Integrated Science – Final Projects
After a great week at IMSA, the participants of Integrated Science created posters to summarize their research. Take a look at the images below!
After a great week at IMSA, the participants of Integrated Science created posters to summarize their research. Take a look at the images below!
Today was the last day of the Integrated Science program. All of the students are enjoying it and seem sad that it’s over! The students spent the morning presenting their ecosystem research posters to their classmates. There were some great questions and discussion! During free time, some of the students signed each other’s Summer@IMSA T-shirts. In the afternoon they finished up presentations and competed post-tests/surveys on the program. The week concluded with a presentation to parents on all of the great work from the week! (Check back next week to see all the posters online!)
In the morning, the students learned about water-based ecosystems. They focused specifically on the effect that keystone microorganisms have on the ecosystem and the health of the keystone microorganism Daphnia, which can reflect the health of the whole ecosystem. They designed experiments to observe the heart rate of Daphnia in various pollutants, compared to water. Then, in the afternoon, they performed their experiment. The students also had ample time to complete their project work. They finished up their posters in the morning and practiced in the afternoon. They will be presenting their work tomorrow for parents and family!
In the morning, students performed a Red Cross dialysis simulation lab using osmosis principles. They tested 12 mystery solutions to see which would be the best cleaning solution and the best dialysate solution. After they got their results, they made posters to compare with others. Visitors from Northern Illinois University who are doing research on exemplary STEM enrichment programs filmed the lab and interviewed teachers and students about their experience at IMSA this week. After lunch and free time, the students learned about photosynthesis and created their own experiments to demonstrate their knowledge. They were allowed to test several variables and their goal was to induce photosynthesis in a piece of spinach.
This morning, the students created graphs and examined trends on two data sets. For the first data set, they recorded their reach and their reach when they jumped. Then, the students recorded what temperature and at what time ice turned to water and then to steam when heated up. Afterwards, they observed the effect of adding salt to the water. The students created a class data set and made their own graphs to reach a conclusion for each activity. After lunch, the students had a tour of IN2, IMSA’s innovation center. In the afternoon, they applied their knowledge about how salt changes the temperature of ice and made ice cream! They also continued to work with their groups on their ecosystem projects.
Today was the first day of the Integrated Science Residential Program. In the morning, the students explored polarity in a lab setting. They determined if 6 different solutions were polar or nonpolar by seeing if the solution was attracted to a charged rod. They created posters with their conclusions, and created posters about the field of science. Then the students ate lunch and tie-dyed name tags. After lunch, they began to research their topic for their week-long project on water and ecosystems. Finally, they did a lab to compare dissolving and reacting by combining different solutions in test tubes and recording their observations.
Students must be entering 9th grade in fall 2017 and have completed a year of pre-algebra.
We are gearing up for summer 2017 and we are so excited to have all of you!
As we get closer to the start of our programs, here is some information that might be helpful to you.