Scaffolds

Scaffolds are the activities indirectly supporting students to find their way through the PBL unit. There for the Scaffold activities are well planned and supported the PBL unit if they provide indirect guidance to students in areas where they usually find trouble moving through.

Facing an ill-structured problem, anyone can have an uncertainty about the starting point. The proposed field trip to "Fair Oaks Dairy" is intended to provide students with insights about how things are done.
 * Where to Start From **

Student may have difficulty understanding how to measure the energy that their selected biomass produces. On the second Monday (or earlier if you feel it’s necessary), do the traditional Heat Measurement Lecture and walk students through the steps of solving heat and calorimetry problems. Use the heat assignment (due that Friday) to determine if students have understood the concept and can manipulate the equations. If student are having trouble with the algebra you may want to direct them to khanacademy.org, specifically the [|Variables Expressions and Equations] videos. media type="youtube" key="vDqOoI-4Z6M" height="315" width="560"
 * Calculations **

Many student hate working in groups because most of the responsibility ends up falling to one overachieving student. Be sure to introduce group work with activities such as NASA's [|Surviving on the Moon] activity, where students learn that more minds really ARE better than one. Activities like this one should help those overachieving students trust their peers while helping those students who feel less able appreciate their own input. For projects like this one, we will be providing and requiring groups to complete a group. This log will show which students have completed which tasks- keeping them accountable to one another and the teacher.
 * Working in a Group **

__** Misconceptions **__ Many times students think that “hot” items have more heat. This is not true! The larger something is, the more heat energy is has. The infamous Bill Nye explains [|here]. He’s goofy, but he gets the job done. media type="youtube" key="f1eAOygDP5s" height="315" width="420" media type="youtube" key="2KZb2_vcNTg" height="315" width="560"
 * Heat Energy **

Biomass is carbon based. But so are fossil fuels... So are fossil fuels the same as biofuels? Yes! But it has taken the earth a long time to convert that carbon into fossil fuels and our reserves are depleting. So when we say "biofuel" we mean a fuel that hasn't had quite as much (in fact just a fraction) of the time to convert. Engage your students in this conversation if they are tripping over the biochemistry/ hydrocarbons in their research.
 * Carbon **

[|Thermochemistry Guided Discovery] content webpage that walks students through thermochemistry content. This should be used if students are having trouble understanding basic thermochemistry content, such has the difference between temperature and heat. [|Molecular Motion and Heat Flow] This small scale lab specifically related to exothermic and endothermic reactions and should be used if students are having trouble relating molecular motion to heat. The lab only requires test tubes, different salts, and water. Students should use the terms system, surroundings, and heat flow to describe the reactions. This would be a good time to discuss the idea of "heat loss" and efficiency of a system.
 * Content Driven "just-in-time" Additional Resources **