Enrichment Ideas for Models and Designs
 
Expand the boundaries of your kit study. Encourage your
students' curiosity with these outlets for extending
engagement in research.
energy | paper
| pigments | structures/mechanics | symmetry | time
Energy
Energy Transfer Using Balls
This simple activity, designed explicitly for a teacher to
perform with students, allows a handy visualization of the
law of Conservation of Momentum by investigating the actions
of ping pong and golf balls.
Downhill Race
This activity from The Exploratorium investigates issues of
potential and kinetic energy and mass distribution by
examining how two objects with the same shape and the same
mass may behave differently when they roll down a
hill.
Experiment with Friction
The Science Museum of Minnesota offers an activity that
explores friction through the use of ball bearings, and asks
some thought questions for reflection after the experiment.
There's also a brief video on this page about how an artist
accommodates for friction in his movable art. To see it,
you'll need the Quicktime plug-in.
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Paper
Make Recycled Paper
This Beakman and Jax page explains how kids (with the help
of an adult) can make their own recycled paper out of simple
household materials. The site also emphasizes the importance
of recycling and how it creates less strain on our natural
resources.
Watermarks in Paper
The American Museum of Papermaking presents this
fascinating information and about how watermarks are
created, including the history of watermarks and some
beautiful images. This could be a neat site to show students
working with the Technology of Paper kit as they explore
papermaking. There are links and discussion questions for
teachers as well.
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Pigments
Crayon Art Techniques
If you're working with FOSS's Ideas and Inventions kit, this
site focusing on techniques for creating art with fabric
crayons may complement your study of pigments and crayon
rubbings.
Paper Chromatography
This activity may closely echo your work with paper
chromatography in FOSS's Ideas and Inventions kit, but it
may offer new ideas as well. It's a short page, succinctly
describing the elements of a basic chromatography experiment
using black ink.
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Structures/Mechanics
Building for the Big One
This site from the Exploratorium in San Francisco (where
they certainly know about earthquakes) offers a unique and
fascinating resource with video, interviews with experts,
and other technical information about structures in an
earthquake zone.
Mechanics Activities
These interesting online activities are most likely best
suited to users of the middle school Energy, Machines, and
Motion (STC/MS) kit, although Structures and Models and
Designs (both FOSS kits) users may find these activities
useful as well. Explore variables relating to mass, inclined
planes, velocity, and other key physics concepts.
Pharaoh's Obelisk
As a companion to a PBS program that aired in the past, this
innovative site from NOVA stands well on its own. You might
be especially interested in taking a look at NOVA Raises an Obelisk and Lever an Obelisk to see how they deal with
physics.
Stonehenge
Following a NOVA presentation on PBS years ago, an
archeologist answered questions about how Stonehenge was
built, why it was likely to have been built, and what is
known about the builders. This could be fascinating to share
with your students, considering that, at this time,
archeologists believe that the wheel had not yet been
invented. Find the archive of these questions and answers
here.
Roman Baths and Aqueducts
Learn all about the magnificent feats of engineering and
design that the Romans employed to create baths and miles of
aqueducts throughout their empire. Following this link will
take you to an interview, which is a good place to start,
but be sure to click around the other sections of the
site.
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Symmetry
Photo Activity for Symmetry
This is a fun little activity that drives home
the idea of line symmetry, made especially easy if you have
access to a digital camera. Using a photograph, the activity
demonstrates what happens when you draw a vertical line of
symmetry though a picture of a face, and then use the halves
to make interesting composite pictures. Worth a look!
You Can Create a Kaleidoscope
This page has easy instructions and good diagrams
that could help you and your students make kaleidoscopes of
your own. The materials mentioned here might be a little
expensive; perhaps an art instructor in your school could
suggest alternatives.
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Time
Time and Date
This
site offers a variety of world clocks, calendars sorted
however you'd like (including by time span, year, and region
of the world), and counters that can count down to whatever
time and date you specify. This is a fun tool, and you may
find practical classroom applications that will extend your
work with the Measuring Time kit in interesting ways.
A Walk Through Time
The Physics Laboratory at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) has created several
excellent online exhibits focused on time and frequency,
covering the following topics: histories of timekeeping and
calendars through the ages, the quartz watch, daylight
savings time, and measuring time and frequency.
Telling Time without a Clock: Scandinavian
Daymarks
Although
there's quite a bit of text, there's also some interesting
information about how people in latitudes far from the
equator marked the time of day. There are also two detailed
class projects that you could try relating to daymarks you
could chart in your schoolyard and how you could turn the
floor of your classroom into a kind of sundial.
Water Clock
Use this
simple plan from National Geographic to create your very own
water clock modeled after those used by people in ancient
China. The materials are all easy household objects. This
could be a fun thing to make and keep in your classroom
while studying time measurement as well as other themes
related to design, inventions, and structures.
Lego Clock
While this
project—building a real working clock out of
Legos—is in all likelihood much too complex for
recreating in your classroom, it could be a very useful site
to share with students who have a passion for Legos. And it
might remove a bit of the mystery of how clocks work by
knowing that they can be build with such simple components.
Take a look at
this other site for more images of a fully functional
Lego pendulum clock.
Measuring Shadows
This detailed plan is designed to help teachers work with
their students to "determine the pattern (length and
direction) of shadows cast by sunlight during a several
month period and to develop an interpretation of the daily
and seasonal patterns and variations observed." Assessment
and extension suggestions are listed at the bottom of the
page.
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