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 having SciTrek Secondary in your classroom this Fall!  We are excited to have the opportunity to bring our amazing undergraduate Mentors and Leads to serve your 7th and 8th grade students with interactive, rigorous, NGSS-aligned science programming.

Check available dates below and email chem-scitrekmanager@ucsb.edu to request a Module for the 2024-5 program year

Module slots will be filled on a first-come, fist-served basis.  This program year (2024-2025), we are offering SciTrek Modules at the middle-school levels, 7th and 8th grade-aligned.  Any teacher is welcome to request these, but they are aligned to NGSS standards for these grade levels.  SciTrek High school Modules are in production and we will be in touch when they are ready!

After emailing to the email address above, our Program Manager, Dr. Gulistan Tansik, will be in touch with you to get more information about your class, your interest in SciTrek, and your science curriculum.  We will also communicate with you about the requirements of participation for teachers.  If SciTrek seems like a good fit for your class, we will do our best to schedule your Module(s) for the 2024-5 program year.  Please feel free to reach out to our Program Manager for teacher bookings anytime with questions (chem-scitrekmanager@ucsb.edu).  Scroll down for available Modules this 2024-5 academic year.

When you request a Module, you will request 1) a Module, and 2) a set of dates.  Both of these options are listed below.  All Modules may not be available on all dates below, but we will do our best to accommodate your request.  Earlier requests will be easier to accommodate.

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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