Secondary Schedule

Welcome to SciTrek Secondary, Serving 7th and 8th Grade in the 2024-5 School Year!

Thank you so much for your interest in bringing SciTrek Secondary to your classroom! We love partnering with educators to provide interactive, rigorous, NGSS-aligned science programming led by our amazing undergraduate Mentors and Leads.

All available SciTrek Modules for the 2024-25 academic year have been scheduled. We will begin taking bookings for the 2025-26 academic year in late summer—stay tuned for available dates and booking information then!

SciTrek currently offers middle school Modules designed for 7th and 8th grade students, aligned with NGSS standards. High school Modules are in development, and we will share updates when they become available.

For any questions, please reach out to our Program Manager at chem-scitrekmanager@ucsb.edu. We look forward to working with you in the future!

SciTrek Secondary Modules for 2024-5

Best Bread - In the Best Bread module, students observe cellular respiration using a common household microorganism, yeast.  Students investigate how to optimize yeast growth using a specific protocol of collecting CO2.  This module focuses on the best way to create the conditions where yeast grows at various rates and generates varying amounts of CO2 using these specific variables.  The final activity is a challenge engineering activity, where students work in groups try to get their yeast to create the most CO2. 

Conservation of Mass - In the Conservation of Mass module, students will explore how chemical reactions affect mass by performing several different types of reactions. Near the end of the module, the students are tasked with an engineering problem where they need to create a closed system to contain all the gas created in the final reaction. The main goal is to have the students realize that gasses, either as reactants or products, should be considered when they are evaluating whether the total mass is conserved. The students are guided in a discussion about open and closed systems and how gasses must be included when considering conservation of mass. 

Waves - In the Waves module, students learn how waves are mechanical phenomena that, in the case of sound waves, move through a medium.  Students have the opportunity to observe how different media can either amplify or dampen waves, and why. Students will be able to manipulate an environment to achieve the goal of amplifying or nullifying sound.  The final activity in this Module is a challenge engineering activity where students build an environment that allows sound to travel the best.

Module Schedule for 2024-5

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