Updating search results...

MMSLN

The Michigan Mathematics and Science Leadership Network (MMSLN) strives to achieve equitable access to research and standards-based mathematics and science learning experiences for all Michigan students. We advocate for professional learning and collaborate statewide and nationally with mathematics and science educators to create, implement, and evaluate leadership and professional learning opportunities for and with Michigan mathematics and science educators.

Resources with this endorsement are considered high quality math and science resources.

6 affiliated resources

Search Resources

View
Selected filters:
6.2 Thermal Energy
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
Rating
0.0 stars

This unit on thermal energy transfer begins with students testing whether a new plastic cup sold by a store keeps a drink colder for longer compared to the regular plastic cup that comes free with the drink. Students find that the drink in the regular cup warms up more than the drink in the special cup. This prompts students to identify features of the cups that are different, such as the lid, walls, and hole for the straw, that might explain why one drink warms up more than the other.

Students investigate the different cup features they conjecture are important to explaining the phenomenon, starting with the lid. They model how matter can enter or exit the cup via evaporation However, they find that in a completely closed system, the liquid inside the cup still changes temperature. This motivates the need to trace the transfer of energy into the drink as it warms up. Through a series of lab investigations and simulations, students find that there are two ways to transfer energy into the drink: (1) the absorption of light and (2) thermal energy from the warmer air around the drink. They are then challenged to design their own drink container that can perform as well as the store-bought container, following a set of design criteria and constraints.

Subject:
Applied Science
Engineering
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Assessment
Lesson Plan
Simulation
Student Guide
Unit of Study
Author:
Assessment Specialist David Fortus
BSCS Science Learning Ari Jamshidi
BSCS Science Learning Emily Harris
BSCS Science Learning Michael Novak
BSCS Science Learning Zoe Buck Bracey
Charles A. Center at UT-Austin Dawn Novak
Lindsey Mohan
Maple School Tyler Scaletta
North Shore Country Day School Katie Van Horne
Northwestern University Tracey Ramirez
Stanford University Abe Lo
Date Added:
08/04/2020
6.3 Weather, Climate & Water Cycling
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
Rating
0.0 stars

This unit on weather, climate, and water cycling is broken into four separate lesson sets. In the first two lesson sets, students explain small-scale storms. In the third and fourth lesson sets, students explain mesoscale weather systems and climate-level patterns of precipitation. Each of these two parts of the unit is grounded in a different anchoring phenomenon.

The unit starts out with anchoring students in the exploration of a series of videos of hailstorms from different locations across the country at different times of the year. The videos show that pieces of ice of different sizes (some very large) are falling out of the sky, sometimes accompanied by rain and wind gusts, all on days when the temperature of the air outside remained above freezing for the entire day. These cases spark questions and ideas for investigations, such as investigating how ice can be falling from the sky on a warm day, how clouds form, why some clouds produce storms with large amounts of precipitation and others don’t, and how all that water gets into the air in the first place.

The second half of the unit is anchored in the exploration of a weather report of a winter storm that affected large portions of the midwestern United States. The maps, transcripts, and video that students analyze show them that the storm was forecasted to produce large amounts of snow and ice accumulation in large portions of the northeastern part of the country within the next day. This case sparks questions and ideas for investigations around trying to figure out what could be causing such a large-scale storm and why it would end up affecting a different part of the country a day later.

Subject:
Applied Science
Atmospheric Science
Environmental Science
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Assessment
Lesson Plan
Student Guide
Teaching/Learning Strategy
Unit of Study
Author:
Assessment Specialist Colleen O’Brien
BSCS Science Learning Audrey Mohan
BSCS Science Learning Dawn Novak
BSCS Science Learning Katie Van Horne
BSCS Science Learning Lindsey Mohan
BSCS Science Learning Tracey Ramirez
Boston College Emily Harris
Columbia University Elisabeth Cohen
Indian Woods Middle School Ann Rivet
Indian Woods Middle School Whitney Smith
Lombard Middle School Vanessa Hannana
Michael Novak
Northwestern University Renee Affolter
Williston Central School Heather Galbreath
Date Added:
08/04/2020
7.3 Metabolic Reactions
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
Rating
0.0 stars

This unit on metabolic reactions in the human body starts out with students exploring a real case study of a middle-school girl named M’Kenna, who reported some alarming symptoms to her doctor. Her symptoms included an inability to concentrate, headaches, stomach issues when she eats, and a lack of energy for everyday activities and sports that she used to play regularly. She also reported noticeable weight loss over the past few months, in spite of consuming what appeared to be a healthy diet. Her case sparks questions and ideas for investigations around trying to figure out which pathways and processes in M’Kenna’s body might be functioning differently than a healthy system and why.

Students investigate data specific to M’Kenna’s case in the form of doctor’s notes, endoscopy images and reports, growth charts, and micrographs. They also draw from their results from laboratory experiments on the chemical changes involving the processing of food and from digital interactives to explore how food is transported, transformed, stored, and used across different body systems in all people. Through this work of figuring out what is causing M’Kenna’s symptoms, the class discovers what happens to the food we eat after it enters our bodies and how M’Kenna’s different symptoms are connected.

Subject:
Anatomy/Physiology
Applied Science
Health, Medicine and Nursing
Life Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Case Study
Data Set
Lecture Notes
Lesson Plan
Reading
Student Guide
Unit of Study
Author:
Abingdon-Avon High School Betty Stennett
Assessment Specialist Kelsey Edwards
BSCS Science Learning Jamie Noll
BSCS Science Learning Katie Van Horne
BSCS Science Learning Lindsey Mohan
Charles A. Dana Center at University of Texas Austin Heather Galbreath
John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science Nicole Vick
Lombard Middle School Michael Clinchot
Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance Kathryn Fattalah
Northwestern University Barbara Hug
Northwestern University Barbara Taylor
Northwestern University Kate Cook-Whitt
Northwestern University Michael Novak
Tara McGill
The Nora Project Emily Harris
Date Added:
08/05/2020
7.4 Matter Cycling & Photosynthesis
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
Rating
0.0 stars

This unit on matter cycling and photosynthesis begins with students reflecting on what they ate for breakfast. Students are prompted to consider where their food comes from and consider which breakfast items might be from plants. Then students taste a common breakfast food, maple syrup, and see that according to the label, it is 100% from a tree.

Based on the preceding unit, students argue that they know what happens to the sugar in syrup when they consume it. It is absorbed into the circulatory system and transported to cells in their body to be used for fuel. Students explore what else is in food and discover that food from plants, like bananas, peanut butter, beans, avocado, and almonds, not only have sugars but proteins and fats as well. This discovery leads them to wonder how plants are getting these food molecules and where a plant’s food comes from.

Students figure out that they can trace all food back to plants, including processed and synthetic food. They obtain and communicate information to explain how matter gets from living things that have died back into the system through processes done by decomposers. Students finally explain that the pieces of their food are constantly recycled between living and nonliving parts of a system.

Subject:
Ecology
Forestry and Agriculture
Hydrology
Life Science
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Module
Unit of Study
Author:
Assessment Specialist Kelsey Edwards
BSCS Science Learning Meghan McCleary
BSCS Science Learning Tyler Scaletta
Chicago Public Schools Katie Van Horne
Field Test Unit Lead and Reviewer
Hugh B. Bain Middle School Elizabeth Xeng de los Santos
James Ward School Mary Colannino
Jamie Noll
Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance Emily Harris
Northwestern University Christina Murzynski
Northwestern University Dawn Novak
Northwestern University Kate Cook-Whitt
Northwestern University Misty Richmond
Northwestern University Tara McGill
The Nora Project Michael Novak
University of California – Davis Cindy Passmore
University of Illinois Extension Katy Fattaleh
University of Illinois Extension Sue Gasper
University of Nevada – Reno Chris Griesemer
Date Added:
08/04/2020
8.2 Sound Waves
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
Rating
0.0 stars

In this unit, students develop ideas related to how sounds are produced, how they travel through media, and how they affect objects at a distance. Their investigations are motivated by trying to account for a perplexing anchoring phenomenon — a truck is playing loud music in a parking lot and the windows of a building across the parking lot visibly shake in response to the music.

They make observations of sound sources to revisit the K–5 idea that objects vibrate when they make sounds. They figure out that patterns of differences in those vibrations are tied to differences in characteristics of the sounds being made. They gather data on how objects vibrate when making different sounds to characterize how a vibrating object’s motion is tied to the loudness and pitch of the sounds they make. Students also conduct experiments to support the idea that sound needs matter to travel through, and they will use models and simulations to explain how sound travels through matter at the particle level.

Subject:
Physical Science
Physics
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Assessment
Data Set
Diagram/Illustration
Lesson Plan
Reading
Simulation
Student Guide
Unit of Study
Author:
BSCS Science Learning Gail Housman
Boston College Susan Kowalski
David Wooster Middle School Sara Ryner
Ideal Elementary School Jamie Noll
North Shore Country Day School Michael Novak
Northwestern University Chris Newlan
Northwestern University Tyler Scaletta
Renee Affolter
United Junior High School Katie Van Horne
Date Added:
08/05/2020
8.3 Forces at a Distance
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
Rating
0.0 stars

This unit launches with a slow-motion video of a speaker as it plays music. In the previous unit, students developed a model of sound. This unit allows students to investigate the cause of a speaker’s vibration in addition to the effect.

Students dissect speakers to explore the inner workings, and engineer homemade cup speakers to manipulate the parts of the speaker. They identify that most speakers have the same parts–a magnet, a coil of wire, and a membrane. Students investigate each of these parts to figure out how they work together in the speaker system. Along the way, students manipulate the components (e.g. changing the strength of the magnet, number of coils, direction of current) to see how this technology can be modified and applied to a variety of contexts, like MagLev trains, junkyard magnets, and electric motors.

Subject:
Physical Science
Material Type:
Activity/Lab
Assessment
Author:
BSCS Science Learning Joel Donna
BSCS Science Learning Kris Grymonpre
BSCS Science Learning Lindsey Mohan
Chicago Public Schools Betty Stennett
MA Thomas Clayton
Michigan State University Joseph Krajcik
Michigan State University Katie Van Horne
NJ Christina Schwarz
Northwestern University Will Reed
The Dana Center at University of Texas – Austin Michael Novak
University of Wisconsin River Falls Shelly Ledoux
Zoë Buck Bracey
Date Added:
08/04/2020