Oh, no! I’ve dropped my phone! Most of us have experienced the …
Oh, no! I’ve dropped my phone! Most of us have experienced the panic of watching our phones slip out of our hands and fall to the floor. We’ve experienced the relief of picking up an undamaged phone and the frustration of the shattered screen. This common experience anchors learning in the Contact Forces unit as students explore a variety of phenomena to figure out, “Why do things sometimes get damaged when they hit each other?”
Student questions about the factors that result in a shattered cell phone screen lead them to investigate what is really happening to any object during a collision. They make their thinking visible with free-body diagrams, mathematical models, and system models to explain the effects of relative forces, mass, speed, and energy in collisions. Students then use what they have learned about collisions to engineer something that will protect a fragile object from damage in a collision. They investigate which materials to use, gather design input from stakeholders to refine the criteria and constraints, develop micro and macro models of how their solution is working, and optimize their solution based on data from investigations. Finally, students apply what they have learned from the investigation and design to a related design problem.
In this unit, students develop ideas related to how sounds are produced, …
In this unit, students develop ideas related to how sounds are produced, how they travel through media, and how they affect objects at a distance. Their investigations are motivated by trying to account for a perplexing anchoring phenomenon — a truck is playing loud music in a parking lot and the windows of a building across the parking lot visibly shake in response to the music.
Unit Summary In this unit, students develop ideas related to how sounds …
Unit Summary In this unit, students develop ideas related to how sounds are produced, how they travel through media, and how they affect objects at a distance. Their investigations are motivated by trying to account for a perplexing anchoring phenomenon — a truck is playing loud music in a parking lot and the windows of a building across the parking lot visibly shake in response to the music. They make observations of sound sources to revisit the K–5 idea that objects vibrate when they make sounds. They figure out that patterns of differences in those vibrations are tied to differences in characteristics of the sounds being made. They gather data on how objects vibrate when making different sounds to characterize how a vibrating object’s motion is tied to the loudness and pitch of the sounds they make. Students also conduct experiments to support the idea that sound needs matter to travel through, and they will use models and simulations to explain how sound travels through matter at the particle level. This unit builds toward the following NGSS Performance Expectations (PEs) as described in the OpenSciEd Scope & Sequence: MS-PS4-1, MS-PS4-2. The OpenSciEd units are designed for hands-on learning and therefore materials are necessary to teach the unit. These materials can be purchased as science kits or assembled using the kit material list.
This unit launches with a slow-motion video of a speaker as it …
This unit launches with a slow-motion video of a speaker as it plays music. Students dissect speakers to explore the inner workings, and engineer homemade cup speakers to manipulate the parts of the speaker. They identify that most speakers have the same parts–a magnet, a coil of wire, and a membrane. Students investigate each of these parts to figure out how they work together in the speaker system.
This unit launches with a slow-motion video of a speaker as it …
This unit launches with a slow-motion video of a speaker as it plays music. In the previous unit, students developed a model of sound. This unit allows students to investigate the cause of a speaker’s vibration in addition to the effect.
Students dissect speakers to explore the inner workings, and engineer homemade cup speakers to manipulate the parts of the speaker. They identify that most speakers have the same parts–a magnet, a coil of wire, and a membrane. Students investigate each of these parts to figure out how they work together in the speaker system. Along the way, students manipulate the components (e.g. changing the strength of the magnet, number of coils, direction of current) to see how this technology can be modified and applied to a variety of contexts, like MagLev trains, junkyard magnets, and electric motors.
How are we connected to the patterns we see in the sky …
How are we connected to the patterns we see in the sky and space? Students develop models for the Earth-Sun and Earth-Sun-Moon systems that explain some of the patterns in the sky that they have identified, including seasons, eclipses, and lunar phases. They investigate a series of related phenomena motivated by their questions and ideas for investigations.
This unit is part of the OpenSciEd core instructional materials for middle school.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, expetenda disputationi cu has, quo modo tempor …
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, expetenda disputationi cu has, quo modo tempor incorrupte an, qui dignissim consequat in. In his vivendo dignissim. Cu mea illud efficiantur, at dignissim moderatius sea. Sit te quaeque accusata molestiae. Cu mea paulo audiam constituto, erat illud ex eos. Ei sapientem necessitatibus eum, eum in platonem dignissim, in audiam honestatis ius. Natum possim cu vix, eu mea omnis suscipit eleifend.
This video features residents of Shishmaref, Alaska, plus environmental journalist Elizabeth Kolbert …
This video features residents of Shishmaref, Alaska, plus environmental journalist Elizabeth Kolbert and scientist John Holdren, exploring the human impacts of global climate change.
ABLE Interactive Tutorials are designed to make training from supplemental service providers …
ABLE Interactive Tutorials are designed to make training from supplemental service providers available to all practitioners anytime, anywhere in an engaging way. Each tutorial is a short, specific tutorial. Using DOK 2 & 3 questions, practitioners are able to engage with the content and reflect on their own instruction while they earn CEUs.
In this professional development session, we will develop a shared understanding of …
In this professional development session, we will develop a shared understanding of how formative assessment works and different approaches that have been developed. The material for this resource come from a series of PD sessions on formative assessment developed by the ACESSE team: Philip Bell, Shelley Stromholt, Bill Penuel, Katie Van Horne, Tiffany Neill, and Sam Shaw.We will be updating this Facilitator's Guide for ACESSE Resource A with the most up-to-date information about this resource over time. If you encounter problems with this resource, you can contact us at: STEMteachingtools@uw.edu
The NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education and the resulting Next Generation …
The NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education and the resulting Next Generation Science Standards focus on an integrated three-dimensional view of science learning in which students develop understanding of core ideas of science and crosscutting concepts in the context of engaging in science and engineering practices.How is assessing three-dimensional science learning different than how we have thought of science learning in the past? How can we design assessment tasks that elicit student’s current understanding of specific aspects of the disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts in order to shape future instruction? In this workshop, participants will learn how to interpret and design cognitive formative assessment to fit a three-dimensional view of learning.This resource originates from a series of PD sessions on 3D formative assessment developed and provided by Katie Van Horne, Shelley Stromholt, Bill Penuel, and Philip Bell. It has been improved through a collaboration in the ACESSE project with science education experts from 13 states. Please cite this resource as follows:Stromholt, S., Van Horne, K., Bell, P., Penuel, W. R., Neill, T. & Shaw, S. (2017). How to Assess Three-Dimensional Learning in Your Classroom: Building Assessment Tasks that Work. [OER Professional Development Session from the ACESSE Project] Retrieved from http://stemteachingtools.org/pd/SessionB
How can science instruction be meaningfullyconnected to the out-of-school lives of students? In …
How can science instruction be meaningfullyconnected to the out-of-school lives of students? In this professional development, we will consider how to design formative assessments that build on learners’ interest and knowledge, promoting equity and social justice in the process. The material for this resource comes from a series of PD sessions on formative assessment originally developed by Philip Bell and Shelley Stromholt.We will be updating this Facilitator's Guide for ACESSE Resource C with the most up to date information about this resource over time. If you encounter problesm with this resources, you can contact us at STEMteachingtools@uw.eduThis resource was refined through a 13-state collaboration to make the resource more broadly useful. If you choose to adapt these materials, please attribute the source and that it was work funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Abstract: This session provides a step-by-step process to support participants as they design …
Abstract: This session provides a step-by-step process to support participants as they design a 3D assessment task for the science classroom. Along the way, they learn how to define 3D learning performances for specific lessons—and how to use a range of tools to support their assessment design work. A key goal of the session activity is to improve the connection of intended learning goals to assessment practices. Participants build their 3D assessment design capacity by designing and workshopping tasks—before piloting them in their classrooms. The approaches learned in this workshop can be used with any curricula, at any grade level, and across all subjects of science.
The ACS (American Chemical Society) citation style guide uses color-coded citation examples …
The ACS (American Chemical Society) citation style guide uses color-coded citation examples to assist chemistry students in converting MLA and APA citations to the ACS citation style. The MLA and APA citation styles are widely used in college courses, and many students are familiar with those styles. This guide makes citation in chemistry courses simple by giving examples of frequently referenced resources.
The coral reefs of the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu are …
The coral reefs of the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu are the backbone of the island's environmental and economic health. Today they face destruction from a silent predator that can rapidly decimate an entire reef. In this video, students learn about how a starfish is destroying the coral reefs of Vanuatu and how the islanders are adapting.
This video begins in the lush deltas of Bangladesh. The host of …
This video begins in the lush deltas of Bangladesh. The host of the video learns how communities are adapting to changing monsoons and dangerous sea-level rise. Floating gardens and floating schools are just the start of some of the country's innovative strategies.
In this video, learn how communities in the arid high-mountain region of …
In this video, learn how communities in the arid high-mountain region of Ladakh rely on glacial water to feed streams and water crops during the spring and summer months. Global warming is dramatically reshaping the future of these areas. Meet a Ladakhi teacher and engineer who devised a method to capture and store glacial runoff into magnificent ice pyramids that are used as water resources throughout the summer and during peak agricultural months.
In this video, an entrepreneur is finding new ways to manage the …
In this video, an entrepreneur is finding new ways to manage the invasive Asian carp problem in the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Once introduced to help mitigate an algae problem, the carp became invasive. This video highlights how the local community has adapted to the issue, including how they have gained ideas about how to utilize the carp from other cultures to help mitigate the issue.
This exercise should be used after you think students know what AFM …
This exercise should be used after you think students know what AFM diagrams are and how they work. This is sort of a quiz -- to see if they can properly interpret the diagrams. There is no point moving on to real projects that involve AFM diagrams if the students don't understand the basics.
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