01.29.10 | 07:06am

Tequila Sunrise, Mollies and Goldfish

Winter break was nice, but I worked way too much. I had to go into my classroom every 3-4 days to feed all of the critters. We have finches, three 20-gallon tanks full of fish (tequila sunrise, mollies and goldfish), red wigglers, daphnia and planarian. I think that's it, oh wait we also have isopods and mealworms. I also needed to come in to keep an eye on the hydroponics system to make sure it didn't leak all over the place. I planted some household plants in the hydroponics system that were propagated. They are doing well, actually really well, and I finally have some lettuce flourishing in the hydroponics system. I was not letting the lettuce grow big enough before I transplanted them into the clay pebbles. I have been able to harvest some cilantro as well. As a class, we will try to transplant lettuce again in about a month. Hopefully we will be able to finish our genetically modified food experiments that we had started back in November.

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01.22.10 | 07:38am

How do you excite students who think they already have it all figured out?

Our teachers and volunteers sometimes tell the stories better than we do. The following post was written by middle school science teacher LeAnn Strate.

Like most educators, I love finding new and interesting ways to engage my students in my curriculum. Not so easy to find, when you're trying to teach Earth Science to a bunch of 13 to 14 year old 8th graders who figure they already know everything there is to know about it because after all they live on it, right? How do you excite students who think they already have it all figured out? You put them right in the middle of it up to their knees, literally, with the General Motors GREEN program.

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01.15.10 | 07:17am

Taking Solar Energy Chargers to the Next Level

To start off 2010, we are still working on our Solar Energy unit that I blogged about in my last post. In this post you saw examples of the circuits and housings for the solar panels that the students had designed and constructed. Now, those circuits are being integrated into everyday products in order to give use to portable wireless power.

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12.22.09 | 10:10am

Halfway Through Our Physics Unit

Well, it's just before winter break and we are only halfway through our physics unit. I had wanted to be finished with physics by now so that we could move on to chemistry in January, but no can do. The unit is easily taking twice as long as I expected, but it is ok since my students are learning a lot about physical laws. Most of the unit uses pipe insulation, marbles and measuring devices such as meter sticks and stopwatches. My students use these materials to develop experiments to answer questions about motion. The unit is taking longer because it only allows one day per question and my students have needed two days per question. Normally the first day is planning the experiment, while the second day is implementing the plan, gathering results and forming conclusions. I usually have my students post their conclusions online on our message board. After posting their results, they compare their results to other groups and respond to another group's posting. Ultimately, each student forms an answer to the original question and writes it in their journal. In looking at my students' quiz scores, it seems to be working. They average about 75% mastery, which for this population is a huge improvement from my first two years teaching this same subject.

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12.22.09 | 07:51am

Solar Powered Chargers - A World of Electronics and Circuitry

(Breadboard circuit running to an iPod)

I really wish I had some more exciting, colorful photos to show you, but the world of electronics and circuitry is not always as aesthetic as hydroponics. As I mentioned in the beginning of the year, our high school students are learning about how to harness the power of the sun in order to charge battery powered devices like phones, ipods and PSPs. While anyone can go to the store and by a solar powered charger for just about any one of these devices, they are extremely expensive. And what about students who want to use solar energy to power devices that they have designed and built themselves (e.g., purse lights or car dashboard LEDs)? Such devices have variable power needs and require individual custom chargers.

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