Bill Young

Students design, build and test a kite over a 3 day period. This is followed by another 3 day period for redesign and additional testing. Project encourages students to share ideas and to use effective engineering skills in an effort to meet the minimum requirement; 30 seconds of flight time with no assistance from the student; i.e. pulling on the string. Downloadable file is a Word Document that can be edited to fit the needs and timeline of your classroom.

Students color and hide 3 paper butterflies around the classroom. They use colored pencils, crayons and markers to provide camouflage so the butterfly blends in with its natural environment. After 2-3 days of creating and preparing, students get an opportunity to hide their butterfiles. The instructor acts as the predator to find as many butterflies as possible. After 2 trips aroudnd the classroom, any butterflies that have not yet been discovered are revealed by their creators. Prizes are

Students are provided rubber poppers (http://www.orientaltrading.com/large-marbleized-poppers-a2-16_454-12-1.fltr?Ntt=popper) that are various sizes and colors. Students design an experiment to test an independent variable of their choice (color of popper, size of popper, surface used to launch, etc.) so they can record the data for their dependent variable (height, distance, volume of 'pop', etc.). I normally use this as my culminating activity once students have had previous experience wit

Students come in and all place their right shoes into a large pile. They then use the provided template to create a dichotomous key that separates the shoes into smaller and smaller piles based on their charateristics until all students have their shoes back. The next day, repeat using the already created dichotomous key and discuss why it didn't work the next day (students wearing different shoes have introduced "new" organisms into the environment).

Students use a cardboard box to represent their "pond" and several cutout paper turtles to represent their population. Students take turns reaching in and capturing some of the turtles, and marking them with a highlighter. Turtles are replaced and students take turns again capturing turtles. Using the provided formula, students are able to estimate the total population based on the number of recaptured turtles after round 2. Lastly, students count the actual number of turtles in the po

Students are assigned a starting population of frogs from one of 11 different ponds in the Central Florida area. They track the health of their population over a 10-year simulated timespan (10 rolls of the dice). Each time they roll, something happens to their frogs that year that impacts the population. Sometimes an alligator moves into their pond and starts eating frogs. Sometimes a hurricane hits increasing the size of their pond and the number of insects their frogs eat (resulting in a p

This project tasks students to create a board game that will teach a core content topic to other students. These board games could be from any subject (elective, math, science, language arts, etc.). I created this project to encourage my gifted students to utilize game play as a learning tool and as a review tool for difficult concepts. This project can be modified to fit ANY curriculum or area that you need.

Students use America's favorite cookie to determine if double stuff really do have "double" the stuff. Materials needed include scales (triple beam or digital), plastic knives, napkins and cookies. This would be a good assessment for students to ensure that they understand experimental design. It would also make a good review for a final exam at the end of the year, or in preparing for standardized testing.

Students build a container that will fit inside a standard #10 envelope and will protect a single Pringle's potato chip as it travels through the U.S. mail system.

Note: I have provided a web link inside the project outline showing you how to build a mousetrap car, but as this is an engineering desing challenge I usually let my kids build whatever they can dream up using provided equipment. This activity will allow you to set up an economy based challenge for your students, but does not give you step-by-step instructions for building the cars. Your kids will need to use their imaginations (and/or the internet) in order to do that. I came up with this

Students investigate the impact that poaching has on a population of "elephants" (represented by beans). One color represents elephants with tusks, and the other represents a variety without tusks. Reaching into a bag filled with an equal number of beans, students select one elephant at a time and determine if it is poaches or if it reproduces to increase the native population.

I created this for my students so that they could understand how a Coal Fired Power plant works, which is the method that my area uses for generating electricity. This can also be used for areas that utilize biomass, geothermal or nuclear; basically any form of generating electricity that involves heating up water and generating high pressure steam.

To highlight the importance of adaptations, this lab has students perform 3 tasks using either their dominant or non-dominant hand (their choice). They then use masking tape to immobolize the thumb on that same hand and repeat the experiment. Conclusion questions prompts them to identify the importance of the opposable thumb in human evolution.

Students use foam insulation and marbles to investigate the potential energy a coaster car (marble) gets from the first hill and how that translates into kinetic energy as the marble travels around the first loop.

My 6th, 7th and 8th grade middle school students will spend a week writing a letter to their future selves at the time of their high school graduation. They will be answering all of the provided questions as well as taking feedback during a peer review session. After finalizing their rough draft, they will be creating a final draft that is either written in their best handwriting OR will be typing on computer. Final drafts will be placed in an envelope and addressed to the class of 20__ accor

Students bring in different types of sugar bubble gum (Hubba Bubba, Bubblicious, Double Bubble, etc.). Gum is weight (with wrapper), then chewed, then weighed again (with wrapper). This generates individual data which is used to create a data table and graph that are used to support the experimental conclusion outlining which type of gum has the most sugar.' The lab is formatted to be a book-fold insert into my students interactive science notebooks.

I use this with my students whenever I start to see that they are neglecting to read the directions on one of my science labs. This really helps them understand the importance of reading and following step-by-step instructions. Students work cooperatively in groups of 3 or 4 to build a structure using common materials. They write down step-by-step instructions on how to put their device together. A few days later a different group is given the instructions and the container of parts. They

Students use a 1-meter long piece of receipt tape to draw out the geologic history of the Earth including major events in biology, and geologic time. 1 roll of receipt tape will accomodate approximately 22 students. I usually purchase the 8-pack from my local office supply store.

Students use experimental design to build 3 straw planes that fly the straightest they possibly can for at least 3 meters. After 2 days of construction and/or testing, students will compete in a whole class game of darts using their straw planes instead of darts. Students can improve their project grade by improving the accuracy of their straw planes.

Students will work cooperatively in groups to test how many rubber bands they can string together so that their assigned toy successfully bungee jumps as close to the ground as possible without touching. Students share their data with the whole class and generate a graph of all the toys for each group (I use 6 groups but you can customize it for your class). Afterward, students analyze the graph and look for a trend showing a relationship between the mass of the toy and the number of rubber ba