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I am half way into the second week of this with a new class, they do not seem to catch on as well as the first class. These are my notes from last week:
It has been a fun and busy week teaching my class, “Engineering Through Models”. The students grades 5-8 build a series of four projects over four days with the fifth day a short class so they will be designing their own foam gliders using plates and straws. This year the group seemed to be very engaged with the projects and also world issues. I was amazed at some their conversations which sometimes got into politics, religion, evolution and the environment but they were always respectful of each other. My conversations with the class were more along the line of principles of physics and construction techniques.
This year I added the Hammer Down Foam Catapult glider and the model wind turbine. For the mousetrap car I did a couple of the steps that had been problems in the past but it turned out there was one more step that was a problem, gluing the lever arm to the mousetrap wire. This is a high stress area and it is typical to not let the hot glue harden enough. For next weeks’ class I have this step done for them. Struggling some I think is good for the education process but if it is too hard I end up having to help too many students and the class gets bogged down.
The new foam glider went together well but I plan to spend more time on adjusting it for the next class. Building the wind turbine went almost too quick but I had to do much of the work on that because there would not be tools available such as a drillpress.
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Bill, you have so many interesting kits and models. Your students must love being in your science classes. Please share how you are using the models in your classes. Do you have any lesson plans that you are willing to share?
I love the monthly journal article entry in Science Scope called, 'Everyday Engineering'. The Nov. 2010 issue was all about models and maps, and that month's article was entitled, 'Toothbrush design - Is there a better bristle'?
Carolyn
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Carolyn, to begin with my teaching is just a part-time thing, I am a network administrator fulltime. The projects I have come up with are often an extension of some of my hobbies. It started with the model airplanes and model rockets but I have come up with other projects too. As of yet I have not created a lesson plan. An Internet friend created one for model gliders that uses a lot of math.
Glider Lesson No doubt it should have been done in metric units.
I want to explore the foam gliders built from straws and foam plates further and try to work up lessons from this. I think this is a really good activity in that it is so inexpensive.
Bill Kuhl
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Hi,
I am looking for ideas to introduce and teach my students how to do the science projects using scientific method properly as our school started to participate in the science fair project last year and many of my students have little experience on this field. I am planning to implement the scientific method lesson using wind turbines and solar panels as many of them show their interested in the fields of physical science for their projects. Hopefully I can have a meaningful communication in this thread here to meet my purpose.
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These articles explain what I have done with wind turbines and solar power:
Wind Turbine
Model Solar Cars
Hopefully this will give you some ideas on how to get started, keep us in the loop on what your classes do. Sounds interesting.
Bill Kuhl
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Tomonori,
You were asking for ideas on wind and solar. There is a fantastic professional development course called Island Energy Inquiry that is offered once or twice a year that is fantastic! It allows you to practice many different experiments, and the best thing is the "toys" you get when you take the course. In addition you are then able to access a lending library that allows you borrow windmill and solar kits for a couple of weeks at a time which really helps save on expense. Check out the PDE360 site to see when it comes available or check with Maui Womens' Economic Council to see when the next time it is offered. Hope this helps.......
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