Return to Mt. Pleasant

On Monday July 8th, the in-service and pre-service teachers returned to the ET building to start another summer of learning and discovery. We started right into our projects with some new twists. This year, we will be working on aligning our current content with the Next Generation Science Standards, and then spending our afternoons in labratory working on engineering projects. I will be back later with more updates on the program :)

Alma High School Activity

The pre-service teachers, Tolga, and Janis all joined Lisa and Steve at Alma High School on Friday, February 22.  The lesson today was titled 'Fruit Batteries' and we worked with a great group of students who were assigned to light as many LED lights using fruits, vegetables, and liquids (soda, bleach, and vinegar).  A challenge at first--students discovered that lining materials in series rather than parallel yielded higher voltage and therefore lit more LED's! After using as many materials as each team desired, a challenge to only use one fruit or vegetable was proposed. Student's had great ideas and discovered sectioning their fruit or vegetable into many pieces provided more volts than the whole.  One team, sectioning a grapefruit was able to reach 8 volts!

Student using his teeth to strip the wire

We have power! 

Impressive voltages

Hmmm, how can you maximize the power?

Jackie assisting with questions

Steve encouraging a student to split up the potato

Steve helping his student 

Coming up with a plan

Michelle and Jackie did a great job with reflection questions

Starting materials for the battery 

We made it! 

Michelle and Levi looking at this group's work

Student collaboration

Janet's team

Trying to use only one fruit 

Series for the most power! 

                                                              Check out these videos!

Overall, teachers and students enjoyed the process of using simple materials to make a battery as well as understanding the differences between materials and how they relate to generating power. It was great to see kids be competitive and want to produce the most voltage! We thank Lisa and Steve as well as their students for being such great hosts and having us in their classrooms!

Preparing for Alma High School Lesson

The pre-service teachers are working hard to finalize the activity with Steve and Lisa's students at Alma High School. We have decided to produce homemade batteries using natural materials that will provide the necessary medium to power either an LED light or some simple buzzers. Using multimeters we hope to check how much power different materials can provide. It should be a great way for students to plan and create the most successful series of liquids/fruit/vegetables to produce the most power!

John Glenn High School Activity

Thank you to Shawn and Aaron for a great day at John Glenn High School. The pre-service teachers had a great time working with the students on their Rube Goldberg experiments. It was great to see such creativity and teamwork on display.  With limited time, students were successfully able to build simple machines that either popped a balloon, dispensed mentos in coke, or dropped goldfish into a cup.

Rube Goldberg video

Rube Goldberg Activity at John Glenn High School

Janet working with her team at John Glenn High School 

Jeff and Shawn assisting with the simple machines 

Students working hard to make their systems work

Janet helping students think of ways to pop a balloon

Students trying out their machines with assistance from Michelle

Jackie with her team at John Glenn High School 

Michelle with her team at John Glenn High School 

Jeff and Shawn with a great team at John Glenn High School 

HICE Poster Presentations

                                          Janet Koch's Poster Presentation

                                          Jeff Hazen's Poster Presentation

                                          Networking at HICE