7th+Grade

Welcome to the 7th Grade STEM design Challange page.

Potato Lamp
7Se: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the classifications and properties of matter and the changes that matter undergoes.(Physical Science)

Potatoes

Pennies

Electrical wire

Galvanized nails

Alligator Clips

Small Light Emitting Diode (LED)

By attaching a low voltage bulb to a potato, middle school student can safely learn to create an electric charge. This science project is recommended for children from grades 3 through 8. Student will take a penny and wrap a piece of electrical wire around it. Then they should wrap the other end of the wire around a galvanized nail. Once this has been done, the kids can cut a potato in half and insert the penny into one half of the potato and the nail into the other. Students will then attach two alligator clips to the wire and the opposite ends of both alligator clips will be attached to the end of a small light emitting diode (LED). If the project is successful, the LED will light up. Fresh potatoes have been found to be most effective in this experiment

Skeleton Scramble
7Sc: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the function and interconnections of the major human body systems including the breakdown in structure or function that disease causes.

Poster Board/Card Board

Skeleton Template

Skeleton Scramble reinforces and tests student's understanding of the skeletal system.

Cut out two sets of the major bones from poster board or cardboard. Keeping each set of the bones separated, scramble the bones and place them on a large table.

Divide the class into two teams. Have one team member at a time run to his scrambled skeleton and place one bone in its proper place while naming the bone. After he is finished, have the next student run to the table, place a bone in its proper place and name the bone. Continue this process until an entire skeleton has been pieced together. The first team finished wins.

Film Canisters
7Sa: The student will demonstrate an understanding of technological design and scientific inquiry, including process skills, mathematical thinking, controlled investigative design and analysis, and problem solving.

Film Canisters

Small Objects (Suggestions): rice, popcorn kernels, water, corn syrup, paper clips, marble.

Paper bags

Film Canisters is a perfect game for teaching the scientific method and deductive reasoning.

Acquire one film canister for each student; divide the class evenly into teams of five or six. Divide the canisters among the teams. Fill each type with its own small object. E.g., fill one type (five or six canisters) with rice, one type with popcorn kernels, one with water, one with corn syrup, one with paper clips and one with a marble. Place all the canisters in a bag; shake the bag to scramble the canisters.

Have student retrieve canisters and shake them. Have each student find his classmates with the canisters that sound like his. This is his team. Have team see how the canisters float, roll, sound when shaking, etc. to determine what might be in the canisters. Have students form hypothesis using deductive reasoning.