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STEM Lessons - Model Eliciting Activity
In this Model Eliciting Activity, MEA, students will learn about nutrition and the importance of keeping things balanced on their plate using the FDA recommendations. Students will need to rank meal plans and shake plans in order to help a restaurant catering company keep a successful business going. After students have evaluated and created rankings for their meal choice, they will write a letter explaining their rationale and thinking and find the bundle price. They will then receive a second letter asking for their help in ranking vegetarian shakes from highest to lowest to support an expanded customer base and find the bundle price. Students will now have the chance to learn a little more about vegetarians and their food choices.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
Students must assist an archaeological research team to determine which material ancient archers likely used to string their bows. Students must design an experiment to test various materials for power, precision, and durability. After the data is collected, they must develop a system to determine which material would have been most desirable for the ancient archers.
This MEA is a multifaceted lesson designed to address both the processes of discovery through scientific investigation and problem-solving through engineering. The full-scale MEA involves the development of a complete experiment and a proper lab report and then an application of the collected data to address the problem-solving requirement of the MEA.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
This resource provides a Model-Eliciting Activity where students will analyze a real-world scenario to solve a client's problem and provide the best possible solution based on a logically justified process. The students will consider a request from E-Z Go Taxi Cab Service to evaluate several batteries and help them decide which battery they should purchase.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
This MEA requires students to formulate a comparison-based solution to a problem involving choosing the BEST daycare based upon safety, playground equipment, meals, teacher to student ratio, cost, holiday availability and toilet training availability. Students are provided the context of the problem, a request letter from a client asking them to provide a recommendation, and data relevant to the situation. Students utilize the data to create a defensible model solution to present to the client. Students will receive practice on calculating a discount, finding the sum of the discounts, working with ratios and ranking day cares based on the data given.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
Climate change is already affecting us in many ways. Students will be asked to read from several sources to determine the most effective plan to address its effects and reduce carbon pollution.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
Students must explore and assess the implications various human and environmental factors are having on the yellow-legged frog population in California. Then, they must choose one avenue to attempt to help save these animals. Some options will work quickly, while others will take time to implement. However, the ones that take longer to implement are generally more likely to be effective for a longer period of time. Students will use knowledge of percentages to calculate population size and will complete research to explore the affects of human impact on the environment and the process of adaptation through natural and artificial selection.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
Students must choose which type of automotive power plant is the best choice for a car company to use in its upcoming eco-friendly model. The students must make this decision based on characteristics of each power plant, such as efficiency, production cost, and production energy. Students must decide what they feel makes the car most “ecological.” They may choose a very low-polluting car that is very difficult and costly to produce, or one that has more emissions, but uses very limited resources to develop. This lesson could be used to either as an introduction or a follow-up to a lesson about ecology, energy use and conservation, or human environmental impacts.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
Students are offered a proposal to rank recommended hurricane proof buildings based on current designs and stability in hurricane season regions. This activity provides students with an open-ended, realistic problem in which students work as a team to evaluate structural designs - resilient and safe, in severe weather conditions, hurricane winds, storm surge, water damage/destruction. Students will research hurricane history, anatomy, and behavior, with the impact on geography and human population. The designs of models demonstrate students’ knowledge of a stable hurricane proof structure used as a basis for coastal structures.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
In this Model Eliciting Activity, MEA, given a tight budget, students need to find the number of people that can be hired to film a soda commercial. Students will make the selection using a table that contains information about two types of extras. Experienced extras earn more money per hour than novice extras; however, novice extras need more time to shoot the commercial than experienced extras. In addition, students will select the design that would be used for the commercial taking into account the area that needs to be covered and the aesthetic factor.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
Students must decide the destination of a multi-billion dollar space flight to an unexplored world. The location must be selected based on its potential for valuable research opportunities. Some locations may have life, while others could hold the answers to global warming or our energy crisis. Students must choose the destination that they feel will be most helpful to human-kind.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
Rangoli is a traditional Indian art that is used in decorating the entrance of the house to welcome guests. In this activity students will explore and practice the concepts of positive numbers, negative numbers, absolute value, origin, coordinates etc. and will create their own Rangoli design at the end.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
Students are asked to determine a procedure for ranking healthcare plans based on their assumptions and the cost of each plan given as a function. Then, they are asked to revise their ranking based on a new set of data.
In this Model Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will categorize a list of stars based on absolute brightness, size, and temperature. Students will analyze astronomical data presented in charts and plot their data on a special graph called a Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram (H-R Diagram). Using this diagram, they must determine the proper classification of individual stars. Using their data analysis, students completing this MEA will develop two short essay responses to a professional client indicating which stars are Main Sequence Stars and which ones are White Dwarfs, Giants, or Supergiants.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
Students must help geneticists develop a new breed of scientific explorer. Using knowledge of genetics, genotypes, and phenotypes, students must select a combination of alleles that could create people better adapted for exploring dangerous areas and other worlds. Then, students must choose which genetic alterations to apply to themselves!
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
Students must select a tranquilizer dart to be used by the US Fish and Wildlife Service for researching large animals. Next, they must help the US Geological Survey choose a new drilling device. Each projectile has varying characteristics based on the temperature of the chemicals inside. Students must select which temperature lends itself to a reaction suitable for service in animal research or geological studies. Other factors due to temperature come into play as well, such as density and melting point.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
In this MEA, students will examine the diets of a group of animals being kept in captivity at a local zoo. Something in the diets is causing some of the animals to become ill, while other animals remain completely healthy. Students will analyze the data to determine what is making the animals sick. Additionally, students will explore the idea of diet as a limiting factor.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.
