Shoot and TweetOn our first day in the MSU fellowship, we were immediately asked to go outside and take a picture that would help us introduce ourselves to our new classmates. We were then asked to create a Twitter account and tweet out the photo with our hashtag that we used throughout the entire fellowship.
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Quickfire: Video Story Problem
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Cosmos Quick and Dirty GuideAfter reading Cosmos by Carl Sagan, we spent a lot of time going through the big ideas of the entire book, as well as the major themes in each chapter. Each smaller group was asked to focus in on one chapter and pick out an overarching quote that really described the themes covered in the chapter. Our group focused on chapter 2 which reminds us that in order to work toward our future, we need to understand our past.
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#Cosmos Quickfire Year 3 by MSU UrbanSTEM on Scribd |
IDEAS Photo Assignment
We were asked to go out of the classroom and find different objects that represented specific letters. Our letters were "S" and "T" and we were not allowed manipulate any of the objects or use actual letters (for example, using an S from a Stop sign). In the end, we discovered that our leaders put these photos together to form a creative statement! |
Quickfire: Breaking Laws of Physics Stop Motion
In order to learn yet ANOTHER technology that our students can use in the classroom, we were given the task to create a stop motion video. The focus of the video was to show an animation that broke the laws of physics. Our video dealt with the fact that the force of gravity becomes greater as you get closer to the Earth. You can see the cherry falling to the Earth at a constant velocity (incorrect!), and then the cherry accelerating toward the Earth in the second 'scene' (correct!). Click the picture to the right to restart the gif. |
Amazing STEM Narrative
Narrative of Amazing Teaching Moment: This lesson is designed for a 9th grade physics class that has just finished learning about velocity and acceleration via experimentation, collecting and analyzing data, and finding relationships between two variables.
The students are presented with the following question: Are traffic lights in Chicago properly timed? More specifically, are yellow light times long enough? Let's say you are in a car and up ahead you notice that the light has turned yellow. If you are far enough away, you can stop before entering the intersection. However, if you are unable to stop before entering the intersection, you must continue all the way through it. Are the lights timed in a way that you can be going the legal speed limit and not be stuck in an area that you cannot safely stop or go?
The students were asked to brainstorm what data we will need to collect in order to answer this question. Some information needed to be assumed, some needed to be researched and estimated, and some needed to be physically collected out in the field. Some of these include:
Check out my Amazing STEM page for more information on this lesson!
The students are presented with the following question: Are traffic lights in Chicago properly timed? More specifically, are yellow light times long enough? Let's say you are in a car and up ahead you notice that the light has turned yellow. If you are far enough away, you can stop before entering the intersection. However, if you are unable to stop before entering the intersection, you must continue all the way through it. Are the lights timed in a way that you can be going the legal speed limit and not be stuck in an area that you cannot safely stop or go?
The students were asked to brainstorm what data we will need to collect in order to answer this question. Some information needed to be assumed, some needed to be researched and estimated, and some needed to be physically collected out in the field. Some of these include:
- speed limit
- acceleration of car (negative acceleration, to slow down)
- duration of yellow light
- reaction time of average human (move foot from gas to brake pedal)
- width of intersection (can vary!)
- average length of vehicle
Check out my Amazing STEM page for more information on this lesson!
World of Wonder
Tech Tip!