Download STEM KITS LESSON PLAN - Claiborne County Schools

STEM KITS
LESSON PLAN
GRADE LEVEL: 7th and 8th Grade
STANDARDS AND OBJECTIVES:
−
−
−
−
Science Tennessee Standard –
Math Tennessee Standard –
Next Generation Science Standard – Space Systems: MS.ESS – SS. c
Common Core Math Standard –
7.RP.2a, 7.G.1; 8.G.7
LESSON STRUCTURE AND PACING
− Prior Knowledge/Skills needed to complete activities
7th Grade – Students should be familiar with the Earth, Moon, and Mars. Students should be able to recognize
and represent proportional relationships, write comparisons as ratios and solve problems using scale
drawings/figures.
8th Grade – Students should be familiar with the Solar System. Students should be able to use the Pythagorean
Theorem to find the missing distance of a right triangle.
Partner pairs or small groups recommended.
MATERIALS:
− IN THE BOX – Modeling Clay, plastic knifes, tape measure(25ft – 100 ft), student compass, rulers, clay
recipe
− Teacher Provided Materials – Basketball, tennis ball (other spheres of different diameters: ex. golf, ping
pong, soccer, marble, etc.), coins(.25, .10, .05), other clay recipes
−
ACTIVITIES (Detailed Description):
7th Grade – See attached activity sheet, P.point sheets, tech sites, and lab-sheet.
8th Grade – See attached activity sheets, tech site, and lab-sheet.
Required information:
Diameter of Earth – 7901miles (12756km), Moon – 2160 miles (3476km)
The moon is approximately ¼ the size of the moon. (This is an easier ratio to use)
Distance from the Earth to the moon – 238,857miles (384,403km)
QUESTIONING/INQUIRY:
7th - 8th – As the moon is approximately ¼ the size of the Earth, numerous possibilities exist for the students to
demonstrate their knowledge of proportions by varying the size/distance of one object and having them find the
size/distance of the other.
8th – Students can use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the distances of various objects in space/solar system.
Also, measurements are usually from the “center” of an object, not the surface, as the surfaces may vary.
TECHNOLOGY:
7th Grade – Site : How far is the moon? VIDEO
ACTIVITY DIRECTIONS http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/educ/red_nickel_model.cfm
8th Grade – Sites: ACTIVITY DIRECTIONS
ACADEMIC ASSESSMENT:
Possible assessment types include: credit/no credit, create a quiz, or group grade.
ACCOMODATIONS:
If grouping is used, students may fulfill a role in the group that allows them to contribute to the group.
If use independent learning, hand out copies of activities/instructions so the students may better follow
instructions.
TOTAL TIME: One – three classes.
The teacher has the ability to add questions/depth to the lesson to allow the students to explore more
information concerning the subjects.
Lab Sheet
7th Grade
Students:
Using the information presented in this activity, complete the following.
Note: Students may use bearing compass to draw circles of various diameters to help them visualize the ratios.
A. Use the ratio of the size of the Earth to the Moon to generate several ratios of Earth to Moon. Describe
any patterns you see.
B. Predict the diameter of the Moon if the Earth’s radius was 20feet. Explain your reasoning in words.
C. Predict the distance from the Earth to the Moon if the diameter of the Earth was the same as the London
Eye (The Ferris wheel at the Olympics). Round your answer to what you think is the best unit to use. It
has a diameter of 120 meters.
(Roughly 394
feet) Justify your response. Try to find more than one way to solve the problem.
D. Would there be any changes on Earth if the distance between the Earth and Moon decreased?
Increased? Explain your position and justify your reasoning.
Lab Sheet
8th Grade
Students:
Using the information presented/models constructed in this activity, complete the following.
A. Using the ruler and three planet models, form a right angle (using a sheet of paper may help the students
make a right angle the first time). Measure the distance on two of the sides. Use the Pythagorean
Theorem to find the distance of the third side. Measure the third side with the ruler. Note any
differences.
B. Repeat using sides of various lengths. (ex. distance on a table, floor, hallway). Note any differences.
C. Should the answer be the same if you measure the distance with a ruler or use the Pythagorean
Theorem? Explain your reasoning in words. After discussing the answers, explain why someone may
have come to a different conclusion. Are they wrong? Justify your position.
D. Give an example of how the Pythagorean Theorem is used today/past. What is it used for and how is it
used? Discuss with the class and decide of the most common use in today’s technological world.
Defend your position.
Fruity Playdough
Materials:
4oz plastic cups
¼ c + ½ tsp. water
1T. oil
¼ tsp unsweetened powdered drink mix
1 qt. zipper-close plastic bag ¾ c white flour
¼ c salt
Directions:
*Combine water, oil, and powdered drink mix together in the plastic cup. Stir to
mix color, then set aside.
*Mix flour and salt together in the plastic bag.
*Pour the liquid into the bag with the four and salt.
*Close the bag securely as you squeeze out as much air as possible.
*Knead the playdough together in the bag until it is a smooth consistency.
NOTE: If dough seems too dry, add ½ tsp of water at a time. If dough seems to
wet and ½ tsp of flour at a time.
*Playdough is ready to use immediately.
*Store in plastic bags.
How long would it take to drive?
(The famous ‘are we there yet?’ question….)
Across the US…
Around the world…
To the moon…
To Venus…
To the Sun…
To Pluto…
To the nearest
star…
2½ days
19 days
6 months
54 years
200 years
7500 years
520,000,000 years
How long would it take to ‘beam’?
At the speed of light (186,000 miles per second….)
Across the US…
Around the world…
To the moon…
To Venus…
<<< 0.1 second
1/7th of a second
1.5 seconds
2 minutes
To the Sun…
To Pluto…
8-1/2 minutes
5.5 hours
To the nearest star…
4.5 years
To the farthest star you can see at night
2000 years
Center of the Milky Way Galaxy
50,000 years
Next galaxy (Andromeda Galaxy)
2.9 million years
As far as the Hubble Telescope can see
13 billion years
Recommended by Stacy DeVeau, Arizona NASA Educator Resource Center, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
What is a model?
What's the biggest planet in our solar system?
Draw all of the planets to scale on one sheet of paper. Draw Jupiter near the upper right and Saturn near the lower left. Then draw the other
planets (and Pluto) in order (My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas)
If we were to make all of the planets from this hunk of play-doh, what fraction (or percentage) of it would be used to make the largest planet?
This activity will help us to better understand the
sizes of the planets compared to one another.
The dwarf planet Pluto is included for
comparison.
1. Divide the entire ball of Play-doh into 10
equal parts
You may find it easiest to start by rolling the ball
into one big hot dog shape.
•
•
Modeling fosters understanding
of the size of the planets.
Combine 6 parts together, roll them into
a ball, and put the ball on Jupiter.
Combine 3 parts and put them on
Saturn.
2. Cut the remaining part into 10 equal parts
•
•
•
Take 5 parts and combine them with Saturn.
Combine 2 parts to make Neptune.
Put 2 parts on Uranus.
3. Cut the remaining part into 4 equal parts
•
Take 3 parts and combine them with Saturn.
4. Cut the remaining part into 10 equal parts
•
•
•
Put 2 parts on Earth.
Put 2 parts on Venus.
Take 4 parts and combine them with Uranus.
5. Combine the remaining 2 parts and cut into 10 equal parts
•
•
•
Put 1 part on Mars.
Take 4 parts and combine them with Neptune.
Take 4 parts and combine them Uranus.
6. Cut the remaining part into 10 equal parts
•
•
Put 7 parts on Mercury.
Take 2 parts and combine them with Uranus.
7. Cut the remaining part into 10 equal parts
•
•
Take 9 parts and combine them with Uranus.
Put 1 part on Pluto.
A. How close are the sizes of the planets to
your estimations?
B. What are some of the discoveries you made
regarding the sizes of the planets?
C. The smaller planets (except Pluto) are the
inner rocky planets, while the larger planets
are the outer gas giant planets.
D. More than 96 percent of the combined
volume of the planets is in Jupiter and
Saturn (~60 percent in Jupiter and 36
percent in Saturn). Those giant planets
really ARE giants.
Provided by Solar System Ambassador Kevin Sullivan (November 2011):
This is my favorite scale model activity, which I have been doing for about 8 years for the 8th grade physical science class at Diablo View
Middle School in Clayton, CA. Materials:
•
•
•
1 quarter, painted blue
1 nickel, painted red
1 dime
I use this as an introductory lecture, to acquaint students with where things are in space.
Help them to understand "why we don't fly the space shuttle to a black hole" kind of
questions. I have a lot of fun hamming this up as an icebreaker for the three separate
space exploration lectures I give.
I ask for three volunteers "for a paying job."
The first student holds up the quarter, which is Earth. I joke that if they drop it,
there will be earthquakes. Talk about how everything in their world - parents,
teachers, friends, pets, iPhones, and the San Francisco 49ers - is now shrunk
down to the size of a quarter. Show that the height of the ISS is roughly the
height of the ridges on the quarter. It's in space but it's near-earth orbit.
Emphasize that of all the astronauts there have been to space in the last 50
years, most have only been this high above the ground. That's closer than when
we drive from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe...but there still in microgravity, it's
still a huge challenge, you can still get hurt in a hurry if something goes wrong,
etc.
This activity will
cost you 40
cents.
Now, second student holds up the dime - the moon - it's silvery grey. Push them together so the earth and the moon almost touch. Have the
students guess how far away the moon is - make a game of it. The correct answer is about 3 feet. Now with my hands I map out the Apollo
missions from the quarter to the dime and back, emphasizing that only nine groups of three men have ever traveled this far from the home
planet. Three days out, a day or so there, three days back - a week to 10 day trip. But it took all of America working for 10 years from JFK to
Armstrong to get this done - a huge technical challenge. We talk that the moon controls tides on earth, so if they drop the moon, they'll be a
tsunami. Be careful!
The last student holds up Mars - now the fun begins. I set Mars the same distance (3 feet) past the moon. Ask the students if that feels about
right. Most will say yes. One may think it's farther. Ask him how much farther he thinks it should be. I double the distance to six feet - take a
vote "how many people think nearer? How many farther? How many say just right?" Double the distance again. Same vote. Go across the
entire room - another vote. Have the student go out the door (at our school they can't walk on the grass, but I say they are allowed to since it's
a science experiment) - vote again. I finally ask the class if I should send the student across the street, down the hill, and over to a park? They
need to go about ~500 feet away.
Then...drumroll.....I ask them if anyone shoots targets. I ask them if the could hit a nickel at 500 feet (most say the couldn't), but could they
have the point of a bullet hit Jefferson's eye at 500 feet. That's what the amazing folks at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory did with the Mars
Exploration Rovers. These guys rocked the target practice range. Landed them right where they targeted, that far way. Oh, and did I mention
the nickel was spinning while they did it? Heckuva shot, isn't it? Usually the wow'sare coming fast and furious.
But....we haven't figured out how to get people out there yet......that's going to be the job of the people in this room. I'm looking forward to
seeing how you all figure that out.
Call the students back together. Good sport student who was Mars gets to pick one of the planets as payment. Sometimes they'll take the
quarter, but usually they've gotten attached to Mars by then.
I then segue into a thought trip where we drive a minivan at highway speed to a few places. It takes six months to 'drive' to the moon at
minivan speeds (imagine spending six months in a minivan with your family!). Apollo took 3 days.
Going more quickly (like at the speed of light) it takes 1.5 seconds. (You can hear that delay in the Apollo moon mission voice transmissions so we've tested the speed of light via radio from the earth to the moon) Use that as a jumping off point for planetary and interstellar distances.
I use two slides (Distance Slides (Power Point, 476 KB)) that we walk through. During the beam at the speed of light slide I start to bring out
the idea of time delay in light arriving - the Sun we see is the sun of 8 minutes ago; the light from the closest star left that star when you were
in third grade, the light from the farthest star you can see left during the time of the Romans...and then we make the jump to light form before
there were humans, before there was earth, etc.
Fun, fun stuff. I look forward to this lecture every year - the kids get the scale of the universe in a gut level way. I refer back to this framework
in later lectures to reorient them.
I do seven classes a year for about eight years - so there are about 50 blue quarters out there. Last year, I had a student bring me one she
had gotten as change - she had kept it as good luck. :-)