“Mathicity” - Friday Feedback Session

1. “Mathicity” - Friday Feedback Session Team Leader: Stacy Dunn Team Members: Stephen Ha Alex Moran Tracy Woodson Nellie Matlock This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant No. EEC-0502174. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

2. Module Enhancements • Science teachers would probably change this to use Ohm’s Law and transformers rather than the math equations as they are. • Environmental science teachers would probably stress more about the blackout and its effects. • Engineer for a Day activity could be changed into a game format. Students could work in groups and pull cards to determine if they are going to solve for load or generation, so each scenario would be a little different and they could do a number of them using the cards.

3. Module Enhancements continued… • The module could be expanded to discuss electricity in the future and current energy alternatives. (Do they think we will be using the same sources we do now? Do they think we will use an energy form other than electricity? Will all electricity be produced from nuclear plants? Etc. )

4. Engineering Design • Module contains a lot of engineering design features. Has summary of what engineers do and the types of engineers. • Activities are all geared towards engineering principles (economic considerations, safety considerations, teamwork, problem-solving, design).

5. Scientific Inquiry • Students need to apply scientific inquiry to the activities. (Use prior knowledge, make predictions and hypothesis, try various solutions, check their solutions, analyze their solutions and check for feasibility). • Students are required to document their process and reflect on their work.

6. Ethics • Electrical safety issues • Social and economic repercussions of blackouts • Debate which types of power generation are best and why.

7. Modification I – Primary Grades (1-3) • Emphasize blackouts rather than math. Actually create a “blackout” in the class by pulling shades and having another teacher turn off the electricity suddenly. Discuss how blackout effects them, what creates blackouts, what you should do during a blackout, etc. • Students can use a modified version of the “Engineer for a Day” activity where they hold ropes or streamers to represent the flow of electricity. Change or stretch and break streamers and discuss how this changes the system.

8. Modification - Primary • The culminating design activity for this grade level could be to draw a picture and tell a story about electricity or… • The teacher could supply materials for them to build a house and show how electricity goes from a power line to their house.

9. Modification – Grades 5-8 • This module can probably be used by these grades with some slight modifications: • Get rid of subscripts and use x,y,z and then name the Bus x,y,z. (or whatever the students are used to using). • For the final activity the teacher can do the calculations for solving x2 and x3 or the teacher can give them a template for how to solve the equations for themselves.

10. Modifications – Grade 5-8 continued… • An additional activity that can be used at this grade level is to bring in an electric bill and analyze the information on it. • Another possible culminating activity is to have the students debate which types of power sources are best or to give them a scenario for a community (population, possible growth, types and amount of industry, geologic conditions, etc) and then have them design a power system for this community.