Hands-on STEM Learning

Funded Feb 2, 2022

My students really loved the new materials! One of their favorite projects this year was learning how circuits work and being able to design and build their own circuits, increasing in difficulty each time. Then they tore apart some electronics to figure out how circuits and electromagnetism play a role in the device. It was a blast!

The other item that completely blew their mind was the mirage double convex mirror. A lot of the students had seen the device on Mark Rober's squirrel videos (he put a nut inside to try to trick the squirrels) but they had not seen it in person. Getting a chance to see it in person and then to learn how it works and how the same physics principles are used in telescopes and lots of other cool practical applications was fascinating for them.

One of the other super cool things we used in my AP class was the variable inertia kits. I had shown my students a Veritasium science video where they rolled a can down an inclined plane and it would roll and stop and then roll and stop. I asked them what they thought was inside and they were able to guess and make predictions and then use the inertia kits to test their hypothesis. Next year, I would like to have them collect more data while using these to see the mathematical relationship between mass, distance and moment of inertia.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Craig