Mansfield SDA School

Christina Dotson

Articles by Christina Dotson

  • The Age of Exploration

    The Age of Exploration

    In social studies class, students began by learning about the Age of Exploration–Christopher Columbus, Magellan, the Spanish conquistadors, and all the rest. To infuse STEM into this unit, we took the opportunity to learn about the ships used by these explorers. Then we dove into a study of buoyancy and the science of why boats…

    Christina Dotson
  • Forces and Motion…with Toys!

    Forces and Motion…with Toys!

    The study of forces and motion provides a great opportunity to play with toys! Balloon cars, wind-up toys, and more make this one of our most playful science units. Check out some of our activities below.     Wind-Up Toys: To learn about speed and velocity, each student adopted a wind-up toy. They measured the…

    Christina Dotson
  • Math Projects

    Math Projects

        Math can seem like a dry subject at times, but not when students are engaged in fun, challenging, and creative projects! Here are a few examples from our class.       Math Vocab Icosihexagons: One section of our classroom wall is devoted to a math word wall. Some of the word cards…

    Christina Dotson
  • Thermal Energy Breakfast

    Thermal Energy Breakfast

    A thermal energy breakfast is a great way to teach the three types of thermal energy transfer–conduction, convection, and radiation.         The class works together to prepare breakfast foods using thermal energy transfers. Radiation makes the toast, convection is at play when making hot chocolate, and conduction fries the scrambled eggs. The best part?…

    Christina Dotson
  • Ancient Egyptian STEM Activities

    Ancient Egyptian STEM Activities

    I love infusing STEM into unexpected places–like social studies class! During a unit on ancient Egypt, our class engaged in two STEM projects related to what we were learning.    Apple Mummies       After learning about the Egyptian mummification process (which the kids found delightfully gross), we designed an experiment using the scientific…

    Christina Dotson
  • Energy Robots

    Energy Robots

    I love it when students take an idea and run with it! This project started out as a simple one-evening homework assignment. Students were to draw a robot and write a simple description of at least four kinds of energy the robot would use and how. For instance, a robot might use sound energy to speak…

    Christina Dotson
  • Lower Grade Lego STEM

    Lower Grade Lego STEM

    My lower grade (1st-3rd) STEM class loves working with Legos. (Who doesn’t?) Usually we’re working on FIRST Lego League Jr. projects, but when the FLL Jr. season is over, sometimes we just need a few low key Lego STEM activities to wrap up the school year. Here are our examples of a couple of classics: Lego…

    Christina Dotson
  • Sound Energy STEM Projects

    Sound Energy STEM Projects

    When learning about sound energy, our class completed several projects to discover and reinforce some big ideas about sound. Here are two of them:   Build an Instrument First, we learned about the different types of instruments that make up an orchestra and how each creates music. Then the kids were given access to a…

    Christina Dotson
  • Measurement Escape Room

    Measurement Escape Room

    Using measurement tools and calculating with various forms of measurement are important life skills. But how to make practicing these skills fun and memorable? With an escape room, of course!     Dressed as a mad scientist, I informed the students that the science lab where they worked as assistants had suffered an unfortunate accident. The…

    Christina Dotson