a syllabus of activities to try – targeting grades 3 to 5

 

This presentation  was given to students in grades 3 to 5 to introduce them to the after school program. This is what I used, but can easily be modified for any organization and grade level. This was given in 30 minutes. The PDF doesn’t include the animation that is in the base Powerpoint presentation. If interested in receiving the Powerpoint, send me a note at jim@jimporell.com

1. Programming

Patterns:

• Conditional (if-then-else),
• Loop,
• Case (Select),
• Assignment (x = y)
  Try it
  Check out code.org  (honestly having trouble with this site on my Mac).
  Going to try it under Windows.

  2. Games.

Patterns
Sudoku
2048 – powers of two, Fibonacci sequence
Tower of Hanoi – Recursion
Rube Goldberg

3. Careers

Talk about roles that use STEM
Websites with games.
US Gov’t, Systems Integrators, IBM,

4. Mapping

this might be too complicated to do for 3rd to 5th Grade
Sloping and graphing
Dutchess County parcel access maps. Point click area tells you about geometry
Plot the areas around Seymour Smith

5. Music

Use the beginning of the Donald Duck video to make a stringed instrument
Show how different lengths have different tunes
create the octave via different length strings

6. Art & Science

Use of Tessellation in art (Easter Eggs) and sports (soccer ball)
How spirals are built using the Fibonacci sequence
Fractals and art: http://www.coolmath.com/fractals/gallery.htm
Show the video at the bottom

Bibliography of references and examples

Careers:

https://www.cia.gov/kids-page
https://www.nsa.gov/kids/
http://armytechnology.armylive.dodlive.mil/index.php/tag/stem/

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/index.html#.VNzm53ZKnFJ
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/
http://www.newmoney.gov/education_resources/youth.aspx
http://kids.usa.gov/   – great site – many links off of that. Like this one dedicated to Math:

 http://kids.usa.gov/math/index.shtml

http://www.treasury.gov/about/education/Pages/Lesson-Plans-for-Teachers.aspx – teachers materials
http://www.ready.gov/kids    (Homeland Security)
http://www.tsa.gov/tsa-kids

http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/initiatives/activitykits  A bunch of downloadable exercises
http://www.mathmovesu.com/news-and-events/engineering-love-science-kids Raytheon
http://www.classroomengineers.org/?ar_a=6  Lockheed Martin and National Geographic
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/
http://www.sciencebob.com/index.php  Sponsored by Northrup Grumman
http://www.stemcollaborative.org/

Rube Goldberg games

http://www.infinitecat.com/games/tom-n-jerry.html
http://pbskids.org/zoom/games/goldburgertogo/rubegame.html

Other Games:

http://www.gamesforchange.org/game_categories/stem-2/
http://www.coolmath-games.com/
http://www.mathsisfun.com/games/
http://www.maths.surrey.ac.uk/hosted-sites/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibpuzzles.html
http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-2048-fibonacci  A 2048 game using Fibonacci sequences instead of powers of 2
NASCAR technology games

Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_ZHsk0-eF0   Donald Duck Mathmagic Land

Art:

http://artstyle.sfglobe.com/2015/01/14/3d-printed-sculptures-look-alive-when-spun-under-a-strobe-light/?src=share_fb_new_32233

Science:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT16dE-ilAE&list=FLRu4zCvwQN2lRbFJ5cnAibw  Mad Science: Water Treatment – IBM
IBM Fellow – John Cohn – Mad Scientist videos: http://johncohn.org/base/education-outreach-2/videos/

Fibonacci and Spirals video

Rotating Spirals under a strobe light