Personalize Physics Problems with Student Names!

 

Surprise your students by handing them physics problems in which they are the stars! Making your students characters in their physics problems captures their attention and engages them in reading the problems as they search for their names and the names of their friends.

For years, I have been using physics practice problems with student names woven into the "stories" to provide a little entertainment while teaching Newton's laws of motion. After giving lessons on the basics of Newton's First, Second, and Third Laws, I give them problem sets in which every student makes a cameo appearance. Here is an example of one of the problems:

Liam and Yosi are installing a monument to the 8th-grade class in front of the Museum School. The monument needs to be moved to the left, so they put it on a frictionless surface and pull it along with a rope. Together they pull with a force of 500 N. The monument’s mass is 100 kg. What is the monument’s acceleration?

I am able to use the same basic problems each year but tweak them a bit by changing the students' names along with some details in the problems. For example, I might change a sport from baseball to softball. I try to create funny problems or those that incorporate students' interests. I enjoy making characters in the problems that match the different personalities in my class, and I have fun placing students in the various roles each year.

I have found that using these personalized physics problems is especially useful at times when students are feeling less engaged, such as when we near the end of the school year. My eighth-grade students are excited about graduating and moving on to their next big step of entering high school. This year the "senioritis", or "eighth graditis", has been particularly pronounced. I have actually heard students counting down the days until graduation! This is all very normal and to be expected, but as a teacher, I have to have something in my back pocket to keep them interested. I honestly didn't know how well the personalized physics problems would go over with my current eighth-grade crowd, but they actually really liked them! 

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Polymer Lab: Gel Worms

 

The "gel worm" lab on synthetic polymers is a class favorite! Students are surprised and entertained when they put their fingers into the two liquids they combined to pull out the stretchy polymer that has formed. 

This lab is appropriate for middle school students, and I have used it with students in grades seven and eight.

The American Chemical Society has created free, engaging labs that align with the Next Generation Science Standards. This polymer lab addresses the standard MS-PS1-3: Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society. The lab comes with a comprehensive lesson plan that compares natural products with synthetic ones, and it is a great starting point for a larger discussion on the role of synthetic plastics in our world.    

The reactants used to produce the "gel worm" polymer are sodium alginate and calcium chloride. Sodium alginate can be found online, and the most cost efficient way to purchase calcium chloride is buying unscented DampRid, which consists of pure calcium chloride and is available in hardware stores.  I find it easiest to make the solutions at least a day in advance. The first time I tried making the sodium alginate solution, I spent a long time slowly adding the solute and shaking the solution, but I couldn't get all of the sodium alginate to dissolve. I later discovered that simply letting the solution set overnight resulted in a nice solution without clumps.

If you would like to try this fun lab with your students or your own children, follow this link:

American Chemical Society Lab: Natural Resources & Synthetic Materials

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Get Outdoors with Citizen Science! The Great Sunflower Project

 

I discovered a simple yet engaging project that gets students and families outside and allows them to participate in authentic scientific research. The Great Sunflower Project is a citizen science activity in which students and volunteers nationwide observe flowers and record information about the pollinators that visit them. The data that is collected is entered on the project's website and then compiled and used to create maps showing the abundance of pollinators in different areas across the United States.

Data collection for The Great Sunflower Project can happen whenever pollinators are active. Because April is Citizen Science Month, and Earth Day is in April, I chose to have students do this project to celebrate Earth Day. Everyone seems to enjoy getting outside in spring when the weather is getting warmer. 

To prepare students for the project, I created a Google slideshow with some photos of pollinators listed on The Great Sunflower Project data sheet. These included bumblebees, honey bees, and carpenter bees. As I shared the slideshow with the class, I pointed out specific traits of the pollinators that would help to identify them. After receiving this "training", students took a quiz in which they had to identify pollinators from photographs.

The minimum time for observing flowers required by The Great Sunflower Project is five minutes. When doing this project with my middle school students, I asked them to spend between five and fifteen minutes on data collection, depending on the dynamics of the class and how much time was available to us. This may seem like a very short period of time, but staying focused on observations can be very challenging! After seeing students struggle with this in the past, I decided to reinforce the importance and challenge of staying focused on the flowers during the observation time. If you try this with your own students or children, don't be surprised if a few begin to wander a bit from their posts or perhaps need gentle reminders to watch the flowers for pollinators.  

If you are interested in learning more about The Great Sunflower Project, here is a link to a short video and description of the project:

https://www.greatsunflower.org/node/1000010

Here is a link to register:

https://www.greatsunflower.org/user/register

Update: When my students tried to enter data in April, 2022, we noticed that the website was down for a couple of days. I don't know if this happens frequently or not. If you plan to do this project with your students or family, just be aware of this. Despite the delay, students were motivated to contribute their data to a nationwide project!

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Slime: Vacation Fun with Polymers!

My daughter is passionate about slime. Although the mess definitely causes some controversy in our home, as a science teacher who encourages creativity, it would be hard not to support her ventures. We decided that the glitter slime still stuck to the wall, the bits of slime that found their way onto the floor, and the general mess that comes with creating slime are all worth the trouble for the lessons she gets about chemistry and designing informal experiments. She is also beginning to learn the importance of a thorough clean-up!

                     

My daughter’s interest in slime provides a great excuse to have a discussion about polymers. Do you know where slime gets its stretchiness? Slime is a polymer, as are common plastics. Polymers are complex molecules consisting of chains of simpler molecules, called monomers.

These long polymer chains help give slime its prized stretchiness. Glue, a common slime ingredient, itself contains a polymer called polyvinyl acetate. Kids mix glue with a reactant such as borax that causes the polymer chains to stick together, a chemical process called crosslinking. As the long polymer chains in the glue stick together, this creates a thicker substance- slime!

We are currently on Spring Break, and my daughter is devoting much of her time and resources to experimenting with new slime recipes and finding the best combinations of ingredients. Her birthday money has gone towards glue, shampoo, and peel-off face mask. I’ll be interested to see what new combinations she comes up with!

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Cell City: Cell Organelles Project

 

Updated December 28, 2022

In the Cell City project, students learn about cell parts by making connections between a bustling city and the activity within a cell. It was inspired by a fun Crash Course video titled "Eukaryopolis - The City of Animal Cells", a video I shared with my students before beginning the project. The Cell City project addresses Next Generation Science Standard MS-LS1-2: Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) encourage students to think about systems at different scales. I introduced the Cell City project by asking students to describe what a system is and to give examples. Students explained that a system was something with steps or parts that work together. We came up with examples that included human body systems, computer systems, and transportation systems. I asked whether a city was a system, and students decided it was because of the many different parts that interact. They also thought that cells were microscopic systems because of the different parts of a cell that all work together.

The first step of the project was to learn about what each cell part does. Students accessed a free, online text published by CK-12 for this. Next, students considered the job of each cell part and tried to find an analogous part in a city that serves a similar function. For example, the cell nucleus and city hall have a similar job because they both control what happens within the system. I gave students examples of city parts they could use, but students were also invited to use their own ideas.  

I created the city parts clipart using Google Draw. It was fairly time consuming but produced the results I wanted. Students cut out the images of city parts and glued them onto labels with the analogous cell parts. 

To make it easier for students to color the cell parts and labels the same color, I pasted the cell part clipart  (also created using Google Draw) into a table with the label for each part.

Students glued the cell parts onto their poster and pasted the cell part names onto the tops of the labels. 

To pull it all together, students wrote a paragraph comparing the functions of cell parts to various parts of a city and explained how these parts interact to form a single system. Some students completed an extension activity in which they wrote questions that could be answered by their posters. These questions were given out to their peers as a review activity once the posters were displayed on the wall.

To view the CrashCourse video that inspired this project, follow this link:

Eukaryopolis - The City of Animal Cells

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Happy Birthday, Dad!

Thanks to Kavita and Parthiv for helping me edit this post!

Clothing Game for Teaching Spanish and Other Languages

 

I use a simple game called "Ponte" to teach Spanish clothing vocabulary, and it's a hit every time! In this game, a student volunteer has to put on anything that classmates choose from a collection of clothing. 

In a prior class, students are introduced to clothing vocabulary, and on the day of the game, each student gets a "cheat sheet" with a list of the vocabulary in English and Spanish.  A collection of clothing and shoes is laid out on the desks, and I hold up each one to review its name in Spanish, asking students to repeat. A volunteer comes to the front of the room, and peers raise their hands to tell the volunteer in Spanish to put on articles of clothing. For example, a peer might say, "Ponte el sombrero," and the volunteer will put on a sun hat. Choosing similar clothing in different colors requires students to name the color of the clothing as well. At the end of a student's turn, the student can strut down a little "catwalk", space permitting.

This game was originally introduced to me as a way to teach English to adult learners when I was an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer with Central Vermont Adult Basic Education in Barre, Vermont.  A few years later, when I was hired as a middle school Spanish teacher in Cambridge, MA, I thought it would be fun to try it out with my students, and it went over very well! Since then, I have used "Ponte" to teach names of clothing in Spanish to students ranging from third to eighth grade at the Museum School in San Diego. It could easily be adapted to teach any language.

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Student Government

Photo by Jeswin Thomas on Unsplash

One of the things that made me most proud of the school I attended as a child, George C. Soule School in Freeport, Maine, was that we had a powerful student government. Students truly had a say in what happened at our school. One example of this was when as a member of the Student Council, I helped hire the person who would be my math teacher in fifth grade. Student voice was a core value at my childhood school, and it is a value I continue to promote as a teacher. 

Years ago, when I taught fourth grade, I helped students create a class government as a way to teach civics while giving students some say in what happened in their classroom. Students led meetings while I sat quietly at the back of the class, interfering only when necessary. At the end of the unit, I asked students about their opinions of the student government, what they had learned, and what they thought my purpose was in doing the activity. I laughed when I read one response stating that maybe I had formed the government so that I didn't have to do as much work! I took this as a good sign that I had succeeded in allowing the students to take the lead. Their feedback on the experience was overwhelmingly positive. 

In my current position as a middle school teacher, I facilitate a Student Council that plans school events and addresses school policies. This year they hosted a Harvest Festival for all the K - 8 students at our small school and organized a middle school dance. They are now working on a spirit week to be held in the coming weeks. Their current policy initiative is to allow middle school students to take a 15-minute nap at the beginning of study hall on Fridays. We'll see where this goes! They did make some pretty good arguments in favor of this idea...

The structure I use for our current Student Council includes these offices:

* President to lead meetings

* Vice President to help lead meetings and write things on the board, and to serve in the President's absence

* Secretary to take meeting minutes and do a roll call

* Office Ambassador to communicate with the office

* Ambassadors for each tier (K-2, 3-5, 6-8) to communicate with teachers

* Grade representatives to be a voice for each grade (only grades 6-8 currently)

Student Council meetings can get pretty heated, especially in middle school! I have learned that teaching students to follow Robert's Rules of Order has helped with this. Some key points of these rules are to wait until you have the floor to speak, and to address the president rather than other members during a discussion/debate. Here are some videos on Robert's Rules of Order that I have shared with my class:

How to Make a Motion According to Robert's Rules of Order

The Basics of Making Motions 

The first link shows a vintage (80's?) student council in action. The second gives an example of a board meeting. We sometimes follow the rules loosely, but they do help keep discussions civil and allow all members to have a turn to speak.  I tell students that becoming familiar with Robert's Rules of Order can be helpful because they may see this structure used in other organizations as well. Learning Robert's Rules of Order takes time, and students often need reminders from me during their meetings. 

Allowing students to have a voice gives them a feeling of agency in their school life, much of which is typically planned out for them. It has been my experience that serving on a student council makes students feel like an important part of the school community and motivates them to come to school! 

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Pandemic Survival Tips from Teachers

 

              Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

The pandemic is wearing on everyone, and teachers and school administrators are no exception. With nationwide school staffing shortages, absences, and additional tasks necessitated by the pandemic, teachers and other school staff are stretched very thin right now. It's gotten so bad that yesterday they asked me- the girl who once took the basketball, ran in the wrong direction, and missed a layup in the opposing team's basket- to teach P.E.! I suggested to staff at my school that we all share with one another our tips for staying sane. Here are some of them.

Humor!

* Ms. Jaleh uses humor when times get tough.

Take a Break!

* Ms. Rachel recommends taking a true lunch break and getting out of your classroom.

Music!

* Ms. Jaleh listens to playlists that include beloved hits from the ’80s! She mentioned a study showing that for those who have positive associations with 80's music, the music induces the release of endorphins in the brain, making you feel happy and calm.

Dance Parties!

* Ms. Carrie, Ms. Ruby, and Ms. Jane hold dance parties in the office!

Tap into Creativity

* Mr. Jeremy relaxes by making art, including a cool necklace he wears.

* Ms. Ruby relaxes by crocheting blankets.

* I have just started to make time to play my banjo and sing, and I plan to play my violin.

Laugh, Think Positive Thoughts, and Keep Going!

* Ms. Jane says, "Rainbows and unicorns, butterflies and bunnies!

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swim swim swim swim swim."

Yoga

* Ms. Rachel goes to Sunday yoga in Balboa Park, held outdoors on 6th and Laurel and by donation.

Meditation

* Ms. Raquel says that what has helped her juggle many things throughout her day is to take 5 minutes to meditate. She shared this link to help others on their journey to starting meditating: https://youtu.be/inpok4MKVLM

Probably the only real solution to the stressors caused by the pandemic is a change in the situation we are all in, but maybe these tips will help us smile as we muddle through it!

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Snow Science: Freezing and Melting Points the Same?!

 Updated December 23, 2022

We were hoping for snow when we went to Maine over winter break. We were lucky to not only get snow, but sticky snow, which is perfect for making snowmen! (My daughter repeatedly reminds me that we actually made snowwomen!)

As the snow started to fall, the temperature was hovering around 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the freezing point of water. We tried to see snow crystals, or snowflakes, as they fell, but the crystals were partially melted and clumpy. The weather provided a natural lesson about changes of state- in this case, freezing and melting.

I shared with my daughter that the freezing and melting points of water are the same (technically, there are small observed differences). 

How is it possible that freezing and melting, which are opposites, happen at the same temperature?

This didn't make sense to her. I asked her whether water would be ice or liquid water just below the freezing/melting point. It would be ice! What about just above the freezing point? It would be liquid water! She realized that the freezing/melting point is the threshold between these two states of matter.

The snow we used for making our snowwoman and snowgirl had the perfect mix of solid and liquid water to create a sticky snow. We started with a small snowball and rolled it on the snow-covered ground. It grew very quickly!

We piled the giant snowballs on top of one another, and added some embellishments that we found around the yard.

We were lucky to have the sticky snow we hoped for on this trip. Maybe on a future trip, we will experience the fluffy powder snow that's perfect for sledding!

Here is a video from the Fleet Science Center that discusses simple snowflake science and gives directions for making six-pointed paper snowflakes. I used it with my middle school students for a relaxed activity just before winter break. I think it would also work well with grades 3 - 5.

Fleet2Go: How to Make Paper Snowflakes

I also used this video on snowflake science with my middle school students:

The Science of Snowflakes

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Caga Tió- The Catalan Christmas Pooping Log!

Updated December 23, 2022

Keeping students engaged in the days before Winter Vacation is quite a challenge for a teacher, but for Caga Tió, it's effortless! When I told my middle school students about Caga Tió and asked whether they would like to care for him in our classroom as part of Spanish class, they were all in! 

Early in my teaching career, I spent a year in Barcelona, where I taught English and lived with two Catalan roommates. My roommate Quim described a Christmas tradition of wrapping a log in a blanket to keep it warm, giving it food and water, and then, on Christmas morning, hitting it with a stick to make it "poop" turrón (almond candy). For a long time, I didn't believe him and thought he was trying to fool his American friend. One day, he insisted I come quickly to see what was on TV, and sure enough, there was a black-and-white video of children singing and beating a log with a stick. It was true!

The Caga Tió, or "poop log", I used in my classroom was one given to me by a friend. It's a simple little log with two sticks attached to look like legs and a face drawn on the front:

I wrapped it in a large throw blanket- large enough for hiding the nuts and turrón later on. Before we welcomed Caga Tió into our classroom at the beginning of December, my students assured me that they would take good care of Caga Tió by keeping it safe and warm, feeding it little pieces of food, and bringing it water. There were a few seventh graders who took on most of this- it was very sweet! 

We kept Caga Tió close to my classroom nook in a corner of the room that was visible yet a little less accessible in order to avoid any possible rough handling. My students asked if I had a little cup for water, and I found one in my science closet. Students filled the cup daily, and I gradually emptied it throughout the day when they weren't looking. I did the same with the food they left, which was mostly fruit.

On the last day of Spanish class before Winter Break, I taught students a simplified version of the Caga Tió song, one that my friend had taught me. The song is not in Spanish but in Catalan, a language spoken in the state of Catalonia. (You can find the traditional Caga Tió, or Tió de Nadal, song on Youtube) It was a good opportunity to tell students that Catalonia has its own distinct language and culture.

Before passing out sticks to my students, I reminded them that the sticks were, of course, not for sword fighting or hitting each other but for gently hitting Caga Tió. For Spanish class, I had a smaller class size of about 12 students, making this activity more manageable. Although my class sizes are usually around 25 students, during Spanish class, half the students are in P.E., while the other half is with me. 

Caga Tió was set on a desk, and students walked around him together in a circle, hitting him with their sticks and singing the Caga Tió song. Then they heated their sticks in a fire- made by my wonderful teaching assistant Nicole- before returning to hit Caga Tió and sing to him again.

When we thought students had sung enough for Caga Tió to work his magic, we lifted the blanket. It worked! He pooped!

  

I first offered almonds to students and then worked at cutting the turrón into pieces. (I have found turrón in the Little Italy neighborhood in my city of San Diego, and you can also buy it online.) There are two types of turrón- hard and soft. The hard turrón, or turrón duro, is difficult to cut into pieces but doable with a good knife. For students with allergies to almonds and/or eggs, I had alternative candies under the blanket marked with their names on sticky notes. 

Having Caga Tió in our classroom in December gave students something to look forward to in coming to school, and I had the chance to have a little fun with them!

If you would like to know more about Caga Tió, you can read this NPR article:

A Catalan Log That Poops Nougats At Christmas

This video includes the Caga Tió song and a description of the tradition:

Caga Tio or Tio de Nadal Comes to the United Kingdom

For any students out there who do not believe in Tió, here is video proof that he can eat and drink:

Tió menjant 

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