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School Presentations
The Science Education Center has invested substantial time and
capital in the acquisition of natural history specimens that go
directly into the classroom. From petrified trees and giant ammonites
in the fossil world to large gold specimens and meteorites in the
mineral world, the museum items are available for all to see and
touch. In addition to a traveling museum collection, the Science
Education Center has developed and tested a wide range of physical
and life science activities that target the K-8 level.
While there are a number of good museums in California that are
accessible to students and classrooms, the bus transportation fee
for even 150 students has made many of these facilities an inaccessible
luxury during these tight budget times. For the price of about $225
dollars (175 dollar base fee and 50 dollars of materials), approximately
120 – 175 students can see a natural history museum (complete
with lab activities) come to them.
The Science Education Center of California’s presentations
and labs are not all fun and games. Each presentation comes with
a collection of laboratory activities that focus on a number of
key themes in the physical and life sciences. These laboratory activities
are designed to support the K-12 math and science standards and
are adjusted to be grade (and skill) specific for a given group
of students. All presentations are made by the curator of the Science
Education Center, and have not been delegated to assistants or any
third party personnel.
A summary of currently available laboratory activities and associated
fees are listed below. Each laboratory activity is a complete math
or science lesson with clearly defined objectives, creative modeling
of lesson activities, checks for understanding, and provides an
opportunity for guided practice and lesson closure.
Since the museum presentations and accompanying laboratory lessons
require real academic work on the part of the students in a laboratory
setting, the ideal classroom size should be around 30 – 35
students or less. With a maximum of about 4 - 5 presentations possible
(50 minutes each) during the day, about 120 – 175 students
can reasonably be accommodated. We encourage teachers to team up
and allow us to present to more than one class so that we can reach
the greatest number of students during the visit. For single subject
teachers, I can accommodate the 5 period class day (5 presentations
to each of your periods). In the multiple subject classrooms, teachers
can team up and I can provide a presentation to two classes for
the entire day or shorter presentations to several different groups
of students in one or more classrooms. Regardless of how the arrangement
is set up, the teachers will have presentations available for the
entire school day.
Our location in Orange County allows us to reach many school sites
within a 60- minute drive. Our goal of providing universal school
access means that we are willing to transport several hundred pounds
of museum items and laboratory supplies to any school site within
a few hours drive of our location in Orange County. The fees have
been broken down by county to account for the added cost (extra
fuel and time) of reaching school sites throughout the state.
The presentation fee is designed to cover the transportation costs
for each school site and the time cost of spending an entire school
day at a given school site. The laboratory fees are modest and the
school will only be charged the out of pocket expenses for any materials
used. These modest lab fees are listed at the end of each presentation
activity and include the costs for items such as sugar, yeast, inexpensive
containers, dry ice, balloons, etc. that are consumed during the
course of the school presentation. The total fee for a school visit
is the visitation fee plus the cost of any materials that are consumed
on site. We should mention that a number of labs do not have any
fee at all, since the materials used are owned by the Science Education
Center and are not consumed in any laboratory setting. For a group
of 150 students, the material fee generally runs about $50 dollars.
Unused materials (extra sugar, yeast, balloons, containers, etc.)
are given to teachers for future use.
$150 (Orange County)
$175 (Western Riverside and San Bernardino Counties)
$175 (Los Angeles County (south of the San Gabriel Mountains)
$200 (San Diego County)
$225 (Antelope Valley and Mojave Desert)
$250 (Ventura, Santa Barbara, Imperial and Kern Counties)
$300 (Las Vegas and Phoenix metro areas)
All other locations (Call for quote)
Teachers should give at least 2 weeks notice before scheduling
a visit. To help prepare for the visit, the following information
will be helpful:
- The age and skill level of the students.
- The day of the presentation.
- Address of the school.
- Requested presentation start time, lunch time and student break
or recess times.
- The laboratory activities you would like us to focus on.
‚ A description of laboratory activities is provided below.
- The classroom or classrooms that we will be presenting in.
- The number of students in each class and the number and length
of classroom presentations.
We should note that since the fees are for an entire school day,
I can make any combination of presentations that are possible within
the allotted time frame. Since it takes about 90 minutes to set
up the teacher or teachers should be available about 90 minutes
prior to the start of the classroom presentations.
The Science Education Center of California can be reached
through the “contact us” portion of the web site. While
everything can be done by e-mail, a quick discussion by phone always
seems to work best.
The class will be exposed to metallic elements that are both very
heavy (gold, silver, copper and tungsten for example) and very light
(aluminum). I will introduce them to the concept of density and
how to calculate the density of an object. A class set of density
bars will be provided and students will calculate the density of
an unknown metal and use that value to identify the composition
of the bar. After each lab group (2 to 3 students) calculates the
density of the unknown bars, the result will be written on the board.
Students will be asked to see if there are any patterns in the data.
For instance, copper has a density of 8.9 grams/cm3. The lab results
may be 8.7, 9.1, 17.8, 8.8, 9.0 and 0.89. The average of the four
groups closest to the actual value is 8.9 grams/cm3. The remaining
results 17.8 and 0.9 may be due to a multiplication error (17.8
is double 8.9) and a place value error (0.89 is one tenth the value
of 8.9)
This is a lab that works well with several groups whose quantitative
results can be compared to each other for both accuracy and precision.
Younger students (who have not mastered multiplication and division)
can make qualitative comparisons between light bars (aluminum) and
heavier bars (copper and silver).
- Materials supplied (calibrated density bars)
Lab fee: None
- Materials required by students
Calculators, pens or pencils, paper
A demonstration of the conductivity of silver, copper, gold, nickel
and aluminum will be provided to show how elements that are metallic
tend to conduct heat rather well.
Example: A 100 troy ounce silver bar will be quickly frozen to
–78.5 degrees centigrade on a block of dry ice while a similarly
shaped block of stone will only have a small change in temperature.
This insulating effect of rock will help explain why the interior
of the earth is still rather hot. We should note that as the metallic
bars reach sub-freezing temperatures, moisture will tend to form
around the bars and condense as water and then ice. Large quantities
of ice that have formed under these conditions can be weighed and
used for class discussion. Questions such as the following may be
useful for group discussion:
- Where did the ice that formed on the metallic bars come from?
- Did the ice around the bars come from the air or the dry ice?
- If the ice and water on the bars comes from the air, why can’t
you see the ice and water in the air?
- Does all air have water in it and does the amount of water
in the air change over time?
- Materials supplied: 10 pounds of dry ice. Also provided will
be bars of copper, silver, nickel, aluminum and a large natural
gold nugget.
Lab fee: $10 for a 10-pound block of dry ice.
Note: A 10 pound block of dry ice can be used
until it sublimates away, and can also be used to supply the dry
ice for the solid-gas phase change laboratory.
This laboratory explores the dynamics of solid-gas phase changes
in matter, and more specifically explores what happens when solid
carbon dioxide (dry ice) is allowed to change into a gas within
a closed system. In this laboratory, pieces of dry ice will be placed
in a small container partially filled with water. Balloons will
be placed over the containers (one for each student), and will expand
as they become filled with carbon dioxide gas. The filled balloons
will be compared with similar balloons filled with air in various
buoyancy activities. Finally, the carbon dioxide gas will be allowed
to fill containers on sensitive scales to illustrate that carbon
dioxide gas is indeed heavier than air. Questions for laboratory
discussion could include the following:
- What happened to the dry ice?
- Is there a change in mass when the dry ice goes from a solid
to a gas?
- How would we construct an experiment to answer question number
2?
- 4. Why does the dry ice expand so much when it goes from a
solid to a gas?
- Based on your observations so far in the laboratory, is dry
ice heavier or lighter than air?
- Why might carbon dioxide be a good fire extinguisher?
- Materials supplied (dry ice, balloons, containers)
Lab fee: $10 for 10-pound block of dry ice (good for about
75 students)
Lab fee: $6 for balloons (about 75 balloons)
- Materials required by students or teacher
Calculators, pens or pencils, paper, access to water
The group will observe minerals that fluoresce (change color under
ultraviolet light) and phosphoresce (stay glowing even after the
light source is removed). Changes in the intensity of the ultraviolet
light will determine the level of brightness of the fluorescing
minerals. Students will use colored pencils to draw the minerals
(glowing bright red, green and purple) when illuminated in both
short and long wave ultraviolet light. For older students, a graph
can be made with mineral brightness on the Y-axis and distance from
the fluorescent light source on the X-axis.
- Materials supplied (fluorescent minerals and museum quality
ultraviolet light)
Lab fee: None
- Materials required by students
Calculators, pens or pencils, paper
In this laboratory activity, the classes will be given a magnet,
a dry-wipe board and a pile of iron filings. After placing the magnet
under the dry-wipe board, and sprinkling iron filings over the board’s
surface, students will discover that there is indeed regularity
and patterns in the natural world. The iron filings will trace out
the otherwise invisible magnetic field that emanates from the magnets.
This lab is designed to demonstrate how we can use indirect observation
to understand one of the large forces in nature; namely magnetism.
By changing the orientation of the magnet under the wipe board and
adding additional magnets, the magnetic field will change in appearance.
Sketches will be made of the magnetic field that is generated from
the strong ceramic magnets that are placed beneath the dry-wipe
boards. These sketches will be compared for their similarities both
within and between lab groups.
This laboratory is also great fun (especially the younger students)
and can be combined with a magnetic separation activity discussed
below. For added fun, a 50-pound magnet is also available for view
and analysis.
- Materials supplied (Magnets, iron filings, dry-wipe boards)
Lab fee: None
- Materials required by students
Pencils, blank paper for tracing
Magnetic separation activity – Sand and iron filings
- The lab groups will be given a combination of iron filings
and sand. Their job is to use the property of magnetism to concentrate
the iron filings and separate the iron filings from the iron filings-sand
mixture.
This is a great lab for the outdoors. All that is needed are several
aluminum trays, a pile of pennies and enough foil for several foil
boats. Everything is provided at no extra charge. The pieces of
aluminum foil will be folded into small boats, which will be placed
in aluminum trays full of water. One by one, the pennies will be
stacked into the boats until the boats sink. The lab groups will
keep careful record of the number of pennies that each boat holds
before it sinks. Each person will record their best reading (boat
that held the greatest number of pennies) and the readings will
be recorded on the board at the end of the activity. A histogram
will be constructed (yes statistics for grade school students) with
the available data. On the Y-axis, relative frequency will be the
unit of measure, and on the X-axis, number of pennies held by the
boats will be the unit of measure. In past labs there have been
both normal distributions and bimodal distributions of weight loads
that were held by the foil boats. The following skills are developed
in this laboratory: Water displacement, mathematical averages, graphing,
and basic statistical analysis. These higher order skills are presented
in a way that 3rd – 8th graders can understand.
- Materials supplied (aluminum trays, pennies and sheets of foil)
Lab fee: None
- Materials required by students and teachers
Calculators, pens or pencils, paper and a water source
“Corrosion” is a general term in which uncombined metals
change over to compounds. In the special case of iron, the process
of corrosion is called rusting. Rust appears to be a hydrated ferric
oxide with a chemical composition that corresponds approximately
to 2Fe2O3
with the addition of three molecules of water. We can create oxidized
iron quickly by taking finely divided iron (steel wool) and placing
it in water and air. The steel wool will show significant rust accumulation
by the end of the day. We can also ignite the steel wool in air
and watch it in a few seconds change over to ferric oxide. This
is an exothermic reaction, which can be enhanced with a blast of
warm air from a hair dryer.
- Materials supplied (steel wool) and goggles
Lab fee: $3
- Materials required by students
Calculators, pens or pencils, paper
The definition of what is living and what is not will be explored
in this laboratory. Students will be given dry yeast and asked if
it is living or non-living. Sugar will be added and hot water as
well. The groups will be able to determine if the fermenting yeast
is actually alive. After a few minutes of fermentation, the yeast
will expand so much that the lids will pop off the containers and
the contents will ooze out. An enjoyable lab for all ages. We should
note that this laboratory activity works best outside and on a grassy
surface. After completion of the lab, the containers can be placed
in a trash receptacle, and cleanup is completed. The smelly nature
of the lab (fermentation of yeast) dictates an outdoor activity.
- Materials supplied (sugar, yeast, cups and lids)
Lab fee: $12 dollars
- Materials required by teacher
A hot water source
Heat island and global warming activity. This lab is in the science
lab booklet (written by Dan Krawitz) and illustrates how dark artificial
surfaces (such as asphalt) absorb more heat than lighter natural
surfaces (such as grass). This lab also looks into the concept of
global warming as well.
Each group will be given a centigrade thermometer, a piece of
paper to cover the thermometer (this will avoid the risk of exposing
the thermometer to direct sunlight and causing the data to be biased),
and a laboratory notebook to record temperature readings in. Even
numbered groups will be measuring grassy surfaces and odd numbered
groups will be measuring asphalt surfaces.
Grassy surface groups: If you are measuring grassy surfaces,
your group should place the thermometer on a grassy spot (you should
cover the bulb of the thermometer with paper), and take a temperature
reading. Take the average of several nearby readings for more accurate
results.
Asphalt Surface Groups: If you are measuring asphalt surfaces,
your group should place the thermometer on an asphalt spot (you
should cover the bulb of the thermometer with paper), and take a
temperature reading. Take the average of several nearby readings
for more accurate results.
The temperature readings will be made each hour for a few minutes
and recorded in the class summary table. When each group returns
to the classroom they should record their group averages onto the
blackboard.
Temperature will be plotted on the Y-axis and time will be plotted
on the X-axis. Every hour the lab groups will go out and measure
either grassy surfaces or asphalt surfaces. These values will be
plotted over time and on a sunny day, a pattern will emerge. The
pattern is not random and suggests that natural grassy surfaces
heat much differently than artificial dark surfaces.
- Materials supplied (professional thermometers)
Lab fee: None
- Materials required by students
Calculators, pens or pencils, paper
Each child will be given a 100 million-year-old ammonite slice to
study. They will be asked to determine the number of chambers in
the ammonite. They will then draw the growing pattern of the spiral
by placing the ammonite on a piece of paper and continuing the pattern
of the ammonite on paper after the actual ammonite spiral has ended.
The class will find the area of the ammonite and determine the area
of the ammonite for 10 chambers, 20 chambers, etc, and plot chamber
quantity Vs area on graph paper. This will help to illustrate whether
the pattern of growth is linear or non-linear.
- Materials supplied (class set of 100 million year old ammonites)
Lab fee: None
- Materials required by students
Calculators, pens or pencils, graph paper
Traveling Natural History Museum Collection
Students will observe museum items and will try to answer the
following questions prior to an official explanation of what the
museum items are and what causes their formation:
- What is it?
- What is the museum item made of?
- Is it a mineral or a fossil?
- How old is it?
- How did it form?
- Is it a sedimentary, igneous or metamorphic rock?
Examples of museum items that will be available for viewing, touching
and discussion are petrified trees, giant ammonites, large gold
and copper specimens, meteorites (an 85 pound specimen is in the
collection) and a host of well-crystallized minerals that form the
basis of gemstones. Many of the museum items on the web site will
be available for classroom use and discussion. Additional museum
quality items that are not on the web site will also be available
during presentations. For a detailed description of some of the
museum specimens, click onto the minerals, fossils and gems sections
and have a look.
In the museum inquiry portion of the presentation, it is the student
who discovers what the answers are. Instead of just telling the
class what a meteorite is for instance, we have them figure out
for themselves what the items are. My job is just to help guide
them to where they should be going. The museum inquiry activity
helps to bring some of the finest natural wonders of the world into
the classroom in a way that was not possible before.
- Materials supplied (Museum quality natural history items)
Lab fee: None
- Materials required by students
Pen or pencils, paper
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