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Physics+C — Kinematics I: Car on a Ramp

This unit reviews concepts related to kinematics and the motion of a car on a ramp. It provides students with the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of concepts used to describe motion, including displacement, velocity, and acceleration.

Physics+C — Electricity: Series Circuits

This unit reviews concepts in electricity, including Ohm’s law and series circuit design. The model allows students to explore the relationship between voltage, current, and resistance and the connection between current and the average velocity of electrons in a circuit.

MSM Unit 1, Lesson 4: Matter and Properties of Water

In this lesson students learn about matter and properties of matter. Then conduct two experiments (that can be done at home) and develop a mental molecular level understanding of water. This lesson prepares students for the next two lessons in which they will be modeling the breakdown of water into its component atoms.

MSM Unit 1, Lesson 3: Decoding & Modifying a Collision Model

In this lesson students see a StarLogo Nova model of turtles colliding. Then they look under the hood of the model to see if they recognize any of the code blocks being used. (*Students are often surprised to see that the code they generated in the playground is actually used to run the model!) Students identify where in code the ratio is being produced and what the ratio of turtles is before and after the collision. Finally, students get to pick a ratio they want to produce and modify the mode

MSM Unit 1, Lesson 2: Colliding Turtles Playground

In this lesson students engage in creating, modifying and testing collisions and reactions (cause and effect) processes as instructions. Playgrounds are Google Slides with code blocks that students use to arrange and then act out as the computer processing the instructions. The concepts of ratios and examining ratios before and after collisions are made explicit.

MSM Unit 1, Lesson 5: Molecular Beam Experiments

In this lesson students explore a model of a molecular beam experiment in which two water molecules collide at high speed and break apart into their component atoms. In analyzing the ratios of hydrogen and oxygen produced by the collision, students notice that there is something wrong. Investigating the code of the model leads to the discovery of a problem that students can fix. Students can test their solution to fixing the model by running the model and seeing if it produces the components in

MSM Unit 1, Lesson 6: Decoding & Modifying the model

In this lesson students will be modifying the model of the molecular beam experiment to make a collision between different molecules. This time we will use hydrogen peroxide or H2O2 molecules instead of water molecules. Students will decode the model and make changes to the model‘s setup and collision code to model the collision and reaction. They will test the accuracy of the model by checking to see if the proper number and ratio of products were produced.

Chemistry+C — Titration: Acid-base Neutralization

This unit reviews concepts related to acid-base chemistry. It provides students with the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of processes involved in chemical reactions and how they can be represented and demonstrated using computer models.

Chemistry+C — Redox: Electrolysis within a Battery

This unit reviews concepts of oxidation and reduction through electrolysis. It provides students with the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of processes involved in influencing the equilibrium of charges within a battery and how it can be represented and demonstrated using computer models.

Chemistry+C — Periodic Trends: Ionic Compound Interactions

This unit reviews concepts in atomic structure and then provides students with the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the size of an atom as the number of valence electrons increases and the interactions with other atoms.

Chemistry+C — Kinetics: Rate of Reactions

This unit reviews concepts of kinetics and rates of reaction. It provides students with the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of processes involved in changing the reaction speed and how it can be represented and demonstrated using computer models.

Chemistry+C — Matter: Physical Change of Salt in Water

This unit reviews concepts related to matter. Students will gain a deeper understanding of processes involved in the physical change of an ionic compound dissolving in water and how it can be represented and demonstrated using computer models.

Chemistry+C — Chemical Reactions: Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration

This unit reviews concepts of a commonly known chemical reaction concept (conservation of matter) and then provides students with the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of processes involved in the energy transfer during a chemical reaction and how it can be represented and demonstrated using computer models.

Physics+C — Simple Harmonic Motion: Mass on a Spring

This unit reviews simple harmonic motion through experiments with a NetLogo model that simulates a horizontal mass-spring system. The model allows students to displace a mass that is attached to a horizontal spring and observe the motion of the mass.

Physics+C — Mechanical Waves: Sound through Different Media

This unit reviews mechanical waves through experiments with a NetLogo model that simulates a sound wave traveling through a medium.

Physics+C — Nuclear Physics: Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment

This unit reviews the structure of the atom through experiments with a NetLogo model that simulates Rutherford’s gold foil experiment. The model allows students to shoot alpha particles at a gold foil and observe any changes in the path of the alpha particles.

Physics+C — Kinematics II: Motion of a Ball

This unit reviews concepts related to kinematics and the motion of a ball near the Earth’s surface. It provides students with the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of 1-dimensional motion (a ball falling and accelerating due to gravity, a ball rolling on a horizontal frictionless surface) and/or 2-dimensional motion (projectile motion) and how it can be represented and demonstrated using computer models.

MSM Unit 3: It’s Getting Hot in Here

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MSM Unit 2: Clean Water

This unit spans across 6th grade math and science content.

MSM Unit 1, Lesson 1: Introducing Ratios

In this lesson students will participate in two activities then create their own ratio puzzles. In the first activity, they will learn about parts-to-parts ratios and complete an embedded assessment. In the second activity, they will learn about parts-to-whole ratios and complete another embedded assessment. In the third activity, students will create their own ratio puzzles to share. Throughout the lessons, the language of ratios is reinforced.

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