Ideas (prior years' and some new possiblities)

• Previous term: Fall 2002 (Note that we can't repeat previous activities)
• Electric car building
• E & M and speaker building
• Light -- lasers, speed of light, properties of cameras
• Programming TI 86 calculators
• Game theory -- the Monty Hall paradox, dominating strategies, ...
• Previous year: 2000-2001
• Probability and Statistics (Saeta and Donnelly)
• Lego Robots (hill climber competition) (Dodds)
• Game winning strategies (Yong)
• Bubbles (Yong)


• Previous year: 2001-2002
• Take apart and reassemble disposable cameras
• Use Lego Mindstorms to design cranes and pulleys
• Combinatorics and counting
• Web scavenger hunt
• Make slime
  http://www.delta.edu/slime/slime.html
• Create model rockets with trig
• Perspective in art


• Possibilities of varying quality
• use breadboards and components or some kind of kit (e.g., Radio Shack) to build a simple circuit,
  e.g., timing circuit and build to more complex items, e.g., a radio
  how a microprocessor works -- various logic gates and components
  building a mechanical adder/multiplier, etc.
  can be creative as to the building material, e.g., tinkertoys
• The human pendulum
  http://www.col-ed.org/cur/sci/sci89.txt
• Parallax experiment with candles
  http://www.col-ed.org/cur/sci/sci88.txt
• Electrolysis in the classroom
  http://education.indiana.edu/cas/tt/v1i2/electrolysis.html
• hands-on engineering tasks, e.g., strongest bridge, or a mousetrap car
• randomness and statistics -- Tom Donnelly and Steve Adolph ran an activity for the Spring 2002 Nova Scholar candidates
• take something apart and rebuild it, e.g., clock, computer, circuit, ...
  could have two different things: one group: takes it apart and documents it; the other puts it together from the documentation & vice versa -- with a debriefing afterwards to find out who was working on whose project...
• expanding universe activity
  http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/html/uni1.html
• Hubble deep-field academy
  http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/hdf-top-level.html
• galaxy classification
  http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/html/gal1.html#activity1
• expanding pupils
  http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/pupil.html
• logic puzzles -- Raymond Smullyan's work
• making comets
  http://whyfiles.org/011comets/crecipe.html
  http://www.noao.edu/education/crecipe.html
  measuring comets -- will they hit us?
  http://www.noao.edu/education/hipt.html
• are sunspots really on the sun?
  http://solar-center.stanford.edu/sunspots/galileo.html
• robots from junk "junkyard wars" variant -- make Braitenberg vehicles from real motors and parts
  http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/mars/teachers/tg/program2/2.3.html
• image processing for measurement (or for other purposes)
  http://www.nthelp.com/eer/image.html
• science snacks
  http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/snackintro.html
  Laser Jello -- refraction, etc.
  Hand Battery
  Motor Effect -- building a DC motor...
  
• Whose skeleton is in your closet?
  http://www.accessexcellence.org/MTC/96PT/Share/sims.html
• Pliable proteins
  http://www.accessexcellence.org/MTC/96PT/Share/horn.html
• Sampling carbon dioxide -- SafeClimate.net
  http://www.accessexcellence.org/MTC/96PT/Share/culp.html
• DNA extraction lab
  http://www.accessexcellence.org/MTC/96PT/Share/windham.html
• analyzing sound data and/or using an oscilloscope for something...
• engineering: "hearing the light"
  http://www.eweek.org/2002/DiscoverE/activities/hearinglight.shtml
• lots of engineering activities from "Building Big"
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/educator/act_index.html
• bridge contest from West Point
  http://bridgecontest.usma.edu/manual.htm
• chemistry of hair care
  http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?BenchmarkID=8&DocID=18"
• Sciencenet links (nice examples of lesson write-ups)
  http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/matrix.cfm
  DNA extraction
  Snowman (carbon) dating
  * forensics of coins -- see isotopes of pennies
  
• The Mozart effect -- psychological experiments that could be of interest
  e.g., compare Mozart's effect with that of other musicians...
• tracking satellites
  http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/1616.html
• meter stick as a scale
  http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ScienceMeterStickAsScale-TorqueLab1112.htm
  using one form of measurement to detect others...
• Aluminum foil boat -- challenge to build it to hold as much cargo as possible
  combine with puzzle on water displacement
  combine with surface tension (how many pennies can be added to a full glass of water?)
• nice bridge challenge including costs and time-to-build
  http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ScienceSSOKNEXBridges-Architecture510.htm
• grow rock candy (attempted in 2001-2002, but not successfully)


• General web sources of lesson plans
• PBS source for lessons
  http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/sci_tech.htm
• Science and everyday experiences
  http://www.deltasee.com/trainers/trainers_handson.htm
• Lesson Plans Page
  www.lessonplanspage.com
• Teachers.net
  www.teachers.net
• Little shop of physics
  http://littleshop.physics.colostate.edu/Otherinfo%26WIP/Other%26WIP.html
• Conceptual physics
  http://www.phschool.com/science/cpsurf/
• Biology & life sciences -- Academic Excellence Fellows collection (a lot of activities)
  http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/AEF/
  http://www.accessexcellence.org/MTC/96PT/Share/
• Access excellence: biology activities
  http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/
• Teacher talk forum (lesson plans)
  http://education.indiana.edu/cas/ttforum/lesson.html
• Ask Eric (the ones I looked at were pretty weak)
  http://askeric.org/Virtual/Lessons/