The SMILE Program @ OSU

We are opening up the second day of the Winter Teacher’s Workshop to any and all interested teachers. Feel free to share this opportunity with your colleagues. See the flyer pictures above for information about the sessions offered, and register for the sessions by January 10th at the following link: https://smileosu.wufoo.com/forms/registration-deadline-500-pm-1102014/

In this activity, students will learn about lean manufacturing and how efficiency plays into manufacturing processes through sorting Lego bricks. They will discover how specificity of categorization can aid efficiency and why efficiency is important to sustainable industry. Click the title below to check out this fun and engaging activity! Organizing and Sorting Activity This activity is part one of a four part series of Legos and Industrial Engineering activities.

This year’s High School Challenge event will be held on February 13 and 14, 2014 at OSU, and it will focus on the complex topic of Marine Protected Areas. Here are two introductory lessons that provide a general overview into what Marine Protected Areas are and how they work! Click the titles below to access the lesson plans.

Marine Protected Areas: An Introduction

Marine Protected Areas: Conservation Goals

A Classification System for Marine Protected Areas

This activity was provided by high school club leader Ken Dicky.  It adds to the sampling concepts taught in the halibut unit with a sample-to-population-inference activity.  It is a chance to do some basic math (statistics) and eat food at a club meeting!  Along with the activity worksheet you will find teacher notes with specifics on leading it during a club meeting.  Ken says: “It was fun, valuable, and took about 1 hour”.

Sample to Population Inference Activity

Teacher Notes

Family Math and Science Night (FMSN) activities are meant to be hands-on, engaging activities for students to do with their families. Students will 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!

This post includes 5 Family Math and Science Night activities. Each activity is easy to set up and does not require explanation or supervision.

Clink!

Clink! is a simple example of inertia and gravity.  Materials are simply a penny, playing card and a mug. Participants will set the penny on the playing card and the playing card on the mug; they then have to figure out how to get the penny into the mug without lifting the card from the mug.

Paper Clip Raft

Using a sheet of toilet paper and a paper clip can you make the paper clip float in a bowl of water? By simply placing a paperclip on a single sheet of toilet paper and then carefully guiding it into the water, it will float!

Forehead Rest

Participants will begin by leaning forward and resting their foreheads on the wall. Next they will put their arms at their waists and try to stand upright without bending at the knees or hips. Participants will learn about center of gravity and how it needs to shift accordingly.

Shoulder Hold

Using their shoulder to hold a piece of paper against the wall, participants will try to lift their outside leg. They will be unable to do so because they will not be able to lean into the wall to lift their leg.

Bender

Placing a piece of paper arms length away from a wall, participants will stand with their heels against the wall; they will then try to pick up the sheet of paper without moving their feet or bending their knees. Participants will not be able to pick up the paper because their center of gravity will need to shift.

This post contains the Ocean Fisheries activities that were presented at our Summer Teacher’s Workshop in August. Learning about fisheries can help students understand how all organisms have an essential role in an ocean ecosystem. The following activities highlight the affects that fishing can have on the ocean ecosystem and the important role that fishers, biologists, managers, and other stakeholders play in helping to protect the ocean.

Halibut: Flat or Fiction? Pacific Halibut and the Ocean Ecosystem
This unit of curriculum focuses on the Pacific halibut fishery. There are four lessons and each one builds off of the last. Students are able to take on various roles and perspectives of ocean organisms, fishers, biologists, and managers. Students make tough decisions about the ocean ecosystem and recognize the difficulties that managers face in maintaining a balanced ecosystem.
Rockfish Barotrauma Presentation by Lynn Mattes of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

You’re Excluded!
This is activity was developed by Oregon Sea Grant and explores the changes in the trawl industry technology. Students identify ways that changes in technology can positively and negatively affect fish populations and use problem solving skills to engineer their own fish excluder device.
Introduction to Fishing Fleet Presentation by Kaety Hildenbrand of Oregon Sea Grant

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.
  

This post contains Bioenergy activities for middle and high school that 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.) Please also note that the Fuel Comparison and Generations of Biofuels activities are the same, as both were presented to be used for both middle and high school levels. 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!

Middle School Activities

The following activities are meant for use in SMILE clubs or classrooms at the middle school level. Each activity includes a comprehensive lesson plan with background information, materials, procedures, and challenge questions for your students. From these activities, we hope your students gain a better understanding of bioenergy and renewable resources, in particular renewable fuels or biofuels. Upon completion of these activities, middle school students should understand that bioenergy technology must be desirable, convenient, and accessible. They should be able to articulate the need for further technology development to challenge traditional energy standards. Through these activities students will also explore benefits to the environment and humans from bioenergy technology and understand that bioenergy pioneering efforts come from unexpected places. These activities will provide interesting, engaging opportunities for your students to learn and grow their understanding of bioenergy.

• Fuel Comparison: Students will be able to understand the positive and negative effects of using fossil fuels and biofuels, why fossil fuels are so prevalent, what are some alternatives to fossil fuels, and what can be done to push these alternatives into market. They will also learn where the energy they use comes from and what kind of energy sources Oregon uses to produce energy.
  

• Generations of Biofuels: Students will learn about the three generations of biofuels, how they are produced, their advantages and disadvantages, and the marketability of each fuel through this discussion-based activity.
  

• Polymer Activity: Students will learn about the use of polysaccharide sugars in the biofuel production process. They will take monomers found in glue and use borax to create a polymer.
  

• Roots and Shoots: Students will design an experiment to measure plant growth rates in the field to gather data to help determine the best crop choice for biofuel production and to explore carbon sequestration.
  

• Soil Investigations: Students will examine three different soil samples and determine the effects of air space on the soil.  

High School Activities

The following activities are meant for use in SMILE clubs at the high school level. Each activity includes a comprehensive lesson plan with background information, materials, procedures, and challenge questions for your students. From these activities, we hope your students gain a better understanding of bioenergy and renewable resources, in particular renewable fuels or biofuels. Upon completion of these activities, high school students should understand that bioenergy technology must be desirable, convenient, and accessible. They should be able to articulate the need for further technology development to challenge traditional energy standards. They will also explore benefits to the environment and humans from bioenergy technology and understand that bioenergy pioneering efforts come from unexpected places. These activities will provide interesting, engaging opportunities for your students to learn and grow their understanding of bioenergy.

• Fuel Comparison: Students will be able to understand the positive and negative effects of using fossil fuels and biofuels, why fossil fuels are so prevalent, what are some alternatives to fossil fuels, and what can be done to push these alternatives into market. They will also learn where the energy they use comes from and what kind of energy sources Oregon uses to produce energy.
  

• Generations of Biofuels: Students will learn about the three generations of biofuels, how they are produced, their advantages and disadvantages, and the marketability of each fuel through this discussion-based activity.
  

• Carbon Footprint Activity: Students will gain an understanding of the effect of their lifestyle choices on their carbon footprint. It will also help them recognize the lifestyle choices available to them that would lower their carbon footprint. Additionally, students will also be asked to critically think whether the available options for lowering their carbon footprint are actions that they are willing to take.
  

• Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs): There are two activities for MFCs — Bacteria Power: Students will explore the phenomenon of electrical production from bacteria by creating a mud bacteria fuel cell and testing the voltages at different time intervals. Battery vs. Fuel Cell – What’s the Difference?: Students will learn what a battery is, how different materials used in the battery influence the effectiveness of the battery, and how to make a battery out of household items. 
  

• Enzymes and Bioenergy: Students will explore enzymes and their use in creation of lignocellulosic biofuels. They will also examine economical and time considerations in new energy efficiency technologies.
  

• Growing Bioenergy: Students will get the opportunity to plant a poplar tree and discuss the uses and growth of poplar trees for bioenergy technologies.