Forced to Change Archives - High Touch High Tech

Lesson Plan of the Week

Hello Scientists, before we get started on this week’s topic, I wanted to take a second to share with you a great moment that I had at Lafayette Elementary School this past week. I arrived on campus and was walking into the school when one of the teachers standing outside helping with carpool that morning quickly stopped me. He began telling me that his son was in 5^th grade, and that the day before, I was teaching his class our lesson “Forced to Change”. That evening, he began telling his parents everything that we had covered in class that day including the topics we discussed as well as the experiments that we did and that he had a great time.

I have to say, that after three months as the Manager of the RDU location, this has to be my most memorable moment so far. I was so excited to hear that the child has such a great time. Since there was so much excitement with that lesson, I figured it would be worth going back and letting you all know more about what we did.

Forced to Change has everything to do with Sir Isaac Newton and his discovery of Gravity as well as his three laws of motion. Newton’s first law of motion has to do with Inertia, which is the physical force that says that an object at rest stays at rest and that an object in motion stays in motion unless a force either makes it move or stop.

We next talked about Newton’s second law of motion that states that the acceleration of an object is directly equal to the size of the object and the force acting on the object.

Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This experiment was really exciting. One at a time, the children came over to me and stood on a round, rotating platform. I then handed them a wheel with two handles on it. The kids would stay on the platform and I would spin the wheel quickly. As the children rotated their hands from left to right, they would rotate in the opposite direction they were turning the wheel. In order to keep them interested while I was doing this experiment, the kids were able to explore working with incline planes.

As you can see, we all had a fun, exciting and busy lesson on Sir Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion. I bet you can’t wait to hear about our next super exciting lesson!

“Meteor Martin” Lets Hear It From A Scientist!

Hello Scientists, this is “Meteor” Martin and I hope that everyone had a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving. The past week has been loaded with fun and exciting lessons which included; Cosmic Capers, Invisible Forces, Mystery Science, DNA is Here to Stay, Edison’s Workshop, Forced to Change and finally, Eco Safari.

We first traveled to outer space at Lafayette Elementary and learned about Planets, Stars, Dwarf Planets and other small solar system bodies. The students were able to make their own sundials as well as study and build a glowing constellation. We then made glow in the dark “space mud” with the help of a special ingredient and finally everyone had an opportunity to make a comet to show off to their parents

Our next stop was at Sterling Montessori where we learned about invisible forces such as Magnetism, Gravity and Inertia. We explored how and why magnetism works and were able to see and feel a magnetic field with the help of some strong magnets. The children also made hover disks that could glide on the floor on a cushion of air. Our next experiment involved taking a closer look at inertia and how objects at rest will stay at rest and objects in motion will stay in motion as we had a picnic and attempted to pull out a table cloth from underneath at various speeds while observing the results.

We spent some time with the after-school children at Sanford Creek as the kids took a closer look into the mystery of science and how we can make a penny appear and disappear with the help of refracting light. They also poked holes into a water filled bag with little to no water escaping. Is it Magic or Science???

At Greensboro Academy, we learned about DNA and had the opportunity to fingerprint each child. We then talked about genes and traits and took a closer look at why some children could roll their tongue and others could not. Next, we were able to see a 3D picture of a DNA Strand as well a make an edible double helix. Our final experiment involved extracting the DNA out of a strawberry. The kids loved using different chemicals in order to make the special solution.

We then had a lesson at Franklin Academy where we took a closer look at Thomas Edison and discussed and demonstrated how static and current electricity work. The children were then able to “touch” lightning with the help of a lightning globe and then made their very own electroscope, which takes static electricity and is able to turn it into current electricity. Finally, we took a closer look at the stored energy within a battery and how we were able to use them to power a light bulb and school bell.

Lafayette elementary then had us back with the 5^th graders this time to teach and demonstrate lessons involving the Three Laws of Motion by Sir Isaac Newton. The children participated in several experiments looking at inertia with the table cloth pull, chip flip, and clothes pin drop. Next, everyone had a chance to test the 2^nd law of motion by walking with a bag of beans and letting it go at various speeds in order to observe acceleration and mass. They were then able to “feel” Newton’s 3^rd law by standing on a rotating platform and using a gyroscope that would move the children left or right depending on the direction the gyroscope was moved.

Our Final destination for the week was Turner Elementary where we discussed the lesson Eco Safari. The children were able to talk about, explore, and build their very own rain forest ecosystem starting with the forest floor then moving up to the under-story, then the canopy and finished with the emergent layer. The children then continued their lesson by learning about different aquatic ecosystems including ponds, rivers, lakes, and oceans. They were then able to make a very realistic corral reef to take home.

As you can see, we were very busy this past week or so and covered many different and exciting topics including Outer Space, Magnetism, Gravity, Inertia, DNA, Electricity, Motion and Ecosystems.

I can’t wait until next week!!!