Thursday students traveled to the KU Natural History Museum to participate in the Rock Clocks workshop. This workshop provides an introduction to geological time with activities that investigate relative and absolute dating. After a lunch in the KU Student Union, students continued their studies with a scavenger hunt in the Fossil Hall.
One sheet of paper was the only material offered to students as they were asked to build a paper bridge spanning an 8 inch gap. Pennies and weights were added to the bridges to test the weight capacity of each bridge. By folding, bending, and altering the paper, Wednesday students built bridges that held up to 1.6 pounds. Not to be outdone, our Monday group had a bridge that held almost a full 2 pounds. Impressive on all accounts. On a recent dig, our young paleontologists unearthed bones for a newly discovered species. Students were assigned the task of designing and constructing a landing pad for an egg using only copy paper and masking tape. The landing pad was to prevent a chicken egg from breaking after it had accelerated under the force of gravity for a distance of one meter. Science concepts of gravity, kinetic energy, and acceleration were explored. Exploring lift, rotation, and the functions of a wing or rotor, students engineered artificial Spaghetti Flies. Students began with a question, gathered evidence, and used their results to formulate answers while observing density in this science experiment. |