Measuring the World
Get ready to discover all kinds of cool measuring tools and how they were created over hundreds of years. You’ll learn how modern instruments, like satellites, use things from nature, like salt flats, to help them work in space! Plus, we’ll explore how people measured things long ago without any fancy gadgets. Join us to uncover the secrets of measurement and see how it shapes our world today!
Understanding Food: Earth to Us
In this journey of food learning the travels from farm to table, students will participate in an exciting, hands-on exploration of food. This course will trace the fascinating path food takes from its origins on the farm to the final meal on our tables. Students will learn about food sourcing, processing methods like canning, and food preparation techniques, with the opportunity to see these processes in action. Throughout the semester, students will partner with Red Haven Restaurant in East Lansing to experience firsthand how local ingredients are transformed into delicious dishes, providing a real-world connection to the food system.
By the end of this course, students will have a deeper understanding of where food comes from, how it is processed, and how it gets prepared, all while fostering an appreciation for sustainable practices, local sourcing, and the culinary arts.
Minecraft
One of the most popular computer games, Minecraft at its core is a sandbox game that provides an environment for its players to explore and create. This class will focus on the Education Edition of the game to introduce students to programming to control the in-game abilities of their character, allowing them to make games that involve granting players superpowers.
Monday: Introducing and sampling the different powers that can be granted in Minecraft custom games. These include things like Speed, Invulnerability, and Flight
Tuesday-Wednesday: Having the students work in small teams to build maps and set up the interactions using coding blocks to complete a checklist of effects.
Thursday-Friday: Play the games, identify fun and unfun parts, and begin tweaking the gameplay.
Think Like a Scientist
The structure and rules provided by the scientific method are designed to give us confidence in our conclusions using a “trust but verify” mentality. To that end, they’re designed to both investigate a topic while being as repeatable as possible. We'll discuss how to think like a scientist by reviewing these steps in detail through hands-on labs, allowing us to design experiments intended to be repeated and to make alternate forms of the experiments.