“It’s smoking!”
“It’s turning red!”
“It’s boiling!”
“Wow, it’s so hot!”
“It smells like chlorine!”
It was an exciting day in science class today! Seventh graders explored chemical energy by mixing copper chloride and aluminum. They used their quantitative and qualitative observations to determine that when these two substance were mixed a chemical reaction had occurred thereby creating energy.
Last week, the 7th graders explored the connection between temperature, kinetic energy, molecular motion and thermal energy by analyzing what happens when you add food coloring to very hot versus very cold water. From this exploration they came up with a scientific definition for temperature. Ask them what it is!
For the past two weeks, the 8th graders researched, tinkered, designed, redesigned and built prototypes in order to construct a building that withstands a simulated earthquake. This week construction of their final design began…
“Maybe there is a different type of energy at play” and “I think the energy goes somewhere” were suggestions students offered to answer this question. The 7th graders have been studying energy, specifically, energy transformation and what makes an object go. This week they asked the question, “What makes an object stop?” For two days, I refused to tell students the answer. And, the pay-off of doing so was tremendous. The excitement was palpable as they analyzed a racquetball/basketball system to try to answer this question and figured out that energy can be transferred from one object to another. The sense of pride and achievement I saw in each of them was telling. When students have ownership in their learning they not only learn the content but they learn about the power within themselves.
The other day a student asked me, “Can I build several possible prototypes of my prototype?” I couldn’t help but smile and respond with an exuberant “Yes, that’s a great idea!” This question was a testament to students’ engagement in and skill using the engineering process. They are thinking and acting like engineers. This willingness to explore and analyze a variety of solutions demonstrates a sense of maturity and depth in their thinking that is essential to develop in today’s complex world.
The 8th graders have been challenged to design and construct a building prototype that withstands an earthquake. They will take their prototypes to UWM to test them and to get feedback from several professors. The class has been researching, tinkering, building, trying, failing and trying again to develop ideas for their final design. Check out their initial ideas and thinking on their blogs!
