The Science Spot



Project Ideas Click here to check out the list of my favorite links for STEAM-related resources! Project & Activity Ideas: Junk Box Wars - Head over to this area to find 12 projects you can use to challenge your students! Each project is developed around a box of "junk" and a specific task to target engineering design concepts! Many of the projects also incorporate other science concepts to extend the lesson or target a specific unit. Visit the Junk Box Wars page for a complete listing of project ideas as well as resources to help you manage an event. Recommendation ...One of our students' favorite projects is *Super Slingers*. We try to schedule this event in the fall and use pumpkin peeps or we do it in the spring and used bunny peeps. You can also do it during the winter and use large marshmallows as snowballs. STEAM Mini Challenges - Take a look at the projects I've developed for my STEAM class. Each unit targets two or more STEAM areas with introductory activities, videos, and extension ideas. Units can usually be done in 1-2 class periods and be extended to a week with the extension activities. Check back often ... I will be adding more throughout the school year! More ideas from past Science Club events and projects ... Egg Drop - Always remembered as one of the favorite activities my former students! Students are required to create a container that will prevent an egg from breaking. Some years we do the regular Eggs Over Easy event with a "bundled" egg in a container, while others we offer the Naked Egg Drop version with a raw egg that has to land in a container. We've also challenged students to protect two eggs in a Double Eggs Drop Challenge competition. Click the links to see the options: Eggs Over Easy (pdf), Naked Egg Drop (pdf), & Double Egg Drop Challenge (pdf). Learning with GPS Visit this area for more information about the Amazing GPS Race and Earth Quest events. Lessons are focused on learning how to use GPS receivers to find caches and complete challenges to earn their next clue to continue the journey. With the availablity of GPS apps on student phones, introduce your students to geocaching and set up some travel bugs to track. We received permission to put a geocache in our school garden, which has gotten quite a few visitors over the years. We have also used the apps to document schoolyard locations and to find stations at a local nature preserve for a scavenger hunt. These lessons are on the Learning with GPS page. The Big Freeze - Students create a container that keep an ice cube solid for the longest time! See the The Big Freeze (pdf) handout for more information. Science Classroom - Incorporate the lessons and activities in this area to target STEAM concepts in your science program. Some great lessons to try at a local nature area are Pond Water Survey, Bug Blitz, Bug Festival, or any of the science or math lessons in the Nature Center (schoolyard garden) area. Check to see if they have any scientists who will join you! Host a night of crime solving investigations using any of the activities in my Forensics area. Combine math and science in a Metric Mania event or unit. Check out the physics lesson page for simple machines (great with the OKGo video) or choose one of the online lessons to explore projectile motion. Code.org - Participate in their annual Hour of Code program! Scratch is one of my students' favorite sites. Amazon has some excellent "Coding with Scratch" resources from DK Coding. Check out our STEAM Stations ... *Check out the STEAM resources page for more ideas for projects!* *Do you have other resources to share? Use my contact form to send them to me!*

The Science Spot was developed in March 1999 by Tracy Tomm
Science Teacher @ Havana Junior High, Havana, IL

Activities, lessons, & worksheets available on any page of this web site are intended for use by a single teacher in his/her classroom or to share at educational conferences. Please link to resources rather than download them to your own server/website. Reproduction for commercial use or profit is not permitted without the consent of Tracy Tomm. Visit my Frequently Asked Questions page for more details.