You probably have made slime before. We make it with glue, starch and water. My grandfather would be happy to know if you use Borax in your slime fun. But, we spice it up a bit with metal filings!
Magnetic slime shows how magnetic fields are circular.
The nice thing about having the space at the store is that we were able to let the magnet sit with the slime over a week! The picture above is after 24 hours. Notice that the gray color by the magnet is much darker than the gray still in the slime. It attracted a lot of the filings over the first day.
You can clearly see two circular arcs also. This shows where the magnetic fields were able to attract the slime to the magnet. Where there is still grey, the magnetic fields were not strong enough to move the filings.
This experiment shows how magnetic fields are circular.
Imagine you are running late for school. You wake up and rush to get yourself dressed. You don’t want to miss the bus! You run across the carpet to the door. But, when you touch your doorknob, a wave of shock enters through your body.
What just happened?
This shock is one example of electricity. It’s a common type of electricity—static electricity. You may be surprised how many everyday activities involve electricity! Each morning, you might open your eyes when a battery-powered alarm sounds.
This kitchen shows how much of our lives is powered by electricity.
You may microwave a warm breakfast. More cars on the road
use electricity. And, if you looked around you may see electrical wires all
around.
This book will answer all your electricity-related
questions! We will learn about important inventions that changed human history
forever. For example, lightning rods and modern-day electric cars. We will also
explore how all your favorite electronic gadgets function, like smartphones,
laptops, and T.V.!
This book will describe the important people who discovered
and advanced the fields of electricity. These people include:
Benjamin Franklin
Nikola Tesla
Thomas Edison
Joseph Swan, and more!
You will learn more about electricity. Pay attention to the
new words. These words are important for understanding this science. Here are a
list of the words that you will learn in this book.
Our Electricity is Elementary book contains reading and scientific questions along with hands-on science experiments you can do at home. We know that children are naturally curious, and experiments like these help them answer questions and develop problem-solving skills that will help them in future situations.
This experiment has a gap in the circuit so children can explore a wide range of objects. If you do this at home, we suggest creating a simple chart to track “Insulator” and “Conductor”. Ask them what they saw (or observed) that made them certain the material was an insulator or conductor.
Although we try to use everyday materials, we know that copper wire and LED lights may require a special trip. If you want to save yourself the effort, we can vouch for these products on Amazon.
We are getting really excited for next week’s book release about Electricity is Elementary. This book presents science concepts as reading texts from grades 4 and 5 along with hands-on experiments you can do with everyday materials. Not only will your child learn about electrical current, Ben Franklin, resistors, and circuits; your child will also build vocabulary and reading skills needed for a wide variety of informational texts.
This video from the author shows one of the experiments within the book.
If you are near Fairfax, we encourage you to stop by for our book launch on Tuesday.
We are always studying the incoming data to connect learning objectives and improve each learning experience. We are also planning these large-scale research efforts:
Technology & Problem Solving: edMe recognizes that problem solving is a skill that can be improved. We are focused on specifically improving students’ problem-solving skills and attitudes within: STEM challenges, writing challenges and mathematical word problems. The U.S. Department of Education accepted our White Paper and we are interested in partnering with:
Schools/Districts with interest in piloting new materials focused on problem solving across these subjects at the elementary and middle school levels.
Researchers interested in providing objective, third-party analysis of this intervention. The intervention documents quantitative and qualitative data that can be analyzed in pre-/post-intervention studies.
Research will extend for 4 years as we deeply examine what works and what needs to be improved to maximally improve students’ problem solving skills across these domains. Interested?email us!
Implementing & Evaluating PACT: The University of Texas-Austin and the Meadows Center disseminated Promoting Adolescents’ Comprehension of Text (PACT). The research to date shows that this intervention delivers measurable gains in reading skills for students in middle- and high-school. This study will replicate their intervention using training workshops and virtual supports that will help ensure teachers can easily and reliably implement these methods into their classrooms. The U.S. Department of Education accepted our White Paper and we are interested in partnering with:
Organizations interested in partnering on workshops for teachers to help them better teach vocabulary and texts structure used in across ELA, Social Studies and Science.
Research will take 5 years to systematically replicate these methods and provide more evidence about this intervention. Interested?email us!
Short-term intervention on Mathematical Word Problems: Students can take pictures and explain their problem solving processes to get feedback (and become more aware) of their problem-solving efforts. This intervention takes 5 days and has 15 mathematical word problems. In addition to solving the problems, students answer questions about their thoughts before they solve the questions and what they can do when they see similar problems next time. This intervention is designed for classrooms and homeschoolers looking to get more practice with rich mathematical word problems.
This intervention is available, and we are looking for as many users as possible so that we can gather a wide range of experiences with this material. We are still looking for:
Schools, families, and students looking to participate in a study focused on mathematical word problems and educational technologies.
The edMe system was designed to explicitly handle long-term problem solving efforts, like STEM challenges, reading chapter books, and writing extended pieces. We know that these efforts are what students need to be successful in college and careers. We also know that too few states, districts, schools, and families have the supports they need to teach and document these efforts. In all of our outreach, we find that students more deeply engage in the content and develop a true love of learning when they are allowed to deeply explore this content.
In order to solve robust problems, students must have mastery of a variety of tools like reading fluently, broad vocabulary knowledge, math fact fluency, and scientific understandings. We also build students skills in these areas as necessary. But, these are not the end goals, they are steps toward strong, independent learning.
You can see a deeper explanation in some upcoming research, but we wanted to quickly highlight some educational models that are built into edMe Learning adventures.
The engineering process is iterative and cyclical. Challenges like these help students understand and explore force and motion concepts while developing group-work, creativity skills.This reading support is from our supporting materials for readers of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix(TM). It shows that even powerful wizards sometimes have to adapt their plans given new information and new data.
This ongoing doctoral research allows students to take pictures and describe problem solving processes for mathematical word problems using whole numbers and the four operations. To date, findings highlight students’ need to have strong reading skills to be successful on the math questions.
These processes distill to a foundational cycle expressed by Dr. Barry Zimmerman. Students plan and draw on experiences beforehand, then they execute and use metacognitive skills while solving problems, and they reflect after solving the problems. Most importantly, these experience inform future problem-solving efforts.
We see STEM all around us and would love to meet the STEM you see! We are recording videos and conversations that describe the rich STEM in our community. You can see a few examples below.
If you want to participate, please email us and let us know!
While presenting research at the American Society for Engineering Education (PPT here), I met some fascinating people engaging in some high-quality work. These “Thoughts from ASEE” posts highlight that work.
At Manhattan College, engineering or education undgrads can become Engineering Ambassadors. Sr. Mary Ann Jacobs and Dr. Zahra Shahbazi described how their undergrads support students in grades 6 through 12 explore engineering. They use engineering workshops and hands-on experiences so students were directly engaging in scaffolded problem-based activities. They found that 85% of students strongly agreed or agreed that the workshops helped them understand the work of engineers.
The Engineering Ambassador Network described this teaching as Right Messenger and Right Message, and we could not agree more. Students learn a lot from their peers and their near peers (students slightly older). Utilizing this fundamental connection to facilitate STEM growth seems like a win-win proposition.
They found that 78% of students felt they better understood how to “think like an engineer” after completing these activities. We saw similar gains with the FLEET engineering simulator (82% were more interested in pursuing a STEM career). Connecting students to engineering through hands-on challenges and near peer relationships is definitely a recipe for growing the STEM pipeline for years to come.
edMe supports learners in Fairfax, VA and across the country. We are particularly well-suited for after-school programs and enrichment activities. These four membership types show how we can help your child develop critical problem solving skills:
1. Gold Membership: Access to all of the STEM and reading challenges and supporting activities. This membership will help you read some of your favorite books and give you access to all of the STEM books we are publishing. Each adventure has places where you can show off your progress. These interim checks also give us the opportunity to provide feedback to better support your learning adventure.
2. edMe Family Pass: For families near Fairfax, VA, we encourage the family plan so you can come into the store and engage in STEM and reading workouts in addition to the workouts you have access to at home. We truly see our store as a Problem-Solving Gym. Come workout!
Our staff will support your challenge-based fun, while also identifying learning gaps and teaching impromptu lessons tailored to your needs. This pass gives your whole family access to personalized, fun learning.
3. STEM of the Month: If you want to enjoy the edMe STEM projects without leaving your home, sign up for our STEM of the Month club to gain access to our materials at the convenience of your front door. These challenges lead to hours of enjoyment and are supported by instructional videos that children love.
4. STEM & Reading Clubs: Schools and after-school groups should consider this level of support because there are also instructor-facing materials that help share our experiences teaching with these materials. The reading projects work across texts, so your students can read their own books and then meet to share their knowledge while heavily citing the text. The STEM challenges are tailored to elementary and middle school students with optional Math and Reading activities. In addition to the links above, there are Middle School STEM Clubs and Elementary Book Clubs, too.
