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Middle School: mySci: How can we as engineers design a concert experience for others to enjoy?

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This module is centered on the driving question, “How can we as engineers design a concert experience for others to enjoy?” In order to answer this question, students will consider what a wave is, and how waves are modeled. They will explore sound and light waves, and how these waves interact with various media. The culminating performance task requires students to synthesize this information, and apply it to the design of a concert experience. The materials below are shared via a google drive folder and can be viewed and downloaded for use.

Material Type: Unit of Study

Middle School: Understanding White Sharks Unit

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Rating: Example of High Quality NGSS Design Awarded the NGSS Design Badge Science Discipline: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science Length: Unit Numerous reports suggest an increase in white shark encounters in the United States in recent years and the public is worried. In this integrated middle school unit, students engage in three-dimensional learning that enables them to explain the phenomenon. White sharks in the coastal waters of Southern California serve as a case study for students to ask questions and build understanding. Students initially question if white shark encounters are in fact increasing and investigate reports of sightings. They wonder if we know whether or not the population is on the rise, leading students to next explore past evidence from fossils and data from historic fishers logs. Students then question how scientists today are monitoring white sharks, setting the stage to explore the use of modern tracking devices (digging deep into waves and signals) and what researchers know about white sharks because of the application of this technology. This opens up the opportunity for students to question and consider what the science community has learned about white shark life history, how humans have impacted the white shark population off Southern California, and to devise a way to address public concerns.

Material Type: Unit of Study

How Can Science Help Build a Better Ice Pack? An Integrated 3D Storyline Unit for Middle School Science using Instant Ice Packs

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In this unit designed for an integrated middle school science classroom, students investigate why athletes ice injuries. This leads students to wonder why actual bags of ice are used instead of the instant ice packs found in first aid kits. Students then investigate the chemical reaction occurring within an instant ice pack and work to develop a better design. Anchoring Phenomenon: First aid care for musculoskeletal injuries using bags of ice instead of instant ice packs containing an endothermic chemical reaction. NGSS PEs Addressed: MS-PS1-1; MS-PS1-2; MS-PS1-5; MS-PS1-6; MS-PS3-3; MS-LS1-8; MS-ETS1-1 Cover Image Source: https://www.stack.com/a/cryotherapy

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Lesson Plan, Reading, Student Guide, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Authors: Arlene Friend, Kathryn Fleegal, NextGenerationTeachers, Stephanie Bank

Rock Cycle

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Through five lessons, students are introduced to all facets of the rock cycle. Topics include rock and mineral types, material stresses and weathering, geologic time and fossil formation, the Earth's crust and tectonic plates, and soil formation and composition. Lessons are presented in the context of the related impact on humans in the form of roadway and tunnel design and construction, natural disasters, environmental site assessment for building structures, and measurement instrumentation and tools. Hands-on activities include experiencing tensional, compressional and shear material stress by using only hand force to break bars of soap; preparing Jeopardy-type trivia questions/answers for a class game that reinforces students' understanding of rocks and the rock cycle; creating "fossils" using melted chocolate; working within design constraints to design and build a model tunnel through a clay mountain; and soil sampling by creating tools, obtaining soil cores, documenting a soil profile log, and analyzing the findings to make engineering predictions.

Material Type: Full Course

A Time for Every Season - Grade 8

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Middle school lessons utilize local phenomenon and are organized by grade bands. By designing instruction around local phenomenon, students are provided with a reason to learn shifting the focus from learning about a disconnected topic to figuring out why or how something happens. #Going 3D with GRC

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Author: Jamie Rumage

Green Leaves - Grade 7

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Middle school lessons utilize local phenomenon and are organized by grade bands. By designing instruction around local phenomenon, students are provided with a reason to learn shifting the focus from learning about a disconnected topic to figuring out why or how something happens. #Going 3D with GRC

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Author: Jamie Rumage

Keep it Cold - Grade 6

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Middle school lessons utilize local phenomenon and are organized by grade bands. By designing instruction around local phenomenon, students are provided with a reason to learn shifting the focus from learning about a disconnected topic to figuring out why or how something happens. #Going 3D with GRC

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson

Author: Jamie Rumage

Structures of a Molecule - Grade 7

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Middle school lessons utilize local phenomenon and are organized by grade bands. By designing instruction around local phenomenon, students are provided with a reason to learn shifting the focus from learning about a disconnected topic to figuring out why or how something happens. #Going 3D with GRC

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Author: Jamie Rumage

Water Balloon Toss - Grade 8

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Middle school lessons utilize local phenomenon and are organized by grade bands. By designing instruction around local phenomenon, students are provided with a reason to learn shifting the focus from learning about a disconnected topic to figuring out why or how something happens. #Going 3D with GRC

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Author: Jamie Rumage

Crash Force Bang! Explore Science Club Lesson Plan

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Let's explore some science and math around why seatbelts work. Check out the career video from Billie Jo Deal, Transportation Safety Coordinator from the Oregon Department of Transportation, about how she works to keep people safe on the roads. Then, in the Discovery Challenge, we build crash models and calculate restraining forces. This lesson introduces NGSS standards, and those standards are listed in the lesson. Videos are part of the Explore Science Club series, an asynchronous online learning program using YouTube videos that connects elementary and middle school students to STEM professionals through hands-on lessons where students explore science and engineering practices related to the highlighted careers. There is an option to use FlipGrid, an online video recording platform for students to share their discoveries More info: www.go-stem.org

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Carrie Caselton Lowe

Data Talks Archives

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Data talks are short 5-10 minute classroom discussions to help students develop data literacy. This pedagogical strategy is similar in structure to a number talk, but instead of numbers students are shown a data visual and asked what interests them.

Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: YouCubed

Middle School Ecosystem Dynamics & Interactions Unit - Phenomena Found in Agriculture

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What do Prairie Chickens Need in Order to Survive Today's Prairie? This middle school unit covering ecosystems, animal behavior and symbiosis was developed through the Storyline approach. Middle school students will be figuring out why prairie chickens have a very unique dance and understand the role cows play to help ensure the dance takes place. Using this approach, students engage in science concepts to help ensure the survival of the prairie chicken.

Material Type: Lesson Plan, Unit of Study

Forces at a Distance: Magnetism

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In this three week storyline unit, students investigate a maglev train and the electromagnetic forces that cause a maglev train to levitate and provide the source of propulsion for the train. The students use models and micro:bit sensors to investigate magnetic fields created by simple magnets, electrical circuits, and elecgtromagnets to gather evidence to explain how a maglev train functions. Students utilize computational thinking and the engineering design process to apply the concepts to the design an efficient, fully functional scale model maglev train.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Authors: Jamie Rumage, SchoolWide Labs

8.1 Contact Forces

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Oh, no! I’ve dropped my phone! Most of us have experienced the panic of watching our phones slip out of our hands and fall to the floor. We’ve experienced the relief of picking up an undamaged phone and the frustration of the shattered screen. This common experience anchors learning in the Contact Forces unit as students explore a variety of phenomena to figure out, “Why do things sometimes get damaged when they hit each other?” Student questions about the factors that result in a shattered cell phone screen lead them to investigate what is really happening to any object during a collision. They make their thinking visible with free-body diagrams, mathematical models, and system models to explain the effects of relative forces, mass, speed, and energy in collisions. Students then use what they have learned about collisions to engineer something that will protect a fragile object from damage in a collision. They investigate which materials to use, gather design input from stakeholders to refine the criteria and constraints, develop micro and macro models of how their solution is working, and optimize their solution based on data from investigations. Finally, students apply what they have learned from the investigation and design to a related design problem.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Unit of Study

Give me a hand! Bioengineering for Prosthetic Limbs

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 Students extend their knowledge of the skeletal system to biomedical engineering design, specifically the concept of artificial limbs and joints. Students relate the skeleton as a structural system, focusing on the hand as structural necessity. They learn about the design considerations involved in the creation of artificial limbs, including materials. This lesson plan was developed for emergent bilingual students who are intermediate or advanced in their English language development skills. This lesson is adapted from the following resources, "Engineering Bones" and "Prosthetic Party," on the TeachEngineering Digital Library: https://www.teachengineering.org/lessons/view/cub_biomed_lesson01, https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_biomed_lesson01_activity1

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Diagram/Illustration, Interactive, Lesson, Lesson Plan

Authors: Paulette Rubio, Oregon Open Learning

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