Materials Needed Per Group:

• Six sharp pencils (have a pencil sharpener available)
• Ziplock Baggie
• Water
• Handout, Team Spear-It (one copy per student, click here for a printable version)

Procedure:

1. Brainstorm and discuss: What are some important rules for group work and why?
2. Distribute handout and allow students to fill out the six essentials of group work as you go over them in class:
   1. Get along with each other
   2. Respect Others
   3. On Task All The Time
   4. Use Soft Voices
   5. Participate Actively
   6. Stay with Your Group
3. Inform students they will be putting the rules to the test today and will see that, when you take one of the rules away, things could get messy.
4. Divide students into groups and hand out supplies. (Note: Baggies should be filled approximately half full.)
5. Students say one of the group rules for each pencil they as they poke it through the bag.
6. Once all six pencils are in place, students show their bag to the teacher.
7. Groups go to sink and remove one pencil at a time.
8. Answer discussion questions in their group and then together as a class.

Why didn’t the bag leak?

Baggies are made of a material known as a polymer. Polymers have long chains of flexible molecules. When you poke a sharp pencil through the baggie,  the pencil slides in between the chain of molecules that make up the polymer. The molecule chains will make a seal around the pencil that won’t let the water out.

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Materials Needed

• Tablets (or computers or smartphones) with internet access
• Website: www.treebenefits.com
• Large balls of yarn or twine with scissors
• Tape Measure (or another measuring tool) that can measure 4.5 feet
• Pencils
• Value Of a Tree Handout (below)

Procedure

1. Ask students if they know the names of any of the trees they see around school.
2. Tell them that today they are going to learn facts about the trees around the school. Using their school’s zip code, species of tree and its size, they will learn the environmental and economic value trees provide on an annual basis.
3. Distribute handout (click here for printable version).

The post Arbor Day STEAM Lesson Plan: The Value of a Tree appeared first on Inventionland Education.

Materials Needed

• 1 copy of The Three Little Pigs
• 50 popsicle sticks for Team 1
• 50 small (hot drink) straws for Team 2
• 50 index cards for Team 3
• 1 thick piece of cardboard to serve as the foundation for each team’s house
• 1 poster board roof for each team
• One roll of masking tape for each team
• Small desk fan to serve as the big, bad wolf (preferably decorated appropriately).
• paper and pencils

Preparation

1. If you’d like to turn your box fan into a big, bad wolf, feel free to draw or print a cartoon photo of a wolf and place on top of the fan. If you have a wolf mask handy, you could use that, too.
2. Divide the materials into three groups so students can easily pick up exactly what their team needs for the challenge.

Procedure

1. Read The Three Little Pigs out loud to your class.
2. After reading, ask students what they think is needed to build a strong house. Consider linking this to different weather conditions–what would you need if you live in a windy climate? A hot climate? A snowy and cold climate?
3. Divide your class into three groups and Introduce the Three Little Pigs Design Challenge: Can your team design and build a house that the big, bad wolf can’t blow down? Requirements:
   1. Your house must be built on the provided foundation (must be at the bottom of the house) and using the roof (must be at the top of the house) provided.
   2. You can only use the materials provided to your team.
   3. Everyone must work together and all ideas need to be considered.
   4. You only have 20 minutes to build your house and have it tested.
4. Show students the “Big, Bad Wolf” so they know the force of the wind (huffing and puffing). Note: You can extend this challenge by using a fan with different levels (high, medium, low) and students that pass the “low” fan can move to medium and then high, etc. You can also move the fan to pre-determined locations measuring from further to closer to the house.
5. Hand out each team’s assigned material to use. (Note: If you have larger classes, you can divide the students into more than three groups and add additional building materials such as different straw sizes, different popsicle stick sizes, and different paper stock weight sizes. But every team needs to use the same foundation and the same room.)
6.  Encourage students to draw or sketch their ideas before building.
7. After 20 minutes, students must bring their house to the “testing zone.” Note: their house can face any direction, but the wind must always come from the same place. If the house is still standing after 20 seconds, success!

Discussion

Give students time to write down their answers individually and then discuss as a class:

• What material worked the best?
• Why do you think some materials were more effective than others?
• Was your house able to withstand the huffing and puffing of the big bad wolf?
• How could you improve your design?
• Extension: What are all of the different jobs that are needed in order to build a house (make a list on the whiteboard)? How many of these jobs require an understanding of science, technology, engineering, and/or math (place a star next to these jobs)?

The post STEAM Lesson Plan: Three Little Pigs Design Challenge appeared first on Inventionland Education.

What would you do if the big game was on the line and you had to nail free throws to win? It’s a movie plot line that’s been with us since the days of Teen Wolf. But…what if you had a team of robots? In this STEAM lesson, students will design a robot to accurately shoot a free-throw three times in a row. This lesson will take approximately 4, 45-minute classes to complete and explore types of levers as well as the concepts of precision and accuracy.

Materials Needed (per group)

• pieces of corrugated cardboard of various sizes
• card stock/file folders
• cups and plates (foam, plastic, and paper; various sizes)
• plastic spoons
• rulers
• string
• pipe cleaners
• craft sticks
• straws
• binder clips of various sizes
• paper clips of various sizes
• craft wire
• skewers
• clay
• scissors
• masking tape
• glue
• various colors of construction paper
• markers
• Materials needed for the entire class: ping pong balls and an empty trash can

Preparation

1. Set up “basketball hoop” (trash can) on a desk with a piece of masking tape six feet away (can be closer or further depending on your classroom size).

Introduction

• Ask a student to demonstrate a free-throw shot using crumpled up paper and your basket. Point out the motion they use in their arms from their elbows to their hands. Ask them what machine this looks like (have student repeat motion while class brainstorms).  Answer: A lever: a rigid bar that rotates on a fixed point (a fulcrum), which moves or loads. The elbow is the fulcrum and the forearm is the stiff bar. This particular type of lever is known as a third-class lever.

Introduce students to Cue, the basketball playing robot:

Inform students that they are going to create their own basketball-playing robot using the science of building levers and that it needs to make three free throws.

Procedure

1. Students will have approximately one hour (over the course of two class periods) to design, build, and test their robots.
   1. Students need to meet as a team (3-4 students per team), discuss the problem they are solving, design the robot, and agree on materials they will use.
   2. Students will need to draw a prototype of their design on a sheet of paper before building it.
   3. Students will build their robots. They may decide during construction to change materials or design. This is okay, but they need to make a new sketch and revise the materials list as they go.
2. Next, each team will take turns trying to make their free throws.
   1. One student will need to be the “recorder” and will place a colored piece of masking tape where the ball first bounces.
   2. As each team attempts to make free throws, they will look at the accuracy of the ball (did it land in the basket?) and the precision of the ball (did the balls all land close to each other?)
   3. If time permits, students can re-design and re-test their robots.

Discussion

Give students time to write down their answers to these questions individually and then discuss them as a class:

• Who was the most accurate? The most precise? The most accurate and precise?
• What went well?
• What didn’t go well?
• Were there any compromises you had to make with your teammates about the design? Explain.
• If you had to redesign your robot again, what changes would you make?

The post STEAM Lesson Plan: Robot Basketball appeared first on Inventionland Education.

Lesson Plan Title: Exploring the Effects of Salt on Ice Grades: K-12

Baby, it’s cold outside. And that means it’s also icy. Many times, school is canceled if the roads are deemed dangerous for driving, but that can be avoided by salting the roads.  We see salt trucks everywhere during the winter months, and our cars definitely take a beating as a result, but how much does salt really help?

In this lesson, students will test the effect of salt on ice.   They will predict how the temperature of the can holding ice will change when different types and amounts of salt are added.

Materials Needed (per group)

• five clean tin cans
• ice cubes
• table salt
• coarse rock salt
• measuring spoons
• no-contact digital thermometers
• pencil and paper to record results

Procedure

1. Set up five tin cans with the same amount of ice.
2. Set one tin can as your control.  You will not add salt to this can. (Can 1)
3. Add one teaspoon of salt to the next can. (Can 2)
4. Add two tablespoons of salt to the next can. (Can 3)
5. Add one teaspoon of coarse rock salt to the next can. (Can 4)
6. Add two tablespoons of coarse rock salt to the last can. (Can 5)
7. Gently shake the cans to spread the salt.
8. Make sure cans have enough space between them that no can is touching another.

Results

Use a digital thermometer to start taking readings. At the beginning of the experiment, the readings will be similar. But after about 20 minutes, there will be major differences between the temperature of each of the cans. Salt lowers the freezing point of ice, causing it to pull heat from the air and the tin can. This will drop the temperature on the can’s surface and in the air, thus giving low-temperature readings.

Note: For this particular experiment, you are measuring the temperature of the surface of the cans. Younger grades can perform this experiment by predicting and measuring how much ice melts in each can (you would do this by measuring the amount of any ice that turned into water). You can also perform this experiment measuring the effectiveness of other additives: cornstarch, sugar, detergent, etc.

The post STEAM Lesson Plan: Exploring the Effects of Salt on Ice appeared first on Inventionland Education.

It’s almost time for winter break and chances are your students are having a hard time sitting in their seats and staying focused. Here’s a fun STEAM lesson plan to keep them motivated and focused while bringing in a little magic of the holiday season.

In this lesson, students will work in teams to design as light-weight a container as possible that will allow them to “ship” two candy canes without damaging them.

Materials Needed 

• 2 candy canes per group (be sure you have extras in case of any break while they are making their shipping containers)
• wooden craft sticks of various sizes (skinny popsicle sticks/thicker tongue depressor size/etc.)
• pipe cleaners
• cotton balls
• marshmallows
• scissors
• tape
• balloons
• sandwich bags
• any other soft materials you can think of!
• paper bags
• markers/stickers/crayons to decorate the bags

Preparation (before students arrive)

1. Remove candy canes from any container they came in. You don’t want to unknowingly influence your students’ designs!

Opening Activity

1. Ask students if they’ve ever received a package only to find out that the contents were broken (could also start class by showing opening to Ace Ventura):https://youtu.be/2Q6_9A90cUk.
2. Tell students their mission is to create packaging that will allow two candy canes to withstand the perils of delivery and arrive unbroken, in the most light-weight container they can create.

Procedure

1. Assign students to groups of four.
2. Give students 15 minutes to build the most light-weight shipping structure they can create for their candy canes using the materials you’ve provided (students don’t have to use everything).
3. Weigh their shipping method BEFORE they put it in the paper bag.
4. Once the shipping method has been weighed, students will put their package in a brown paper bag and seal it. Students are welcome to decorate the bag before putting their package inside (great activity for teams who finish before other teams).
5. Students will place candy canes in a bag and then candy canes will have to be “delivered.” This can be via a desk drop, stairway drop, or throwing across the hallway. Whatever your delivery method, however, make sure the students know this ahead of time, as that may help them plan their design!

Discussion

1. Each group will have a chance to present their work, discuss their process, and give their weight before their package is “delivered.”
2. Have students try to predict whether each team’s candy canes will break and why or why not.
3. If you would like to continue this challenge, you can then have students whose candy canes broke re-work their design or, if the candy canes did not break, challenge them to create an effective shipping method that weighs even less (75% of the final weight, for example).

Note: As students work in teams, circulate the room to see how well they are working together. Are all students contributing? If not, ask students who are not working to make a suggestion for their team to try.

The post STEAM Lesson Plan: Candy Cane Calamity appeared first on Inventionland Education.

Piet Mondrian is considered the father of abstract art. In this STEAM lesson, students will learn about the artist, and use geometry to create their own works of art.

Materials Needed

• Black Markers (thin and thick)
• Red Marker (thick)
• Blue Marker (thick)
• Yellow Marker (thick)
• White Construction Paper
• Rulers
• Pencils

Opening Activity

1. Introduce students to Dutch Artist Piet Mondrian, who is considered the father of abstract art.  
2. Show photos of his work and ask what they notice about each piece (shapes, primary colors, how often color is used)
3. Ask for opinions of his art. Like? Dislike? Why? Inform students one of his pieces sold for over $50 million at an auction in 2015.
4. Let students know they will be creating their own Mondrian-inspired art.

Procedure

1. Each student is given a ruler, a pencil, and a white piece of construction paper.
2. Using a pencil, students will lightly draw straight lines to create their canvas of squares and rectangles of various sizes. Make sure they draw lightly so they can erase and make changes if they want to.
3. After the layout is complete (students should show you their completed work in order to get markers), students will trace over pencil lines with a black marker (thin or thick or both). 
4. Using a pencil, students will begin lightly marking which shapes they would like to color and what colors they will use for each.
5. Students will color shapes to create their own piece of art.

Discussion

1. Think/Pair/Share: How did you choose the placement of colors?
2. Think/Pair/Share: What color(s) do you notice first in your partner’s drawing?
3. What size is the largest colored shape? What size is the smallest? (students will write their answers on the back of their artwork)
4. What size is the largest white shape? What size is the smallest? (students will write their answers on the back of their artwork)
5. What is the most space you have between colored shapes? What is the least? (students will write their answers on the back of their artwork)

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The post STEAM Lesson Plan: Make Your Own Mondrian appeared first on Inventionland Education.

In this lesson, students will use marshmallows and uncooked spaghetti to create a freestanding tower. The goal of this lesson is to help students understand engineering and the importance of teamwork.

Materials Needed Per Group

• 20 sticks of spaghetti
• one yard of tape
• one yard of string
• one marshmallow

Preparation (before students arrive)

1. Create bundles of materials for each group.

Opening Activity

1. Ask students what engineers do.
2. Inform students that today they are going to be engineers.

Procedure

1. Assign students to groups of four.
2. Give students 15 minutes to build the tallest structure they can build using the resources provided. The structure must stand on its own and the marshmallow must be on top.
3. Tell students they do not have to use all of the resources.

Discussion

1. Each group will have a chance to present their work, discuss their process, and give their measurement.
2. Ask: Is this the structure you first thought you would build? What were some obstacles you met on the way and how did you overcome them?

Note: As students work in teams, circulate the room to see how well they are working together. Are all students contributing? If not, ask students who are not working to make a suggestion for their team to try.

The post STEAM Lesson Plan: The Marshmallow Tower appeared first on Inventionland Education.