Middle school myths. request from Twitter.

we do have a subsection of the board for kid friendly myths, as well.

Thanks for that, so not 7-9 yr old, but YEAR 7-9?... you see how confusing this gets?.
Its also how the modern UK schools get, and I always cant quite manage to work out what year they are.
I went through year 1-5 at SENIOR school, so I effectively left in the 5th year, tell kids that these days, and they are confused as I am trying to work out what year they are in at their school...


Its like a foreign world there, they do things exactly the same, but have switched out all the signs.

I agree. I think we are also officially supposed to be teen friendly, are we not?

Could we perhaps get a little more information about what purpose this will be serving?

Are we talking real science class experiments, or just something fun to do at an outing or themed day? What background knowledge do the students have in physics, chemistry and so on? At what level are they supposed to be challenged and what outcome is this person hoping for? Piquing curiosity in general, or specifically teaching the ways of the scientific method? Are the kids going to be designing their own experiments to answer question posed by the myth, or will they just go through the motions of one that we've suggested - testing method and all - and then trying to explain the results they see?

I'd love to help, but without knowing what the goals of this exercise are, it's difficult to come up with the right thing. It could quickly end up getting too easy or difficult, or just not anywhere near what this person is looking for.

For instance, if your teacher friend is searching for a fun way to practically teach Newton's laws, there's not much point in suggesting a myth that involves looking at how butterflies behave inside a jar. If it's something about electromagnetism, he won't get there by us suggesting myths that only involve levers and pulleys. If it's just a matter of doing something for a single period that gets them interested in doing experiments, maybe we shouldn't suggest things that might take a full day or longer.

I have extended the invite and welcome note to participate in the board.
I am suspecting that this teacher may be involved in pre-term activities, much as my Wife can see going on in her own school that she works as support staff for, so maybe he is "A Little Busy" right now, but we can only wait for the participation?..

They are welcome here.

Again, if anyone has suggestions, jump in, keep the thread relevant, and just hope we have a reply?.
I have stated we are more than willing to help, if they can just point us in a direction that is suitable.

If they're on a budget, just look at what Einstein achieved with thought experiments. Those shouldn't be ruled out.

In this day and age of interwebz in everyone's pockets, using your own brain to ask, imagine, explore and draw conclusions - even wrong ones - can be a great exercise in, well, using your brain.

You can get a lot out of a pencil, a notepad and an interesting question.

About the science packs -

One of the channels in the Discovery line-up is Discovery Family.

The channel first launched as Discovery Kids. When the ratings proved abysmal, Discovery brought toy company Hasbro and greeting card company American Greetings - which actually holds several intellectual properties - on board as partners to help re-brand the channel as The Hub. Discovery did exercise a clause in the agreement that allowed them to take majority stake in the channel back, so I don't know how involved AG still is. But Hasbro's still actively involved.

Given this, I'm wondering what would happen if Discovery sat down with Hasbro and AG to come up with full-fledged "science packs" as a joint project. Yes, a Mythbusters pack as a general overall thing, but what about something like a Transformers pack to introduce kids to STEM and a My Little Pony pack to introduce kids to the life sciences?

Not a bad idea to combine well known toy brands with science education. I like it.

Welcome to the board.

Just to clarrify for those outside North America, as I understand it 8th Grade is 13-14 year olds?

Thoughts;

I guess you could show off the principle behind a Harriers VTOL system using plastic piping and an air blower.

Air Plane on a tread mill might be a myth you could duplicate, at least at scale, if someone has an RC aircraft they are willing to loan you. That could be a case of running through and discussing the theory in class, then going outdoors to actually test the science.

In a similar vein the myth about birds flying in a truck reducing its weight could easily be tested using small drones - I'm guessing that several of the students probably own their own small drones or mini-RC helicopters.