This task is intended for instruction and to motivate "Building a general quadratic function.''

What does the brain look like? As engineers, how can we look at neural networks without invasive surgery? In this activity, students design and build neuron models based on observations made while viewing neurons through a microscope. The models are used to explain how each structure of the neuron contributes to the overall function. Students share their models with younger students and explain what a neuron is, its function, and how engineers use their understanding of the neuron to make devices to activate neurons.

Students use their knowledge of tornadoes and damage. The students will work in groups to design a structure that will withstand and protect people from tornadoes. Each group will create a poster with the name of their engineering firm and a picture of their structure. Finally, each group will present their posters to the class.

Student pairs are given 10 minutes to create the biggest box possible using one piece of construction paper. Teams use only scissors and tape to each construct a box and determine how much puffed rice it can hold. Then, to meet the challenge, they improve their designs to create bigger boxes. They plot the class data, comparing measured to calculated volumes for each box, seeing the mathematical relationship. They discuss how the concepts of volume and design iteration are important for engineers. Making 3-D shapes also supports the development of spatial visualization skills. This activity and its associated lesson and activity all employ volume and geometry to cultivate seeing patterns and understanding scale models, practices used in engineering design to analyze the effectiveness of proposed design solutions.

In this activity, the students test the shelters they built in Lesson 3, Activity 1 for durability and water resistance.

We are surrounded everyday by circuits that utilize "in parallel" and "in series" circuitry. Complicated circuits designed by engineers are made of many simpler parallel and series circuits. In this hands-on activity, students build parallel circuits, exploring how they function and their unique features.

Everyday we are surrounded by circuits that use "in parallel" and "in series" circuitry. Complicated circuits designed by engineers are composed of many simpler parallel and series circuits. During this activity, students build a simple series circuit and discover the properties associated with series circuits.

I created this rubric for Grade 3 health the focus was on bullying. I believe that this assessment reflects 21st century learning because I was able to incorporate technology in a purposeful way for students to share their knowledge. This assessment allows student to share their understanding of the important topic of bullying through an interactive app called sock puppets. This app provides student the opportunity to create a situation they have experienced or seen bullying representing it through sock puppets. In order to expand on 21st century learning next time I would give the students options on different apps they can use to share their understanding of bullying using technology.

Athletes often wear protective gear to keep themselves safe in contact sports. In this spirit, students follow the steps of engineering design process as they design, build and test protective padding for an egg drop. Many of the design considerations surrounding egg drops are similar to sports equipment design. Watching the transformation of energy from potential to kinetic, observing the impact and working under material constraints introduces students to "sports engineering" and gives them a chance to experience some of the challenges engineers face in designing equipment to protect athletes.

In this task students determine the number of hundreds, tens and ones that are necessary to write equations when some digits are provided. Students must, in some cases, decompose hundreds to tens and tens to ones.

Haida Art-Indigenous Art
Math Colour By Number
Sums 9-16

Bunny
By Allan Weir, Haida
NativeNorthwest.com

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.

This art history video discussion examines Edward Burne-Jones' "King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid", oil on canvas, 1884 (Tate Britain, London).

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Hope, 1896, 179 x 63.5 cm, oil on canvas (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

This art history video discussion examines Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones' "The Golden Stairs," 1880, oil on canvas 2692 x 1168 mm (Tate Britain, London).

Students bury various pieces of trash in a plotted area of land outside. After two to three months, they uncover the trash to investigate what types of materials biodegrade in soil.

This task operates at two levels. In part it is a simple exploration of the relationship between speed, distance, and time. Part (c) requires understanding of the idea of average speed, and gives an opportunity to address the common confusion between average speed and the average of the speeds for the two segments of the trip. At a higher level, the task addresses N-Q.3, since realistically neither the car nor the bus is going to travel at exactly the same speed from beginning to end of each segment; there is time traveling through traffic in cities, and even on the autobahn the speed is not constant. Thus students must make judgements about the level of accuracy with which to report the result.

This task provides a good entry point for students into representing quantities in contexts with variables and expressions and building equations that reflect the relationships presented in the context.