Personal INterest Projects
AKA "do Next" Projects
Including black diamond challenges
CONTRACT/INSTRUCTIONS
Sample projects
Optical Illusions Project
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Burger King vs. McDonald's Project
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topic ideas by Discipline
Chemistry
Black Diamond Challenges
Scanning Tunneling Microscope
Create a report - in any format you'd like - explaining the Scanning Tunneling Microscope. This is the device used to move atoms to make the movie "A Boy and His Atom." Hyper challenge: explain why atoms can't be seen by a microscope that uses light.
Elements in the News
Find three or more articles about elements in the news. Some search terms you might use include "new element", "nanotubes", "rare earth elements", "asteroid mining", "atomic weights news", "tellurium", "carbon", or "oxygen". Choose one about which to create a presentation using the information from the article. You can decide what type of presentation to do or you can choose one of the following:
More Chemistry Topics
Choose one of more of the following videos or websites. Research one of the questions and answer it in the form of a poster, cartoon strip (using Comic Life, for example), biography, newscast, or other presentation format. (By the way, if you find other good videos, websites or books, please let me know so I can update this list.)
How were the weights of the elements discovered?
http://science.howstuffworks.com/29291-100-greatest-discoveries-atomic-weight-video.htm
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/100-greatest-discoveries-videos-playlist.htm
How were electrons discovered?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzJnaJ9skxg
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/100-greatest-discoveries-videos-playlist.htm
How was the nucleus discovered?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzALbzTdnc8
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/100-greatest-discoveries-videos-playlist.htm
How did chemists discover the number of electrons in each element’s atoms?
[Find your own resources for this question!]
If there is no way to see an atom, how do we know that the atom is made of protons, electrons, neutrons, a nucleus and an electron cloud?
Overview: http://education.jlab.org/qa/history_04.html
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/100-greatest-discoveries-videos-playlist.htm
Create a report - in any format you'd like - explaining the Scanning Tunneling Microscope. This is the device used to move atoms to make the movie "A Boy and His Atom." Hyper challenge: explain why atoms can't be seen by a microscope that uses light.
Elements in the News
Find three or more articles about elements in the news. Some search terms you might use include "new element", "nanotubes", "rare earth elements", "asteroid mining", "atomic weights news", "tellurium", "carbon", or "oxygen". Choose one about which to create a presentation using the information from the article. You can decide what type of presentation to do or you can choose one of the following:
- Pretend to be a live, on the scene TV reporter telling the news. (Video)
- Create an interview with scientists involved. (Podcast)
- Design an advertisement about the element and its use or discovery. (Video, poster, etc.)
- Create a short lesson about the news item to share with the class. (Prezi, video, etc.)
- Write a comic strip about the news using Comic Life.
- Your own presentation idea.
More Chemistry Topics
Choose one of more of the following videos or websites. Research one of the questions and answer it in the form of a poster, cartoon strip (using Comic Life, for example), biography, newscast, or other presentation format. (By the way, if you find other good videos, websites or books, please let me know so I can update this list.)
How were the weights of the elements discovered?
http://science.howstuffworks.com/29291-100-greatest-discoveries-atomic-weight-video.htm
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/100-greatest-discoveries-videos-playlist.htm
How were electrons discovered?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzJnaJ9skxg
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/100-greatest-discoveries-videos-playlist.htm
How was the nucleus discovered?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzALbzTdnc8
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/100-greatest-discoveries-videos-playlist.htm
How did chemists discover the number of electrons in each element’s atoms?
[Find your own resources for this question!]
If there is no way to see an atom, how do we know that the atom is made of protons, electrons, neutrons, a nucleus and an electron cloud?
Overview: http://education.jlab.org/qa/history_04.html
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/100-greatest-discoveries-videos-playlist.htm
chemistry
bite-size challenges
These projects are shorter but very interesting, too:
- Find a chemistry-related app on the iPad. Master it. Create a presentation to explain it to the class.
- Visit the PhET website and find three good simulations related to chemistry. Choose one and create a brief handbook to let other students know what it is, how to use it and why it's interesting.
- Find three good videos about chemistry, specifically how halogens react with alkali metals, which jobs require a knowledge of chemistry and which chemicals make the most beautiful crystals. Gather them onto a presentation document and write a brief explanation of what they're about.
- Find a cool image about chemistry and print it as a block poster. Assemble it and we'll find a place to hang it up in the classroom. (Block posters are enlargements of an image that are printed across a few pages of paper that form a large poster when taped together.)
- Using your knowledge of atoms, figure out, explain and create a diagram, movie or claymation to illustrate your answer to this question: "How can radio waves - like those in cell phones - pass so easily through the walls of buildings?"
- Create a Visual Instruction Plan (VIP) to teach other students how to do a task in software we have used or will use in class. (Check with me to make sure you've chosen an appropriate task and software. These type of VIPs often includes screen shots. For a SAMPLE SOFTWARE INSTRUCTION VIP click here.
- Create a Visual Instruction Plan (VIP) to teach other students how to do a task we've done or will soon do in class. (Check with me to make sure you've chosen an appropriate task.) Lego and Ikea are two examples of companies that create wordless VIPs. Click here for more EXAMPLES OF WORDLESS OR ENHANCED VIPS.
- BONUS: If you've done 2 other Mini Bites, you can click here for an elements word search.
anthropology and genetics
How did humans evolve? The answer may be hidden in our DNA.
Swedish Biochemist Svante Pääbo - working at a lab in Germany - is working hard to find out. And the answer may lie with Neanderthals.
His "most ambitious project to date, which he has assembled an international consortium to assist him with, is an attempt to sequence the entire genome of the Neanderthal. The project is about halfway complete and has already yielded some unsettling results, including the news, announced by Pääbo last year, that modern humans, before doing in the Neanderthals, must have interbred with them."
Investigate and report on this extraordinary work. You might also explore the research into the DNA of mummies. You can start here.
What would you include in a museum about the evolution of human beings?
Investigate, report on and create a tour of the Origins Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, a museum devoted to this task. You can start here.
Swedish Biochemist Svante Pääbo - working at a lab in Germany - is working hard to find out. And the answer may lie with Neanderthals.
His "most ambitious project to date, which he has assembled an international consortium to assist him with, is an attempt to sequence the entire genome of the Neanderthal. The project is about halfway complete and has already yielded some unsettling results, including the news, announced by Pääbo last year, that modern humans, before doing in the Neanderthals, must have interbred with them."
Investigate and report on this extraordinary work. You might also explore the research into the DNA of mummies. You can start here.
What would you include in a museum about the evolution of human beings?
Investigate, report on and create a tour of the Origins Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, a museum devoted to this task. You can start here.
Physics
SOUND UNDER THE SEA
Investigate the issue that sonar testing by the U.S. Navy is harming mammals which live in the ocean. What are the claims made by animal activists. What scientific evidence is there to support their claims? How does the Navy respond to those claims? What scientific evidence supports the Navy's case? Which position do you find more persuasive and why? What's your opinion? Create a report in whatever form you choose to share what your answers are to these questions.
Investigate the issue that sonar testing by the U.S. Navy is harming mammals which live in the ocean. What are the claims made by animal activists. What scientific evidence is there to support their claims? How does the Navy respond to those claims? What scientific evidence supports the Navy's case? Which position do you find more persuasive and why? What's your opinion? Create a report in whatever form you choose to share what your answers are to these questions.
physics
BITE-SIZE challenges
These projects are shorter but very interesting, too:
- Find a sound-related app on the iPad. Master it. Create a presentation to explain it to the class.
- Visit the PhET website and find three good simulations related to sound. Choose one and create a brief handbook to let other students know what it is, how to use it and why it's interesting.
- Find three good videos about sound, specifically how sound travels in different media, how sound is absorbed and how sound travels in a vacuum.
- Find a cool image about sound physics and print it as a block poster. Assemble it and hang it up in the classroom. (Block posters are enlargements of an image that are printed across a few pages of paper that form a large poster when taped together.)
- Create a Visual Instruction Plan (VIP) to teach other students how to do a task we've done or will soon do in class. (Check with me to make sure you've chosen an appropriate task.) Lego and Ikea are two examples of companies that create wordless VIPs. Click here for more EXAMPLES OF WORDLESS OR ENHANCED VIPS.
- Create a Visual Instruction Plan (VIP) to teach other students how to do a task in software we have used or will use in class. (Check with me to make sure you've chosen an appropriate task and software. These type of VIPs often includes screen shots. For a SAMPLE SOFTWARE INSTRUCTION VIP click here.