Central Michigan University ● EHS 464 ● (989)774-1710 ● Web: gems.cmich.edu ● Email:

GEMS SPRING 2015 WORKSHOPS

Build It!
Festival
1.  / Friday, January 30, 2015 ● (Grades K-6)
This GEMS festival session includes a wide assortment of classroom learning-station activities that emphasize construction, geometric challenges, and spatial visualization. Activities involve students in free exploration of materials and lay the foundation for mathematical challenges. / EHS 129
1:00-4:00 pm
Cost: $5.00
Guide Cost (optional): $22.40
Acid Rain
/ Friday, February 20, 2015 ● (Grades 6-8)
In this stimulating unit, students learn about acids, bases, and the pH scale; make “fake lakes” and determine how their pH changes after an acid rainstorm; present a play on the effects of acid rain on aquatic life; determine the effects of various dilutions of acid on seed germination; and hold a town meeting to discuss possible solutions to the problem of acid rain. / EHS 129
1:00-4:00 pm
Cost: $5.00
Guide Cost (optional): $18.40
1.  Math on the
2.  Menu / Friday, February 27, 2015 ● (Grades 3-5)
In this engaging series of cooperative activities, students plunge in to help the fictional Rosada family as it opens, equips, and expands a Mexican restaurant...with all the attendant real-life mathematical challenges. Students eagerly apply different problem-solving strategies as they plan and enlarge the tostadas menu, determine different combinations of ingredients, analyze costs, set prices, and address interior logistics when the restaurant expands to a second location. / EHS 129
1:00-4:00 pm
Cost: $5.00
Guide Cost (optional): $14.40
Treasure Boxes / Friday, March 20, 2015 ● (Grades K-3)
From postage stamps to bottle caps, a child's precious collections are natural starting points for guided exploration and mathematics activites, and can galvanize discussion of environmental concepts. In this engaging, innovative series of mathematics activities, children create personal collections of recycled, "found," and inexpensive objects and investigate their properties, calling many important science and math skills into play. / EHS 129
1:00-4:00 pm
Cost: $5.00
Guide Cost (optional): $14.40
Bubble Festival
1.  / Friday, April 3, 2015 ● (Grades K-6)
This learning-station approach to guided discovery encourages independent thinking and cooperative learning while bringing great fun and excitement to the classroom. From "Bubble Shapes" and "Bubble Measurement" to "Bubble Skeletons" and "Body Bubbles,” this includes a wide assortment of classroom learning-station activities that emphasize construction, geometric challenges, and spatial visualization. / EHS 129
1:00-4:00 pm
Cost: $5.00
Guide Cost (optional): $16.80
Mystery Festival
1.  / Friday, April 17, 2015 ● (Grades 2-8)
This unit explores many key content areas and emphasizes the important distinction between evidence and inference. The many crime-lab procedures include thread tests, powder tests, DNA comparison, chromatography, and fingerprinting. / EHS 129
1:00-4:00 pm
Cost: $5.00
Guide Cost (optional): $20.40