All resources in OC Elem STEM

How Big Were Dinosaurs?

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In this classroom activity, young students compare their feet to the foot of a large Apatosaur. The activity opens with background information for teachers about the enormous size range of dinosaurs. After using personal references to describe the size of dinosaurs, students examine the outline of an Apatosaur footprint. Students then estimate how many of their footprints would fit inside the Apatosaur footprint and conduct an experiment to test their estimate.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Solar Cookers

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In this project students will research and then build a basic solar cooker shell made out of cardboard. Then they will run a variety of materials through experiments. Data from the experiments will be used to determine which materials should be added to the solar cooker shell to improve its ability to heat up food. This project was created as a collaboration between a science and an engineering/woodshop class. The engineering class researched and build the basic solar cooker cardboard shells. The science class tested additional materials to add to the shells to improve the solar cookers. Then the engineering class, following the directions from reports created by the science class, added the materials to the solar cooker shells to create the final products.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Reading, Unit of Study

What Is a Dinosaur?

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In this classroom activity, young students learn what distinguishes dinosaurs from other animals. The activity opens with background information for teachers about these prehistoric reptiles. Working in small groups, students look through dinosaur books to gather interesting facts to share. As a class, students use their facts to create a semantic map. Then they explore the differences in dinosaur and lizard legs, and examine how these differences affect their stances. The activity concludes with a student worksheet that challenges them to identify the dinosaurs within a collection of animal illustrations.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan