Today in STEM, 7th grade had a field trip at the archeticure center, learning about tension and compression. Then we walked around downtown observing the building’s structure and what it would be made of. Then we went back and watch a mini movie on how Chicago has changed, design wise.
In class today we made a circuit online on a computer and learned what it takes to make a hamburger from the beginning.
What happened in class today was a cool activity of stacking cups using a rubber band that had string attached to the sides (where the students used to control the cup). Those pictures up top are the results.
Today in class we did a light bulb activity with a multimeter, alligator clips, battery holders, D+ Batteries, lightbulbs, and conductors/insulators (wax paper, aluminum, yarn, string, pipe cleaner, and paper) to see which would conduct electricity.
The seventh graders began exploring Google SketchUp. They practiced making and designing houses. They made doors, windows, roofs, and even arches. They built unique houses and painted them.
This week, the seventh graders carried out experiments to see whether regular lights or LED lights were more efficient. The students split up into five groups. Each group had a battery pack with two batteries, six wires, three regular bulbs, and three LED bulbs. They had to set up different types of circuits, such as series or parallel, for both of the kinds of lights. They then used multimeters to measure the voltage in volts and current in amperes.
The seventh graders had to design catapults that would be able to launch a marshmallow the farthest. They only had ten minutes to plan and work together to build their catapults. The materials they had to utilize were popsicle sticks, rubber bands, a binder clip, a spoon, and some marshmallows to test their structures.
The seventh graders learned about solar power and how it was affected by different aspects. Some of the aspects that impact solar power are weather, seasons, and location. Today, the seventh graders performed experiments to see how heat and light affected solar power. They used lamps and shined them onto small solar panels. They learned how to use multimeters to measure the amount of voltage the solar panels produced.
The seventh graders were given the challenge of designing an aluminum foil boat that would be able to float in water with marbles in it. They were given only fifteen minutes to come up with a design that would be able to withhold the most amount of marbles. They had two pieces of aluminum foil. One was for practice and the second one was for the real challenge. They came up with unique and different ideas. The winner was a rectangular-shaped boat with 107 marbles in it!