Science Lessons & Activities
Through our dedicated high school chapters, Service Beakers provides a variety of lessons and hands-on activities to elementary and middle school students. Our high school student volunteers present material ranging from biology to computer science in a fun, interactive, and informative way!
Example Topics
Program Details
Overview
Lessons/activities will be provided by a high school chapter and its volunteers. Important details include:
- All lessons—in-person or virtual—occur after school hours.
- The high school chapter will coordinate the date, topic, and (if applicable) high school volunteer transportation to the elementary/middle school.
Core Learning Areas
Math
Math
Math is a variety of topics that can describe objects and substances using numbers. Service Beakers is working on many presentations involving different math topics! Activities may include analysis of real-world things using math, group problem-solving, and even making shapes. Math is a very useful topic in building SYOI projects too; for example, if you needed to reduce light usage by 30%, you would need a calculation.
Physics
Physics
Physics is a variety of interesting areas where math and the sciences meet. Service Beakers does indeed cover this area through lessons such as Light & Vision and Forces & Motion. Activities may include experimenting with how light reflects off of different mirrors or how fast a toy car can move in a certain amount of time.
Computer Science
Computer Science
Computer science is ever-important in this growing world of technology! Service Beakers can teach in a variety of languages, like Python, JavaScript, HTML, coding blocks and more! Activities may include making games in Scratch, running simple programs in a code editor, or choosing the correct inputs or lines of code to reach a goal. We also encourage students to use computer science in SYOI, you can make useful programs and games to help your community! For example, you could code a site that tries to reach a recycling goal that users can interact with!
Chemistry
Chemistry
Like Biology, Chemistry has many sub fields. For instance, hands-on activities may include starting and predicting chemical reactions, observing microscopic reactions, breaking down household food items, and making pickles glow! In addition, we will be teaching how to balance chemical equations, how to predict them, and having fun with them!
Biology
Biology
Biology is a vast course, full of different fields. Service Beakers offers a variety of subtopics in the field of Biology. For example, hands-on activities may include observing live species and organs under a microscope, building habitats, diagnosing hypothetical illnesses, and isolating genetic material. Furthermore, we will try to cover as many fields in Biology as we can, helping your child discover what they enjoy and encouraging them to further that in their SYOI Projects.
Earth Science
Earth Science
Earth science is a vast field that covers three main sciences-geologic, hydrologic, and atmospheric sciences. Service Beakers is working on creating a variety of lessons on earth science, such as our lesson on clouds. Activities with earth science might include examining the luster and malleability of different rocks or experimenting with water evaporation in a lab. Earth science can definitely be used for SYOI projects, for example, cleaning up trash near your stream that may cause soil erosion and other problems.