Rockets!
The attached PDF includes instructions on how to build a pop rocket launcher and how to assemble the corresponding basic air rocket.
 Rocket Instructions | 189 Kb |
Practice Makes Memories
Courtesy of Baylor College of Medicine - Center for Educational Outreach
Overview and Background
Students Experience how a new motor skill improves with practice
When we are very young, we learn basic skills like walking and reaching to grasp objects. Later, we master more complicated movements, such as writing, playing sports, or dancing. With practices, our performance fo these tasks improves. Such learned movements are stored as motor programs in the cerebellum.
Memories of how to do things are processed and stored in the brain independently of memories about facts, names, places and events. This type of "how-to" memory, called procedural memory, often is difficult to describe in words. (For example, try explaining how to ride a bicycle to someone.) Procedural memories are not restricted to motor programs. Routines, such as shaving after a shower every day, are also believe to be stored in the cerebellum.
Repetition, or learning by doing something voer and over, often is important for making procedural memories. The following activity demonstrates procedural memory formation by challenging students to learn a new physical skill and improve it through practice.
Skills and Concepts
Concepts
- Procedural memory is our memory of how to do things
- The cerebellum is important for storing procedural memories.
- Repetition is important in forming procedural memories.
Science and Math Skills
Observing, Comparing observations, and drawing conclusionsMaterials - Each student will need:
- small unbreakable mirror
- pencil
- copy of Mirror Work student page
Procedure
This activity is best conducted with students working individually or in pairs (to take turns with mirrors), followed by a whole class discussion of observations and results.- Give each student a copy of the Mirror Work student page and a small plastic mirror.
- Direct each student to hold his or her mirror so that the reflection of one of the shapes on the Mirror Work page can be seen easily.
- Instruct students to draw a line between the border lines of each shape as accurately as possible, whil looking ONLY in the mirror. Students may choose the sequence in which they draw the lines on the rest of the shapes.
- Have the students compare their first efforts with their last. Ask, Did it become easier to draw the lines after a few times? Why do you think it became easier? Have you learned a new skill?
- If time permits, allow students to practice their mirror-drawing skills over several days. Have them test their skills again. Ask, Was the mirror-drawing easier this time than the first time you tried it? WHat kind of memory have you formed?
Implicit Memory
Procedural memories fall within a broader category of memories that do not require conscious thought and are difficult to express in words. Other forms of implicit memory include habituation (becoming used to a non-harmful stimulus, such as traffic noise) and sensitization (an increased response to a sharp pain or other disagreeable stimulus).Brain Jogging
Here are more ideas for you and your students to explore:- Name some everyday activities that rely on procedural "how-to" memories.
- What would happen if we were not able to learn and improve our physical skills by practicing? Think of several examples.
- How about skills like being a drummer? Do you think that takes practice? How about skills like playing video games?
| MirrorWork.pdf | 22 Kb |
Symmetry - What's in a Name?
An engaging lesson to introduce symmetry or reinforce understanding of symmetry for elementary students.
By Barbara Tharp
Materials:
- Paper
- Markers
- Scissors
Engage:
Show students a "name creature" you have created in advance. Slowly fold it back together and show them how you created it. then take students through steps below to create their own "name creature."
Explore:
Have students:
- Fold the paper vertically.
- Place name in large bubble letters along the fold.
- Cut-out the letters leaving the bottom fold intact in some areas.
- Unfold and hold vertically.
- Use your imagination to "see" what creature you have created.
- Color each side identically.
- For best results mount it on another color of paper and add the creature's "name."
- This activity can be extended as a bulletin board, "Symmetry City" by designing symmetrical building, trees, flowers, etc., for the creatures' environment. Science can be integrated by studying the symmetry in nature.
Explain:
Ask students what they know about symmetry. Ask if their creature is symmetrical, why or why not? Create a class list of things with symmetry.
Elaborate:
Begin a discussion on why things might be symmetrical in nature?
Websites:
Beautiful Symmetry Webquest:
http://lionsden.tec.selu.edu/~smathis/645/symmetry_plan.htm
Symmetry with Butterflies:
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ScienceLAArtMathMDButterflyUnit7-SymmetryLesson12.htm
Symmetry with Animals:
http://alex.state.al.us/lesson_view.php?id=24073
Submitted by Barbara Tharp
 Symmetry - What's in a Name? | 35 Kb |
A Bottle of Plants - A Mini-Ecosystem
A Bottle of Plants by Hans Persson. Prepare a terrarium from a plastic soda bottle.
Presented at NSTA national conference in Boston, MA, March 2008.
How to make it?
Cut a large plastic bottle in half and put some polystyrene balls and moist soil in the bottom half of the bottle. Use indoor plants or shoots of indoor plants. If you use outdoor plants you also get very exciting but more varied results. Put the bottle in an area of the classroom where it is not too sunny.
How to use it?
Ask the children, "what do you think will happen in the bottle?" Share beginning ideas. Place ideas on a bulletin board or chart paper. As the children observe what happens over a period of weeks, add to and change the children's ideas.
What is this all about?
The purpose of the lesson is to study a mini-ecosystem.
What are some different ways to use the ecosystem?
Try different types of ecosystems: desert, rainforest, grass, etc. Ask the children to view the plants and compare/contrast attributes like types of leaves, soil, etc.
| A Bottle of Plants | 11 Kb |