Center for K-12 STEM Education

What can we do to keep ours brains functioning healthily throughout our lifetime? Create a model brain with pipe cleaners. Pull cards with good habits that help support your brain with straws, or pull cards with bad habits and weigh your brain's structure down. Students will model how habits, such as a good nights sleep, can lead to healthy brain development. 

In this workshop we will first cover an introduction to how plant adapt to their environment via leaf shape and floral color and shape/pollination and genetics/crossing. In groups, the students then examine two different species of monkeyflowers and take measure traits on these "parental" species. Students will then take the same simple measurements, with rules, on second generation hybrid plants. Data will be collected across the class and we will plot the data in excel or R. While we are plotting the data the student practice crossing the plants via pollination. At the end, student talk about the difference in the data for each plant and come up with hypotheses about what may cause these differences.

We will look at mathematical "flowers" using a simple deck of playing cards. Students will explore when mathematical flowers become magic, using foundational mathematical skills, like addition, developed in their class. A flower becomes magic when each group of numbers on a line has the same sum. 

This workshop will present to the students to how pandemics are created through an animal species, a proper route of transmission, and what a possible cure could look like. Once we have discussed the necessary terms and concepts to understand pandemics, the students will get a few options to create their own pandemic in small groups. After they are finished, they will present their pandemic schematic. Lastly, the workshop will cover the current topics of COVID-19 and make sure the students comprehend its implication on the Nola population.

Using the online software GeoGebra as an interactive medium, the workshop leader will propose synthetic geometry problems. The workshop will provide the students with basic knowledge of geometry facts and utilize the students' creativity in solving problems and creating geometric designs using math. 

This workshop allows students to emulate the training medical students receive on their path to becoming a physician. Background information is provided on the role doctors play in everyday health and the many fields doctors work in. The students then create a stethoscope using provided materials and learn some basic clinical skills, specifically learning about heart health physiology including blood pressure, heart rate, and heart sounds. Students will understand the importance of keeping the heart happy by staying healthy.

In this workshop, students will build off their prior knowledge of the digestive system and work in groups to further understand the importance and mechanics of the digestive tract. The students will learn the path food takes as well as an overview of macromolecules, different methods the body uses to digest food, and how nutrients are absorbed. To enhance learning and test their knowledge, the students then work in teams to complete an interactive online quiz game, with winners announced at the end.

Students will learn about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the impacts oil spills have on the environment and wildlife, especially the different species of water birds that are affected. Throughout the workshop, students will follow scientific lab procedure to complete an experiment which tests the best methods for cleaning bird feathers affected with oil. At the end of the workshop, students will review and learn real-life methods used to clean up oil spills.

Students are introduced to the concepts of survival and adaptability for animals in their environments. Real world examples of habitats and animal traits are presented for students to observe, examine, and discuss which characteristics would make certain animals successful in a given habitat. Students then create their own animal to survive in a habitat given a list of parameters. 

Real leaves a distributed to the students to observe and think about plant form and function. Leaf traits, such as shape, color, and texture, are observed, and the functions of leaves are discussed. Students then use their creativity to do a leaf rubbing and design. Students' knowledge is tested at the end with a fun and interactive quiz.

This activity focuses on increasing the exposure of students to live insects while teaching them ecological and evolutionary concepts such as: adaptation, natural selection, the classification of arthropods, and food chains.

DNA is found in all living things and determines the function of every living cell.  But what does DNA look like? What does it feel like?  In this workshop, students will isolate DNA from strawberries using common household items (soap, salt and rubbing alcohol), while learning about the properties of DNA.

The activity will be looking at how much carbon dioxide is produced based on how much sugar or yeast is used.  The basic idea is to create a solution of warm water, yeast, and sugar to a bottle and attach a balloon to the top of the bottle. As the yeast consumes the sugar, it releases carbon dioxide, causing the balloon to inflate!

Bioarchaeology the scientific study of the human skeleton from archaeological contexts. For bioarchaeologists, the skeleton is oftentimes the only record of what life was like thousands of years ago. In the New Life in Buried Bones workshop, students learn how the human skeleton the like a "boney diary" that record all sorts of information about a person: their health, the food they ate, and even injuries! Using real  human skeletal remains, this workshop will show students how this specialized knowledge of the human skeletal is useful for solving archaeological mysteries and exploring what life was like in the past. Let's bring human bones to life!

This workshop will introduce the students to West African viruses, Ebola and Lassa. We will begin with an age-related description of each virus, mechanisms of the immune system to fight the viruses, and what symptoms/outcomes and populations are seen during epidemics. The lecture portion will also highlight the recent outbreaks of Ebola and Lassa in parts of West Africa to keep the information time-sensitive and relevant. After the lecture, the students will make Lassa virus models through arts and crafts for them to take home their personal viral models. 

Students will understand the breakdown and absorption of medicine in the body. Students will be challenged to develop their own pill coating, using household materials, that will aid in the safe and timed release of their "drug". 

Students will be making a wave machine with the help of duct tape, wooden sticks and jelly babies with the guidance of instructor. After completing the model, instructor will show some phenomena and asks questions related to speed, energy, interference and wave. It is an engaging activity which will help them to understand the basic of the wave portion in Physics.

Students will mainly work with mirrors and periscope kits to know about the behave of light and how it can be used in our daily life by simple rules.

What are earthquakes? Where and how often do they occur? In this activity, students learn about basic earthquake concepts, including different kinds of seismic waves via physical demonstration (slinky) and video animations. We explore how buildings respond to ground shaking brought about by these seismic waves in a hands-on activity on resonance frequency using manila folder cut-ups and paper clips. The session then culminates with a group activity (4-5 students each) where students use pasta and marshmallows to build a structure that could withstand ground shaking, to highlight devices such as diagonal braces that make our buildings safer.

What is a virus? How do they make us sick? And more importantly, how can we stop them? Discuss virology (define virus and the spread of viruses) and ways to prevent/reduce catching viral infection, such as the common cold and flu. The class activity uses GloGerm and UV light to illustrate the importance of hand-washing technique.