Welcome to

STEM Parent Night!

My name is Mrs. Cabrera and I am Creekside’s STEM

Teacher. STEM stands for Science, Technology,

Engineering, and Math. There are 10 activities

spread out through the cafeteria that show a

sampling of what we do in STEM class.

Here is a list of the stations planned for tonight:

Engineering Design Process Foldable

Aluminum Foil Boats

Transportation Mission

Longest Paper Chain

Index Card Tower

Ramp Experiment

Coding

Circuits

K’Nex Racers

Dancing Worms

I hope you enjoy! cabreras@lisd.net

Station: Engineering

Design Process Foldable Materials: Construction Paper, Copies of steps to cut out and glue, scissors, glue, stapler. Instructions: Show parents how to fold the paper to make the foldable and staple at the top. Then, have parents cut out the steps and glue them onto the foldable. These are the steps that Engineers (and the students) will often follow to help them solve a problem! Why are we doing this? Sample TEKS K.2A-Ask questions about organism, objects, and events observed in the natural world

What questions do you have about the problem?

Ask Imagine what the solution might look like if you could do

anything you wanted.

Imagine Make a plan! What materials will you use? Draw it.

Plan Carry out your plan. Create! Build!

Create How will you make it better?

Improve Share your solution with others! Learn form them.

Share

Station: Aluminum Foil Boats Materials: Aluminum Foil Rectangles, Unit Cubes, Bucket of Water, Paper Towels Instructions: Give parents an aluminum foil rectangle and have them create some sort of boat that will hold as many unit cubes as possible. When they are done constructing, they can test it by placing it in the water and seeing how many cubes fit inside before it sinks/starts leaking. If they want, they can re-design and test again!

Why are we doing this? Sample TEKS 3.2A- Plan and implement descriptive investigations, including asking and answering questions, making inferences, and selecting and using equipment or technology needed, to solve a specific problem in the natural world

Station: Transportation Mission Materials: Keva Planks, Keva Ball, Long Table Instructions: You must build something that will move the ball across the table without pushing the ball, dropping it, throwing it, or blowing on it. They can try the second challenge of designing a Turn or U-turn if they want. Why are we doing this? Sample TEKS 4.2A- Plan and implement descriptive investigations, including asking well-defined questions, making inferences, and selecting and using appropriate equipment or technology to answer his/her questions

Station: Longest Paper Chain Materials: Paper, glue sticks, scissors Instructions: Using only paper, scissors, and glue sticks, parents must create the longest paper chain possible. This will be done by cutting strips of paper and gluing them together like links or a chain. Is it better to use lots of short strips of paper or fewer long strips? Thinner strips or thicker strips? Why are we doing this? Sample TEKS - Use a problem-solving model that incorporates analyzing given information, formulating a plan or strategy, determining a solution, justifying the solution, and evaluating the problem-solving process and the reasonableness of the solution.

Station: Index Card Tower Materials: Index Cards, small books Instructions: Given only 20 index cards, create the tallest tower that you can that will support the weight of a small book. If it works with 1 book, how many books can you add before your tower topples over? Parents can take their used 20 index cards home if they want to try again with their family! Why are we doing this? Sample TEKS 2.2B- Plan and conduct descriptive investigations such as how organisms grow.

Station: Ramp Experiment Materials: Paper Tower Rolls cut in half, golf balls, Ping-Pong balls, planks, rulers, recording sheet. Instructions: Parents will create a short ramp (using 3-5 planks and a paper towel roll) and roll a golf ball down it, measuring how far the golf ball rolls. They should do this 3 times and record how far it rolls each time. Then, do the experiment again with the same exact ramp, but with a Ping-Pong ball. Which ball rolled farther? Why do you think that is? Why are we doing this? Sample TEKS 5.4A- Collect, record, and analyze information using tools.

Station: Coding Materials: iPads and https://studio.code.org/ Instructions: Have students log on to code.org, then click on LEARN at the top, followed by Code Studio. They can try out the Course 2 levels (starting with Stage 3). Before each level, the directions will tell them what the goal is, but they will drag and drop the blocks of code to the workspace on the right. Language can be changed in the bottom left corner of the screen, once they start a level. Why are we doing this? Sample TEKS 4B- collect, analyze, and represent data to solve problems using tools such as word processing, databases, spreadsheets, graphic organizers, charts, multimedia, simulations, models, and programming languages.

Station: Circuits Materials:, batteries, alligator clip wires, light bulbs, aluminum foil, cardboard, masking tape Instructions: Parents will be given a battery, 2 alligator clip wires, a lightbulb, a piece of cardboard, some masking tape, and a piece of aluminum foil. Their job is to create some sort of switch that will safely turn the circuit on and off. Why are we doing this? Sample TEKS 5.3C- Draw or develop a model that represents how something works or looks

Station: K’Nex Racers Materials: K’Nex Kit Instructions: Parents can follow any of the directions to create a K’Nex racer/vehicle or they can try to build one on their own to see what works. What is making the racers move? Why are we doing this? Sample TEKS K.2B- Plan and conduct simple descriptive investigations such as ways objects move

Station: Dancing Worms Materials: Baking Soda, measuring spoon and cup, vinegar, clear plastic cups, warm water, gummy worms cut into 1/4ths length-wise Instructions: Mix 1 cup of warm water with 3 tablespoons of baking soda and mix in as many pieces of gummy worms that will fit. Fill a new glass about half-way with vinegar, and place 3-4 of the pre-soaked gummy worms in the cup.. After a little while, the worms should move from the bottom of the cup to the top. Why is this? When you add the worms soaked in baking soda, the acetic acid in the vinegar reacts with the bicarbonate in the baking soda. When an acid and base react, carbon dioxide gas bubbles form. These gas bubbles form on the gummy worm and as the gas bubbles rise to the surface, they pull the gummy worm up with them, making them wriggle and dance. As the gas bubbles burst the worm falls back down until enough bubbles form to pull it back up. The bubbles will continue to form until all the baking soda on the worm is used up and the worm will stop wiggling.

Why are we doing this? Sample TEKS 2.2 A Ask questions about organism, objects, and events during observations and investigations