The BHASD Explore program has been created for all students K-8. It is rooted in but not limited to the STEM subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and is taught using the Four C’s of STEM (Critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity). During Explore class students are asked to work collaboratively within small groups to solve a problem based on real world application using communication, critical thinking and creativity. Students will be introduced to Computer Science and how to write code using basic syntax and also learn how to program robots to complete specific tasks or experiments. Through hands on inquiry based learning, students are encouraged to learn by doing and never give up trying.
Grade 8 Description
In grade 8, instructional time will focus on four main areas:
- Design Engineering, where students will work collaboratively in teams to complete a series of hands-on projects that have real world application and require communication, critical thinking, and creativity.
- Computer Science 3. Students will keep practicing their functions, events, and nested conditionals. They will also develop more sophisticated operators and keywords as they strengthen their conditional logic skills and their flow control.
- LEGO Robotics. Students will be working on more advanced programming skills. They will continue to use the EV3 Mindstorms software and work to design and create programs to solve a variety of real life challenges.
- Students will explore different STEM Careers, take a STEM survey, and design a prototype of an invention within their field of interest.
Grade 8Units:
- Unit 1: LEGO Robotics 5
- Unit 2: Design Engineering 5
- Unit 3: Computer Science 3
- Unit 4: STEM Careers
Subject: Explore / Grade:8th / Suggested Timeline: Classes Meet3 times per 6 day cycle (12 total classes)
UnitTitle:
LEGO Robotics 5
Unit Overview/Essential Understanding:
In this 8th grade unit, students will recall and apply their knowledge from previous robotics courses to write advanced programs. Students will be using the EV3 software to program the robot to complete a series of challenges. They will need to design and construct a gripper to be attached to the robot and then program it to clear items from a mock runway. Students will also be programming their robot to have personality when someone approaches. The final challenge will require the students to build and program the robot to play a game of mini golf.
Unit Objectives:
At the end of this unit students should be able to:
- Design a gripper to attach and move objects
- Design and create a program to clear objects from an area
- Program a robot with personality
- Build and program a robot to play a game of mini golf
Focus Standards Addressed in this Unit:
Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
•Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.
•Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.
•Collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions.
•Use multiple processes and diverse perspectives to explore alternative solutions.
Communication and Collaboration
•Contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.
Creativity and Innovation
•Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.
•Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.
Technology Operations and Concepts
•Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.
•Understand and use technology systems.
•Select and use applications effectively and productively.
•Troubleshoot systems and applications.
Important Standards Addressed in this Unit:
Eligible Content – S8.A.3.2.2 Describe how engineers use models to develop new and improved technologies to solve problems.
Standard – 3.1.8.C4
- Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations
- Formulate and revise explanations and models using logic and evidence
Misconceptions:
N/A
Concepts/Content:
- Creativity and collaboration
- Construct a gripper
- Medium motor
- Sensors
- Sound and display blocks
- Loops
- Designing and creating advanced programs
- Develop and apply creativity and collaboration when working to complete the challenges
- Construct a gripper by developing a plan and testing its function
- Program the medium motor to operate the gripper
- Design and create advanced programs using different sensors (color, light, gyro, ultrasonic)
- Create a program using sound, display, sensors, and move steering to give the robot personality
- Design and create an advanced program that will make the robot complete a round of mini golf
The 8th grades students will be connecting all the skills learned from previous lessons to complete three complex programming challenges. First, the students will need to program the robot using sensors and a gripper they built, to “clear the landing” of a mock runway. Second, they will be giving their bot personality. They need to program the robot to respond in a positive way when someone gets close. Last, they will build and program the robot to play a round of mini golf.
Assessments:
•Students will be completing Performance Based Assessment Rubrics at the completion of each task or challenge.
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Mathematics
Science
Physics / Additional Resources:
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Subject: Explore / Grade: 8th / Suggested Timeline: Classes Meet3 times per 6 day cycle (12 total classes)
Unit Title:
Design Engineering 5
Unit Overview/Essential Understanding:
In this 8th grade unit, students will be using the Engineering Design Process to solve a challenge. They will further develop their understanding of force, motion, and energy by creating a rubber band powered car. Students will also be designing and construction bottle rockets. They will learn about the different parts of a rocket and work as a team to create a rocket that travels to the highest altitude.
Unit Objectives:
At the end of this unit students should be able to:
- Design and construct a rubber band car
- Measure distance and calculate speed
- Communicate design process and results
- Design and create a bottle rocket
- Apply the Engineering Design Process to assigned challenges
- Work collaboratively within a small group
- Use critical thinking to help solve a problem
- Use creativity to help solve a problem
Focus Standards Addressed in this Unit:
Standard: 3.1.8.A9
- Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations.
- Formulate and revise explanations and models using logic and evidence.
- Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and models.
Core Ideas: Engineering, Technology and Application of Science
•Engineering Design
•Motion and stability: Forces and interactions
•Energy
Eligible Content:
•S8.A.1.1.3 – Use evidence, such as observations or experimental results, to support inferences about a relationship
•S8.A.1.2 – Identify and explain the impacts of applying scientific, environmental, or technological knowledge to address solutions to practical problems
•S8.A.2.1 – Apply knowledge of scientific investigation or technological design in different contexts to make inferences to solve problems
Important Standards Addressed in this Unit:
National Science Education Standards:
•Content Standard A, Science as Inquiry. As a result of these activities, students should develop abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry (K-12)
•Content Standard B, Physical Science. Students shall develop an understanding of properties of objects and materials (K-4); motions and forces (5 -12).
•Content Standard F, Science in Personal and Social Perspective. Risks and benefits; science and technology in society (5-8)
Eligible Content:
•S8.A.2.1.6Identify a design flaw in a simple technological system and devise possible working solutions.
Misconceptions:
N/A
Concepts/Content: (know)
- Measure distance
- Calculate speed
- Engineering Design Process
- Collaborate with others
- Solve problems with critical thinking and creativity
- Potential energy
- Kinetic energy
- Newton’s Laws of Motion
- Aerodynamics
- Parts of a rocket
- Students will be able to measure distance and calculate the speed of the rubber band car
- Apply the engineering process to the given challenges
- Collaborate with others and use critical thinking and creativity to contribute positively in finding a solution to a problem
- Describe the potential and kinetic energy of the rubber band car and adjust accordingly
- Apply basic principles of aerodynamics when designing their rocket
- Design and create the different parts of a rocket
Students will be working on “Rubber-Band Racers” in which they will explore rubber-band car design. They’ll be working in teams as engineers to design and build their own rubber-band car out of everyday items. They will test its function, evaluate their results, and present their design to the class. The second project students will be working on is to design and construct a bottle rocket. Students will learn about some of the early rocket inventions and how improvements have been made. They will learn about the different parts of the rocket. After building background knowledge, they will begin to design their “bottle rocket” in teams. Once they have agreed on a design, they will gather the materials and construct the rocket. Students will then test the effectiveness of their rocket by testing it with the bottle rocket launcher. Students will make improvements and retest as needed. As a team, they will present their findings to the class.
Assessments:
•Students will be completing Performance Based Assessment Rubrics at the completion of each task or challenge.
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Physics
Speech / Additional Resources:
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Subject: Explore / Grade: 8th / Suggested Timeline: Classes Meet3 times per 6 day cycle (12 total classes)
Unit Title:
Computer Science 3
Unit Overview/Essential Understanding:
In Computer Science 3, students will use string concatenation to modify strings dynamically in their code to produce whatever text they want. Arithmetic will help players become more comfortable with using math in programming. Students will begin to explore compound conditionals and relative movement, which will allow them to move their character to dynamic locations. The will also learn how to manipulate while-loops.
Unit Objectives:
At the end of this unit students should be able to:
- Concatenate two strings with “string1” + “string2”
- Perform arithmetic on variables
- Perform arithmetic on “numeric literals”
- Perform arithmetic on properties
- Access a property using dot notation
- Write functions that return answers
- Define what a Boolean value is
- Understand how to use a Boolean
Focus Standards Addressed in this Unit:
•CCSS.Math.Practice.MP1 – Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
•CCSS.Math.Practice.MP2 – Reason abstractly and quantitatively
•CCSS.Math.Practice.MP4 – Model with mathematics
•CCSS.Math.Practice.MP6 – Attend to precision
•CCSS.Math.Practice.MP7 – Look for and make use of structure
•CCSS.Math.Practice.MP8 – Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning
Important Standards Addressed in this Unit:
Computer Science Teachers Association
Computational Thinking
•Understand and use the basic steps in algorithmic problem solving.
Collaboration
•Work cooperatively and collaboratively with peers, teachers, and others using technology.
Computing Practices and Programming
•Use technology resources for problem solving and self-directed learning.
•Construct a program as a set of step-by-step instructions to be acted out.
Computers and Computing Devices
•Use standard input and output devices to successfully operate computers and related technologies.
•Apply strategies for identifying simple hardware and software problems that may occur during use.
•Recognize that computers model intelligent behavior (as found in robotics, speech, language recognition, and computer animation).
Misconceptions:
N/A
Concepts/Content:
- Basic Syntax
- While loops
- Arithmetic
- Advanced Strings
- Input handling
- Return Functions
- Parameters
- Boolean Logic
- Break and Continue statements
- Apply basic syntax to coding activities
- Construct while-true loops
- Create a string concatenation to add or combine two strings together
- Apply computer arithmetic to coding process
- Create return functions that compute and return a value.
- Define Boolean as a data type with two possible values, true or false
- Write a break statement to exit out of a while-loop early
- Write a continue statement to skip to the top of a while-loop
The 8th grades students will continue to use and apply the basic syntax learned in other classes. They will work on the following strategies while problem solving levels in the game CodeCombat. They will be given kinesthetic activities to learn the strategies and then practice in a while group setting. Students will be learning how to adjust properties and unlock the additional game mechanic of real-time input handling with flags. The students will be learning functions that return values, to break up computations into smaller pieces. The will code the computer to execute breaks and continues within a defined loop. At the conclusion of the course, students will compete in an “arena” type setting to write clean code to defeat a “boss”.
Assessments:
•Students will be completing Performance Based Assessment Rubrics at the completion of each task or challenge.
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Mathematics
Problem Solving / Additional Resources:
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Subject: Explore / Grade: 8th / Suggested Timeline: Classes Meet3 times per 6 day cycle (9 total classes)
Unit Title:
STEM Careers
Unit Overview/Essential Understanding:
In this 8th grade unit, students will be learning more about specific STEM careers. Students will be researching different STEM careers that are available. They will take an online STEM survey to discover the top 3 careers that are tied to their interests and potential STEM career. Students will then be researching one of those careers to design and construct a prototype invention that serves a particular function in that career.
Unit Objectives:
At the end of this unit students should be able to:
- Describe different STEM career options
- Describe their top 3 STEM career possibilities
- Research a STEM job
- Collaborate and communicate ideas in a small group
- Use creativity and critical thinking to solve a problem or create something new
- Design an invention
- Construct a prototype
- Present information to a large group
Focus Standards Addressed in this Unit:
•S8.A.3.2.2 Describe how engineers use models to develop new and improve technologies to solve problems
Next Generation Science Standards
Practices
•Asking questions
•Developing and using models
•Planning and carrying out investigations
•Analyzing and interpreting data
•Constructing explanations and designing solutions
•Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Core Ideas: Engineering, Technology and Application of Science
•Engineering Design
Important Standards Addressed in this Unit:
•S8.A.2.1.6 Identify a design flaw in a simple technological system and devise possible working solutions
Misconceptions:
•STEM won’t be involved in my future career.
Concepts/Content:
•STEM careers
•Their top 3 STEM career matches
•Collaboration in a small group
•Engineering Design Process
•Construct a prototype
•Develop an oral presentation / Competencies/Skills:
•Research different STEM careers
•Complete an online STEM career survey
•Collaborate and communicate ideas in a team
•Apply the engineering design process during the creation of the invention or innovation
•Design and construct a prototype to serve a specific function in a STEM career
•Create a digital presentation to be shown during a class discussion
•Communicate and present their ideas to an audience / Description of Activities:
Students will begin this unit by completing an online guided tour to learn about different STEM careers, current statistics, and what the future holds. They will then complete an online survey which will give them the top 3 STEM careers that relate to their interests based on the survey. Students will then be placed in groups based on their STEM career choice and research that specific field. Working as a team, they will design and construct a prototype invention or innovation that will provide a specific purpose within their chosen STEM career. Students will then design a short technology presentation and present their topic and prototype to an audience.
Assessments:
Students will be completing Performance Based Assessment Rubrics at the completion of each task or challenge.
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Mathematics
Science
Language Arts
Speech / Additional Resources:
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