Station 4 LED Converter - At this station I have an LED converter that will play music when light is shined upon it. This station represents radiant (light) energy, because the energy needed to make the noise is light energy. You need a LED converter for this experiment, however. don’t In past years I have used solar calculators and just had the students complete a simple math problem in the normal manner, then have them try to do the same math calculation while they cover up the solar panel. This shows the students that if the light energy does not reach the panel, the energy can not be used. Station 5 Eskimo Test Trial - At this station the students hold a piece of ice tightly in their hands and discover what happens after a minute. Obviously the ice starts to melt. This station represents thermal energy, as the heat from their hand moves to the ice and starts to melt it. The kids love/hate this station because their hand gets VERY cold gripping the ice for a minute. If you know middle schoolers, you know that this will lead to students trying to hold it longer for a minute, see how can hold it the a very simple way to demonstrate thermal longest, etc... It’s heat transfer. I use an online timer that I project onto my screen. I generally give 3 minutes for the students to read the directions, then perform the experiment and a minute to clean up and write their responses. You may want to test these times out with your students and change the timing based on what works best with your classes. Some stations take a little longer than others, especially if clean up, and some require less, so kids may get a little restless. Please there’s tweak this as needed to best work within your classroom. After all students have completed all of the stations and cleaned up, go over their responses as a class.
Station 4 LED Converter - At this station I have an LED converter that will play music when light is shined upon it. This station represents radiant (light) energy, because the energy needed to make the noise is light energy. You don’t need a LED converter for this experiment, however. In past years I have used solar calculators and just had the students complete a simple math problem in the normal manner, then have them try to do the same math calculation while they cover up the solar panel. This shows the students that if the light energy does not reach the panel, the energy can not be used. Station 5 Eskimo Test Trial - At this station the students hold a piece of ice tightly in their hands and discover what happens after a minute. Obviously the ice starts to melt. This station represents thermal energy, as the heat from their hand moves to the ice and starts to melt it. The kids love/hate this station because their hand gets VERY cold gripping the ice for a minute. If you know middle schoolers, you know that this will lead to students trying to hold it longer for a minute, see how can hold it the longest, etc... It’s a very simple way to demonstrate thermal heat transfer. I use an online timer that I project onto my screen. I generally give 3 minutes for the students to read the directions, then perform the experiment and a minute to clean up and write their responses. You may want to test these times out with your students and change the timing based on what works best with your classes. Some stations take a little longer than others, especially if there’s clean up, and some require less, so kids may get a little restless. Please tweak this as needed to best work within your classroom. After all students have completed all of the stations and cleaned up, go over their responses as a class.
FOElabstationdirectionsandteacherinfo.docx