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January 23, 2012 4:54 PM Subscribe
This weekend I have to present a very brief (2-3 minute) lesson, aimed at fifth graders, on a science/engineering concept of my choosing. What should I choose?
Ideally, the concept would be simple enough to explain at relaxed pace, but still pretty interesting. I can bring in visual aids, but not anything too elaborate. My background is in physics/mechanical engineering -- I'm torn between choosing something from that area to make sure I know it forwards and backwards, and choosing something different to make sure I don't blow by basic concepts too quickly. Thanks for your help!
Ideally, the concept would be simple enough to explain at relaxed pace, but still pretty interesting. I can bring in visual aids, but not anything too elaborate. My background is in physics/mechanical engineering -- I'm torn between choosing something from that area to make sure I know it forwards and backwards, and choosing something different to make sure I don't blow by basic concepts too quickly. Thanks for your help!
If there were no satellites/spacecraft, what are some pieces of observational evidence we could use to prove that the earth is round?
how could we figure out the diameter etc of the earth? (go back to ancient Greek methods)
If you traveled back in time to ancient Rome (or whatever time period they are studying), what scientific knowledge could you demonstrate that would impress them? Could you explain how a steam engine works? could you explain how an air conditioner works? etc.
It's fun if whatever you pick is something they can remember well enough to explain to their parents. Or a hands-on demonstration they can repeat on their own.
posted by LobsterMitten at 5:08 PM on January 23, 2012 [2 favorites]
how could we figure out the diameter etc of the earth? (go back to ancient Greek methods)
If you traveled back in time to ancient Rome (or whatever time period they are studying), what scientific knowledge could you demonstrate that would impress them? Could you explain how a steam engine works? could you explain how an air conditioner works? etc.
It's fun if whatever you pick is something they can remember well enough to explain to their parents. Or a hands-on demonstration they can repeat on their own.
posted by LobsterMitten at 5:08 PM on January 23, 2012 [2 favorites]
At that age, you need something hands on or something that makes a good demo. I'd recommend electricity generation. You could bring in a simple hand cranked generator, talk about spinning a coil inside some magnets and watch a lightbulb light up. Then you could talk about how this is used in fossil fuel, nuclear, hydro and wind plants.
2-3 minutes? Yikes.
posted by jeffch at 5:12 PM on January 23, 2012
2-3 minutes? Yikes.
posted by jeffch at 5:12 PM on January 23, 2012
Maybe something from this old FPP could serve as a jumping off point. It would be pretty cool it you were able to assemble one of them in a couple of minutes.
posted by bonobothegreat at 5:12 PM on January 23, 2012
posted by bonobothegreat at 5:12 PM on January 23, 2012
Why car wheels look like they're spinning backwards.
posted by theichibun at 5:25 PM on January 23, 2012
posted by theichibun at 5:25 PM on January 23, 2012
Why not try a tornado in a soda bottle? Those are super cool.
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/tornado-in-a-bottle
posted by spunweb at 5:29 PM on January 23, 2012
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/tornado-in-a-bottle
posted by spunweb at 5:29 PM on January 23, 2012
How rockets work.
The best demonstration is getting a kid on a rolling office chair (preferably not on carpet) who throws a medicine ball (do they call them that in the US? the heavy balls you use in sports classes), causing the chair to slide in the opposite direction.
posted by trialex at 5:30 PM on January 23, 2012
The best demonstration is getting a kid on a rolling office chair (preferably not on carpet) who throws a medicine ball (do they call them that in the US? the heavy balls you use in sports classes), causing the chair to slide in the opposite direction.
posted by trialex at 5:30 PM on January 23, 2012
Demonstration and discussion of one or two simple machines.
posted by brokkr at 5:35 PM on January 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by brokkr at 5:35 PM on January 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
Why do traffic jams sometimes happen without any obvious cause? (Intro to emergent dynamics of complex systems, with an obvious hook -- 'everyone hates getting stuck in traffic but WHOSE ASS DO YOU KICK FOR IT?!')
Or do the 'natural selection' chapter from Valentino Braitenberg's Vehicles as a demo -- still the single clearest, pithiest explanation of evolution I've read.
Or explain rot13 -- 'How to send super-secret messages in plaintext!'
posted by waxbanks at 5:41 PM on January 23, 2012
Or do the 'natural selection' chapter from Valentino Braitenberg's Vehicles as a demo -- still the single clearest, pithiest explanation of evolution I've read.
Or explain rot13 -- 'How to send super-secret messages in plaintext!'
posted by waxbanks at 5:41 PM on January 23, 2012
- Model rockets
- Chemical reactions (I.e. baking soda and vinegar, mentos in diet coke)
- I saw a guy once demonstrate ow lungs work with a contraption he had built which was a box with two balloons in it and a "diaphragm" on the bottom. When he pulled the diaphragm, the balloons filled with air.
- anything involving liquid nitrogen
posted by 4ster at 6:07 PM on January 23, 2012
- Chemical reactions (I.e. baking soda and vinegar, mentos in diet coke)
- I saw a guy once demonstrate ow lungs work with a contraption he had built which was a box with two balloons in it and a "diaphragm" on the bottom. When he pulled the diaphragm, the balloons filled with air.
- anything involving liquid nitrogen
posted by 4ster at 6:07 PM on January 23, 2012
In 2-3 minutes, you want to teach them one single concept that can be demonstrated in one quick activity. Here's one possible idea:
Concept: Air has mass
Materials: Potatoes and plastic straws cut into 4" lengths
Procedure: Show students a potato that has a plastic straw sticking out of it (prepared in advance by the method described below). Pass out plastic straws and potatoes. Challenge the students to insert the straw into the potato. Unless they've seen it done, they won't be able to do it. After a minute hold a straw in your hand with your thumb over one end. Jab it into the potato and it will go right in. It works because the air is being held in the straw by your thumb and that helps keep the straw rigid enough to cut through the potato skin.
posted by robverb at 6:29 PM on January 23, 2012 [6 favorites]
Concept: Air has mass
Materials: Potatoes and plastic straws cut into 4" lengths
Procedure: Show students a potato that has a plastic straw sticking out of it (prepared in advance by the method described below). Pass out plastic straws and potatoes. Challenge the students to insert the straw into the potato. Unless they've seen it done, they won't be able to do it. After a minute hold a straw in your hand with your thumb over one end. Jab it into the potato and it will go right in. It works because the air is being held in the straw by your thumb and that helps keep the straw rigid enough to cut through the potato skin.
posted by robverb at 6:29 PM on January 23, 2012 [6 favorites]
What kind of equipment do you have access to? If you have a bell jar and vacuum pump, you could do all sorts of interesting demonstrations: (a) show how gases expand to fill all available space by putting a small, partially filled balloon in the jar and evacuating the air; (b) show how candles do not burn in vacuum; (c) show how sound is not transmitted through vacuum by suspending a pocket watch whose ticking you can hear through the jar by a piece of thin thread or fishing line in the jar and then evacuating the air -- Boyle did this one, and it is really elegant.
Or, try any of the experiments in Faraday's Chemical History of a Candle.
If you had more time, I would recommend doing something with pendulums and gravity, like this nice experiment, but three minutes is not enough time. On the other hand, you might do the experiment where you suspend something like a bowling ball at the end of the pendulum, hold it up on one side right up next to your chin and release it. Then don't move and let the ball swing back up to almost hit you but not quite. It looks death-defying to children, and it illustrates a bunch of nice physical principles. Actually, looking around a bit, that last demonstration is in a big list here.
One last demonstration for motion. Take an inclined plane and two wheels of equal mass. One wheel should have the mass evenly distributed over the whole wheel -- one solid piece. The other wheel should have the mass concentrated around its outer edge -- like a hoop, ring, or shell. Ask the students which one will roll down the plane faster. Here is a youtube video of this sort of experiment. The lesson here is about moment of inertia.
Alternatively, you could just show them this video.
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 10:35 PM on January 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
Or, try any of the experiments in Faraday's Chemical History of a Candle.
If you had more time, I would recommend doing something with pendulums and gravity, like this nice experiment, but three minutes is not enough time. On the other hand, you might do the experiment where you suspend something like a bowling ball at the end of the pendulum, hold it up on one side right up next to your chin and release it. Then don't move and let the ball swing back up to almost hit you but not quite. It looks death-defying to children, and it illustrates a bunch of nice physical principles. Actually, looking around a bit, that last demonstration is in a big list here.
One last demonstration for motion. Take an inclined plane and two wheels of equal mass. One wheel should have the mass evenly distributed over the whole wheel -- one solid piece. The other wheel should have the mass concentrated around its outer edge -- like a hoop, ring, or shell. Ask the students which one will roll down the plane faster. Here is a youtube video of this sort of experiment. The lesson here is about moment of inertia.
Alternatively, you could just show them this video.
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 10:35 PM on January 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
@robverb: I think it's a neat trick and will probably be the kind of thing that is memorable, but the conceptual jump from air pressure to "air has mass" is a rather big one (yes, there wouldn't be pressure if the molecules hitting the straw were massless, but can you really explain statistical mechanics to fifth graders in three minutes?).
posted by themel at 2:10 AM on January 24, 2012
posted by themel at 2:10 AM on January 24, 2012
My middle school teacher taught us Boyle's law (I think) of heat-causing-expansion-causing pressure-causing-explosion with a story...
Once upon a time on a hot summer day a woman who had just gone grocery shopping heard a gunshot and felt something hit her head. When she reached back she was alarmed to feel the sticky pulpy mass of what must have been blood and brains. Turns out nope he can of biscuits exploded.
"And here's why..."
posted by jander03 at 11:37 AM on January 24, 2012
Once upon a time on a hot summer day a woman who had just gone grocery shopping heard a gunshot and felt something hit her head. When she reached back she was alarmed to feel the sticky pulpy mass of what must have been blood and brains. Turns out nope he can of biscuits exploded.
"And here's why..."
posted by jander03 at 11:37 AM on January 24, 2012
I just taught a genetics class to gifted 4-5th graders. I found the learn genetics and teach genetics websites through the university of utah very helpful and very engaging.
posted by shrimpsmalls at 6:53 PM on January 24, 2012
posted by shrimpsmalls at 6:53 PM on January 24, 2012
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posted by KneeDeep at 5:02 PM on January 23, 2012