Keith Hellman's CDE Middle School Project

While enrolled for my Masters at Mines (2004/5, 2005/6) I was funded through a grant from the Colorado Department of Education (PI Dr. Catherine Skokan). This is a collection of resources developed during my work with the grant.

Resources for Teachers

A collection of documents or resources I've collected in response to teacher requests or simply on my whim

Occasionally, a student would ask for an explanation or details of a particular scientific, engineering or mathematical question. Sometimes I'd write these up as formal documents:

Here is a challenge question I threw out to a some middle-schoolers having to do with copy machines and percentages. Files supporting the explanation are: CurrentButtons.txt, MarketingButtons.txt, SalesButtons.txt, and VpButtons.txt. The Python script used is here.
An explanation of triangular numbers.
Why is x⁰ always 1? The Zero Power
Why -(-4) = +4? Minus a Negative
We used a simple solar circuit to calculate the efficiency of solar ovens during the '06 CDE II workshop: Solar Oven Efficiency
Also during the '06 CDE II workshop, I presented a quick activity concerning distibuted computing & distributed algorithms; for what is worth, here is the slideshow.
Paulina's Pottery Barn is a TI calculator activity examining examining a hypothetical business and its investment in solor or wind power.
Embarassing Surveys is an explanation of one way to survey a population with "delicate" questions and still get honest results.

In one of my classrooms (2004/5), the students were allowed to jot down questions on scraps of paper, and throw them into a ballot box. The teacher and I would review the questions, pick some good ones, and I would then present the answers to the class. This was known as Ask Mr. Hellman. Here are the questions and answers presented in chronological order. Note how much my presentation style improved...

The next year, I only presented one such day: AMH 2006, in large part because the teacher and I transitioned to using Email and letting the students send questions directly to me.

In September of 2005 I attended a Next Steps Institute conference with Dr. Skokan and presented a Clinometer Activity with a cover sheet. Other activities were presented, but these are the documents I developed, which is why they are on my web page.

In November of 2005 I attended the Colorado Science Convention and presented The Craftsman's Questionable Son; a middle-school activity using density and systems of linear equations. This is a revised version of the activity presented in the 2006 CDE II Summer Workshops, these workshops had a skit for which the script is here. The original documents are in OpenOffice format, let me know if you would like original source.

Mines Resources for Teachers

The CSM PREP program for 8th & 9th graders has been revamped in 2006 and the summer's enrollment is limited to a specific cooperating school. Search the www.mines.edu site for "PREP" or "Student Opportunities" for open enrollments after the summer of 2006.
Information about middle-school field trips agendas can be found here -- consider having your fellow handle the logisitical details.

Web Resources

howtoons.org: some of these projects appear to be easily implemented in the middle-school classroom.
Science Olympiad
I was able to play with a number of the PhET physical science computer simulators. GREAT STUFF! If you have the computer support (number of computers, java & flash installed), I think these are great resources for science teachers. They are free too.

Keith's CDE Grant Information

You can Email me at

khellman@mines.edu