detector activity similar to MRI machines? to animal magnetism and migration?
Engineering: how can the detector be re-engineered to measure the strength of the magnetic field?
Communication: how are kids identifying where the magnets are hidden?
Mathematics: instead of the suggested graph, use cartesian coordinate systems.
FIZZIX FUNDAY Fizzix Funday handout
Physics students showcase their mastery of mechanics and test their knowledge of Newton with "Fizzix Funday" research projects. Students chose to "Drop It," "Launch It," or "Thrill It."
"Drop It": create the ideal container to protect an egg from a seven story drop with no parachutes or propellers.
"Launch It": blast off the ultimate water rocket with the longest hang time
"Thrill It": make the best roller coaster model (or water park scale slide).
THE PIT AND THE PAPER-CLIP PENDULUM
STEMinar: The Pit and Paperclip Pendulum handout (opens as PDF)
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?pageno=101&fk_files=2336624
TOPScience Pendulum #32
Using a stopwatch and calculator, your students will graph length vs frequency into a beautiful curve; they'll stand this curve on its head by plotting the period, then straighten it back out by squaring the period. This straight line leads directly to a simple pendulum equation with powerful applications. Math teachers, don’t miss this one
APOLLO 14 PENDULUM
For a detailed analysis of the Apollo 14 SEQ Bay Pendulum visit:
http://www.history.nasa.gov/alsj/a14/a14pendulum.html
FLOCABULARY
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum” in one terrifying rap song. The lyrics summarize the plot of Poe’s classic tale of torture.
http://flocabulary.com/poe-pit/
NASA NEW HORIZONS
New Horizons is NASA's mission to Pluto scheduled to launch in 2006. The Growth Chart Poster is an educational keepsake and reminder. Poster activities allow kids to track their growth over New Horizons' 9-15 year flight to Pluto, mark the progress of the spacecraft, and more!
Click here to learn more and to download the Growth Chart Activities
BULBS, BATTERIES, AND BRIGHT IDEAS
NASA can power a spacecraft at Pluto 4 billion miles fom the Sun, but has MIT grads who can't quickly recognize the path of electricity in a complete circuit, like a flashlight? It's true! Teachers will explore how student can truly grasp or slip up on simple science concepts, like circuit design and current flow. Using resources ranging from RadioShack to TOPS, to NASA and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the probe reveals mental pictures and misconceptions as student struggle with schema. Get illuminated on how learning occurs, because even MIT grads can't recognize the pathway of electricity in a complete circuit, including its path through the light bulb.
Fan and Pick - Kagan Higher Level Thinking Question Cards on Electricity (opens as PDF). Light up your students minds with these electrifying questions. Questions are provided in convenient reproducible question card format, perfect for the engaging cooperative questioning activities provided.
Minds of Our Own Video On Demand
Why don't even the brightest students truly grasp simple science concepts? These video programs pick up on the questions asked in the Private Universe documentary and further explore how children learn. Based on recent research, as well as the pioneering work of Piaget and others, Minds of Our Own shows that many of the things we assume about how children learn are simply not true. For educators and parents, these programs bring new insight to debates about education reform.
Produced by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. 1997.
TOPScience Electricity #32
One of our best science programs ever for elementary and middle school age levels. Students will have lots of fun lighting bulbs, building circuits, designing switches, popping balloons, making fuses and more. These popular experiments are sure to spark an interest in the science of electricity.
Simple Electroscope
This activity helps you learn about static charge or static electricity and shows you how to construct a device that will check whether an object has a static charge.
TOPScience Electricity #19
These fun projects will have your students improvising bulb and battery holders and switches to configure parallel and series circuits. Hands on activities include constructing galvanometers, variable resistors, fuses, electroscopes and much more! Experiment with splitting water and recombining gases in a fun, safe, mini-explosion. Best used as follow-up to Electricity #32; lessons don't repeat.
ADVANCED MOUSETRAP VEHICLE CALCULATIONS FOR DESIGN EXCELLENCE
https://sites.google.com/site/seminolesecme/curriculum-of-the-consortium/Mousetrap%20Vehicle%20Calculations%20for%20Design%20Excellence.pdf
There are two main stages of travel for mousetrap vehicles (MTV). The first is thepowered stage and the second is the coasting stage. There is a possible third stage that should be avoided by careful routing of the string – the breaking stage – since this will reduce distance but with no positive offsetting effect.
Since the powered stage accounts for the majority of the distance and the time used, it is wise to optimize this phase. To begin the design, we’ll ignore length and weigh considerations (but they should be evaluated as part of the final MTV design). Once the initial design is complete, trade-offs and improvements can be made.
To calculate distance under power for an existing MTV design, you determine how many times the wheel will rotate and multiply that by its circumference to get total distance. If the vehicle does not perform as anticipated then you can look for losses due to slippage and other factors, or perhaps a math error. Include units in all calculations to avoid use of conflicting units (dimensional analysis).
based on a 2011 SECME Saturday Design Seminar originally presented at Pine Jog Elementary School.
