Learn about an important physics experiment that uses an invention that manipulates light in this interactive activity adapted from NASA.
Students design systems that use microbes to break down a water pollutant (in this case, sugar). They explore how temperature affects the rate of pollutant decomposition.
This is an applied project where your students will choose from three different project options, then use the design thinking process to create a Micro:bit project that solves their user’s problem. In Lesson 1, each student will read all three project overviews. Then, they will choose the project they want to work on for the remaining lessons in the project!
Estimated time required: 1-2 class periods.
Technology required for this lesson: Code Editor, Electronics Kit, Laptop/Desktop, Tablet.
In this lesson, students will learn more about their user and complete the first two steps in the Design Thinking process: Empathize and Define. They will then read about three different users and select one for their project! Students should only work on the material that corresponds to their project choice. For example: if a student chose Project 2A, they would only work on the Project 2A content.
Estimated time required: 1-2 class periods.
Technology required for this lesson: Code Editor, Electronics Kit, Laptop/Desktop, Tablet.
In this lesson, students will ideate and sketch designs for their micro:bits project. Additionally, they will create a budget for their prototype. Note: the presentation and worksheet for this lesson are the same for all project choices. Regardless of project choice, all students will brainstorm and sketch ideas!
Estimated time required: 1-2 class periods.
Technology required for this lesson: Code Editor, Electronics Kit, Laptop/Desktop, Tablet.
In this lesson, students will use Micro:bits and MakeCode to create a prototype of their wearable. Note: Students will all be working on their prototypes during this lesson, regardless of project choice.
Estimated time required: 2-3 class periods.
Technology required for this lesson: Code Editor, Electronics Kit, Laptop/Desktop, Tablet.
In this lesson, students will finalize their Micro:bits wearables, create a poster advertisement for their project, share their project with their peers, give/receive feedback on each other’s projects, submit their designs, and answer a series of reflection questions. Note: the content for 2A, 2B, and 2C are almost identical in this section. This is a great chance for students to teach each other about their specific project choice and user!
Estimated time required: 1-2 class periods.
Technology required for this lesson: Code Editor, Electronics Kit, Laptop/Desktop, Tablet.
Students obtain a basic understanding of microfluidic devices, how they are developed and their uses in the medical field. After conducting the associated activity, they watch a video clip and learn about flow rate and how this relates to the speed at which medicine takes effect in the body. What they learn contributes to their ongoing objective to answer the challenge question presented in lesson 1 of this unit. They conclude by solving flow rate problems provided on a worksheet.
After watching a short online video that recaps the enormous scale of accumulating plastic waste in our oceans, student teams are challenged to devise a method to remove the most plastic microbeads from a provided commercial personal care product—such as a facial cleanser or body wash. They brainstorm filtering methods ideas and design their own specific procedures that use teacher-provided supplies (coffee filters, funnels, plastic syringes, vinyl tubing, water, plastic bags) to extract the microplastics as efficiently as possible. The research and development student teams compare the final masses of their extracted microbeads to see which filter solutions worked best. Students suggest possible future improvements to their filter designs. A student worksheet is provided.
Students learn about the form and function of the human heart through the dissection of sheep hearts. They learn about the different parts of the heart and are able to identify the anatomical structures and compare them to the all of the structural components of the human heart they learned about in the associated lesson, Heart to Heart.
Students learn about the remote sensing radio occultation technique and how engineers use it with GPS satellites to monitor and study the Earth's atmospheric activity. Students may be familiar with some everyday uses of GPS, but not as familiar with how GPS technology contributes to our ongoing need for great amounts of ever-changing global atmospheric data for accurate weather forecasting, storm tracking and climate change monitoring. GPS occultations are when GPS signals sent from one satellite to another are altered (delayed, refracted) by the atmosphere passed though, such that they can be analyzed to remotely learn about the planet's atmospheric conditions.
Students explore how different materials (sand, gravel, lava rock) with different water contents on different slopes result in landslides of different severity. They measure the severity by how far the landslide debris extends into model houses placed in the flood plain. This activity is a small-scale model of a debris chute currently being used by engineers and scientists to study landslide characteristics. Much of this activity setup is the same as for the Survive That Tsunami activity in Lesson 5 of the Natural Disasters unit.
As students learn about the creation of biodomes, they are introduced to the steps of the engineering design process, including guidelines for brainstorming. Students learn how engineers are involved in the design and construction of biodomes and use brainstorming to come up with ideas for possible biodome designs. This lesson is part of a series of six lessons in which students use their growing understanding of various environments and the engineering design process, to design and create their own model biodome ecosystems.
Students design, build and test model race cars made from simple materials (lifesaver-shaped candies, plastic drinking straws, Popsicle sticks, index cards, tape) as a way to explore independent, dependent and control variables. They measure the changes in distance travelled with the addition of mass to the vehicles. Students also practice the steps of the engineering design process by brainstorming, planning, building, testing, and improving their "mint-mobiles."
The Mission to Mars curricular unit introduces students to Mars the Red Planet. Students discover why scientists are so interested in studying this mysterious planet. Many interesting facts about Mars are revealed, and the history of Martian exploration is reviewed. Students will learn about the development of robotics and how robots are beneficial to science, society and the exploration of space. Details on engineers' involvement in space exploration are presented. Furthermore, students will learn how orbits allow astronauts to move from planet to planet and what type of equipment is used by scientists and engineers to safely explore space. Lastly, the specific details on and human risks for a possible future manned mission to Mars (and back to Earth again!) are discussed.
This lesson plan introduces the properties of mixtures and solutions. A class demonstration gives the students the opportunity to compare and contrast the physical characteristics of a few simple mixtures and solutions. Students discuss the separation of mixtures and solutions back into their original components as well as different engineering applications of mixtures and solutions.
Through three lessons and their four associated activities, students are introduced to concepts related to mixtures and solutions. Students consider how mixtures and solutions and atoms and molecules can influence new technologies developed by engineers. To begin, students explore the fundamentals of atoms and their structures. The building blocks of matter (protons, electrons, neutrons) are covered in detail. The next lesson examines the properties of elements and the periodic table one method of organization for the elements. The concepts of physical and chemical properties are also reviewed. Finally, the last lesson introduces the properties of mixtures and solutions. A comparison of different mixtures and solutions, their properties and their separation qualities are explored.
The application of engineering principles is explored in the creation of mobiles. As students create their own mobiles, they take into consideration the forces of gravity and convection air currents. They learn how an understanding of balancing forces is important in both art and engineering design.
Students learn about the advantages and disadvantages of the greenhouse effect. They construct their own miniature greenhouses and explore how their designs take advantage of heat transfer processes to create controlled environments. They record and graph measurements, comparing the greenhouse indoor and outdoor temperatures over time. Students are also introduced to global issues such as greenhouse gas emissions and their relationship to global warming.
Students use provided materials to design and build prototype artificial heart valves. Their functioning is demonstrated using water to simulate the flow of blood through the heart. Upon completion, teams demonstrate their fully functional prototypes to the rest of the class, along with a pamphlet that describes the device and how it works.