STEM(in) with Steph

  DNA is the building blocks to all life Deoxyribonucleic-Acid, or DNA for short, is the genetic material that forms the basis of all life.  Without DNA, you would basically be a rock (i.e. rocks are not living and therefore don't have DNA).  Another way to think of DNA is to compare it to a building's blueprint; it is the instruction manual for constructing life.   DNA lives in the nucleolus of every living cell.  It takes the form of a double helix structure, usually depicted in a counter-clockwise rotation (upwards).  Some might refer to its unwound shape as a ladder, with two sugar phosphate 'sides' and rungs made of 4 nucleotide bases joined 1:1: Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, Guanine.  Unique is also the fact that if you look at the 'rungs' of DNA, Adenine will only pair with Thymine, and Cytosine will only pair with Guanine.  If you really want to get minuet, the whole of DNA is purposefully designed based upon the use of the 5 ...

The New Year is here and Problem Based Learning projects (PBL's) are once again shaping up for schools in our community. This time around, we are back with Oak Grove Elementary School to work with 4th graders. I won't give away their PBL question, but they are learning how a rain gauge works and will be collecting precipitation rates all semester with the CoCoRaHS Rain Gauge donated to their school. Our (Dr. Barbara Shaw and myself) first visit was to both introduce the PBL question and to teach kids how to measure liquids in graduated cylinders, beakers, and the rain gauge. The first step when measuring water is knowing that water has adhesive properties, meaning it likes to cling to surfaces. This can be seen when you pour water into a glass container and then meet the surface at eye level. What do you see? Probably something similar to the example below. Example of water in a glass measuring container. Where do you measure when it is a curve? Water will curve (...

  Animals and Spring Creek ! Third PBL panel sitting in three weeks, but I never get tired of watching kids present and listening to what they learned during their projects! This time around, 3rd graders shared with panel members what they have been learning about animals that use Spring Creek in the winter. This PBL was special to me because it's the first one I helped with solo (with PBL materials supplied by Dr. Barbara Shaw, STEM/K-12 Specialist). Sunflower Bird Feeder 3rd graders were definitely nervous going into presentations, but once they began to speak they showed they were confident about the information presented. Oct-Nov they had been learning about winter habits of animals and how they survive, experimented with bird diets (See Oct 21-22 Blog on Bird Feeder experiment), and learned how to ID birds by their silhouette's when we can't ID them with normal factors. Wild Turkey Silhouette The presentations used either photo slide shows or full power point presenta...

  Oak Grove 2nd and 5th grades present their results! Presentation time has arrived! Over the fall semester, Oak Grove Elementary has partnered with CSU Extension STEM/K-12 to provide learning materials and lessons to help students with their Problem Based Learning (PBL's) projects and final presentations. Soil Site Jar 2nd grade was charged with learning about soils around their schools and how soils might affect the water quality of Spring Creek? 5th grade had the exciting opportunity to study the creek itself to determine the overall water quality. Soil Layers October 30th was 2nd grade presentations and man oh man they delivered! Groups brought in soil sample jars from three locations around their school and explained the different soil layers and differences of the three mixes. Some groups also brought in a home made grass filter to demonstrate how soil can help filter water. All this helped to explain how soil around the school and creek accepts, filters,...

  Streamflow and RUBBER DUCKIES?!?!?! I'm thrilled to be able to work with Oak Grove Elementary this year on their Problem Based Learning (PBL's) projects. In partnership with Dr. Barbara Shaw, CSU Extension Western Regional STEM Specialist, we are working with 5th grade students to determine the baseline water quality of Spring Creek, which runs behind their school playground. Water is one of the most important resources we have on this planet and our students are learning to both appreciate and protect that resource from pollution. Not our actual rubber duckies Today we visited the creek with our supplies of waders, nets, rulers, measuring tapes, and rubber duckies! QUACK!!! Our goal was to look at 5 different locations around the creek and determine the rate of flow of water by measuring width, average depth, and water speed (by means of racing rubber duckies!) to calculate the water's movement in Cubic Feet per Seconds (CFS). The different speeds, volumes, and movements...