Over twenty years teaching, developing lessons and conducting professional development - coupled with fiction and film writing - is who I am. Family, education and writing define what I love.
Over twenty years teaching, developing lessons and conducting professional development - coupled with fiction and film writing - is who I am. Family, education and writing define what I love.
This NGSS Pancake unit contains three lab projects – for singles, pairs or groups – to be conducted over two days. The labs contain student template pages and are differentiated for different aptitude level.
This unit also contains a teaching PowerPoint on the Structure and Properties of Matter.
Disciplinary Core Ideas
PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter
Different kinds of matter exist and many of them can be either solid or liquid, depending on temperature. Matter can be described and classified by its observable properties. (2-PS1-1)
• Pancake ingredients classified into solid or liquid.
PS1.B: Chemical Reactions Heating or cooling a substance may cause changes that can be observed. Sometimes these changes are reversible, and sometimes they are not. (2-PS1-4)
• Heating the liquid batter turns it into a solid. Students will form a hypothesis as to whether or not this solid will turn back into a liquid and test their hypothesis. Students will explain their experiments.
This is a STEAM unit for middle school science that contains template pages for a "Save the Cacao Plant (NGSS LS3.A, 3.B, 2-4), an engineering design process to invent a candy bar and an art project to create a candy wrapper based on the science of color in marketing.
This STEAM unit contains templates for three distinct, integrated projects. The first is science - where students will use the NGSS scientific method to read research (two pages included as well as vetted links to more research) and work to save chocolate from extinction. There is also a PowerPoint to help demonstrate how the scientific method process works - with differentiated student templates for students to follow along.
In the second section, students are engineers and their task is to use the engineering design process to invent a candy bar.
In the last project, students use the psychology of color to create a candy bar wrapper. This section contains a PowerPoint on the Psychology of Color.
All three projects/labs can be done individually or in groups. This is an engaging way to teach NGSS - as it uses topics students can relate to.
• NGSS Save the Cacao Plant - Middle School Standards LS3.A, LS3.B, developing and using models, LS2.4.
• NGSS Engineering: Middle School ET-S1.1 and ET-S1.2
• National Art Standards - Anchor Standard - 2.3.7A for middle school
The student pages are template based and include a lesson on the scientific method NGSS-style.
This packet contains:
• 41-page handbook with teacher pages
• A ten-page PowerPoint on the NGSS scientific method
• A 20-page PowerPoint on “The Science of Color”
• Plus, various links to other research sites