Howdy Utah Elementary Science Teachers,
I don’t get to see you
enough. Really. So to solve that problem, I’m going to start a
weekly Blog post. Here,
you’ll find one good idea from your science core for this week. I’m going
with the Salt Lake City School District pacing maps, so if you’re not, this will be slightly less timely but
no less useful. One good idea is about all I can process at a time, so
that’s what we’ll do here. I might also mention a common misconception I
want you to watch out for. At the top, I’ll give a thought that’s
applicable to all grade levels. Then, scroll down to find your
stuff. Or, read it all for a big picture view. You might find
something applicable to your grade, as many of these concepts spiral through
the year.
If this is useful, I’ll keep
doing it. If I run out of things to say, or people get tired of reading
it, I’ll stop. If you have anything to add, by all means, chime in.
If your idea makes it into a future issue, I’ll give you a roll of masking tape
or pack of sharpies. Or batteries, if you’re 5th grade.
Big Idea for the week: Have you
ever told the kids what’s going to happen before you do the demo? I know
I have, countless times. “And when I plug this thing in, (everyone take
an extra step back) you’re gonna see it…” So the question is, what would
happen if we didn’t? How can we let their observations and the data tell
the story? Then, who’s constructing the knowledge?
Grade Level Content:
Kinder – Living Things, Parts of
Living Things (Plants.) Add a bit of green to your classroom! This
is a great time to start some little seeds in cups. Try doing a few types of
plants that will look different, such as beans, lettuce, wheat, and
pumpkins. Put them in the window, or if you feel really ambitious, set up
a grow light, for about $15: http://www.amazon.com/Lithonia-Lighting-1233-SHOPLIGHT-Fluorescent/dp/B000HMBMEO
. See me any time for help setting one of those up for your classroom.
Great for this indicator: “Describe some changes in
plants and animals that are so slow or so fast that they are hard to see.” If you use plants that don’t fruit, like the wheatgrass,
no one will be bummed when they don’t. Email me if you need wheatgrass
seeds.
1st – Movement of
Nonliving Things. Here’s the indicator: “Describe,
classify, and communicate observations about the motion of objects, e.g.,
straight, zigzag, circular, curved, back‐and‐forth, and
fast or slow” This is a perfect time
to play with the ramp. Roll different things down it. Look for
things that will roll in a zigzag – try a football, or a cup. I’m playing
with an idea of light painting – where you take a long exposure photograph of a
light so it creates a “streak” or a “trail” across the picture. So if you
pointed a flashlight at the camera and waved it in a figure eight, it might end up
looking like this:
We could use this technique in
your classroom to “take a picture” of the trail of a moving object. So if
we put a bright light on a string and swung it back and forth, we’d see the arc
pattern there. If we bounced a light-up ball, we’d get a different trail.
Anyway, contact me if you’re interested in developing this idea. Tell me
when we can meet for an hour. I predict we’ll need 2-3 hours of classroom
time to do something interesting.
2nd – Night Sky, and
Weather. This week is perfect for observing the moon. Here’s your
indicator: “Observe, describe, and record patterns in the
appearance and apparent motion of the moon in the night sky.” Don’t tell anyone I told you this, but you can
observe the moon perfectly well in the day sky too. Go outside at 8:30 AM every
morning (bundle up!) and find the moon. If you go out at the same time
every morning, you’ll notice how the moon is in a different position every
day. It sets about an hour later each day, so at this point, it’ll be a
little higher tomorrow at 8:30, and higher still the next day… Here’s a
link to the moon rise and moon set calculator - http://www.timeanddate.com/moon/usa/salt-lake-city?month=12&year=2015
They don’t need to know the phases until 6th grade, but it wouldn’t
hurt them to mention it. Draw its position each day. It helps to
find some trees or something to kind of look through to give you some kind of
reference. Or, walk around until a power pole, street light, whatever
blocks the moon exactly. Mark where you’re standing with chalk on the
blacktop. Do it again tomorrow. And the next day. See what
patterns emerge.
3rd – Forces and
Motion, Gravity. Within this objective, you have many things, including simple
machines. Here’s your indicator: “Investigate
how forces applied through simple machines affect the direction and/or amount
of resulting force.” A few
things to keep in mind here. I’ve often heard teachers say “simple
machines make work easier.” I think this is inaccurate. Imagine a staircase,
or a handicapped ramp. You can walk up the few steep stairs, or up the
long handicapped ramp. See picture below.
Both of these will take the same
amount of “work” as defined by physics. One will require less force, but
greater distance. One requires greater force, but over less
distance. Never tell them these simple machines make things easier – that
sounds like magic. They let us trade force for distance, or vice
versa. We can investigate this a lot with levers too. The other thing
simple machines can do is change the direction of a force. You push up on
one side of the teeter totter, the other side goes down. You pull down on
the rope, running through the pulley, and the other side goes up. So you’re
either trading force and distance, or you’re changing the direction of a
force. If you want to play with rock climbing pulleys to let your kids
lift each other a few inches off the ground, email me with a one hour block of
time. We might need the gym.
4th – If you haven’t
done the classic “Box of Rocks” identification lab, email me and I can get you
set up. It covers this whopper of an indicator: “Sort rocks by appearance
according to the three basic types: sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic (e.g.,
sedimentary-rounded-appearing mineral and rock particles that are cemented
together, often in layers; igneous-with or without observable crystals that are
not in layers or with or without air holes or glass like; metamorphic
-crystals/minerals, often in layers).” Lots of fun.
5th – Circuit
building! My favorite unit, I’ll confess. See me if you’re in need
of supplies. Misconception debunked: when electricity flows through a
circuit, electrons do not move through the wires at the speed of light. They
do flow in DC power, but at centimeters per hour. They don’t flow at all
in AC power, which is what comes out of the wall. They sort of wiggle.
Energy moves through the circuit, and that flows almost instantly.
Imagine a bike chain. If you pushed on one link with your pedals, the
whole chain would start moving pretty much instantly. The individual
links might take a while to make it all the way around, but the energy doesn’t
travel via a single link. Same with electrons, basically.
I’ve newly discovered these,
called paper circuits: http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/paper-circuits
I’ve ordered some supplies, so you’re interested in trying this in your
classroom, email me with the following information: an hour when we could meet
before the lesson, and 2-3 hours of instructional time, ideally within the same
week but we’ll make it work.
6th – Size and
Distance of Earth’s Solar System, Earth Moon. See 2nd grade’s
entry this week for some thoughts on observing the moon during the day.
If you’ve never done it before, check out Walking the Solar System: http://www.noao.edu/education/peppercorn/pcmain.html
There are many versions of this lesson, and I’m sure they all work great.
Be warned, this one goes big. Interestingly, at this scale, the speed of
light is about 2 feet per second. That’s roughly half average “walking
speed” whatever that means. You could also imagine walking 10 feet in
five seconds – you can do the math. Second, everyone’s favorite star to
say out loud, Betelgeuse, would be about the size of your school. If we
inscribed your school in a big circle. That’s a mind blower. It’s
also Orion’s shoulder, and the 9th brightest star in the sky.
Let me know if you’d like me to accompany one of these Walks. Register it
as a walking field trip – you’ll need to leave campus to get to the outer
planets.
