This activity could be translated very easily to an number of content pieces. . . (Think trophic levels, levels of organization within ecosystems, etc. . .) and is very kinesthetic, requiring groups to work together to stack the cups by pulling on the strings attached to the rubber band. I certainly took our coordination! We did the activity silently, so it also required some out of the box thinking when it came to deciding on and communicating the order of cups in the stack. Did we get it right below? You can decide!
Today, we participated in an awesome activity to support the matter and energy standards, touring the minerals collection of the museum to find out what elements made up the specimens. It was a great hands on way to explore these standards and really highlight that Oxygen is one of the most abundant elements.
(5) Matter and energy. The student knows the differences between elements and compounds. The student is expected to: (A) know that an element is a pure substance represented by chemical symbols; (B) recognize that a limited number of the many known elements comprise the largest portion of solid Earth, living matter, oceans, and the atmosphere; This was such a simple way to explain the "habits" of valance electrons. Even elementary and middle school students could use the "electron boarding house" to analyze the patterns here. We also had the change to build out a Bohr Model of our atom using the CPO science model board game (pictured below - image from the CPO website) and marbles.
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Perot Museum of Nature and Science
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