We heard from Dan Preston, a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Integrative Biology. He presented a Ponds in Peril activity, and here are the materials we’d like to share with you:
Battery Activity Introductory Powerpoint – This is a powerpoint presentation created by SMILE that can be used to introduce the topic of batteries and how they work as well as the above activity.
Battery Types – This is an excel spreadsheet that can be used for an extensional activity where students explore different types of batteries and their applications.
Forest Grove High School had their Family Math & Science Night last November. It was such a success that they wanted to share some photos with us. Check them out:
Anyone thinking about the upcoming Middle School Challenge? We’re excited for it and our Mechanical Engineering team have a video to share to get students thinking about the challenges of modeling earthquakes.
Be sure to have students check out the video below before leaving for Winter Break!
This team has also provided us with gifs of their designs. Click the images below to see more!
As students begin preparing for the Challenge, consider what makes an earthquake model realistic? How could you make a shake table? Check out the videos below to see other middle school shake table activities:
Does this realistically model an earthquake? What are some problems with it? How could it be more accurate? Check out these videos below for industrial shake tables:
Monroe SMILE club students engineered stream ecosystems to meet the specific adaptations of the macroinvertebrates that they designed. Once their streams were complete they added water to test their work! Check out their creativity!
We wanted to share a new activity with you: the Micro-Crossbow! The directions are very thorough, and it looks like an awful lot of fun! Check it out here.
Michelle at Lincoln Elementary School sent us photos to share of her recent Scribbler robot activity. The activity was a hit and looks like a lot of fun!
During the August SMILE teachers workshop we spent an entire day learning about Oregon’s geology, hazards, and preparedness. All of the lesson materials shared were connected to NGSS with a specific focus on Cross Cutting Concepts. Check out some of the fun activities:
During an elementary session, teachers learned about riparian systems and their importance to birds and other organisms and we built model ecosystems. Here are the lesson plans that support these concepts:
