Earlier in the year, our elementary school CSW classes learned about the structure of human hands by building working models showing bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. In April, our middle- and high-school classes explored this topic by dissecting actual chicken feet. In addition to learning basic dissection techniques and […]
Community Science Workshops
25 posts
Gravity is the force that makes things fall to the ground, but what allows some things to fly or float? Why does a piece of paper float lazily to the ground, while the same piece will drop straight down if it’s crumpled into a ball? Birds, kites, and pieces […]
Understanding acids, bases, and their interaction is fundamental to the study of chemistry. In this session, students at VMHS used a home-made pH indicator solution (red cabbage juice) to test and identify the acidity level of common things like ammonia, vinegar, laundry detergent, juices, milk, and Coke. After using their […]
Can you build a bridge out of newspaper? Our students were challenged to design a bridge using only newspaper and tape and then test their creations by seeing how much weight it could hold. Did it collapse? That’s OK — just back to the drawing board to make improvements […]
At Vicente Martinez High School, we presented several engineering challenges that allows students to solve problems and create solutions. In the first session we asked our students to create a “Marble Wall” — a vertical maze that uses gravity and inertia to move marbles from the start to the end. […]
Understanding the complexity of something as simple as wiggling our fingers is an important step in learning about human biology and anatomy. With all of the bones, muscles, ligaments, and tendons, our hands are incredibly interesting. In one of our our recent Community Science Workshop sessions we made models of […]
Of course we all know Newton’s Three Laws of Motion (inertia, momentum, equal and opposite reactions) … right? Our students know them now thanks to Marble Rollercoasters! Using foam pool noodles, marbles, and toothpicks we designed and built Marble Rollercoasters complete with drops, curves, loops, and jumps. In […]
We all use batteries every day. Cars, phones, toys, TV remotes, and especially XBOX controllers wouldn’t work without them. But how do batteries actually work? Did you know you can make electricity from a potato? Although generally skeptical at first, all our students soon realized that it […]
In our after-school program we are studying ecology and the world around us. When we spent the afternoon outside on our “Creepy Crawly Critter Scavenger Hunt” we discovered that there are many interesting and exciting insects all around us, even in the fields behind the school. After that we created worm boxes — […]
As part of our continuing focus on water conservation, we helped our students understand the importance of caring for our watershed. In these sessions our students built models of a watershed — complete with hills, valleys, streams, lakes, and waterfalls. Then they simulated rain and watched what happened to both solid […]