Initiated at the district level, science specialists and teachers are collaborating with T4T to prepare for NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) and energize classroom learning with hands-on discovery and engineering. Pilot projects are currently underway in about 25 LAUSD schools.
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Article: Welcome to the Next Generation of Science Education, by Dan Steinbacher
MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL
Electricity & Magnetism Teacher Workshop:
About 20 Physics teachers gathered at T4T to explore Next Generation Science and Engineering. Special thanks to Evan Dvorak, Craig Sipes, Ayham Dahi, Michael Beiersdorf and all the participating teachers. We are very excited to add the Physics team from Banning & Royball to our collaboration.
“Beats by Me” (Project Outline) (Powerpoint Presentation from April 5th workshop)
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T4T Kinematics: Alternative Energy Powered Vehicle
Case Study from 3 LAUSD High Schools: Jordan High, South East High & Washington Prep.
- Kinematics: Mouse Trap Car (Word)
Kinematics @ Jordan High School
Physics teacher Evan Dvorak and students culminated their Kinematics unit with an engineering challenge to design and build a mouse trap powered vehicle that traveled the farthest distance possible.
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Waves: NGSS Symposium @ T4T
Middle and High School Teachers studied how “Waves” work through a series of hands-on explorations, culminating in the design and analysis of their own musical invention. Facilitation and planning thanks to Craig Sipes, Ayham Dahi, Evan Dvorak, Josh Mericle & Geoff Payton.
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Forces: South East High
Students culminated their Forces unit with an engineering challenge to design and build gliders to travel the furthest distance possible.
- Forces Unit: The Glider (Word)
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Momentum and Impulse: Egg Dropat Diego Rivera Learning Complex
- Momentum & Impulse: Egg Drop (Word)
Mr. Guarin and his Physics students culminated the trimester with an engineering challenge to design and build devices to protect an egg from the impact of a 30′-0″ fall.
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Conservation of Energy: Rube Goldberg Contraptions at Washington Prep
Mr. Lusk and his Physics students culminated the trimester with an engineering challenge to design and build classroom scale chain reactions that functionally recycled a water bottle. LAUSD Science Specialist Ayham Dahi quizzed and inspired students as they fine tuned their set-ups.
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Discovery of Conservation of Energy: Hot Wheels Energy at Washington Prep
Mr. Sipes and his Physics students explored the connection between potential and kinetic energy. In the process they discovered the quadratic relationship between height and final velocity. Special thanks to a generous donation by Mattel, all participating Physics teachers received a classroom supply of Hot Wheels vehicles.
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SIG Summer Institute: 3-days of Teacher Professional Development Workshops @ T4T
38 Middle and High School Science Teachers spent July 31st-Aug 2nd diving into the Next Generation of Science Standards. Middle School teachers explored Forces & Motion and Chemistry. High School Physics teachers explored Kinematics, Forces, Energy and both groups spent the last day designing their own units or projects.
Modeling Chemistry
Mr. Mericle and Mr. Payton are piloting Next Generation Chemistry and Engineering for Middle School teachers in their classrooms in preparation for the lessons they will be presenting at T4T’s Summer Science Institute.
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Teacher Professional Development Workshop @ T4T: Electricity & Magnetism
Teachers spent April27th focused on getting ready for the Next Generation of Science Standards with 2 workshops: “Electric House” & “Beats by Me”. To kick-off the headphone design project, teachers reverse engineered little speakers by dissecting them to figure out how they work and ultimately to harvest the magnets inside them for their own re-use.
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Headphone Design @ Jordan High School
Physics teacher Evan Dvorak and students culminated the year with an in-depth study of electricity, magnetism, engineering and entrepreneurship. Stage 1: “Reverse Engineering” means students dissected scrap speakers to build their knowledge about all the different parts and functions of a speaker. Step 2: Students started to brainstorm ideas & make 3 rounds of functional prototypes, continually trying to improve the sound quality. Step 3: “Elevator Pitch” was a presentation to a “venture capitalist” prior to getting the “budget” for materials to build prototypes of the ergonomics and aesthetics of their designs. Step 4: production and presentation of student designs.
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Electricity @ Jordan High School
Physics teacher Evan Dvorak culminated his Electricity Unit with a hands-on challenge to his students: design and build a functional model of your “dream house.” Each project had to have a minimum of 2 lights in series, 3 wired in parallel, and 1 stand alone light. All had to be able to be powered from a 9V battery and have individual off and on switches (often paper clips or pennies). All wiring work had to be submitted and approved as a diagram. The light bulbs were re-purposed from X-mas tree lights.
Electricity @ South East High School
Physics teacher Dustin Ancalade and students are culminating the year with our latest round of electricity & magnetism projects. Below are photos from their first stage of hands-on engineering that will evolve into the “Electric House” project
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Roller Coaster Engineering (Conceptual Physics) @ School for the Visual Arts & Humanities, Robert F. Kennedy Community School
Teachers Nancy Le & Cheyanne Tran led their students through an engineering challenge to build a roller coaster that had 1 loop, 2 hills, and was designed around a cohesive theme. Students also had to create a blue print, calculate kinetic energy, and turn in a written description of the project.
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Kinematics (Mouse Trap Cars) @ Washington Prep HS:
George Washington Preparatory High School is home to some inspiring hands-on science. Physics teachers Craig Sipes, Michael Lusk, and Eric Guarin are pioneering new ways to bring the engineering design process into everyday lessons. Below are some photos of their latest projects where students were challenged to invent a vehicle that was powered the energy of releasing a mouse trap.
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Teacher Professional Development Workshop @ T4T: Momentum & Impulse
LAUSD’s District Level Science Specialist Ayham Dahi kicked off the session, and mentor teacher Craig Sipes facilitated an interactive series of hands-on projects, discussions and presentations about Impulse and Momentum. A big round of thanks to all that participated, and to those that helped make this session possible.
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Physics of Sound: Building the Band @ Washington Prep HS:
Below are some photo of the inventive instruments and discoveries students made when exploring the physics of sound using T4T materials.
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Teacher Professional Development Workshop @ T4T: Conservation of Energy
15 physics teachers spent November 3nd at T4T in a professional development workshop focused on getting ready for the Next Generation of Science Standards. LAUSD’s District Level Science Specialist Ayham Dahi kicked off the session, and mentor teacher Craig Sipes facilitated an interactive series of hands-on projects, discussions and presentations. Communication and collaboration within the group was so energizing, that over half the teachers stayed 2+ hours after the workshop ended to complete their own Rube Goldberg contraption and amass classroom materials.
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Forces & the Engineering of Energy @ Washington Prep HS:
Below are some photos of physics students’ investigations with potential and kinetic energy, mechanical advantage, momentum, and energy transfers. The culminating project was a classroom scale chain reaction that included inventive ramps, pendulums, pulleys, collisions, dominoes, levers and much more.
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Teacher Professional Development Workshop @ Natural History Museum: Waves & Conservation of Energy
Thanks to a special grant by Republic Services, 25 LAUSD physics teachers spent June 2nd at the Natural History Museum in a series of professional development workshops focused on getting ready for the Next Generation of Science Standards.
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Exploring Energy @ Washington Prep HS:
Below are some photos of students’ investigations with potential and kinetic energy in 2 different projects: “Nail-it” & “Ramp Race.”
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Impulse Unit (Eggs Beware) @ Washington Prep HS:
Physics teachers Craig Sipes and his students design and carry out a test to determine the force required to break an egg. In a follow-up class, students experiment with different T4T materials to calculate which would best help their egg survive. In a culminating class, students engineer and test a device (vehicle) that minimizes the force on an egg, after the device is dropped from second story balcony to collide with the ground.
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Math & Science Night
Academy of Medical and Health Sciences @ Roosevelt HS hosted Math and Science Night on Jan 30th. 8 teams, 32 high school student engineers, 120 feet of invention, 2 hours of collaboration & competition! A round of applause to everyone that participated, and special thanks Yuri Lopez, Principal Crossin, all of our judges and everyone who helped with set-up and clean-up.
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Forces and Motion @ Stephen White Middle School:
Teachers Tina Marie Perry and Carrie Jackson designed a culminating project for their Forces and Motion unit where students designed and engineered iterations of vehicles to meet different performance criteria.
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