Welcome to SciTrek Secondary, Serving 7th and 8th Grade
in the 2024-5 School Year!
Thank you so much for your interest in having SciTrek Secondary in your classroom this Fall! We are excited to have the opportunity to bring our amazing undergraduate Mentors and Leads to serve your 7th and 8th grade students with interactive, rigorous, NGSS-aligned science programming.
How do I request a SciTrek Secondary Module for the 2024-5 school year?
To request a 7th or 8th Grade Module for this Fall (2024), teachers will fill out an online Module Request Form.
This form will be available on this page on August 9 at 9:30 AM to teachers who have worked with SciTrek previously, and
On August 13 to teachers who are new to SciTrek.
Check back on these dates at 9:30 AM to request your Module!
Module slots will be filled on a first-come, fist-served basis. This Fall (2024), we are offering SciTrek Modules at the middle-school levels, 7th and 8th grade-aligned. Any teacher is welcome to request these, but they are aligned to NGSS standards for these grade levels. SciTrek High school Modules are in production and we will be in touch when they are ready!
Please note that filling out a Module Request Form will NOT guarantee a Module. By completing this form, you will be requesting a slot and a specific Module for Fall.
After filling out this form, our Program Manager, Dr. Charlotte Zeamer, will be in touch with you to get more information about your class, your interest in SciTrek, and your science curriculum. We will also communicate with you about the requirements of participation for teachers. If SciTrek seems like a good fit for your class, we will do our best to schedule you this Fall. Please feel free to reach out to Dr. Zeamer anytime with questions (chem-scitrekmanager@ucsb.edu).
When you request a Module, you will request 1) a Module, and 2) a set of dates. Both of these options are listed below. All Modules may not be available on all dates below, but we will do our best to accommodate your request. Earlier requests will be easier to accommodate.
Available Modules for 2024-5
Best Bread - In the Best Bread module, students observe cellular respiration using a common household microorganism, yeast. Students investigate how to optimize yeast growth using a specific protocol of collecting CO2. This module focuses on the best way to create the conditions where yeast grows at various rates and generates varying amounts of CO2 using these specific variables. The final activity is a challenge engineering activity, where students work in groups try to get their yeast to create the most CO2.
Conservation of Mass - In the Conservation of Mass module, students will explore how chemical reactions affect mass by performing several different types of reactions. Near the end of the module, the students are tasked with an engineering problem where they need to create a closed system to contain all the gas created in the final reaction. The main goal is to have the students realize that gasses, either as reactants or products, should be considered when they are evaluating whether the total mass is conserved. The students are guided in a discussion about open and closed systems and how gasses must be included when considering conservation of mass.
Waves - In the Waves module, students learn how waves are mechanical phenomena that, in the case of sound waves, move through a medium. Students have the opportunity to observe how different media can either amplify or dampen waves, and why. Students will be able to manipulate an environment to achieve the goal of amplifying or nullifing sound. The final activity in this Module is a challenge engineering activity where students build an environment that allows sound to travel the best.
Germs - In the Germs module, students explore how specific bacteria, just like anyone, thrive only in a specific environment. Students can manipulate the environment of these organisms to see how the variables they introduce affect bacterial growth. Students get real wetlab experience as they practice, together with their undergraduate SciTrek Mentor, har how to plate organisms on agar to observe differences in growth.
Available Dates for 2024-5
Fall Quarter
Fall Quarter Module 1 - Monday, October 14 through Friday, October 18
Fall Quarter Module 2 - Monday, October 28 through Friday, November 1
Falll Quarter Module 3 - Tuesday, October 29 through Monday, November 4
Fall Quarter Module 4 - Friday, November 15 through Thursday, November 21
Fall Quarter Module 5 - Monday, November 18 through Friday, November 22
Winter Quarter
Coming Soon!
Spring Quarter
Coming Soon!
Note: The Module Request form is only for requesting Modules at the Secondary level. If you are interested in SciTrek for your elementary classroom, please visit our SciTrek Elementary web page here.