Science-Based Valentine Day Projects
I really like using maker education and STEM/STEAM projects to celebrate holidays and special events. My method of teaching new concepts is to use the Stages of Make Education that I presented in Learning in the Making: How to Plan, Execute, and Assess Powerful Makerspace Lessons:
The following Valentine Day projects were completed by my 3rd through 6th grade gifted students. Due to the new skills involved, they were asked to copy the basic instructions. Then as is typical of my students, then went quickly into the Advance and Embellish Stages of Making.
Circuit-Based Valentine’s Projects
NGSS Standards Addressed
- Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
- Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another
Introduction
I began asking who knew what an electric circuit. Sadly, none did. I showed them Electric Circuits – BrainPop UK https://youtu.be/3LsXGAbwTOQ
Circuit Project 1: Conversation Hearts Box Operation Game
Project Description
The Instructable, Operation Valentine: a Game, a Gift, a Lesson in Electric Circuits, was used for this project. I substituted aluminum tape for the paperclip and pre-wired LEDs instead of the Christmas lights.
What follows is a video that shows how one student took this project from Copy to Embellish of the Stages of Making:
Circuit Project 2: Chibitronic LED Valentine Day Card
For this activity students were asked to create a Valentine Day card by making a paper circuit using a Chibtronic LED and a cardstock switch built into the circuit. I adapted the activity from two activities from their website:
- https://chibitronics.com/2020/02/15/valentine-light-up-card/
- https://chibitronics.com/2020/02/05/happy-valentine-with-light/
I cut out the front “cover” of the card using my Cricut machine to show a heart where the light would shine through. The students chose a piece of colored tissue paper to cover it. Instead of providing a circuit temple, I drew it on the whiteboard and asked the students to draw their own on another piece of cardstock.
This student were from the Copy Stage to the Advance Stage of Making by creating a popup card he figured out and crafted:
A Little Chemistry
NGSS
By the end of middle school, students will be able to apply understanding that pure substances have characteristic physical and chemical properties
Introduction
I showed them Physical and Chemical changes (Brain pop) https://youtu.be/hq8K-dF8_4c
Project Description
I used the following video as my reference for both materials and procedures:
What the students’ molds and candy looked like . . .
Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D.
User Generated Education 
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