Mars Rover App Creation

Based on their experience exploring the Mars rover Curiosity and learning about what engineers must go through to develop a vehicle like Curiosity, students create Android apps that can control LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robots, simulating the difficulties the Curiosity rover could encounter. The activity goal is to teach students programming design and programming skills using MIT's App Inventor software as the vehicle for the learning. The (free to download) App Inventor program enables Android apps to be created using building blocks without having to actually know a programming language. At activity end, students are ready to apply what they learn to write other applications for Android devices.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Brian Sandall, Rich Powers

Environment/Earth Day Interdisciplinary Unit

This approximately one-month long unit will encompass a variety of subjects mainly focusing on Science, ELA, Math, Social Studies, and Art. Culminating in a field trip to a nature center. This unit is easily adaptable to an English Language Learner.

Material Type: Module

Author: Lydia Jabbour

Body Systems App Design Project

This lesson ties in our 7th grade science curriculum where students study the Systems of the Body. It also looks at how these systems function in relation to athletics. Students are to design an app that looks at these systems and how an app can help an athlete train for their sport.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Troy Staudt

Designing An App

This task ties into our school PBL Unit on body apps system design.  The task asks students to design screens for an app using the Marvel App.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Troy Staudt

Modi-FLIED

Students will breed fruit flies through several generations and record their data using mathematical models in order to demonstrate the inheritance of trait variations.

Material Type: Unit of Study

Authors: Courtney Stitt, Jessica Johnson

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

This project will be focused on designing, constructing and evaluating different containers to determine the optimal design for heat retention. After students have constructed their designs and collected and shared data, students will evaluate the class data to create an optimal design for our culminating event: warming ooey, gooey chocolate chip cookies to perfection! Through this activity, students will learn about energy transfer, engineering design process, data collection, graphing, rate of change, optimization, surface area and proportions. The students will test the effectiveness of their design using Vernier Probes to gather quantitative data and graphing the rate of temperature change. They will then create a poster presentation to share their data to the class. Students will use their mathematical skills to quantitatively analyze the strength and weaknesses of their designs while enjoying some delicious, toasty, warm cookies.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Data Set, Lesson Plan

Caine's Arcade and Cardboard Challenge

Follow the journey of Caine from his early days of create cardboard games for people waiting at his family's business to the international Cardboard Challenge Day of Play.

Material Type: Case Study, Reading

Author: Mary Frank

Plugging Into the Sun

This hands-on construction project gets students cooking during a solar energy science unit. The class study begins by acting out the Earth's rotation around the sun to see how that causes shadows. Students conduct several investigations of the Earth's position and shadows with compass and thermometer measurements and observation. They research the dilemma of using fossil fuels and how solar energy might solve this problem. Students work as engineers, and their task is to build a solar cooker that can successfully cook an egg. If this works, it may be the basis for more exploration on using solar energy as an alternative to fossil fuels. Students display their learning in multimedia presentations or newsletters. This unit plan was originally developed by the Intel® Teach program as an exemplary unit plan demonstrating some of the best attributes of teaching with technology. More information about this and other unit plans can be found in the Designing Effective Projects curriculum.

Material Type: Unit of Study

Author: Clarity Innovations

The Mystery Escape!

“Breakout” or “Escape” rooms have become extremely popular for children and adults as an entertainment option to have fun and use teamwork to solve a puzzle in a designated amount of time.  The Mystery Escape! problem-based learning module leads student groups through designing their own puzzle based on Chemistry and Periodic Table of Elements.  The culmination of the Module invites students to crack codes to unlock 4 locks that give a clear answer. “Can YOU escape peril?”

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Blended Learning Teacher Practice Network

You Can Smell It!

Students will have to solve the real world problem of locker smell leakage by building an air filter that will cover the vents on the top of a locker. This project goes well with a curriculum on the particle nature of gases and phase changes.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Authors: Allison Machado, Chris Michael

Food for Thought

Students analyze their own nutrition and then complete a project where they develop a research question, collect data in the field about students' nutrition, and analyze their data. Students use their research on nutritional requirements and student data to recommend changes in the school to improve student nutrition. Student teams identify and summarize their persuasive arguments with the data they have gathered. They present their findings to the appropriate audience with decision-making authority. This unit plan was originally developed by the Intel® Teach program as an exemplary unit plan demonstrating some of the best attributes of teaching with technology.

Material Type: Unit of Study

Author: Clarity Innovations

Global Nomads Group: Climate Change Webcast Curriculum (One-Week Lesson Plan)

How does global warming affect humans? The Climate Change Webcast explores the causes and effects of climate change as students work together to create an international climate change proposal to present at the United Nations Climate Summit.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Global Nomads Group (GNG)

Build Your Own Map

Make a topographic map of a place in the local area complete with contour lines, map key, color-coded symbols, and map scale. 

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Sherri Bolinger

Water: Modeling a Watershed by T. Kabealo & B. Cullinan (42.WCS)

Students will be working with the problem “How do we know water is safe to drink?” under the theme of “How does access to clean water and sanitation affect a culture?” Students participate in labs related to the hydrologic cycle and water quality. Students design and build a local watershed to model the movement of water across land. Students also research and explore print, video, and audio resources for news and information about local / global water pollution / impact by and on humans.Students share what they have researched with each other, then create an artifact (infographic, video, slideshow, animation, comic strip, etc) intended to educate peers and younger students about water quality and its importance. Ideally, finished products would be shared with others in an authentic setting.Standards:Ohio Science Standards (Grade 7)CCSS English Language Arts (Grade 7)

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Authors: Cathryn Chellis, Blended Learning Teacher Practice Network

STEM: Building Speakers

Electromagnetism principles are explored

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Jason Brown

Mousetrap Car Rubric 2017

Objective: To design a car that is propelled only by a mousetrap that will travel the greatest average distance. In other words, the car should use energy to move. This energy is only created by the spring action of the trap which is connected to an axle of one of your wheels by a non-elastic string / thread.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Building A Paper Bridge: An Introduction to Problem Solving

This activity allows the student to explore problem solving strategies while working with a partner. This activity (building a paper bridge), requires students to question word definition and the application of those definitions. Through problem solving strategies, students discover the need for applying math skills.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Steve Walston

AR SPELL Podcasting in the ELL Classroom

Podcasting can be a great way to get students, parents, and community members involved with classroom activities and information. ELL students can use podcasting as a way to demonstrate the skills they are developing as well as provide a way to reach other ELL students who may be encountering similar (difficulties).

Material Type: Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Lecture

Author: David Henderson

Using Art to Make Discoveries About Linear Equations - PBL

http://www.artandlinearequations.weebly.com This Project-Based Learning experience blends art and linear equations to help students make connections and extend their knowledge from a very basic understanding of y = mx + b to a true understanding of how slope and y intercept look differently in both equation form and graphed. Students get to use their creativity while at the same time make some major connections: 1) How do equations that have opposite slopes look on a graph? 2) What happens when two equations have the same slope but opposite y intercepts? 3) How does scale factor affect the appearance of the art? I used this with my 6th grade honors class (preparing for Algebra I in 7th grade) but it would be appropriate for any middle school grade level and I even had a 5th grade teacher state that she would modify this lesson to teach graphing lines which I may also do with my standard 6th grade students!

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Module

Author: Tabatha Myers

Ablative Shield Egg Data Sheet

You will present students with a challenge: build a structure from different materials that will protect a model of the Ares launch vehicles (a raw egg) from the heat of a propane torch for as long as possible. Then they design, build, test, and revise their own thermal protection systems. They document their designs with sketches and written descriptions. As a culmination, students compile their results into a poster and present them to the class. This activity explores the concepts of energy transfer with the following standards: • Energy is a property of many substances and is associated with heat and light. • Heat moves in predictable ways, flowing from warmer objects to cooler ones, until both reach the same temperature.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: heather mahon (berk)