SEP Session 3, Day 3

In "Financing Your Future" students will simulate all of the financial responsibilities associated with growing up. Over the course of the next two week students will progress from age 18 to 80. On Monday they created an identity for themselves as if they were 18. Yesterday the students filled out job applications to apply for minimum wage jobs like at working at Target, a pizza restaurant, and landscaping company. Today was pay day! Each student calculated how much their pay check should be after tax. Ms. Love explained the purpose of taxes, the different types of taxes, and how taxes are calculated. After receiving their paycheck students had to decide how much money to put in their checking account and savings account. Each student created a bank balance sheet to track their money. Later in the week students will buy a car, car insurance, and a house. They will all randomly receive additional expenses such as repairs after a car crash, paying medical costs, and purchasing gifts.

Electricity and batteries were the focus of "The Science and Policy of Sustainable Energy" today. Students learned how batteries operate and made their own potato battery! Students placed a nail in one end of the potato to act as a anode, a positively charged electrode, and a piece of copper wire was placed in the opposite end to act as a cathode, a negatively charged electrode. Alligator clips were attached to the nail and wire, and a mini LED light was connected by the two clips. When the acid in the potato reacts with the nail, electrons from the nail are lost and transferred to the wire, creating a current. A voltameter was used to measure the voltage the potato produced. Students found that not enough electricity was being produced to light the LED bulb. Students connected their potatoes together in a series circuit to increase the voltage. Once connecting potatoes, all of the students were able to light their bulb!