Wednesday, August 2nd, 2017

Wednesday morning participants tweaked their Rube Goldberg devices in perpetration for the their final runs. It was the Lab Room Team vs the Idea Room team. Both teams had some success. The Lab Room Team had three successful runs, but the Idea Room team had the longest timed run. Both teams included the mandatory insertion of three simple machines.
      Wednesday's topics were light and heat energy.  Participants learned that heat energy always moves from areas of excess heat to areas of deficit heat energy. They also learned that heat and temperature do not mean the same thing. Temperature is a quality of heat energy and Heat is a measurement of quantity. We explored the properties of materials to find which materials are good conductors of heat energy and which are not. Armed with that information they engineered an Ice keeper container. The Margarine Relay was not even close with aluminum coming in first followed by brass and in a distant third was steel. Wood was a no show.
        In the afternoon we jumped into light energy. We explored light reflection, refraction and absorption. Participants engaged in a reflection relay then using lasers and mirrors they targeted an object. They measured the angle of incidence and the angle of reflection to quantify the property of reflection. To explore refraction participants  recreated broken pencil demo and  Tik Liem's disappearing and reappearing penny demo.  Absorption activity included using color filters and colored pieces of paper to see how lights rays are made of color wave lengths and some are reflected and some are absorbed. Participants then classified materials as transparent, translucent or opaque  Participants then explored shadows and created a vocabulary to describe shadows. Then we explored light source placement and shadow lengths. This led us to understanding how shadows can tell us what time of day it is and what time of year. Docent Julie Albert demonstrated the light boxes that students will use on field trips.

Tuesday, August 1st

Today we used simple machines to learn how spreading a force over a distance can make it easier to move objects. We reviewed the six simple machines and how they work. The class then proceeded to explore levers, pulleys and a compound machine consisting of an incline plane and a pulley.  We discussed how collecting a lot of data can mask some of the inaccuracies and irregularities that occur in elementary classrooms. Kelly shared literacy connections and how you can use literacy to initiate a an engineering project. In the afternoon we presented our group with an engineering challenge. They would have to design a Rube Goldberg device that incorporated three simple machines. 

      To wrap up our day, our docent  Julie, took us on a tour of the 15th floor of Wilson Hall and of the Linac Accelerator.  

Monday, July 31st, 2017

     First day of the workshop brought exciting explorations into force and motion. Workshop Presenter,  Kelly Chapman led off with some warm up activities and incorporated a Kahoot quiz. Participants explored gravitational forces with clay and paper drop and  a Bugso - Copter activity. This activity reviewed independent and dependent variables. We ventured over to meet physicist Mandy Rominski and engineer Lucy Nobrega from Fermilab.  The  Q & A centered on what it was like to work at Fermilab and what were their childhood educational experiences that led them to this career.
      After lunch the group met with Susan Dahl to learn about the TRC and how it can support teachers. Kelly presented posters and discussed attributes of an engineer. We proceeded to continue our exploration of force and motion using our ramps and rollers equipment. The day was capped off buy our docent, Julie Albert giving us a tour of the interactive exhibits in the Lederman Science Center.

Friday August 5th, 2016

Our last day, we finished by presenting static electricity demos. Students also heard from Susan Dahl who is the president of Friends of Fermilab and director of the Teacher Resource Center. She informed all of the teachers about the wonderful education opportunities available to teachers. These include, programs, scholarships, and science curriculum development. We finished the day with an Electromagnetic spectrum wave activity. Later in the day we explored properties of air pressure. This year's class was a great group and I know that their classrooms this fall will be energized with science inquiry.