Students examine how different balls react when colliding with different surfaces, giving plenty of opportunity for them to see the difference between elastic and inelastic collisions, learn how to calculate momentum, and understand the principle of conservation of momentum.

In this activity, students examine how different balls react when colliding with different surfaces. Also, they will have plenty of opportunity to learn how to calculate momentum and understand the principle of conservation of momentum.

Students learn about stress and strain by designing and building beams using polymer clay. They compete to find the best beam strength to beam weight ratio, and learn about the trade-offs engineers make when designing a structure.

Students act as engineers to learn about the strengths of various epoxy-amine mixtures and observe the unique characteristics of different mixtures of epoxies and hardeners. Student groups make and optimize thermosets by combining two chemicals in exacting ratios to fabricate the strongest and/or most flexible thermoset possible.

Students work in groups to create soap bubbles on a smooth surface, recording their observations from which they formulate theories to explain what they see (color swirls on the bubble surfaces caused by refraction). Then they apply this theory to thin films in general, including porous films used in biosensors, listing factors that could change the color(s) that become visible to the naked eye, and learn how those factors can be manipulated to give information on gene detection. Finally (by experimentation or video), students see what happens when water is dropped onto the surface of a Bragg mirror.

Students wire up their own digital trumpets using a MaKey MaKey. They learn the basics of wiring a breadboard and use the digital trumpets to count in the binary number system. Teams are challenged to play songs using the binary system and their trumpets, and then present them in a class concert.

Whether you want to light up a front step or a bathroom, it helps to have a light come on automatically when darkness falls. For this maker challenge, students create their own night-lights using Arduino microcontrollers, photocells and (supplied) code to sense light levels and turn on/off LEDs as they specify. As they build, test, and control these night-lights, they learn about voltage divider circuits and then experience the fundamental power of microcontrollers—controlling outputs (LEDs) based on sensor (photocell) input readings and if/then/else commands. Then they are challenged to personalize (and complicate) their night-lights—such as by using delays to change the LED blinking rate to reflect the amount of ambient light, or use many LEDs and several if/else statements with ranges to create a light meter. The possibilities are unlimited!

Students build solar USB chargers using solar panels, rechargeable batteries, and other components.

Students are challenged to design their own small-sized prototype light sculptures to light up a hypothetical courtyard. To accomplish this, they use Arduino microcontrollers as the “brains” of the projects and control light displays composed of numerous (3+) light-emitting diodes (LEDs). With this challenge, students further their learning of Arduino fundamentals by exploring one important microcontroller capability—the control of external circuits. The Arduino microcontroller is a powerful yet easy-to-learn platform for learning computer programing and electronics. LEDs provide immediate visual success/failure feedback, and the unlimited variety of possible results are dazzling!

This collection of curriculum materials is tied to five Wake Tech Building Automation Technology Program. The Building Automation Technology (BAT) program consists of five core courses. They can be taken in conjunction with a year of HVAC courses for a degree in the Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration Technologies program's BAT track or as part of the Facilities Maintenance program.

Students will gain the following skills from the program: wiring and cabling, reading drawings, basic electronic circuits for sensors and actuators, networking over Ethernet and EIA-485 with TCP/IP, BACnet and Modbus protocols, block programming of controllers and Python programming.

Currently available are documents for: BAT 111 Building Automation Systems; BAT 212 Building Automation Technology Logic and Programing; BAT 221 Building Systems Networking; Plans for main trainer; Drawings for thermostat trainer.

Documents for BAT 231 Building Automation Systems Integration and for BAT 251 Building Automation Control will be available June 2024

Students build their own small-scale model roller coasters using pipe insulation and marbles, and then analyze them using physics principles learned in the associated lesson. They examine conversions between kinetic and potential energy and frictional effects to design roller coasters that are completely driven by gravity. A class competition using different marbles types to represent different passenger loads determines the most innovative and successful roller coasters.

This activity was designed for blind learners, but all types of learners can use it to design and build a catapult that will toss a marshmallow or pompom over a distance of at least 12 inches, using the appropriate materials and tools safely.

Students create and decorate their own spectrographs using simple materials and holographic diffraction gratings. A holographic diffraction grating acts like a prism, showing the visual components of light. After building the spectrographs, students observe the spectra of different light sources as homework.

Students learn how to build simple piezoelectric generators to power LEDs. To do this, they incorporate into a circuit a piezoelectric element that converts movements they make (mechanical energy) into electrical energy, which is stored in a capacitor (short-term battery). Once enough energy is stored, they flip a switch to light up an LED. Students also learn how much (surprisingly little) energy can be converted using the current state of technology for piezoelectric materials.

This activity was designed for blind learners, but all types of learners can use it to discover how changing the shape of a material such as newspaper can create a stronger building material, then build a model of a skyscraper using the adapted material.

Students create and analyze composite materials with the intent of using the materials to construct a structure with optimal strength and minimal density. The composite materials are made of puffed rice cereal, marshmallows and chocolate chips. Student teams vary the concentrations of the three components to create their composite materials. They determine the material density and test its compressive strength by placing weights on it and measuring how much the material compresses. Students graph stress vs. strain and determine Young's modulus to analyze the strength of their materials.

Students design and construct electromagnets that must pick up 10 staples. They begin with only minimal guidance, and after the basic concept is understood, are informed of the properties that affect the strength of that magnet. They conclude by designing their own electromagnets to complete the challenge of separating scrap steel from scrap aluminum for recycling, and share it with the class.

Students conduct a simple experiment to see how the water level changes in a beaker when a lump of clay sinks in the water and when the same lump of clay is shaped into a bowl that floats in the water. They notice that the floating clay displaces more water than the sinking clay does, perhaps a surprising result. Then they determine the mass of water that is displaced when the clay floats in the water. A comparison of this mass to the mass of the clay itself reveals that they are approximately the same.

In this lesson, students learn that navigational techniques change when people travel to different places land, sea, air and in space. For example, an explorer traveling by land uses different methods of navigation than a sailor or an astronaut.

The laboratory content of the course is divided into six topics, each with a unique focus. Each topic is presented in two sessions: (1) a case-study session and (2) a laboratory session. These sessions meet in succession and are designed so that focus topics are introduced in the case-study and extended in the laboratory. In case study, the relevance of chemistry to the focus topic is developed and experimental strategies and methods are discussed and demonstrated. In the laboratory, students conduct experiments, acquire data, and analyze results to further their understanding of the selected chemical systems. Please check the course syllabus for the specific dates of the case study and laboratory meetings and check MyUI for your meeting time and room assignment information. MyUI is available at https://myui.uiowa.edu/my-ui/home.page. The course syllabus can be obtained on the CHEM:1120 course web page which can be accessed through Iowa Courses Online (ICON) available at http://icon.uiowa.edu.