PASSIONATELY CURIOUS

In writing this activity, I wanted it to be just enough guidance that students without any specific knowledge of bonding and nomenclature could still interact with the series of challenges. To help with this, the activity starts with a one page crash course on ions, the creation of neutral compounds, and formula/naming standards.

Throughout the tasks, students will use puzzle pieces to represent different ions and visually represent the ions "cancelling out".

A periodic table with ion charges will be useful in this activity. I recommend using this one but any table with charges should work.

The first challenges start simple with common elements found in the first 20 elements of the periodic table. The tasks provide less and less scaffolding as they go. For example, the top row highlights with the same colors as the puzzle and charges preloaded but the bottom row requires students to look up these values on the periodic table

I have found that one of the most challenging concepts in ionic bonding is naming the multivalent metal present in a compound like Fe₂O₃. This part of the activity introduces the idea of multivalent metals and how to work backwards to figure out the charge of the metal from a compound formula.

A list of polyatomic ions has been provided in part 3 and all examples will pull from these seven common ions. For a longer list, see the back of the periodic table found here. Again, the first page in this section provides a crash course on some of the key details like parentheses and naming conventions when polyatomics are in this mix.

If the 3D printed version is a little much, the same hands-on experience can be done with cards that are printed on paper and cut out.

The following tools allow students to make sense of the raw data provided without needed to get to deep into the math of everything. These supports could be removed for more advanced students to provide more calculations.

​Students receive a curated list of 6 stars that have had exoplanets discovered in their system. Some of these stars have more than one planet so students have 10 exoplanets in total to determine which ones have orbits in the habitable zone and could potentially support life

In lieu of "raw data", a simulated spectrum for each star has been created in PhET. From this, students can either use PhET to match the spectrum by changing the temperature or calculate the temperature using Wien's Law (peak wavelength = 0.0029/T). This stellar temperature will be needed to determine the habitable zone around the star.

Each time a planet passes between its star and the earth, the star’s brightness drops slightly, this transit data can be used to determine the orbital period and distance of each planet

Original Images
All light curves were created using this desmos tool that I threw together for this activity. You can download the individual graphs below

Since there is a lot to determine about the stars and their exoplanets in order to determine which candidates fall in the habitable zone, it is useful to collect the data in a couple of organized tables.

In the end, students will find that 3 of the 10 planets have a semi-major axis that falls inside their host star's habitable zone but there is more to the story. The following analysis questions guide students to look at the role that eccentricity has in an exoplanet's habitability.

1. Of the ten planets assessed, which fall within the habitable zone?
2. Of the planets that fall within the habitable zone, what is the eccentricity of each of their orbits?
3. Click on the links for the stars of the potentially habitable exoplanets from the list below. As you drag the image around, notice the orbit of the planet relative to the green band marking the habitable zone (the planet’s current location is marked with the planet’s name). What impact does the eccentricity of a planet’s orbit have on its habitability?
4. Based on everything that you’ve learned in this lab, if you were to choose one habitable planet from the 10 candidates provided, which one would it be and why?

This activity was made as a google doc. See below for a pdf and editable google doc version of the student facing materials as well as the solutions with the tables fully completed

The following are some of the slides that I used throughout the topic to introduce the concepts needed for this exoplanet project

Note: This activity was updated on 12/30/2024 with a better sequence of game histories and discussion about the nature of science. If you are looking for the original files, you can send me a message on my contact page but I'm really confident that these updates are good ones :)

I typically introduce the task with an opening like this:

"This board game was recently discovered in the back room but there weren't any instructions in the box so we don't know how to play. Luckily, we have a recorded history of  games that were played by players that knew the rules.  From these example games, I need you to recreate the list of rules so that we have something to add to the box for the next people that want to play"

After having some time to watch or recreate "Game A", each group was asked to write out the rules in as much detail as they could to reference when we compared notes together as a class.

Here are some examples of the rules that my students came up with:

After 5 minutes or so, we came back together as a group. Together, we create a an "Official Classroom Rules" document in the front of the room by each group sharing a rule one at a time until we didn't have anything new left to add. We star or circle any rules that we define as "fringe rules" where the students find some creative patterns that seem true for Game A but don't feel confident that they are necessarily universal to the game as a whole.

Ultimately, I close this task by bring the conversation back to how this process resembles the process of science, and more specifically, physics. In physics, the laws of nature were never provided as a list of rules or equations that were just written down somewhere. Instead, the "rules" that we discuss were formulated by observing how nature operates. 

Some highlights from past discussions that I've had with students and teachers

• “Rules” are often grounded in past experience
• Can only define conditions that we’ve observed
• No way of fully confirming our predictions unless provided with just the right data
• Can use the rules to play the game ourselves

There are 4 other games without rules like this one included in David Maloney's post about "Learning the 'Game' of Science". The one that this is based off of is called "SciGame Delta". I found the other ones to be considerably more difficult and, honestly, I wasn't able to completely make sense of any of the others in the time that I spent exploring them. This doesn't mean the the students couldn't do it though. In fact, it could make it that much more exciting of a challenge. :)

This file contains the game board, game pieces, and the records of "Game A" and "Game B". I printed out the game pieces of red and yellow paper to match with the Y and R designations on the game records but it isn't necessary to figure out the game play.

To simplify the logistics of the activity, I put together some high quality animations of the 2 game histories. These videos or animated GIFs can be shared with students or groups to make observations and determine the rules of the game. There are some cases when I prefer the tactile exploration from the game histories but this does a pretty job satisfying the overall goal :)

To celebrate the end of mechanics in my physics classes, students put it all together in one final problem that incorporates a little bit of everything!

A 0.2-kg steel ball is launched by a 115 N/m spring compressed by 0.2 m. It rolls frictionlessly through a loop with a radius of 0.38 m and into a 0.15-kg box. The box catches the ball and immediately starts sliding on a portion of the table with a coefficient of friction of 0.527. After sliding for 0.5 meters, the ball and box launch horizontally off the 1.15-m tall table.

If you want a way to share this animation without sending students to this website, I loaded it to a the most boring Google Site ever :)

This huge problem covers a little bit of everything in mechanics:

• Energy Conservation (elastic potential, gravitational potential, kinetic)
• Free body diagrams
• Circular motion (centripetal force, normal force in a loop)
• Conservation of Momentum (hit and stick collision)
• Work
• Friction
• Projectiles

One of the biggest challenges for students with a problem like this is making connections and identify what strategies to use where. In an effort to assist without doing the problem for them, I developed a list of hints.

I printed this as a double-sided packet that students could rip off the first page and have the diagram and scenario visible at all times

I was really proud of making this animation entirely on Microsoft Powerpoint. If you are interested in seeing the magic or want to tweak the inputs, here is the editable animation file

This pictogram puzzle is intended to guide groups to the chemical formula of Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) to open the 4 letter alpha lock.

The google form is set up with a series of multiple choice questions. Each question includes a photo of a chemical compound with its name or formula listed below it. Students are responsible for identifying the corresponding name or formula among a list of worthy distractors.

As they go through the form, they do not get any feedback until they complete the tenth and final question. If they did not answer every single question correctly, they will receive the following message to notify them that they made at least one error but doesn't provide them with any information about how many questions were wrong or which ones they missed.

If they correctly answer each question they get to the "Congratulations" screen shown below.

When they submit the form, they receive the confirmation message shown below:
​
“Can you feel the MERCURY rising? It's time to IRON out all of the kinks and keep working persistently through thick and TIN. Set the example and others will follow your LEAD!”

This clue corresponds to the metal used in each of the four multivalent compounds on the cards and indicates the order in which to organize the numbers to create the combination to unlock the 4-digit number lock.

Hopefully, students will recognize that there is a clue taped to the back of the toolbox that contains the same emoji symbols as the cards. If they fill in the shapes that contain viable compounds, they will reveal the 3 digit number combination to get into the small box.

Once inside the small box, students gain access to the UV flashlight. Before laminating the ion cards, I use a uv marker to write the words "Periodic" and "Table" on the backs  of the two blank ion cards. I also used the marker to fill in one of the elements on the periodic table card that gets taped to the bottom of the toolbox.

Once the students know the element that is highlighted on their periodic table clue, they can locate the corresponding element envelope taped to the periodic table poster or white board in the front of the room. This envelope contains the missing key for the Masterlock on their box.

For the 5th and final lock, students receive a set of transparencies along with a square card displaying 4 element symbols. Each of the transparencies contains a series of dots representing the Lewis Dot Structure of one of the elements included on the square card. If all of the pieces are overlaid correctly, they will reveal the combination for the 3-digit number lock.

Since the image on the transparencies can be viewed just as easily on either side of the card, each one contains a small word in the corner. In order for the puzzle to work appropriately, each card must be flipped so that this word can be read as normal.

​I knew going into this task that I wanted to make something that I could use over and over without a huge reset between class periods. Because of this, I chose to print out all of the clues on card stock and laminate everything with my handy thermal laminator. Of course, it would work just fine on regular paper as well. Just be prepared to have sets of clues to refill the boxes if you are doing this for multiple classes in a row. I wouldn't expect that you will be able to reuse any of the printouts from class to class because it's almost guaranteed that someone will write on them even if instructed not to. This was another great benefit of the lamination because students were able to write on the clues with a dry erase marker or Vis-a-Vis wet erase transparency marker and wipe it clean at the end of class. ​

Recently, my powerpoint program has updated to colorful emojis so I'll include both versions here

Below you will find a .zip file of the digital (PDF and editable) files needed for this breakout task. All of the files are included individually in the sections above as well but it's nice to get everything in one tidy package!

​Download an outline of this task (essentially a printer friendly version of this blog post) 

There are several other breakouts can can be found on this website as well as some information on assembling a breakout kit and designing your own task. More details can be found at the links below: