Embedded Files
Girls Garage-Projects
https://girlsgarage.org/projects/portfolio/
Our students have built 171 projects since 2013!
Our students have built 171 projects since 2013!
This portfolio of work includes projects completed in after-school programs, summer programs, and workshops.
High Tech High- Projects
STEM Modules from MIT Edgerton Center
Combine a mono-phonic amplifier board kit, a piezo electric disk, and a potentiometer to make a custom amplifier with a contact pickup. Amplify the sound from a homemade musical instrument or listen to faint sounds from any vibrating object.
Estimated time to complete is three hours for a beginner, and two hours for someone experienced in electrical wiring, soldering and hand construction.
Download the Amplifier with Piezo Pickup Curriculum.
Arduino Garden
Introduce physical computing with the Arduino Garden!
Use electronic devices to sense the environment and create physical actions.Students will be introduced to physical computing. They will use the Arduino IDE, (Interactive Development Environment), connect electronic devices, and debug their projects. This activity can be completed in one hour. Add more time to refine the projects.
Introduce students to real world data collection by measuring particulates in the air with a handheld device that they make themselves. Code for this Arduino-based device is provided, and no soldering is required..
Target audience: middle and high school teachers and students, estimated time: 60 - 90 minutes.
Learn the physics of sound and musical pipes while building your own musical instrument! Estimated time to complete is three hours for a beginner, and two hours for someone experienced in electrical wiring, soldering and hand construction.
Students are introduced to key concepts and skills of kinetic sculpture, including balance, gearing, energy sources and design-oriented thinking. They will use the work of Alexander Calder, George Rhodes, Dug North and Arthur Ganson as examples of various forms of moving sculpture. Each day they use the principles they are learning as the basis for their own creations, and at the end of the week they bring together their complete array of new skills to create a large-scale, chain-reaction-type artwork.
Light-Me-Up Tiles are unique, personalized LED-lit scenes. They can be made out of a variety of materials and are intended for beginners to design and assemble by hand.
MIT-Lemelson JV Inventteams( Gr 6-10)
https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/curriculum-invention
JV InvenTeams activity guides, including educator and student versions, are available for grades 6-10. There are no fees for downloading. The content is curated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) community and tested for quality and safety. Activity guides are aligned with Next Generation Science Standards. Companion pre-assembled invention kits are available for sale. Tools and materials lists are also available for educators to purchase what they need locally. Activities can be offered to students in many different contexts – as a supplement to coursework in the classroom setting, as enrichment activities in after school programs, and as the core program offered in workshops or summer camps.
Lego Education- Spike Prime
https://spike.legoeducation.com/
https://education.lego.com/en-us/lessons
MIT-Lemelson JV Inventteams( Gr 6-10)
https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/curriculum-invention
JV InvenTeams activity guides, including educator and student versions, are available for grades 6-10. There are no fees for downloading. The content is curated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) community and tested for quality and safety. Activity guides are aligned with Next Generation Science Standards. Companion pre-assembled invention kits are available for sale. Tools and materials lists are also available for educators to purchase what they need locally. Activities can be offered to students in many different contexts – as a supplement to coursework in the classroom setting, as enrichment activities in after school programs, and as the core program offered in workshops or summer camps.
Green Chemistry
https://lemelson.mit.edu/curriculum-invention/jv-inventeams-green-chemistry
Super Lens
https://lemelson.mit.edu/curriculum-invention/jv-inventeams-super-lens
Pump It Up
https://lemelson.mit.edu/curriculum-invention/jv-inventeams-pump-it
U-Control
https://lemelson.mit.edu/curriculum-invention/jv-inventeams-u-control
Noise Makers
https://lemelson.mit.edu/curriculum-invention/jv-inventeams-noise-makers
Electronic Textiles
https://lemelson.mit.edu/curriculum-invention/jv-inventeams-electronic-textiles
Chill Out
https://lemelson.mit.edu/curriculum-invention/jv-inventeams-chill-out
Shoe Soles
https://lemelson.mit.edu/curriculum-invention/jv-inventeams-shoe-soles
Microsoft-Hacking STEM
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/educator-center/instructor-materials/hacking-stem
Build affordable inquiry and project-based activities to visualize data across science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum. Middle school standards-based lesson plans written by teachers for teacher
Novel Engineering
https://www.novelengineering.org/
Inspired by kids and grounded in research, Novel Engineering is an innovative approach to integrate engineering and literacy in elementary and middle school.
Students use existing classroom literature – stories, novels, and expository texts – as the basis for engineering design challenges that help them identify problems, design realistic solutions, and engage in the Engineering Design Process while reinforcing their literacy skills.
NuVu Studio- Projects
PBL Works
Project Designer https://my.pblworks.org/project-designer
PBL Resources. https://my.pblworks.org/resources
Scratch Educator Resources
https://scratch.mit.edu/educators#resources
Educator Guides show you how to prepare and run Scratch classes and workshops.
Creative Computing from the ScratchEd Team at Harvard provides plans, activities, and strategies for introducing creative computing in the classroom.
Physical Computing with Makey-Makey
mBlock- Scratch+AI
https://ide.mblock.cc/
Scratch Jr Curriculum
Coding as Another Language(K-2) https://sites.bc.edu/codingasanotherlanguage/curricula/scratchjr-curricula/
Coding as Another Language(K-2)- Spanish https://sites.bc.edu/codingasanotherlanguage/curricula/scratchjr-curricula-spanish/
Coding as Another Language(K)-Hebrew https://sites.bc.edu/codingasanotherlanguage/curricula/scratchjr-curricula-hebrew/scratchjr-kindergarten-hebrew/
More PBL Project Examples:
Grade 3:
During week 8 of a 10-week course of weather and climate, third grade students will explore how people can prepare for natural disasters. Through hands-on exploration students will create a flood resistant shelter by designing, building and testing a flood barrier.
Grade 7 ELA:
Project Summary: Students will learn about the day to day issues in the country of Southern Sudan while reading the book A Long Walk to Water. Throughout the unit they will learn to understand, specifically, the issues that arise when there is a lack of clean drinking water. Students will explore ways in which Sudanese people access water and programs in place to build wells that provide water to those in need. Projects will allow for hands-on exploration and inquiry as well as collaboration and critical thinking.
Overall Driving Question or Design Goal: How do we create a system that provides water to those in need in Sudan?
Grade 4:
1. Project Summary: As an introductory 4th grade unit to engineering, students will learn about and research structures of strength with the goal of completing the culminating project of designing, building, testing, and modifying a free-standing structure that is capable of supporting weight.
2. Design Goal: Given 10 sheets of office paper, how do you create a structure capable of supporting weight (a minimum of one 2lbs text book) at least 6 inches above the tabletop surface?
Grade 1:
How do we use sound to communicate?
Project Summary: This STEM-based unit is designed to allow students to analyze and test ways to solve a communication problem. Students will have opportunities for brainstorming, sharing ideas, and testing their solutions. There will be multiple ways for students to design and build a device that uses sound to solve their problem.
Grade 9-12 ELA
1. Project Summary: Students will be investigating how one is perceived on social media, either of themselves or of a celebrity of their choice. They will then convey what they have learned through creating a short video (2-5 minutes), using the video editor WeVideo.
2. Essential Driving Question or Design Goal: What is the social media presence cultivated by you (the student), or by a celebrity? Is this presence based in reality, or is it solely imagined?
Kindergarten
How can we build a house that can withstand wind?
Project Summary: ?Students will try different engineering designs for this activity. They will first use material selected by the teacher and then materials selected on their own to help redesign a structure that will support the wind. Students will do a variety of math activities followed by writing assignments with the writing prompt “write your own version of the Three Little Pigs”
Grade 2
1. Project Summary: After reading Cinderella, students will be challenged to create a carriage that will bring “Cinderella” to the ball before time is out. This lesson will cover literature through the reading of Cinderella, measurement of the road to the ball, time and engineering of a carriage.
2. Essential Driving Question or Design Goal: What materials and what design will bring Cinderella to the ball the fastest?
Grade 9 Biology
1. Project Summary: Students will work in small groups to develop a public service announcement to inform the public on an environmental issue and how it is impacting the earth. They will include possible solutions or remedies to this problem. Students will have a choice of multiple forms of media to design their project (recordings, videos, collages, posters, slideshows, etc.).
2. Essential Driving Question or Design Goal: How have human interactions with the environment upset the balance of Earth’s ecosystems? What are possible consequences of human activities on the environment?
Grade 11 ELA
1. Project Summary: The witch trials in Salem, MA is just one example in American history that explores how fear can create critical issues in society. Using the allegorical play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, students will be able to examine how the mass hysteria of human beings can be recognized throughout history using the examples of McCarthyism, Islamophobia, the Ebola outbreak, and most recently, the Coronavirus Pandemic. Students will create a commercial/public service announcement incorporating these concepts with that of either The Salem Witch Trials or The Red Scare.
2. Overall Driving Question or Design Goal: How do integrity and reputation influence a person's decision making?
Grade 2
1. Project Summary: Students will be read “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” and will identify its story elements. After reading "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," students will identify the problem in the text as the bears furniture is broken by Goldilocks. They will then build a new bed or chair for the three bears that Goldilocks cannot break. Students will analyze building materials as a group and select which materials they would like to use to build their own design. Students will then create an illustration of their design and label what materials they are choosing to use. Students will build their design. As a class we will observe the first round of testing and give suggestions for how to improve our design. Students will add changes to their illustration and the design they’ve built. We will then complete a retest of designs that failed. Students will then create an advertisement for their chair or bed design once successfully tested.
2. Overall Driving Question or Design Goal: How can we help solve the Three Bears’ problem using engineering?
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