MISSOULA — Mike Plautz of Hellgate Middle School is this week's One Class at a Time grant winner. Plautz has spent his career teaching seventh-grade science.
"It's all I've taught, it's all I know and I really enjoy it," said Plautz. "The kids come in with a real energy to step out and explore, and understand, so it makes for a really exciting classroom."
Plautz will use his $250 grant to purchase several science-fiction sounding "accelerometers," which are wireless motion sensing, graphing devices.
These small devices, which are in smart-phones, will be placed in machines that students will make, like mousetrap cars or marshmallow catapults. The accelerometers will be able to give students precise data on the success of their inventions.
"It will record the motion of that so we'll be able to get a graph, measuring speed, acceleration. And then students can interpret that data and share that data in a graph. It will allow students to see and measure the performance of whatever device they create." Mike Plautz
MTN News