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SMAMS Learning Commons
Welcome to our Space!
The SMAMS Learning Commons is a blending of Maker's Space into a STEM/STEAM learning space where students participate in activities focused on specific topics that encourage them to develop solutions, collect and analyze data, make informed decisions, and use multiple processes and perspectives to explore alternative solutions to problems.
Student Projects
STEAM Resources
Stretching Mass
Students completed an activity to measure mass and weight. After gathering some of their own data, students predicted how their measurements would compare to the same measurements taken aboard the International Space Station in a microgravity environment. Finally, students watch a NASA video of astronauts performing the same tasks and evaluate their prediction. Students were guided through this activity using a Google form on which their responses were recorded.
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View the Google form for this activity: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1wXQmSc9Q6PbH9AVsG8vsqBlL9JwK2tmNZeebx2MK-xQ/viewform
View a resource we used from the NASA site: https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/591749main_MVW_Stretching_Mass.pdf
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Elements 4D Augmented Reality
Students used interacted with 6 element cubes and an iPAD to view virtual images of 36 different elements along with periodic table information. Students made and tested predictions about which elements would be able to combine to form compounds.
Download the app (Free):
Craft your own paper blocks:
http://elements4d.daqri.com/documents/elements-blocks-all.pdf
Energy Vampires
Students used a Belkin Conserve Insight Energy Use Monitor and a laptop to complete an energy audit of the school library. The energy monitor device was used to measure the Watts used, cost to operate, and pounds of CO2 produced by library electronics such as laptops, desktops, computer carts, lamps, pencil sharpeners etc. Students searched for Energy Vampires -devices that draw energy even when they are off! Students entered their data into a Google spreadsheet to further analyze the data and develop a plan for reducing energy use at school and at home.
Buy the monitor ($29.99):
https://www.belkin.com/conserve/insight/
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View the Google form for this activity:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Pr4Kqwlo5K6WEB7fOdBD1oh84xZYQV5vTo3VhSNMwQg/edit?usp=sharing
To learn more about completing an energy audit at your school, or for access to a Free STEM Eco-Schools USA - Energy and Climate Change Pathways to Sustainability curriculum visit:
Flower Dissection
Students completed a virtual flower dissection and documented their own flower dissection lab using an iPAD and the Educreations Interactive Whiteboard app. Detailed photographs of the flower parts were taken using a 60x universal iPAD lens.
View the handout:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwG44_DZux3oOXBkSnlXVDlmcnM/view?usp=sharing
Complete the virtual dissection:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/life_cycles.shtml
View our student work sample:
https://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/flower-disection/39067216/?s=ldcAgV&ref=app
Download the app (Free):
Buy the lens ($10.89):
WONBSDOM Universal 60X Zoom LED Clip-on Microscope Lens https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00QLYPMZW/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1465923516&sr=8-3&pi=SX200_QL40&keywords=universal+ipad+microscope+lens&dpPl=1&dpID=41Sbd6W441L&ref=plSrch
The Voltaic Pile-
Making a Homemade Battery
Students explored electricity using copper pennies (cathode), card stock, saltwater, and zinc washers (anode) to make a battery that lit a tiny LED bulb.
See the full activity and view the STEM Explore, Discover, Apply (STEM EDA) curriculum by NICERC: