SME Outreach Resources

Hello SME Outreach Resources Community Group, 

Thanks to Michele Lawrie-Munro, AIME, for sharing her adaptation of MEC’s Very Attractive Minerals activity https://www.mineralseducationcoalition.org/lesson/very-attractive-minerals . In this activity, students will determine that some minerals, rocks, and other materials are naturally magnetic.  Find attached all the instructions and handouts she used. 

Michele has conducted this activity at the USA Science & Engineering festival with the help of local SME members.

Michele, We’d love to hear any other details on how this activity went and tips for others who would like to try it out.

Happy Holidays to all! Talk to you on our next call in the New Year!

Next Call

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

10 am (Mountain Time)

If you are able, please join us by Webex by clicking here.

Event password: Outreach1

With or without Webex, teleconference information:

1-800-615-2830

Pass code: 852114#

Thanks,

Rachel

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Rachel Grimes
MEC Outreach Coordinator
SME Inc
Englewood CO United States
(303) 948-4247
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Thanks for posting our extra materials, Rachel!  This was a great activity for 3 year olds to adults.  In addition to the supplies mentioned in the activity description, we found it helpful to have sanitizing gel since we had line ups of students touching the same magnetic wands (from Lakeshore Learning educators' store) and samples all day long! :)  Additionally, we used safflower seed (from birdfood section at Walmart) instead of sunflower seeds which held up well (and was nice to run your hands through).  And, we put the smaller bins of seed inside larger empty bins so the seed would not spill onto the floor when people were sifting through it.  We had the kids turn around so they could not see where we "buried the treasures".  Then, we invited them to turn around and become a mining engineer to help us find useful things in the ground for us to use in everyday items or for energy!  Once they found a sample with the wand or their hands, we would have them test with the wand for magnetism and tell them a few other facts about the sample and have them guess into which section of the container to put the sample.  We had labeled sections of a plastic sewing container with a lid with the names of the specimens.  Once they finished excavating everything, we offered them a sticker and materials to take home to track the number of attendees and reinforce shared concepts.  Many thanks, again, to MEC for donating the sample materials!

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Michele Lawrie-Munro
Executive Dir
AIME
Englewood CO United States
303-325-5185