7th & 8th Grade Curriculum
Students studied Air & Space with applied material science and physics curriculum that emphasized the concepts of Newton's Laws, forces, and energy to objects in designed solutions. The following are examples of projects created by either the 7th or 8th graders.
WIND TURBINES: Students read parts of the book called THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND of a boy in Malawi that created a windmill for his village from recycled materials. Students were challenged to create a windmill to generate enough energy to light up LEDs and to pump water from a lower elevation. Students had to identify and test variables such as motor type, blade size and shape and gear ratios in order to create the most volts from their windmills. This project related to the physics of wind energy and the conservation of energy as well as the use of green energy sources rather than non-renewable sources. SOLAR OVENS Students had to research and design a cooking device that used only radiation to toast up a marshmallow. Their design had to be portable and able to be used without any additional energy input. Students had to identify the materials they would use to create their ovens and relate it to the properties of being able to retain, transmit, and absorb energy. The angles of refraction were mathematically important in order to concentrate the most energy. Students measured the temperature that their different solutions were able to generate and re-designed as necessary. AIRFOIL AND WING STRUCTURES Students created airfoils that could hold the greatest amount of weight by generating lift. Students had to re-design and discover the best shape of the top and bottom of the wing to create lift and apply Bernoulli's Law. Students kept track of the weight of their design compared to the weight it held in order to create ratios to show the success of their design. They then created long-span wings that could hold the most weight compared to the weight of the wing. The engineering process allowed them to discover the strongest structures by experimenting with different shapes and connections when they re-designed. Students also had to convert grams to ounces to reinforce the difference between mass and weight and the relationship between these two measurements on Earth. HELMETS: After learning about the parts of the brain and their functions, students designed helmets to protect an egg "brain" with only 5 materials. Helmets were tested by a hammer swung on a mounted pole. The students could pick one material from each of the following categories: covering, cushioning, adhesive, and structural.(plus one additional material) Students also designed the testing criteria and the number of points that each part of their egg brain would give them if it was well protected. HOT AIR BALLOONS Students created hot air balloons that could achieve the greatest height with only the difference in air temperatures. Design solutions were created by students and required them to think spatially about their creation in three dimensions. Students had to apply their understanding of mass, volume and density as well as learn a new concept of buoyancy in order to be successful with this challenge. Proof that the Earth sorts all fluids by density was proven in this challenge. |