In this unit, students will research insects and dive into writing juicy paragraphs with main ideas and supporting details. They will create their insect out of various materials to get ready for the gallery opening.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
In second grade students will learn to compare different versions of the Gingerbread story. They focus on how the story elements change with each story, but the basic theme stays the same. Then in writing students are tasked with creating their own gingerbread rendition. In doing so, students often get lost in the middle of the story where the gingerbread character passes other characters and repeats the refrain. This project will help students use temporal words to provide sequence to their story as they define the places and people that are passed. Students must clearly describe 3 -4 places in a sequence (first, next, then, finally), as well as, provide an ending to their story. Once they have completed their story students are allowed to take a previously made gingerbread character and tape it to a small Dixie cup. Then the cup is placed over a mini-sphero. Students use premade landmarks that say first, next, then, finally to navigate their character through their own sequence of events! This is a highly motivational and fun way to celebrate their hard work in creating a story and making it come to life!
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students will work individually to design and build an instrument out of provided materials to make the loudest instrument they can. Students will need to work out what materials will cause vibrations in order to make sound. Students will be allowed to touch and plan before design as well as have time to fix and rebuild. The students will need at least an introduction to instruments and how their sound is created.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Can you create a robot or device that can communicate an answer to your partner? Students code a robot to communicate the answer to comparing two three-digit or two two-digit numbers to their partner. Students will need to complete a key to determine how they’re representing greater than, less than, and equal to.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Students will build a way to transport their (region-specific) goods.Build a cart with limited supplies. This can be utilized with or without robots for pulling.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students will create a musical pipe using straws of different lengths. They will create their own tune.
Material Type: Interactive
Students will build structures based on American coastal, mountain, or plain environments. Each group will receive an informational text about the geographic conditions within the location. Students will decide which building materials will work best within the environment.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Eggbert has volunteered for the first egg-head mission to the Moon. The problem Eggbert faces is that the landing on the Moon’s surface will be very quick, and his space ship will crash. To ensure the success of this mission, your engineering team will need to design a safety restraint device that will withstand the crash.Your team has a budget of $800.00 to spend on the materials for the design. You must discuss what materials you will purchase, keeping within your budget, and record the items in a spreadsheet. You must also ALL agree on a team design. If Eggbert does not survive your first attempt, you may have time to redesign the restraint system. Your goal is to be the team that spends the least amount of money and keeps Eggbert from cracking.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students will use the design process to create a new pair of shoes. Students will use multiplication to find the area and/or perimeter of their design.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students will be grouped into teams. Then each team will create a pathway for their Hexbug to travel. The Hexbug path should be 5 feet from beginning to end and must include two curves, a hill, one bridge and one tunnel. The Hexbug must travel from the beginning to the end without any assistance. Each team will have a timer and will have 20 minutes to design the quickest path they can for their Hexbug. After the first race teams will have 5 minutes to talk about changes they can make and 5 minutes to make the changes. There will be one final race to see if a different team is able to win.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
How can we create something from what seems like nothing?
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students will work in groups to design a wheel-less vehicle that will be sent across different surfaces to test what friction does to materials. The goal of the build will be to make a vehicle that will move as quickly as possible over different surfaces. By using different types of surfaces the student will have to test and decide which building materials are best to cause the best movement.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students will work independently or in small groups to plan a fairy garden for the K/1 students at the school. They will examine the school yard for the best location for a fairy garden; measure to determine how large of an area we can use and then build/create all the items for the fairy garden using recycled or inexpensive materials.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students will choose a landform to research. Using NC Wise Owl they will complete the Research form.They will use the information they learned to write an oral report as if they are a newscaster reporting from the landform. They will record the report using Do Ink (Greenscreen app). Next they will create a diorama of the landform in a shoebox. Using the ipad, they will take a picture of the diorama and use Do Ink to make the greenscreen video.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students will design plant packages that meet the needs of healthy plants.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
How can we build a model catapult to launch items like candy pumpkins and how would we modify it so it would launch actual pumpkins?
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students will use recyclable materials to design and create a wearable flip flop that prevents heat transfer from the hot summer sun.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students are given multiplication word problems (task cards). They must design a block tower to represent the equation. NC.3.OA.1 Use repeated addition, bar models, and arrays to find a total product when there are repeated equal groups.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Design a prototype of a solar oven given a cardboard box, ruler, pencil, scissors, aluminum foil, and plastic wrap. Test the oven to see if a s’more is able to cook inside of it.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
The bunny has forgotten to deliver an egg. Design a structure for the bunny to safely deliver the missing egg without the bunny being seen (drop from above) and without the egg breaking. Students will be given a variety of materials. They are tasked with building a structure (ie: parachute, cage, etc.) to safely drop their egg to the floor without it breaking.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
