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Meet the Micro:bits
Coding is easy and fun when students meet the micro:bits. Learn to write and download code, so you are ready to create your own scientific tools!
Meet the Micro:bits
Coding is easy and fun when students meet the micro:bits. Learn to write and download code, so you are ready to create your own scientific tools!
Student Edition
(English/Spanish)
Student Edition
(English/Spanish)
Student Edition
(English/Spanish)
California Wildfires
Watch Class Movie
teacher Prep
Lab sheet & activites
Class Movie
Watch Class Movie
Class Movie
Teacher Prep Movie
Lab Materials Needed
Blockey Koa Crate
from Kea STEMCrate
- 1 Springy Spring Scale per student
Student Lab Sheet
What Are Waves? And What Can They Do?
(English/Spanish)
(English/Spanish)
Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer 4-PS4-1:
Develop a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength and that waves can cause objects to move. [Clarification Statement: Examples of models could include diagrams, analogies, and physical models using wire to illustrate wavelength and amplitude of waves.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include interference effects, electromagnetic waves, non-periodic waves, or quantitative models of amplitude and wavelength.]
Pacing Guide:
Color Key: Green words- Hands-on Activity Black words- Book reading Blue words: Revisit the Phenomenon
Instruction day 1 (pages 2 - 3): Explore the Phenomenon
Summary: Students explore sound waves by making their own instruments .
Materials: Get the blocky cart crate from the STEMTaught shelf. Each student will need their own ramp and blocky along with some rubber bands to experiment with.
*You can also use a ruler and a pencil along with some rubber bands to experiment with.
Silly Sounds: "Use the tools provided and experiment with how they make sound. Explore how you could make some of these silly sounds by arranging your materials in different arrangements. Can you make a sound like:
-An Elephant Sneeze
-Hiccups
-A wolf's howl
-A roosters crow
-A lullaby
-Make up your own creative sound and tell us what it is!
Instruction day 2 (pages 4 - 5): Read, write and discuss
Summary: Write and discuss
Lesson Objective: Students reflect and write what they observed from their rubber band experiment.
Instructions: Give students some guidance for the first question and then have them fill out the rest of the questions on their own.
Instruction day 3 (pages 6 - 7): Read and discuss
Summary: Read, discuss, demonstrate and watch a video.
Lesson Objective: Define and describe ocean waves.
Introduction: Last time we brainstormed how to define what a wave is—and today we’ll learn the answer scientists have come up with!
Instructions: Before class begins, set up each pair of students with a Miney cylinder filled halfway with water. Read the pages as a class, then challenge students to see how big
Guiding Questions:
Ask: What did you do to make the biggest waves in your graduated cylinders?
Example: I blew really hard at a low angle!
Wrap-up: Watch this video clip compilation (1 minute long) of surfer Quincey Symonds (nickname The Flying Squirrel), a fifth grader in this video. Would you like to learn how to surf like that? What would your surfer nickname be?
Additional Resources
Instruction day 4 (pages 8 - 9): Read and discuss
Summary: Read and discuss
Lesson Objective: Students learn more about the characteristics of waves and where they come from.
Instructions: Read these pages with your students and discuss what they've learned.
Instruction day 5 (pages 10 - 11): Read and discuss
Summary: Read, discuss and watch a video.
Lesson objective: Students conceptualize the scale of the largest ocean waves.
Introduction: We watched a video of Quincey, the “Flying Squirrel,” surfing on ocean waves last time. But waves can get even bigger than the ones she surfs! How tall do you think waves in the ocean can get? Let students guess. (You can use yourself as a measuring tool—if you’re between 5 and 6 feet tall, you can tell students that a rogue wave might be about the height of 17 teachers stacked on top of one another!)
Instructions: Read about rogue waves, then watch the first part of this video showing physicist Dianna Cowern (from 0:08-0:50 1:12) describing rogue waves. (Next class, you can watch her explain more about how they can form!)
Guiding Question:
Ask: Why do you think scientists didn’t used to believe that rogue waves existed?
Example: They were far away in the ocean where not many people could see them and scientists need to collect more evidence than stories. Or, scientists maybe weren't very good at talking to other people and didn’t trust reports from non-scientists, like sailors!
Additional Resources
Instruction day 6 (pages 12 - 13): Read, discuss, and write
Summary: Read, discuss and watch a video.
Lesson objective: Students define troughs, crests and amplitude.
Introduction: Start class off by getting students to do the wave! You start on one end of the classroom, and students you walk by (or point at) throw their arms in the air, then drop them after you pass by. Experiment with speeding up and slowing down. Optionally, you can add a sound effect (like saying “woo” or “whosh!”).
Instructions: Read pages 91 and 92, pausing at the bottom of each for students to answer the prompts then check their answers with a partner before confirming with the whole class that students should have counted 3 crests and 4 troughs on page 91, and that the giraffe and mouse made the same number of waves on page 92.
Then, continue watching physicist Dianna Cowern explain how scientists predict wave troughs and crests might form the giant rogue waves we learned about last time! Play the video segment from 0:44-1:12, then play it back again. (You may consider slightly slowing the playback speed, depending on how well your students are grasping the content.)
If you’ve ever jumped on a trampoline or in a bouncy house, you might have experienced wave crests combining to make a “double bounce,” where someone can jump really high in the air because waves from two different people bouncing on the material you’re jumping on combine together!
Guiding Questions:
Ask: Do you think strong winds or mild winds would make waves with a bigger amplitude? Why?
Example: Strong winds would make waves have a large amplitude.
Ask: Could the mouse do anything to increase the amplitude of their waves? Do you think that would change the number of waves?
Example: The mouse could wiggle the string harder! That would make more waves.
Additional Resources
Instruction day 7 (pages 14 - 15): Read, discuss, and write
Summary: Read, discuss and experiment.
Lesson objective: Students relate basic properties of waves and demonstrate their understanding.
Introduction: Last time we learned about a concept called amplitude! Who remembers what a wave’s amplitude describes? (If nobody remembers, you can remind them by making a big wave with your hand and a smaller wave—the answer someone should give is that amplitude describes a wave’s height!)
Instructions: Before class starts, get out lots of long pieces of string or rope. Read the pages as a class, pausing to let students fill in their journal questions when prompted. Then in pairs, students play and experiment with making waves of various wavelengths, amplitudes and speeds following the “Experiment With Waves” instructions.
Guiding Questions:
Ask: If a wave has a short wavelength, do you think it has a high or low frequency?
Example: It would have a high frequency. The wave is moving fast!
Ask: If a wave has a big amplitude, like the one the giraffe made on the previous pages, do you think it needs to have a short or long wavelength?
Example: It could be either way! It just depends on whether the sound is high pitched or low pitched.
Instruction day 8 (pages 16 - 21): Hands on activity: Make waves! (Lab Day 1)
Summary: Make your very own paper slinky!
Lesson Objective: Students learn more about the characteristics of waves by making their very own paper slinky.
Materials needed: Scissors
Instructions: Have students cut out the paper strips and follow the steps on page 16. Have students pair up and follow the instructions on page 21.
Instruction day 9 (pages 22 - 25): Hands on activity: Make waves! (Lab Day 2)
Summary: Write and discuss
Lesson Objective: Students reflect on what they observed on lab day 1 and answer the questions on pgs 22-25.
Instructions: Help students with the first question and then give them a bit to answer the rest of the questions and then discuss their answers as a class.
Instruction day 10 (pages 26 - 27): Read and discuss
Summary: Play a game, read, discuss and watch a movie.
Lesson Objective: Deepen comprehension of how matter moves as waves pass through it.
Introduction: You can start the lesson with a game! Get the class all standing in a circle (outside might be preferable, depending on your space.) Explain that you’re going to pass a wave around the circle by crouching down and pointing at the person next to you, which will make them crouch down (students should stand up once the wave has been passed on.) Once the wave makes it all the way around, try and do it faster, then initiate multiple waves at once by crouching and pointing again while a wave is partway around the circle. This should get the students loosened up and having fun!
Did you notice that even as the wave passed through the circle, none of you moved anywhere? We’re going to learn more about that!
Instructions: Read the journal pages as a class. Then, watch this demonstration of pendulum waves. The physics that explain these patterns is very complex, but students can watch that as the swinging pendulums form wave patterns of various amplitudes and frequencies, the individual pendulums will come back to the same spot they started once they stop swinging!
Additional Resources
Instruction day 11 (pages 28 - 29): Read and discuss
Summary: Guide an activity, read and discuss.
Lesson Objective: Introduce students to the concept of waves that can travel through non-liquid matter, like sound waves.
Instructions: Read the pages as a class.
Guiding Questions:
Ask: We’ve learned about waves in liquids, like waves in the ocean, and waves that can move through the air, like sound waves. Can anybody think of a wave that travels through solid matter?
Example: An earthquake is a wave that travels through miles and miles of rocks and earth!
Wrap up: Create a thunderstorm in your classroom! Have the class copy your hand motions, and walk them through softly rubbing their hands together, snapping and stomping under their desks before going through the same motions in reverse. The sound waves you make together as a class will imitate a storm passing over you and then moving away.
Instruction day 12 (pages 30 - 34): Read, write, and discuss
Summary: Read and complete the exercises.
Lesson Objective: Students relate wave characteristics to sound waves.
Introduction: To get warmed up, make sure each student has a Mezzie Measuring tape and ask them to sketch a wave with a wavelength of 12 centimeters. Explain to students that they just drew the exact length of a special kind of wave that moves invisibly through the air, like sound does, and that many people use it to heat up food. Allow students to guess what you’re talking about. Students might be surprised to learn that the wave they just sketched is the actual wavelength inside a microwave oven!
Instructions: Now the class will go back to focusing on sound waves. Read the pages as a class, pausing as you go to let students individually measure the amplitudes and wavelengths and fill in the prompts. After reading pages 99-100, let students check their answers with one another and make sure everyone agrees before moving on (it’s ok if their answers are slightly different!)
Give students time to complete the next two pages before asking for volunteers to share their answers with the class.
Guiding Question:
Ask: How does measuring the trough and crest of a wave relate to its amplitude?
Example: The amplitude is half of the distance between a trough and a crest!
Wrap-up: See who in the class can make the lowest-pitch (or longest wavelength) noise! You can challenge students to hum or sing a single noise, like “ahhh” (or if you prefer something humorous, a single word such as “cheese”) deeper and deeper until they reach their limit. Make sure students know they should stop if they feel any strain in their throats.
Instruction day 13 (pages 35 - 37): Read, discuss, and dance!
Summary: Watch a video and sketch.
Lesson Objective: Students use what they learned about amplitude and wavelength to sketch sinusoidal waves representing the music of the corn dance.
Introduction: Ask students to share with a partner a sound that has special meaning to them. It can be music, or speech, or anything in the world that they can think of! Invite one or two students to share what they thought of with the class.
Instructions: Show students this video made by one of STEMTaught’s founders, then read the pages as a class.
Guiding Questions:
Ask: Do you think a sound wave from the corn dance would have the same amplitude for one of the people playing the drum (right by where the sound is created) and one of the people on the edge of the ceremonial gathering?
Example: No, we know that the amplitude must get smaller and smaller because the sound gets quieter the further you are from where it was made.
Ask: Do you think a sound wave from the corn dance would have the same wavelength for one of the people playing the drum (right by where the sound is created) and one of the people on the edge of the ceremonial gathering?
Example: Yes, we know that the wavelength must stay the same because the sound has the same pitch whether you’re close or far away.
Additional Resources
What are Waves?
Students are prompted to watch the Corn dance and Eagle dance on page 103 of the STEMTaught Journal.
Instruction day 14 (pages 38 - 40): Writing Workshop and Pop Cards
Summary: Reflect, write and make quiz cards.
Lesson Objective: Students review key concepts they learned about waves.
Introduction: We already finished learning about waves! Turn to a partner and share what the most interesting thing you learned about waves was. (After giving them time to talk, invite students to share with the class what their partner found most interesting, and see if any students came up with similar answers!)
Instructions: Get out scissors for each student before you start the lesson. Students draw pictures of each of the concepts written in the boxes. Then, they follow the instructions for cutting out and creating pop cards they can use to review and test themselves on important concepts about waves. (Optional: Play this relaxing ocean waves sound while students draw, cut and fold!)
Additional Resources
Instruction day 15: Evaluate
Google Forms Quiz: Teachers can access what students understand through this google forms quiz.
Click the link to copy this google form into your personal Google classroom.
Click to copy quiz to your Google classroom.
*No password is required for the quiz*
Coding Activity: Make Music
Students create a song by arranging musical notes in a block of code. They then program their micro:bit to play the song using alligator clips and a pair of headphones.
