The SMILE Program @ OSU

This post contains activities to be done at Family Math and Science Nights with your SMILE clubs. These activities were presented at our Summer Teacher’s Workshop earlier in August. The lesson plans and any other resources for each activity are available on Google Drive. To access the lesson plans, click on the title of each activity. (Note: you do NOT have to have a Google account to access these files.) You are able to download and/or print the files for all of the activities directly from Google Drive, but you must download the file before you can make any personal edits. Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback!

Family Math and Science Night (FMSN) activities are meant to be hands-on, engaging activities for students to do with their families. These particular activities reinforce the information learned in club meetings about Bioenergy, as well as provide a new learning experience for students and their families. Students also have the opportunity to share their knowledge and have a teaching moment with their families and peers. Each activity for FMSN can be easily adapted for use in a SMILE club meeting or to meet the specific needs of each SMILE club. Almost all of the materials are things that can be purchased at a grocery store, which makes these activities easy to prepare and set up for. We hope you and your students find these activities exciting and engaging!

• Biodegradable Plastic: Students learn what bioplastics are and what some of their many applications are. Students will create their own biodegradable plastic using corn-based ingredients.
  

• Bioenergy Research Posters: Students will research, plan, create, and present a poster about a renewable energy source, preferably a form of biofuel or bioenergy. They will have several club meetings to create the poster, then display and present it at FMSN. They will gain new knowledge about renewable energy and energy conservation, and have an opportunity to be creative and inventive as they learn.
  

• Ethanol Production Activity: Students will gain an understanding of how different energy sources may be used to produce ethanol fuel and other biofuels. Students will observe the fermentation process of different types of simple sugars present in common, consumable foodstuffs and use carbon dioxide accumulation to see how much ethanol is made with each type of sugar.