I noticed a couple years back that map making is part of the academic standards for almost every grade and have been wanting to do a project like this ever since.
We'll be making Eco-maps of Fairview's school property, identifying all the different plants that grow there using leafsnap, an electronic field guide for the school ipods and we'll identify any animals or birds we find living on Fairview's property. We'll then use leaf pigment chromatography (and inference and observation of course) to predict what color the leaves of the plants will turn.
Should easily take up the first six weeks!
Lesson one - Map making
Here's an overhead shot of Fairview's block. I'll have full page printouts ready. Have the kids use rulers to divide the picture into a 1"X1" grid labeled A-F and 1-11. Like so... (I''ll have it done already for the 2-3rd).
4th through 6th can then divide up into groups. Each group will measure a large piece of poster board and divide the width by 7 and the length by 11 to decide how to divide the poster board to make the largest possible map. Then make a grid on their poster board.
Each 2-3rd grader will receive a 6"x9" square on a piece of paper and a copy of the map with grid in place. Assign each one a segment of the map.
Both groups will work with pencils and rulers to transcribe either the whole map or the portion of the map they are assigned proportionally to create blown up maps of fairview. Once both maps are done in pencil. Kids can work with markers to darken in and color different features.
Hows that for amateur cartography?
After our initial mapmaking is done, I'll post more on our next steps.
Here are two activities to do featuring submarines that stack together nicely...
A Banneker classic is the "Pen Cap Submarine." Ever wondered how to do it? Well, you're in luck...
because I made this video explaining to you how to do it...
A good challenge to spice this activity up a little bit would be taping two lines around the bottle about 3 inches apart and having a contest to see which team of two could design a pen cap sub that could be controlled well enough to hover between the lines for 10 seconds (like the flinker below). You could also create a series of tasks for the submarine to complete to make it even harder such as
#1 dive to the bottom and stay for 5 seconds
#2 surface at the top for 3 seconds
# 3 dive to between the lines
#4 surface again
#5 hover between the lines for 4 seconds
#6 touch the bottom
Then time the teams to see who's sub can complete the set of tasks in the shortest possible time.
This experiment teaches the concept of Volume very well.
Volume is the space taken up by a substance.
When you squeeze the bottle, you create pressure inside the bottle AND inside the pen cap. The VOLUME of air inside the pen cap shrinks and the pen cap sinks to the bottom. When you release the bottle the VOLUME of air expands and the pen cap rises.
Important question - When you squeeze the bottle, is there less air in the pen cap?
NO! The amount of air stays the same! You know this because when you release the bottle the pen cap rises. You didn't put more air in to make it rise again did you? The amount of air stays the same. The amount of space the air takes up changes, its VOLUME.
Other important concepts
Pressure - A force squeezing on a substance.
Equilibrium - equal distribution of forces or a situation where forces cancel each other out.
Have the kids draw a diagram like this one to explain how the different concepts work together to drive a submarine.
The next activity is a true challenge which teaches similar concepts...
Follow the link and watch the video. This is a great challenge and can be pretty difficult to figure out.
Use packing peanuts, paper clips and pickle jars full of water.
Stop periodically and ask what problems are the kids having then make a tee chart with problems on the left side and technological solutions on the right.
Problem/Solution
It floats/add paper clips
It sinks/remove paper clips
the peanut falls apart if you put too many paper clips through it/Paper clips can be linked together
It floats until I add this one paper clip, then it sinks/squeeze air from the peanut/remove foam
etc, etc.
BUT make sure to let them generate the problems and solutions as the figure out the activity.
A great concept to teach in this lesson is UNITS
Each paperclip is a unit. A fixed amount of weight.
any division of quantity accepted as a standard of measurement or exchange; "the dollar is the United States unit of currency"; "a unit of wheat is a bushel"; "change per unit volume"
But the units are too large. If you add one to many the flinker will sink, if you take it off, the flinker will float. You need a smaller/more exact measure to change the buoyancy of the flinker like removing tiny bits of foam or squeezing tiny bits of air from the peanut.
This is a great STEM activity with some good science components and LOTS of great technology and engineering components. It turns one of our old "Mean Machines" lessons that we called "Balloon Jets" into a contest and makes it way more engaging.
Science Concepts to teach...
Pressure- Force spread evenly over an area.
Air Pressure is
the force exerted on a given area by the weight of tiny particles of air (air molecules).
Although air molecules are invisible, they still have weight
and take up space. Since there's a lot of "empty" space between air
molecules, air can be compressed to fit in a smaller space.
Wave your hand back and forth to feel the air all around
you.When you blow up a balloon you are
forcing lots of those little air molecules into the balloon increasing the air
pressure by “compressing the air.”
Force - A force is a push or pull upon an object resulting from the object's interaction with another object.
Let the kids develop their technological innovations organically, responding to problems and challenges with new ideas and innovations. At the end of the lesson, make a tee chart on the wipe board listing all of the problems or challenges they faced and the technologies they used to over come them.
Here are some more ideas of things to incorporate into your activity
Have the kids draw a diagram explaining the mechanics of their balloon jouster... mine is awesome.
Watch minutes 7-9:00 about Jet engines
Watch :45 -2:00 to help you explain how a jet goes...
Or teach a little Medieval history
Luckily for us there is an entire history channel show available on youtube... All about Medieval Jousting. Wikipedia it for more historical info...
Use gumdrops and tooth picks, spaghetti and marshmallows, corks and skewers, etc... Try making different shaped triangle based buildings.
Create the newspaper dome once the concepts are well established. Start with a dome the same shape as the original gumdrop dome then try something bigger and more complex.
PBS Dome Lesson
Lesson ideas for teachable concepts about the dome you will build and links to other architectural teaching ideas, strong shapes, tessalating shapes, videos etc.
Of course, we have one of the world's largest domes right here in souther Indiana... West Baden Springs Hotel built in 1902.... AND it was featured on National Geographics SCIENCE show Big Bigger Biggest. But its not posted anywhere online, except in Russian. Watching without the sound on would be ok, or just surf around and find some videos of it on youtube. Start the video around minute 18.50 for the section on West Baden.
West Baden's Dome is constructed from steel triangles much like ours will be! Studying pictures of the dome and watching the video could give kids ideas of where to go with their dome design.
Lemonade Day... it came, it saw, it conquered. What an event! From the Lemonade Day website;
"Launched in Houston, Texas in 2007, Lemonade Day has grown from 2,700
kids in one city to 150,000 kids in 36 cities across America and
Canada."
Bloomington became one of those cities in 2012 and "Lemonade Blast" became one of Bloomington's first Lemonade Day stands. This year's 4th grade students who operate "Lemonade Blast" ran their stand successfully this year for the second time raising $71.84 to create a fieldtrip fund for the Banneker at the View afterschool program. Last year they raised close to $85 for the Bloomington Animal Shelter.
On top of the nearly 8 hour shift they put it in on Lemonade Day itself, our 4th graders also spent 8 weeks creating a business plan, organizing the details of their stand, finding an investor and a site, creating advertising and signage, budgets and goals. The lemonade curriculum is an incredible opportunity for kids to get a real experience of running a business.
Check these links for other great stories of young Lemonade Day entrepreneurs in Bloomington.
Buy 12" of 1/2" pvc pipe. The guys at your local hardware store can cut it for you and sell it by the foot. It's so cheap its basically free... Roll a piece of computer paper in a tube around your pvc pipe. Make sure it is loose enough to slide freely back and forth, but not to loose... Remember its going to be ROCKET!
Secure the paper tube with a couple bits of tape and slide it off the pvc pipe.
Secure the nose of your rocket with a staple.
Next cut the nose of your rocket into a cone with a pair of scissors and tape it shut, so no air can escape. You can check how well you closed your nose cone by blowing into the back of the rocket.
Cut 2 note cards, postcards or index cards (whatever you prefer to call them) in half diagonally and tape them to the base of your rocket in whatever configuration you think will make your rocket fly best.
Your rocket is done! Don't look too happy about it! Now to make the rocket launcher...
Cut the stem portion out of a standard road bike inner tube (700c or 27").
Tape one end over the end of the pvc.
Tape the other over the mouth of the pvc pipe. Again you can check how well you did making it air tight by blowing hard into the pvc pipe.
Andy Warhol is probably the most famous artist to use printmaking in his art. So when I found this "http://tinkerlab.com/2012/09/styrofoam-printmaking/" great tutorial on Styrofoam plate print making, we decided to focus on Andy for our 6 weeks art club.
I love Tinkerlab... check them out.
Here are some of the Andy Warhol pieces we talked about.
We also watched this Warhol for kids video from the old youtube...
What makes Andy Warhol so special? Should he be rich and famous for making these pictures? Is printmaking a smart way to make art?
To Make your own Andy Warhol themed print...
Start with a Styrofoam plate, scissors, paint, paint brush, cup, paper and a dull colored pencil.
Cut the largest square possible from the flat center of the middle of the plate. Turns out this works perfectly with an 11X17 piece of paper!
Choose the face of someone famous. Mr. Richard Swift will have to do since his poster is on the wall above my work station! Use your dull colored pencil to draw your version of the famous face on your square of Styrofoam. Be sure to make a nice deep indentation without poking through! Don't make it too complicated, either!
Once your drawing is finished, cover your print with a light, even coat of paint. Don't put to much paint on our it won't come out! You will want to experiment with your technique to get it just right before making your final product! A foam craft paint roller would be handy for this step if you've got one!
The next step is to print! Turn the Styrofoam print over and press straight down evenly. Make sure not to move the print back and forth or it will smudge and not come out! Once you have made your first image, wash your print off thoroughly, dry it off, choose a new color and repeat!
Here you have it, six different versions of the same exact picture! How cool is that! Here are some more from the Banneker Kids...
