Welcome to STEM camp! These next few weeks will be comprised of various experiments, questions, and activities. These activities all relate to our weeks theme and focus on at least one element of the world around us. On our first day we are going to go through expectations, get to know one another, and really hone in on the scientific process. Then we will explore all the projects we are going to comeplete and talk about the coding aspect of STEM camp.
Hello my name is Mr. Houska I currently work at Lone Dell elementary school as a Teachers Assistant where I do a lot of different things. I am looking forward to our time together in STEM camp. As an introduction and get to know me go ahead and look at the interactive seek and find below.
Each day we will be completing a new activity that relates to our weekly theme. These activities all vary in length as well as how many people will be completing them. However, each week we will split into new groups. In order to create groups I plan to use this survey below to help me get to know your learning style and to separate you into groups with all different types of thinkers.
Please take this survey and then call me over so I can record your results. Also do not close the tab we are going to use it for an activity.
Our camp consists of many different projects over three weeks. We have a different theme each week to guide our exploration. Each day is a challenge project, choice time, and coding. We have a wide variety of coding projects lets take some time to review all of our challenge projects, the website, and the coding projects.
The penny was the first currency authorized by the United States from the Mint Act of 1792 signed by George Washington. The design for this first one-cent coin was suggested by Benjamin Franklin, and for over two centuries, the penny's design has symbolized the spirit of the nation, from Liberty to Lincoln.
Today we are going to explore how the shape of penny interacts with the properties of water. These two variables may play a part in determining how many drops of water can in fact fit on one single penny. 1) A needle placed on water can be made to float due to the surface tension of water. 2) Mosquito eggs can float on water because of its surface tension. 3) Toothpaste contains soap, which reduce the surface tension and helps it spread freely in the mouth. The surface tension arises due to cohesive interactions between the molecules in the liquid. At the bulk of the liquid, the molecules have neighboring molecules on each side. Molecules are pulling each other equally in all directions causing a net force of zero.
In the late 1840s, John Curtis developed the first commercial spruce tree gum by boiling resin, then cutting it into strips that were coated in cornstarch to prevent them from sticking together. By the early 1850s, Curtis had constructed the world's first chewing gum factory, in Portland, Maine. There’s evidence that some northern Europeans were chewing birch bark tar 9,000 years ago—possibly for enjoyment as well as medicinal purposes, such as relieving toothaches. In the Americas, the ancient Mayan people chewed a substance called chicle, derived from the sapodilla tree, as a way to quench thirst or fight hunger, according to anthropologist Jennifer P. Mathews, author of Chicle: The Chewing Gum of the Americas. The Aztecsalso used chicle and even had rules about its social acceptability. Only kids and single women were allowed to chew it in public, notes Mathews. Married women and widows could chew it privately to freshen their breath, while men could chew it in secret to clean their teeth.
Some of the flavoring in bubble gum is due to the sugar or other sweetener it contains. As gum is chewed, the sugar dissolves and is swallowed. After a piece of gum loses its sweetness, it can be left to dry at room temperature and then the difference between its initial (unchewed) mass and its chewed mass can be used to calculate the percentage of sugar in the gum. This demonstration experiment is used to generate new questions about gums and their ingredients, and students can then design and execute new experiments based on their own questions.
How long does the flavor last in your chewing gum? Have you ever wonder why gum loses its sweetness so quickly? Why is that? Does it seem like the gum gets smaller after you chew it? (Listen to a few ideas from students.) I would like you to do an experiment to test a hypothesis I have. This is my hypothesis: Sugar contributes to gum's flavor, and during chewing, the sugar is lost, which makes the gum get smaller as it loses its sweetness.
The question we were trying to answer was: Can we find out how much sugar is in bubble gum?
The hypothesis was: Sugar contributes to gum's flavor, and during chewing, the sugar is lost (swallowed), which makes the gum get smaller as it loses its sweetness.
