OUR FINAL MEETING...
...will be May 9, 2000
4:15 p.m.
Section A: BRING A CALCULATOR!!
SECTION PRESENTATIONS REFRESHMENTS
111 LS A Barbara Baker Barbara Baker
(K-5) Chandra Price Chandra Price
Mikhail Siddiq ___________________
Marva Anyanwu ___________________
153 LS B Brian Cagle ___________________
(4-8) Janet Sheard ___________________
__________________ ___________________
SEE YOU THERE!!
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Monday, 22 May 2000
Perlstein Auditorium [33rd & State, NW Corner]
for a discussion about
The Essential Transition from 19th to 21st Century
High School Science Education
buffet supper 6 pm
discussion 7 pm
RSVP to (312) 567-8820 or parson@iit.edu
Virginia O'Brien (Higgins School)
did "For the Birds" - (handout) with us. We each
received a small brown bag containing a pine cone, peanut
butter, 2 feet of heavy orange yarn, plastic knife,
napkin, piece of newspaper. We tied the orange yarn to the
large end of the pine cone, used the knife to cover the
bottom 2/3 of the pine cone with peanut butter (with the
newspaper to keep things clean), then dipped the peanut
butter end into a large bowl of birdseed. Simply suspend
it from a nearby bush or tree and watch the birds!
Included were forms for keeping a Bird Watch Diary, and
how to do feather painting, make brown bag nests, and
"binoculars" from cardboard tubes. A good combination of
hand-skill learning with observation and data taking.
Thanks, Virginia!
Lilla Green (Hartigan School)
put us to work on the Skeletal System, Strength of Bones, and
two pages of skeleton cut-outs to color, cut, and assemble to display a
human skeleton. She explained how her children would cut a
skeleton transparency into puzzle pieces and make a
challenge to the class to put the skeleton together
correctly, learning the names of bones in the process.
Materials she placed out on the table were: stick glue,
scissors, paper fasteners (for bone joints), 12 inch x 17 inch
construction paper (yellow, green, orange), crayons, hole
punch. In class, students would examine real bones, some
soaked in vinegar (and which would bend!) (handout -
Strength of Bones).
Books on display were the following:
Erma Lee (Williams School) passed out packs of 74 soda straws to five groups, and challenged us to build the tallest tower. The trick is to find ways to join the straws in a stable way. The winner was about 1 meter high! Great fun, and a way to build cooperative skills and creativity.
NOTE: To remove stickers, tape, labels, gum, etc get this substance:
Carl Martikean (Wallace HS, Gary) asked us, "How many times can you fold a piece of paper into halves?" Well - after making some guesses we got busy doing the experiment to find the practical answer: 7 or maybe 8 times! Why? Because the paper gets too thick to bend. It works with onion skin paper the same way! There are many things that can be learned from this other than the obvious. What are they?
Sally Hill (Clemente HS)
passed out Math Bingo sheets to us, to play the game
as couples. The page was divided into a 5x5 grid of rectangles, each
containing a specific math expression for a sum, difference, product,
fraction, area, percent, etc. Having supplied us with
markers, she called out various possible answers to the math questions,
like "16" or "3.1416 ... ". If this was one of the correct answers, we
would then mark the spot with a green disk. As soon as one of us got a
diagonal filled, we called out BINGO! Then we had to go to the board and do
the math operations called for in the rectangles on the diagonal.
What a great idea!
Lee Slick (Morgan Park HS)
showed us a piece of magnetic strip. Cut it in two, then move one
piece over the other. What happens? It jumps! Why? A good way to get
students involved with an investigation of magnetism, with
non-traditional magnets. If the the top strip is turned
over, there is no interaction. Why?
Lee also mentioned that it was not a good idea to put these strips
too close to computers, computer screens, or diskettes, because they
will either destroy data or interfere with the operations.
Thanks, Lee.
Kimberly Baker (Fairfield Academy - formerly Marquette East)
handed out a page titled Don't Use It All Up! (Earth Science),
and put us to work listing 15 uses for water. The winner gets a fresh
bottle of water! Can you do it? We compared answers, which made it
interesting. Next, groups of 2 or 3 received a plastic container (about
12 inches x 6 inches x 14 inches) with sponges inside. The container
represents the earth. With sponges removed, add water to a
depth of about 2 inches and mark the level. This
represents the height of the water table. Think of a use
for water, then add a sponge to represent that use. With
each sponge (use) added, the water level would drop as the
sponge soaked it up. Finally, the level dropped nearly to
the bottom. The moral: Water has many uses, but there is
only a finite supply. Therefore, re-use is essential.
Conserve water, use the same water for two purposes when
possible, re-use water. When we squeezed out the sponges,
the water did not return to its original level because
sponges retained some; re-use is not 100% efficient. A
beautiful lesson!
Pearline Scott (Franklin School)
started us off with a page from a calendar. We had to pick out
any 3x3 array of numbers on the calendar, eg:
| 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 |
Next, we formed into two teams, and Pearline placed standard (Cartesian) x,y coordinates on the board, with the usual 4 quadrants and the origin at (0,0). Teams alternated in sending a representative to the board to locate a point. The objective was to get 4 points in a row [up, down, or diagonal], and to keep your opponents from doing so in the process. It took about 10 - 15 rounds before one team won. A fun exercise in plotting and graphing!
Finally, starting with a set of squares on a paper, draw straight lines within a square to form 2 triangles and 2 quadrilaterals inside. What can you do with one line? ... two lines?...three lines? A good geometry exercise, and one that requires some thought and creativity! Thanks, Pearline!
WHAT WILL WE LEARN NEXT TIME?!
PRESENTATIONS AT PAST MEETINGS
Feb 8 A Frana Allen Frana Allen
Barbara Lorde Barbara Lorde
Jean Essig Jean Essig
Earnie Garrison
B Barbara Pawela Barbara Pawela
Zoris Soderberg
John Scavo
Earnie Garrison
Feb 22 A Erma Lee Erma Lee
Shirley Hatcher Shirley Hatcher
Glenda Ellis Glenda Ellis
Beverly Merchant Beverly Merchant
Camille Gales Camille Gales
B Therese Donatello Therese Donatello
Charlene Smith Ed Scanlon
Ed Scanlon
Ernest Garrison
Mar 7 A Allen Evans Allen Evans
Winifred Malvin Winifred Malvin
Alma White Alma White
Margia Artis Margia Artis
Marjorie Fields Marjorie Fields
B Earnest Garrison Earnest Garrison
John Scavo Charlene Smith
Carl Martikean Estelvenia Sanders
Porter Johnson
March 21 A Cynthia Southern Cynthia Southern
Marie Wong Monica Seelman
RaeLynn Schneider Joyce McCoy
Wanda Pitts Wanda Pitts
Monica Seelman Monica Seelman
Earnest Garrison
B Patricia E Phillips Patricia E Phillips
Val Williams Sally Hill
Estelvenia Sanders
Barbara Pawela
Apr 4 A Christine Scott Ben Butler Jr
Claudette Rogers Kenneth Onumah
Shirley Cesair Carolyn McGee
Carolyn McGee Iona Greenfield
Ben Butler Jr
Sophia Watson
Carolyn McBride
B Janet Sheard Janet Sheard
John Scavo Charlene K. Smith
Sally Hill
Estelvenia Sanders
April 25 A Lilla Green
Virginia O'Brien
Erma Lee Claudette Rogers
B Carl Martikean
Pearline Scott Pearline Scott
Kim Baker Kim Baker
Sally Hill
Lee Slick