Determine whether a given example of living thing is using the characteristics of life. All the living things are capable of doing respiration to break down the food into its simplest and smallest form such as CO2, H2O, Ethanol or Lactic acid.
Students apply the knowledge gained from the previous lessons and activities in this unit to write draft grant proposals to the U.S. National Institutes of Health outlining their ideas for proposed research using nanoparticles to protect against, detect or treat skin cancer. Through this exercise, students demonstrate their understanding of the environmental factors that contribute to skin cancer, the science and mathematics of UV radiation, the anatomy of human skin, current medical technology applications of nanotechnology and the societal importance of funding research in this area, as well as their communication skills in presenting plans for specific nanoscale research they would conduct using nanoparticles.
Students learn about the biomedical use of nanoparticles in the detection and treatment of cancer, including the use of quantum dots and lasers that heat-activate nanoparticles. They also learn about electrophoresis a laboratory procedure that uses an electric field to move tiny particles through a channel in order to separate them by size. They complete an online virtual mini-lab, with accompanying worksheet, to better understand gel electrophoresis. This prepares them for the associated activity to write draft research proposals to use nanoparticles to protect against, detect or treat skin cancer.
The original Native American story component lesson was developed as part of an Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and Washington State Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) project funded through an EPA Region 10 grant. The stories were told by Roger Fernandes of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe. Mr. Fernandes has been given permission by the tribes to tell these stories.As these lessons and stories were shared prior to the adoption of the Washington State Science Learning Standards in 2013, there was a need to align these stories with the current science standards. This resource provides a current alignment and possible lesson suggestions on how these stories can be incorporated into the classroom. This alignment work has been funded by the NGSS & Climate Science Proviso of the Washington State Legislature as a part of North Central Educational Service District's award.
Students examine how the orientation of a photovoltaic (PV) panel relative to the sun affects the efficiency of the panel. Using sunshine (or a lamp) and a small PV panel connected to a digital multimeter, students vary the angle of the solar panel, record the resulting current output on a worksheet, and plot their experimental results.
Take a breath — where does the oxygen you inhaled come from? In our changing world, will we always have enough oxygen? What is in water that supports life? What is known? How do we know what we know about our vast oceans? These are just a few of the driving questions explored in this interactive STEAM high school curriculum module.
Students in marine science, environmental science, physics, chemistry, biology, integrated science, biotechnology and/or STEAM courses can use this curriculum module in order to use real-world, big data to investigate how our “invisible forest” influences ocean and Earth systems. Students build an art project to represent their new understanding and share this with the broader community.
This 4-week set of lessons is based on the oceanographic research of Dr. Anne Thompson of Portland State University in Oregon, which focuses on the abundant ocean phytoplankton Prochlorococcus. These interdisciplinary STEAM lessons were inspired by Dr. Thompson’s lab and fieldwork as well as many beautiful visualizations of Prochlorococcus, the ocean, and Earth. Students learn about the impact and importance of Prochlorococcus as the smallest and most abundant photosynthetic organism on our planet. Through the lessons, students act as both scientists and artists as they explore where breathable oxygen comes from and consider how to communicate the importance of tiny cells to human survival.
This module is written as a phenomenon-based, Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) three-dimensional learning unit. Each of the lessons below also has an integrated, optional Project-Based Learning component that guides students as they complete the PBL process. Students learn to model a system and also design and evaluate questions to investigate phenomena. Students ultimately learn what is in a drop of ocean water and showcase how their drop contributes to our health and the stability and dynamics of global systems.
Solar energy in the form of light is available to organisms on Earth in abundance. Natural systems and other organisms have structures that function in ways to manage the interaction with and use of this energy. Using these natural examples, humans have (in the past) and continue to design and construct homes which manage solar energy in passive and active ways to reduce the need for energy from other sources. In this storyline, students will explore passive and active solar energy management through examples in the natural world. Students will use knowledge gained to design a building that maximizes the free and abundant energy gifts of the sun.
Patterns Physics is the initial course in the 3-year high school Patterns Science sequence. Patterns Physics focuses on three-dimensional (3D) learning through culturally responsive, phenomena-based storylines that intertwine the disciplinary core ideas of physics and earth science with the scientific and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts as described in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
The Patterns High School Science Sequence (https://hsscience4all.org/) is a three year course pathway and curriculum aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
Each course utilizes:
- Common instructional strategies
- Real world phenomena
- Design challenges to engage students and support their learning.
For more information, contact us at info@pdxstem.org.
The curriculum is a combination of teacher-generated and curated open-content materials. The Teacher-generated materials are shared freely under a Attribution-NonCommercial-Sharealike Creative Commons License.
Students will be undertaking several nanotechnology experiments to discover nanotech applications in their own lives and see its potential for the future.
Students download the software needed to create Arduino programs and make sure their Arduino microcontrollers work correctly. Then, they connect an LED to the Arduino and type up and upload programs to the Arduino board to 1) make the LED blink on and off and 2) make the LED fade (brighten and then dim). Throughout, students reflect on what they've accomplished by answering questions and modifying the original programs and circuits in order to achieve new outcomes. A design challenge gives students a chance to demonstrate their understanding of actuators and Arduinos; they design a functioning system using an Arduino, at least three actuators and either a buzzer or toy motor. For their designs, students sketch, create and turn in a user's manual for the system (text description, commented program, detailed hardware diagram). Numerous worksheets and handouts are provided.
This lesson culminates the unit with the Go Public phase of the legacy cycle. In the associated activity, students depict a tumor amidst healthy body tissue using a Microsoft Excel® graph. In addition, students design a brochure for both patients and doctors advertising a new form of painless yet reliable breast cancer detection. Together, the in-class activity and the take-home assignment function as an assessment of what students have learned throughout the unit.
Acting as civil engineers hired by the U.S. Department of Transportation to research how to best use piezoelectric materials to detect road damage, student groups are challenged to independently create their own experiment procedures, working with given materials and tools. The general approach is that they set up model roads using rubber mats to simulate asphalt and piezoelectric transducers to simulate the in-ground road sensors. They drop heavy bolts at various locations on the “road,” collecting data and then analyzing the voltage changes across the piezoelectric transducers caused by the vibrations of the bolt hitting the rubber. After making notches in the rubber “road” to simulate cracks and potholes, they collect more data to see if the piezo elements detect the damage. Students write up their research and conclusions as if presenting evidence to USDOT officials about how the voltage changes across the piezo elements can be used to indicate road damage and extrapolated to determine when roads need maintenance service.
Pumps are used to get drinking water to our houses every day! And in disaster situations, pumps are essential to keep flood water out. In this hands-on activity, student groups design, build, test and improve devices to pump water as if they were engineers helping a rural village meet their drinking water supply. Students keep track of their materials costs, and calculate power and cost efficiencies of the prototype pumps. They also learn about different types of pumps, how they work and useful applications.
Students are asked to design simple yet accurate timing devices using limited supplies. The challenge is to create a device that measures out a time period of exactly three minutes in order to enable a hypothetical prison escape. Student groups brainstorm ideas using the different materials provided. They observe and explain the effects of conservation of energy.
In this eight-lesson unit, students explore cultural connections with the sun, learn about light and discover how light interacts with other materials through hands-on activities, literacy integration, and engineering.
Students learn about how biomedical engineers aid doctors in repairing severely broken bones. They learn about using pins, plates, rods and screws to repair fractures. They do this by designing, creating and testing their own prototype devices to repair broken turkey bones.
Student pairs reverse engineer objects of their choice, learning what it takes to be an engineer. Groups each make a proposal, create a team work contract, use tools to disassemble a device, and sketch and document their full understanding of how it works. They compile what they learned into a manual and write-up that summarizes the object's purpose, bill of materials and operation procedure with orthographic and isometric sketches. Then they apply some of the steps of the engineering design process to come up with ideas for how the product or device could be improved for the benefit of the end user, manufacturer and/or environment. They describe and sketch their ideas for re-imagined designs (no prototyping or testing is done). To conclude, teams compile full reports and then recap their reverse engineering projects and investigation discoveries in brief class presentations. A PowerPoint(TM) presentation, written report and oral presentation rubrics, and peer evaluation form are provided.
Warming oceans and melting landlocked ice caused by global climate change may result in rising sea levels. This rise in sea level combined with increased intensity and frequency of storms will produce storm surges that flood subways, highways, homes, and more. In this activity, visitors design and test adaptations to prepare for flooding caused by sea level rise.
Students groups act as NASA/GM engineers challenged to design, build and test robotic hands, which are tactile feedback systems made from cloth gloves and force sensor circuits. Student groups construct force sensor circuits using electric components and FlexiForce sensors to which resistance changes based on the applied force. They conduct experiments to find the mathematical relationship between the force applied to the sensor and the output voltages of the circuit. They take several measurements force vs. resistance, force vs. voltage and use the data to find the best fit curve models for the sensor. Different weights applied to the sensor are used as a scalable force. Students use traditional methods and current technology (calculators) to plot the collected data and define the curve equations. Students test their gloves and use a line of best fit to determine the minimum force required to crack an egg held between the index finger and thumb. A PowerPoint(TM) file and many student handouts are included.
Students see and learn how crystallization and inhibition occur by making sugar crystals with and without additives in a supersaturation solution, testing to see how the additives may alter crystallization, such as by improving crystal growth by more or larger crystals. After three days, students analyze the differences between the control crystals and those grown with additives, researching and attempting to deduce why certain additives blocked crystallization, showed no change or improved growth. Students relate what they learn from the rock candy experimentation to engineering drug researchers who design medicines for targeted purposes in the human body. Conduct the first half of this activity one day before presenting the associated lesson, Body Full of Crystals. Then conduct the second half of the activity.