I’ve been having trouble getting students willing to talk, answer questions, or share their ideas in class. What strategies/activities do you use to help kids feel more comfortable talking and sharing in your class?
—C., Arizona

There are few things worse than looking at a group of quiet students who you really want to participate! I addressed how to get discussions started in a previous blog (http://bit.ly/322RAfK ) but it’s probably good to revisit this common bane of teachers.

Start the lesson with an impressive demonstration or engaging video to stir up interest. Many students that are shy may just need some more time to digest and formulate ideas and questions before they’re comfortable talking with others. Graphic organizers allow students to think and write on their own so they have fuel for the discussions to follow. Some graphic organizers may be found in this collection in the Learning Center: http://bit.ly/30BgZwO

With their notes in hand, you can set up learning circles for larger groups to discuss topics. Set up rules on how they need to work: always stop at each and every person and always in the same direction – never skipping or reversing.

Hand-held white boards are excellent tools to get students involved. Every student or pair of students writes down short answers, sketches graphs, or indicates their understanding for quick feedback without having to talk in front of classmates. As students raise their boards, simply point, give a quick nod or simple feedback to help them figure out the correct answer. Don’t move on to the next question until everyone has successfully participated. This activity can be exciting and fast-paced, so don’t have too much down time and keep it moving along with a series of prepared questions. You can even invite students to question the class and give their own feedback.

Hope this helps!

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Cindy Hasselbring reads from the Boeing Pilot and Technician Outlook report: “804,000 new civil aviation pilots, 769,000 new maintenance technicians, and 914,000 new cabin crew will be needed to fly and maintain the world fleet over the next 20 years.” She adds, “212,000 pilots are needed for North America alone. 193,000 maintenance technicians are needed for North America alone…There’s a good opportunity for students to pursue aviation jobs. A student can start at a regional airline at $60,000 a year.”

Hasselbring, senior director of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) High School Aviation Initiative, says AOPA offers a high school aviation STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) curriculum that “is free to high schools…, and provides two career pathways: pilot and drones [Unmanned Aircraft Systems or UAS].”

At age 16, “students can take the [Federal Aviation Association (FAA)] Private Pilot Knowledge Test or Unmanned Aircraft Systems Part 107 Remote Pilot Knowledge Test. Those who pass the UAS test can start a business piloting [drones]. They can work for many employers because they can legally fly a drone,” says Hasselbring.

Some students take the courses “just to learn something new and different. Then they realize they want to be pilots. That’s why the curriculum is used as in-school courses only, to hook in students who may not have considered those careers before. They’re not as likely to choose the courses as an after-school club,” she asserts.

“The curriculum supports the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Common Core, and a lot of engineering practices are embedded. [It challenges] students with projects like testing foam board airfoils in a cardboard wind tunnel and modifying their designs,” as the Wright Brothers did in the wind tunnel they built, she observes.

“Students also learn about the NTSB [National Transportation Safety Board], and how they investigate accidents. [In one activity,] students are members of a Go Team investigating what caused an accident and what the recommendations of the NTSB should be,” Hasselbring notes.“The ninth- and 10th-grade curriculum will be available this fall. The 11th-grade curriculum will be available next year. By 2021, all four years [of the curriculum] will be available,” Hasselbring notes. “Schools must go through the application process in the fall” to receive the curriculum, she adds.

To use the curriculum, teachers must attend a three-day professional development workshop. “In-person attendance costs $200 and includes the opportunity to participate in hands-on activities and take a free flight in a small aircraft,” Hasselbring explains. Teachers can attend online at no charge.

“Last year, AOPA offered, for the first time, a Teacher Scholarship program that pays for flight training so teachers can become pilots. We gave 20 teachers $10,000 each. We hope to offer that again,” she reports. William Ervin, aerospace teacher at Dubiski Career High School in Grand Prairie, Texas, has used a variety of aerospace and aviation resources, including AOPA’s. “We use the AOPA curriculum [as a] pilot school. We teach and evaluate the curriculum,” he explains. He also has adapted the AOPA curriculum for his 11th and 12th graders and will be evaluating the 11th-grade AOPA curriculum this school year.

Last year, Ervin wrote Introduction to Aerospace and Aviation, a Career and Technical Education (CTE) innovative course for grades 9–11 that was approved by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). “Innovative courses allow districts to offer state-approved innovative courses to enable students to master knowledge, skills, and competencies not included in the essential knowledge and skills of the required curriculum,” according to the TEA website. Ervin’s course provides “the foundation for advanced exploration in the areas of professional pilot, aerospace engineering, and [UAS],” he explains.
Ervin notes TEA has “a bank of innovative courses” teachers can access. (See http://bit.ly/33nkicL.) He is currently developing a 10th-grade innovative course based on AOPA’s curriculum.

Manufacturing Aircraft

In the Utah Aerospace Pathways (UAP; http://uapathways.com) program, high school students take aerospace manufacturing training courses at their schools and at local technical or community colleges. Students then have an externship with one of UAP’s participating companies during senior year and graduate with a certificate in aerospace manufacturing. “Industry partner companies (Boeing, Janicki, Hexcel, Albany Engineered Composites, Orbital ATK, Kihomac) joined with Hill Air Force Base [located near Ogden, Utah] because they felt the need to build their workforce and training,” says Sandra Hemmert, CTE Specialist for Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. UAP was created “to help students gain skills for industry and college,” Hemmert maintains.

UAP was the start of Talent Ready Utah, an initiative of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and the Utah Department of Workforce Services. “It is an amazing partnership of government agencies, industry, and education,” Hemmert observes. Usually it takes two years to develop new high school courses, but “within six months, [UAP] had four new courses. Everything moved faster to address the needs of the industry partners,” she contends.

“The industry partners developed a skills list that was used as the basis of the state standards,” says Hemmert. “To create the curriculum, we had 12 teachers who did a two-week internship in all of the companies. We brought them in with company partners to develop the curriculum. Our teachers didn’t know anything about [composite materials], but the industry partners had an idea about how to get kids excited [about learning]: doing hands-on activities with them.”

UAP was piloted in two school districts—Granite and Davis, in Farmington— and has since expanded to four more Utah school districts. Salt Lake Community College and Davis Technical College in Kaysville are the original UAP partner colleges.

“Students are guaranteed an interview with any of the participating companies after earning the certificate,” says Hemmert. “Students can apply to any of the companies…If one company can’t hire a student, it will support [the student in obtaining a job] with the other companies,” she contends. Students can earn as much as $19 per hour right after high school.

“We have kids who do something else for two years, but they can still have the interview if they have earned the certificate. Some kids go to college and say, ‘It isn’t for me,’ but the certificate gives them a job opportunity. If they decide to attend college, the companies [reimburse] tuition…for employees…A lot of kids are going to college to become engineers and also working for a company to get their tuition reimbursed,” Hemmert relates.

“In addition, the program [educates students about] jobs they didn’t know about. There are so many jobs in aerospace manufacturing,” she asserts.

This article originally appeared in the September 2019 issue of NSTA Reports, the member newspaper of the National Science Teachers Association. Each month, NSTA members receive NSTA Reports, featuring news on science education, the association, and more. Not a member? Learn how NSTA can help you become the best science teacher you can be.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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A Manhattan jury recently awarded nearly $60 million in damages to a former Beacon High School student who was badly burned by a teacher’s botched chemistry experiment more than five years ago. The student suffered third-degree burns over 30% of his body, including his face, neck, arms, and hand. This happened when his teacher accidentally ignited a fireball during a “Rainbow Experiment” to show the colored flames produced by various salts. The teacher seemingly ignored many safety protocols while performing the experiment, including pouring highly flammable methanol directly from a gallon jug instead of using a beaker and pipette to dispense it. During the flame jetting of the methanol from the jug, students were seated too close to the demonstration and were burned. This took place in a classroom without a ventilated hood to remove fumes. Several safety deficiencies have often been identified in lab accident reports and warnings for this type of lab demo over several decades:

• students sitting too close to the demonstration;
• limited, inappropriate, or no personal protective equipment in use;
• no safety shield present or fume hood use;
• alcohol stock bottles sometimes used to refill hot ceramic dishes or surfaces;
• limited or non-existent teacher training in the hazards and risks of using flammable liquids with resultant safety actions.

RAMPing up safety

One approach to help prevent these types of safety incidents involves the active use of four principles of safety fostered by the American Chemical Society: Recognize hazards, Assess risks of hazards, Minimize risks of hazards, and Prepare for emergencies. Using the RAMP process allows teachers working in academic labs to help minimize risks and protect students from serious injuries. Unfortunately, if the first step of recognizing and understanding hazards is not successful, risk of hazard assessment may faulter.

A recent issue ACS Journal of Chemical Health & Safety (May/June 2019, Volume 26, Number 3) had a feature article titled “Recognizing and understanding hazards – The key first step to safety.” The author, Robert H. Hill Jr., presents an analysis of several incidents and illustrates how in most cases, if not all, the teacher lacks understanding of the hazards and in effect cripples the RAMP process, resulting in a safety incident. For example, he noted how the teacher in one case did not understand the properties of flammable liquids in high concentrations of flammable vapor above the liquid.

ACS has a video for students about RAMP and a video for teachers about RAMP.

The AAA method

A similar approach encouraged by the NSTA Safety Advisory Board is the AAA (Analysis, Assessment and Action) process for “driving home” safety involving a hazard Analysis, risk Assessment, and appropriate safety Action. It addresses the need of doing a full hazard analysis as the first step.

To located the hazards for a lab or demo, one reliable source is the Safety Data Sheets: Section 2—Hazard(s) identification: All hazards regarding the chemical and required label elements. Other sources include inquiring with fellow colleagues, checking out the NSTA safety portal, the NSTA safety alert and the ACS safety alert.

Once hazards are analyzed, the associated risks can be assessed. For example, if the chemical is flammable and vapor builds up, a flash fire and jetting flame can be effected. The risk in this case includes extreme heat and active flame exposure for observers. Lastly, determine the appropriate safety actions that should be taken as precautions, given the hazards and resulting risks. In the case of the Rainbow demonstration, the safer action is an alternative demo eliminating the use of the flammable methanol. This can be done by dissolving the salts in water, soaking a wooden applicator stick in the solution, and running it over an active Bunsen Burner flame.

In the end

Whether RAMP or AAA is used, one thing is clear: Most safety incidents can be avoided if done in a safer way using one of these two hazard analysis approaches. Once employed at science teachers, too many schools don’t follow up with initial or annual safety training for science teachers—that is, until an accident occurs and there is a lawsuit like the one mentioned above. Stay safe. Don’t destroy a student’s life or your own.

Submit questions regarding safety to Ken Roy at safersci@gmail.com or leave him a comment below. Follow Ken Roy on Twitter: @drroysafersci.

NSTA resources and safety issue papers
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I find it challenging to engage elementary students in the life sciences. What are some hands-on activities that work? Are there anchoring phenomena that you recommend?
—C., Utah

Depending on your curriculum, you could pursue several avenues to capitalize on students’ innate curiosity about nature and engage them in their learning.

One of the easiest is to explore your school grounds. Observing how natural processes and organisms take advantage of almost any condition can be powerful anchors for lessons. Questions like, “How can weeds grow in sidewalk cracks?” or “How can ants survive on a playground?” can lead to broad-reaching inquiries. The questions students raise or phenomena they observe are almost limitless.

Consider introducing a classroom pet or aquarium and make the students the caretakers. Focus lessons with the presence of these living things. Tending a school garden can be enjoyable and educational at the same time. Sharing their harvest will also build a community spirit among your students. Individual projects like terrariums or pop-bottle ecosystems will develop a vested curiosity and motivation to keep them thriving.

Field trips to nature centers or zoos are always memorable and introduce students to experts, careers and role models. Many conservation groups have outreach programs to bring nature into the classroom.

A good introduction into genetics and heredity is for the class to go through a list of human genetic traits and collate their results. Funny traits to track: widow’s peak hairline, hitchhiker’s thumb, attached/detached earlobes, tongue curling, convex/concave nose, and so on.  To avoid conflicts with family privacy, keep this introductory activity as a simple survey among the students in your class.

Hope this helps!

Image by photosforyou from Pixabay

On the 4th of July this year,  a fitting date, America lost a true hero whom many people had never heard of, namely Robert Gilliland. Bob Gilliland was the chief test pilot and first person to fly the iconic SR-71 Blackbird, arguably the coolest airplane in history.

Even without all its world records, the profile of the Blackbird has inspired and awed generations for generations. And if the first SR-71 flight wasn’t enough, Bob took the beautiful new Blackbird to supersonic speed on its maiden voyage back in December of 1964. Something unheard of! And Bob told me he flew the first flight of every Blackbird to follow ultimately logging more time at mach 2 and mach 3 that anyone else on earth.

In order to get up to those supersonic speeds in a reasonable amount of time, the Blackbird accelerates at around 20 meters per second or about 10 times faster than a commercial airliner taking off. The pilot of an SR-71 experiences the feeling of about 2 g, or twice the usual tug of the earth. That impressive force you feel when your Boeing 737 takes is only adding about two-tenths of a g.

Acceleration is a change in velocity where velocity is a change in position. While basic on the surface, acceleration causes much confusion in the science classroom. And speaking of confusion, the famous, infamous rather, Area 51 was where the SR-71 was born. 

The Skunkworks in Area 51 was home to Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, the legendary aircraft designer. I read as story about Kelly where he was in a meeting to discuss a new military aircraft. Several requirements for the plane were given and Kelly, in his head, calculated the necessary wing surface area and shape to get the job done. Remember, powerful computers, CAD, and the internet were still a long ways off in the future. Which leads me to another story, one that Bob Gilliland told me personally. First, remember that Bob was flying around in the SR-71 at 85,000 feet at three times the speed of sound. The SR-71 could fly about 3000 miles on a tank of gas, or roughly 90 minutes. To do an extended international mission, a supporting team of aerial refueling tankers had to be staged along the route. So in the era prior to GPS navigation, there was Bob with map on knee dropping to about as low and slow as the Blackbird could fly to mate up with a fuel tanker in a sky dance with the tanker flying as fast as it can. Time was critical as the now-inefficient SR-71 engines were struggling in the dense air. I imagine it somewhat like a Star Trek or Star Wars scene where a ship traveling faster than light suddenly slows and just appears in a new place. Bob told me, and I quote, “You’ve never been lost until you’re lost at mach three!”

Mach 3 is 38 miles a minute, or over half a mile a second. A few minutes of miscalculation and you could be over the wrong state or even the wrong country!

Now once a vehicle is at it’s cruising speed whether bicycle of Blackbird, the sensation of movement maybe impossible. As anyone knows who has had a very smooth flight on an airliner, at cruising speed it’s impossible to tell with your eyes closed if the plane is sitting still on the ground, or flying at 500 miles per hour at 37,000 feet. Thus is the magic of acceleration. Only change is detectable.

Prior to the development of the SR-71, the parameters of the human body with regard to acceleration, or rather deceleration, were hot topics. How much deceleration could a human take and remain conscious, or even remain alive? To explore that physiological avenue, rocket sleds and centerfuges were used where “living sensors” were strapped into a seat and subjected to incredible speeds and slow-downs. One such engineer on the project was named Edward Murphy who proposed using strain gauges in addition to live subjects. It was the beginning of the popular use of Murphy’s Law when in one centrifuge trial every one of the strain gauges were wired backwards. 

But I have another take on this. If there was no directional indication on the strain gauges, then there is a likelihood that at least one of the gauges would have been wired correctly. And statistics would support that half would be wired right. But since all sensors were backwards, something else seems to be at work. And that something else, in my mind, is a backwards understanding of how the acceleration would be measured by the strain gauges. Remember, the key measurement of interest was the slowing of the subject, not the speeding up.  Or “eyeballs out” in fighter pilot vernacular.

Fast forward to September 8, 2004. On that day, an elegant spacecraft named Genesis was returning to earth after a three year mission collecting solar wind particles on hundreds of thin wafers each a hexagon about the size of a playing card. The fragile wafers were of 15 different materials including sapphire, gold, amorphous carbon, germanium, and silicon like the one I have in my teaching collection. It would be the first sample return mission to arrive back on earth since Apollo 16 back in 1972.

Because these wafers were so fragile, a complex and Hollywood-like recovery was planned where the returning capsule would be plucked out of the air by a helicopter as it gently drifted to earth under a parafoil (like a parachute, but directional). 

Remember Murphy? Well, the plan was for the capsule to detect a change in acceleration as it slowed due to the resistance of earth’s atmosphere to the tune of 27 g. A drogue chute would automatically launch stabilizing the capsule until the main chute deployed. The whole system would begin when a small acceleration sensor said it was time. Unfortunately that sensor was installed backwards thus preventing the capsule of fragile glass-like disks from making any attempt to slow down. The Genesis capsule slammed into the Utah desert while traveling 193 miles an hour.

But wait, there’s more. Meanwhile, another sample return was on its way home, a capsule full of STARDUST, well, comet dust actually. But the mission was named STARDUST. The plan here was for the capsule to eject from the main spacecraft, fly through the atmosphere as the fastest man-made thing ever, then gently land in Utah under a fully deployed parachute. Except that the STARDUST sample return capsule contained the same accelerometer as did the Genesis capsule. Luckily the documentation of the construction of the STARDUST capsule showed the correct orientation of the accelerometer and STARDUST make a picture-perfect landing even doing a “NASCAR” victory lap upon landing.

Now imagine yourself in role of accelerometer installer. Which direction will the sensor experience the necessary force to activate the drogue parachute when the capsule encounters atmosphere? Not so easy is it? Now attach a few hundred million dollars to your decision and suddenly it’s a really big deal to get it right. Not just some chimpanzee on a rocket sled or a man in a centerfuge anymore.

The Vernier Go Direct Acceleration sensor, with its onboard battery and bluetooth radio makes an amazingly powerful package that is only 26 grams and 30 cubic centimeters or about the size of a pack of gum.

And more information can be found in the user manual here.

Vernier lists the specifications as:

11 measurement channels:

• X-axis acceleration (m/s²)
• Y-axis acceleration (m/s²)
• Z-axis acceleration (m/s²)
• X-axis acceleration – high (m/s²)
• Y-axis acceleration – high (m/s²)
• Z-axis acceleration – high (m/s²)
• X-axis gyro (rad/s)
• Y-axis gyro (rad/s)
• Z-axis gyro (rad/s)
• Altitude (m)
• Angle (°)

• Range:
  • Low acceleration: ±157 m/s² (±16 g)
  • High acceleration: ±1,960 m/s² (±200 g)
  • Gyros: ±2,000 °/s
  • Altimeter: –1,800 m to 10,000 m (-5,900 ft to 33,000 ft)
  • Angle: ±180°

Take a moment and consider those specification. A 10,000m altimeter? That much taller than Mt. Everest. And 200 g’s is plenty to kill a human four times over. However bacteria has survived over 400,000 g’s so don’t expect this sensor to capture the moment of g-force death of your E. Coli. But do expect it to do just about anything else you and your students can dream up.

Ad Astra!

The “Zoon Hot-Air Balloons Getting Started Package” contains all the materials necessary for a class of 30 students to construct and launch their own hot air balloons. The kit is designed for students in Grades 3-12 and is user friendly. By having students follow the instructions provided in the manual, they can construct their very own hot air balloons out of the tissue paper that is provided in the kit.

The kit comes with 30 student user guides to guide students through creating their own hot air balloons. Subsequently, students can select whatever color of tissue paper that they desire to build their hot air balloon.

We found the instructions for constructing the hot air balloons to be clear and easy to follow. Moreover, the directions include helpful images to guide you through the instructions. In addition, the student user guide contains useful background information about the Zoon Balloon and a variety of balloon terms including: altitude, buoyancy, gore, temperature differential, and template. In essence, these terms will be essential for flying the balloon. 

When assembling the hot air balloons, remind to students to be careful to not tear the delicate tissue paper. Holes in the tissue paper can prevent the hot air balloons from flying, so any tears or holes in the tissue paper must be mended before launching a hot air balloon. A picture of the kit is depicted below in Image 1. Image 2 is an example of what a constructed Zoon hot air balloon.  

As a word of caution for time management, assembling the hot air balloons can be time consuming and could take several class periods. Therefore, by having students multiply tasks for efficiency, it would be helpful for students to work in pairs. Once the glue has dried and any holes have been repaired, it’s time to launch the balloon.  

For safety, because propane hot air balloons need to be launched outside. The small propane canister needs placed in the propane cylinder base and screwed into place. Image 3 shows the propane canister on the propane cylinder base.

Once the propane canister is screwed into place, students can launch their hot air balloons by placing their hot air balloon on the launcher as shown in Image 4.

Once in position, make sure to wait for the balloon to inflate with air. Once the balloon is filled with air, students can release the balloon and it will fly. A picture of a hot air balloon in flight is depicted in Image 5.

What’s Included: – Zoon Hot-Air Balloons

o 30 glue sticks

o Box of 100 paper clips

o Zoon Balloon template

o Assorted colored tissue paper

o Zoon Balloon User Guide (30 copies) – The Inflation Station Hot Air Balloon Launcher

o Launcher Base

o 6 bots, 3 wing nuts, and 6 nuts

o Launcher legs (3)

o Torch and Igniter o Nylon wire wrap (3)

o Propane Cylinder Base – Hot Air Balloon video – Adventures in Lighter Than Air Flight booklet

What You’ll Need:

– Propane canister

– Scissors

Cost: $515.00

Edwin P. Christmann is a professor and chairman of the secondary education department and graduate coordinator of the mathematics and science teaching program at Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. Emily Ferraro is a graduate student in the mathematics and science teaching program at Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania.