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NASA Spaceward Bound: Lesson Plans 2011 (CHM 400, S11)
Author: Andrea Gonzalez, Alexandra Olano, Amina Razzak, Kara Rotunno Course/Subject: Physics School: International Polytechnic High School Teacher Mentor: Rachel Melogno Grade Level: High School Seniors (12th grade) Date/s of Teaching: Alex -‐ 05/09 (Mud-‐Battery Building) and 05/12 (Follow-‐up and
College related questions segment), Kara – 5/10 & 5/16 Mud Battery Building and 5/18 Follow-‐up, Amina-‐5/9 & 5/16 (Mud Battery Building), Andrea-‐ 05/09 (Mud-‐ Battery Building) and 05/18 (Follow-‐up and Lecture)
Title Mud Batteries: How to build them and how they work. Generative Question Why is it important to have a good understanding of batteries and what benefits and disadvantages can come from building batteries out of mud? Related Standards 5. Electric and magnetic phenomena are related and have many practical applications. As a basis for understanding this concept: a. Students know how to predict the voltage or current in simple direct current (DC) electric circuits constructed from batteries, wires, resistors, and capacitors. b. Students know how to solve problems involving Ohm’s law. c. Students know any resistive element in a DC circuit dissipates energy, which heats the resistor. Students can calculate the power (rate of energy dissipation) in any resistive circuit element by using the formula Power = IR (potential difference) × I (current) = I
2R.
Concepts/Objectives The students will be able to make mud batteries using very little material and they will be able to communicate what is going on with their batteries as well as make predictions and develop hypotheses that they can further develop or test later. The
NASA Spaceward Bound: Lesson Plans 2011 (CHM 400, S11)
mud batteries will stay with the students and their teacher is enthusiastic about letting this project continue through the summer and develop and refine the project for the next school year. Required Materials
• 2 five-‐gallon buckets • Mud from the bottom of a pond, lake or other outdoor water source • Shovel • Two sheets of chicken wire measuring 16”x24” each • 2 metal bolts with butterfly clamps • 6 metal washers • Insulated electrical wire – about 3 ft. • Resistors • Voltmeter • Wire Cutters
Introduction (Anticipatory Set, Lead-‐In) Day 1 -‐ The actual building of the batteries – Started building day by touching a little bit on NASA Spaceward Bound and its purpose…finding environments analogous to Mars. Showed pictures of the Mojave Desert and pictures of the mud batteries that we built and buried at the studies center. Some of us gave the students a very basic background of how the mud battery works, but we didn’t go into depth about it until the second day. Day 2 – Follow-‐up to build day – Started follow-‐up day by giving a little background on Ohm and Ohm’s Law and how it is applied to the mud battery. I let them know that one AA battery has 1.5Volts and asked, knowing that it takes two AA batteries to power a television, how many mud batteries at their current Voltage would be needed to power the same television. When the topic of resistors came up, we gave some quick facts such as the human body acting as a resistor. We learned that facts like this would capture their attention since they are able to apply physics to real life situations. Plan/Procedures (Step-‐by-‐Step plan) Day 2
1) Get the students’ attention and have each group give a little bit of information on their mud battery and any analysis they have been able to obtain.
2) Give them background information and fun facts about Georg Simon Ohm 3) Review of Ohm’s Law
NASA Spaceward Bound: Lesson Plans 2011 (CHM 400, S11)
4) Mathematical Relationship between terms in Ohm’s Law 5) Graphical Representation of Ohm’s Law 6) Brief explanation (including short video) of electrons and where they come from 7) Anaerobic Bacteria-‐an explanation of what is in the mud. 8) Their mud battery predictions 9) Their mud battery circuit diagram 10) Current assessment of mud batteries 11) Discussion: Benefits/Disadvantages of using mud batteries 12) NASA Spaceward Bound Information 13) Pictures showing similarities between Mars and Earth. (Had students guess
which planet the pictures were taken.) 14) Close with a brief description of ourselves academically and continue into an
open question-‐and-‐answer segment on our experiences as Cal Poly Pomona students.
Conclusions (Reflect Anticipatory Set) We asked the students the following questions:
1. What do you (each group) anticipate would happen during the initial build day? 2. What do you think will happen with your mud batteries if they are left as is? 3. What are the benefits or disadvantages, if any, of using a mud batter? 4. What would happen to the readings if the electrode surfaces were doubled? 5. What would happen to the readings if the mud volume were doubled? 6. What would happen to the readings if the length of time that the electrodes are
left in the mud is extended?
We discussed the above questions with the students to expand their mind on the possibilities a mud battery could create. It also helped them to better visualize and apply Ohm’s Law. Assessments (optional) The students were given a worksheet with various problems relating to batteries and with hypothetical questions concerning their group’s mud battery. This will demonstrate their knowledge on the subject and how intently they were listening to the presentations. They will earn extra credit for submitting the assignment. Reflections (Self-‐Analysis and Commentary)
NASA Spaceward Bound: Lesson Plans 2011 (CHM 400, S11)
The students were wonderful. I think that I did a pretty good job of making sure that I related to the students and kept them listening to the lesson. The students were wonderful. A few things that I would do differently if I were to do it again:
I would sit through one of the host teacher’s lectures. I sat in Ms. Melogno’s class after I was finished and found that the way that she introduced and eased into a new topic was exceptional as was the way that she related with the students. It is almost as if she is sitting on the line between friend and mentor. The students felt free to speak, but showed her a lot of respect.
I would take note cards…there were many cool facts that I think that would help reach the students’ interest. I managed to remember all of the ones that I wanted to say, but there were many.
I would have had a little dialogue to go with the video in case the audio did not work (which it didn’t)
“Picked the brain” of the host teacher in order to maximize learning I would have liked to run through the slides in the classroom before the students
showed up. I found that speaking with the students really made me reconnect with all of the things that excited me about my studies in the first place. Overall it was a very exciting experience! -‐Alexandra Olano I really enjoyed working with the students and it reminded me of how much I love tutoring. My tutoring background helped me to better explain concepts about Ohm’s Law to the class because I have had a lot of experience explaining concepts to students of all ages. I began tutoring when I was in 8th grade, so I have many years of experience under my belt. Setting aside how much fun I had teaching and working with the students, the students themselves really seemed to enjoy the experience. They were very involved in building the battery and had a lot of great ideas when we were going over discussion questions. From my experience, I have learned a lot about what it takes to create a lesson plan and not only that but how much work it takes to be a teacher. It is hard to choose what is worth going over with a class and what is not. It is also a lot of work to make sure that you truly understand the material yourself before you present it to a class. It is imperative that the teacher is fully prepared and is knowledgeable about the information before trying to teach it to someone else. I already had learned some of these things from tutoring, like really knowing the material before you tutor someone in it, but now I feel I have learned these things from the perspective of a teacher rather than a tutor. In the future, I would love to spend more time refining the lesson plan and making sure everything is prepared. Also, I would find it helpful to observe teachers so I can get ideas of better ways to present material to students. I have learned so much
NASA Spaceward Bound: Lesson Plans 2011 (CHM 400, S11)
from my experience with Spaceward Bound and teaching that I can carry with me into the future. -‐Kara Rotunno I did not realize how difficult it is to prepare a lesson plan and lecture and execute it well. The most challenging part of teaching high school students is getting them engaged, and you can not make the assumption that all high school students are loud or for the most part social. I taught two classes and one of the classes that I taught had really quiet students and I realized that I had to make the lecture more interactive so I thought that doing group work would engage them more and that they would get more out of the lecture. I had to think on my feet at that point because I had not planned for something like that to happen. Although I tutored in high school like Kara and have had experience working with younger kids, the lecture went a lot differently than I expected. I would have liked to have the lecture be based more on generative questions rather than just going through physics problems and talking about formulas. Some things that could have gone better with our lesson plan would be getting the supplies in advance and organizing things better (fortunately we were able to communicate frequently but everyone had such varying schedules so that made things a little harder), coordinating everything with the Mud Battery team in a more timely manner (I often got to emails too late, especially as the quarter progressed). There were also some things that went well with the lectures; my batteries did not end up working but Kara got some of her batteries to work and some of the students from one of the classes were really interested and asked me what the application of a mud battery would be. Overall, I think this was a great learning experience for me and I really enjoyed it. It was stressful at times but I’m glad that you pushed us to go beyond what we thought we could accomplish. In the future, it would be best for any students that are guest lecturers to sit in on a class and observe the teaching style of the teacher’s class they will be lecturing. I think it would have been very beneficial to work more closely with Miss Melogno because I like her teaching style and think that a hands-‐on approach is the best way to teach students in high school. -‐Amina Razzak Overall, this was a great learning experience. Like Amina, I didn’t anticipate how much time and effort it took to conduct a lesson plan. I don’t have any type of tutoring background, but I used to volunteer for a second grade teacher. Now, if I compare an elementary school teacher and a high school teacher’s teaching tactics, I can see how these two vary their teaching styles to engage their students. High school is a very interesting grade level—they are at a position where they must decide their future, yet they are still too young to understand that their decisions may lead them to success or failure. That is why I loved that we taught high school. The students I talked to were exceptionally bright and curious. As we were building the mud batteries, they would ask me many questions, but mostly about my college experiences. They wanted to know everything—what my major was, why I chose it, why Cal Poly Pomona, and if I enjoyed
NASA Spaceward Bound: Lesson Plans 2011 (CHM 400, S11)
the college experience. I told them the truth-‐ that no matter what major they chose, they will be challenged no matter what, but with hard work and dedication they are able to pursue anything they would like. I would love to serve as a mentor for these students and help influence some to pursue a technical science major. There are some that are capable of pursuing this field, but choose not to. It was a pleasure and a privilege to participate in Spaceward Bound and having an opportunity to teach students was a very exciting experience. I was the first one to build the mud battery. I didn’t encounter any sort of problems. The students were very interactive when they started building the mud battery. The few that didn’t participate were talking to their group members and when they overcame their shyness, they would speak to me and ask me questions. One of the students actually pulled me aside and asked me about engineering. She felt that she wasn’t able to pursue it because she was a girl and felt intimidated by the high ratio of males to females within that major. I told her to not be afraid of that, and convinced her to pursue it no matter what obstacles come her way. The only thing that I would improve on is that we needed to buy more gloves. Most of the students used it avoid getting their hands dirty when transferring mud to their buckets. I didn’t think we had enough. Another thing is that we didn’t need goggles. The last thing I would like to point out is that some of my batteries weren’t getting a reading. I believe this was because the students used mud from the back of the school as opposed to the mud that we obtained from the lake. (We didn’t have enough for everyone.) This mud most likely didn’t have the large amount of bacteria that we would have wanted so I think this is why some of the students weren’t able to obtain readings. The difference is that theirs took about 20-‐30 minutes to get a reading as opposed to the Mud Battery team’s battery. When we built it, we were able to get a reading right away. I think that if we did this in the future, we would take into account many things—using different sized electrodes, using sand, etc. This would make the results better and we would be able to confirm many of the electricity theories. Again, I’d like to express my gratitude in taking part in this teaching adventure. It was a pleasure working with Ms. Melogno, Dr. Mogul, and my fellow Mud Battery team members. -‐Andrea Gonzalez