Education

Kindergarten

Forces that Push and Pull – Explore pushing and pulling forces, including connecting movable gears, making a marble roller coaster, testing cars on ramps, and assembling a “make-and-take” climbing creature.   

In the Sky at Night – Learn about Earth’s movement by looking at constellations in the StarLab planetarium.  

Trees Are the Same and Different – Examine and compare different seed and leaf samples, assemble a “tree” from the roots up as you make a tree booklet.

Weather in Your Life – Make a weather wheel and use it to discuss weather predictions, dress a weather bear for different weather conditions, show about the water cycle and types of weather, tour of DASEF’s weather monitoring station, design a sunlight shield structure. Learn about wind and make a kite to take back to school.

First Grade

Between and Beyond Solids and Liquids – Make a polymer called “gluep”; use seltzer rockets to see the power of gases in action.  Identify properties of solids, liquids, and gases that make each unique, and learn what they all have in common. 

NEW! Predictable Patterns: Sun, Moon, and Stars – Learn about the phases of the moon, the predictable rising and setting of the sun and the moon. In the StarLab Planetarium, learn when and why stars are visible at night, but not in the day (except for our sun), and why there are different amounts of daylight throughout the year.

NEW! Waves: Light and Sound – Make a wave machine to show how light/sound energy travels. Explore the concept of sound waves using “Boom Whacker” sound tubes, make sounds of different volumes and pitches using various materials. Have fun with optical illusions, complete a mirror maze, use different materials to show light behavior and the properties of light.

Inside Plants and Animals – Compare skeletons of different animals with regard to structure and function; examine parts of a tree seedling; study how seeds change as they grow; investigate variation in types of seeds of fruits and vegetables, plant and take seeds back to the classroom; study life cycle changes of butterflies and ladybugs; nature walk to study structure and adaptations of plants and trees.

Second Grade

NEW! The Ever-Changing Earth – Model how wind and water shape the earth and how humans can slow or prevent these changes, make a topographical map to show landforms and bodies of water. Identify earth events that occur slowly, and those that occur quickly to change the earth’s surface.

Bridges: Spanning with Strength – Introduction to forces of tension and compression and how they function in bridge designs; small group problem-solving and construction challenge; presentation and testing of bridge designs; exploration with bridge building kits.

Digging into Soil – Examine soil samples and the water retention and filtration properties of soils; use hand lens observations of  soil characteristics; make compost containers to take back to the classroom; create a “wormy” painting with soil as “paint”.

Third Grade

NEW! Climate: Weather or NOT? – Learn the difference between climate and weather, design a solution that would reduce the impact of a weather related natural disaster, study maps to explain why climates are different in different regions of the earth.

NEW! Organisms: Past and Present – Examine the similarities and differences in the life cycles of organisms, study how fossils are formed and how fossils provide evidence of environmental changes, create a habitat that illustrates why some organisms survive quite well and others don’t under the same circumstances.

Attractive Science: Magnets – Review of magnetic properties; use magnets with iron filings, paper clips, and ball bearings to view magnetic fields, predict and test strength of attraction, magnetic permeability of materials, and induced magnetism; magnetize and demagnetize nails; explore the power of repelling magnets with a “magnetic canon”. 

Fourth Grade

Motion and Design: Pinball and Roller Coasters – Review forces and motion with short film; examine energy and gravitational force on falling objects; two group challenges: given materials and requirements, design and build a marble roller coaster and a pinball machine.

Sculpting the Earth – Examine soil samples, model landscape on a stream table to examine erosion and human effects on land and water, identify satellite images of earth’s many different land forms.

Structures of Life: Designed to Succeed – Investigation of fruit and vegetable seeds; magnified observation of seeds; compare and contrast sprouted seeds of various plants; nature walk to collect plants, observe and draw root systems; compare animal skeletons of different species with regard to movement and survival; compare body designs of various insect specimens. 

Fifth Grade

NEW! Energized by the Sun – Create a model that shows the sun as the source of the energy needed by animals to survive. Using a food web, trace the food of most animals back to plants, and show how the balance of an ecosystem can be damaged by an “invasive” species.

Between and Beyond Solids and Liquids – Make a polymer called “gluep”; use seltzer rockets to see the power of gases in action.  Identify properties of solids, liquids, and gases that make each unique, and learn what they all have in common. 

Silent Travelers: Earth, Moon, and the Planets – Examine satellite photos of the lunar surface, earth, and the planets; examine star “movement”, lunar phases, and our solar system in the Star Lab planetarium; design and build a lunar/planetary rover.

Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Grade

Earth’s Geological History – Power Point slides of water and land forms with regard to formation through deposition and erosion; small group work – modeling land and water forms on sand/water tables; movie – Fossils; illustrated discussion of plate tectonics, volcanoes, and earthquakes; viewing fluorescent minerals and other mineral samples.

Energy and Its Effects: Producing Electricity – Power Point slides of wind and water electricity generation in the past, present, and future; building tour and discussion of active and passive transfer of energy from solar to electric; and static and current electricity investigations.

Ever Changing Earth Systems – global weather patterns in StarLab planetarium; small group investigation of weather; Power Point slides of water/ land forms with regard to erosion & deposition; small group investigation with stream tables.

Investigating Force and Motion – Record results of movement of rolling balls of varying materials; calculate and graph their speed; demonstration of the transfer of energy through simple machines; investigate simple machines as used in various tools; small group work to design a device that combines simple machines to accomplish a task.

Investigating Near-Earth Objects – Lunar study in StarLab planetarium including lunar phases; comparison of earth and lunar geology; Power Point presentation of physical features of planets; DVD – simulated mission to the Moon.

Water Ecology and the Diversity of Life – Small group investigation of pond water samples; search for pond life through a microscope; small group investigation of natural water filtration with soils; Power Point slides of energy transfer through wetlands food chains and wetlands as a water filtration system.