Category: Middle School
From the January Teachers’ Workshop:
Here are the materials associated with the Renewable Energy and Wind Turbine kit lesson (presented by Brian Hartman, PhD Candidate in Education):
Renewable Wind Energy Presentation
SONY DSC
From our January Teachers’ Workshop:
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:
This first video describes the set-up for the Ponds in Peril experiment, a great tool to use with your students.
This second video is a great overview of the entire project!
Ponds in Peril Full Worksheet Package
Powerpoints: Project Overview, Food Web Review, Aquatic Macroinvertebrates, Nutrient Pollution and Invaders, and The Process of Science
From our January Teachers’ Workshop:
We heard from Dr. David Ji, an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department at OSU. Below are the materials that we shared with you:
Energy Storage in the 21st Century – This is Dr. Ji’s powerpoint presentation.
Understanding Batteries & Capacitors Lesson Plan – This is the lesson plan created by SMILE and shared with you at the workshop.
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.
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!
At our Teacher’s Workshop this past August, we presented Middle School Engineering activities. See the links below for resources to bring back to your classrooms!
We will be holding the summer teacher’s workshop Aug 9-11. The bioenergy activities will focus on renewable energy. Bioenergy is a part of the complete renewable energy picture, but how do you choose which option makes the most sense. We will kick off the workshop by exploring best practices for engineering design projects, Designing Engineers Activity. Then, look at what it takes to power a house that is off the grid. We will use geographic information systems (GIS) to determine whether its makes sense to use Trees or Solar Panels for the renewable energy source. This will lead into design of the house to optimize solar panels and solar heating through the Solar City Activity. Finally, we will take a deep dive into optimizing solar photo-voltaic panels for maximum output with the Shocking Solar Activity. We hope to see you at the workshop.
This week our Nyssa and Ontario Clubs were featured in The Observer. The article talks about our recent Middle School Challenge at Eastern Oregon University. Check it out here!
We have even more photos to share thanks to your e-mails! This week we received photos from Lorna Byrne Middle School enjoying themselves during our recent Middle School Challenge as well as performing activities in their own classroom. They participated in actives like making a scribbler and making a catapult. They turned out great! Check out more pictures on our Facebook page.
