Lesson: Trash Talkin’
Posted on April 19th, 2010 by Jaimie Schock
In this activity, students in grades 3-5 collect, categorize, weigh and analyze classroom solid waste. The class collects waste for a week, and then student groups spend a day sorting and analyzing the garbage with respect to recyclable and non-recyclable items. Students will discuss ways that engineers have helped to reduce solid waste.
Filed under: Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | 1 Comment »
Tags: Environmental Engineering, Environmental science, Grades 3-5, Lesson Plan, Recycling, Waste management
The Environmental Science Institute at the University of Texas Austin offers a number of helpful resources, including K-12 lesson plans, a lecture series, graduate student-pairing program, and newsletters.
A recent event for high school inventors from across America at NASA’s Ames Research Center was not your average science fair. The 2010 Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award Summit handed out top prizes of $5,000 in grant money to winners of four categories — aerospace, renewable energy, green building and space nutrition — while finalists received $1,000. Students also got to talk to potential investors.
Is dissection essential to a high school biology class? That’s a question lawmakers in Connecticut are grappling with, according to the Hartford Courant. A bill heading to the state senate floor would allow students to opt out of dissections if they raise conscientious objections. Critics have long argued the procedure is outmoded and inhumane, while biology teachers have countered that it remains the most effective way to teach kids anatomy.
The PBS Design Squad Trash to Treasure Competition Challenge invites kids ages 5-19 to recycle, reuse, and re-engineer everyday materials into an out-of-the box invention. Three winners will come to Boston to see their designs built by Continuum, a design consultancy, and will appear on the Design Squad show and Website. 25 finalists will also be featured on the Website. Contest Deadline: September 5, 2010.
In this activity, students determine the path traveled by sound waves as they reflect from room surfaces and the time it takes to travel each path. Assuming the role of acoustic engineers, students gain an overview of sound mechanics that involves rate calculations, working with number systems, and a bit of geometry.
The dance between technology and music has long been a close one. Now, the tempo of that tango is picking up speed. Breakthroughs in engineering and electronics are radically altering how music today is played, recorded, distributed and listened to. Want a surefire way of becoming a big noise in the music biz? Earn an engineering degree.
At Drexel University, Assistant Prof. Youngmoo Kim and his students think up ways to put the power of a music arranger into the hands of unskilled and untutored listeners. Literally into their hands: Soon, if Kim’s research pans out, an iPhone could be all a listener needs to imprint downloaded music with his or her own taste and style, adjusting tempo, pitch, and mood.
