The Salvadori Curriculum: Science

Each lesson plan is in PDF format. Select the lesson title to open the file.

Cementing Relations - Imagine that you were going to build a tall apartment building out of concrete. Since your building would have to be strong, sturdy and durable, you would need to reinforce its concrete elements—beams, columns, slabs and walls— with steel (or "rebars"). Your challenge is to use what you know about tension and compression in beams to create the strongest concrete beam possible. Develop a hypothesis for the best placement of reinforcing wires in your beam. Then test your theory by finding out how many blows your beam can withstand before it crumbles.

Electric Classroom - Your challenge is to create an electrical drawing that a construction crew could use to build a classroom annex. You know the number and placement of the outlets and circuits you need to light the room and power computers and other electrical devices. How would you communicate this information to the workers wiring the classroom? You will figure out how to indicate the locations of the outlets, fixtures and switches on a scaled isometric drawing of the room. You will also indicate where the wires should be placed. (This is a real challenge, since you can't see the wires.)

Fun With The Sun - Think about how the climate in your area changes with the seasons. There are times when it is hot outside and you want the interior of your house to be cooler than the temperature outside. There are also times when it is cold outside and you want the interior to be warmer than the temperature outside. Your challenge is to build a passive solar playhouse large enough to fit 3-4 students somewhere on the grounds of your school. Your goal is to use sunlight, shade, and wind to keep the interior temperature of the passive solar playhouse comfortable.

A Greener School - Your challenge is to select one of your school's building systems, such as heating, cooling, lighting or plumbing or waste, and develop a plan for an energy- or resource-saving alternative or modification based on research into that system. If possible, your class will chose one plan to actually implement.

How Green Is My Roof? - You will be designing and then building a section of a "green roof" for a house. A green roof is more than a roof garden. It is a roof actually made of soil and plants as well as more traditional building materials. In that way, a green roof is both a garden and a roof.

Sit Right - Your challenge is to design and construct a functional ergonomic chair out of cardboard. While that may sound like a difficult challenge, cardboard can be a very strong material if used correctly. In fact, there are many architects and designers who have built cardboard chairs.

Watts In Your House - Electric companies use "watt-hour" meters to find out how much electricity is used by a household each month. But their meters can't tell you how that electricity is used. Your challenge is to uncover that information by taking the following steps over the period of one month to measure electricity use for 6 major appliances: 1) Find out how much electricity each appliance uses (called its "wattage") by reading the appliance's product label and using those figures to calculate the wattage, and then 2) count up the number of hours during the month that each appliance is used. Once you have this information, you can then determine how much electricity your 6 major appliances use, how much this electricity costs, and ways your household might cut down on its electricity use and thus reduce its monthly bill.

Your Body A Building - Create a visual representation that compares the systems of the body to the systems of a building. It can take the form of a poster, a model, a computer presentation, or any other form you think communicates your ideas effectively.