Big Idea – Data. How can
your science explorations and activities generate data, either qualitative or
quantitative?
Kindergarten – Living Things. Here’s an
Indicator: “Construct questions, give reasons, and share
findings about all living things.” You
can do a lot here, so for right now you can be thinking about
hibernation. Unrelated to this standard, but appropriate for the season:
it’s a perfect time for an engineering challenge! If you’re covering the
Gingerbread Man Check this out:
1st – Movement of
Nonliving Things. Look at this indicator: “Compare
and contrast the movement of objects using drawings, graphs, and
numbers.” Here’s a really neat
project from Ms. Salas’ classroom, which we originally found on
Pinterest. They made marble mazes with the edges of paper plates.
After construction, you could time how long each maze takes to run, and graph
the results as a class. Super fun for the Motion of Objects.
2nd – Night Sky and
Weather. Here’s the indicator: “Observe,
describe, and record patterns in the appearance and apparent motion of the moon
in the night sky. “ We want kids to understand that the moon moves across the
sky throughout the day, very similar to the sun. We also want them to see
how its position also changes day over day, rising and setting at slightly
different times every day.
Ms. Soria and I have been playing
around with a device that might prove interesting to you – I’m calling it a
moon observation stick. Pick a place outside where you can affix a pole or
stick to another object. It’s okay to take it inside between
observations, as long as you can get it set up exactly the same each
time. The idea is that we’ll use a soda straws to sight in on the moon.
Imagine pointing a telescope at something - the next person can walk up
and see what you just saw. While sighting the moon through the
straw, tape that straw into place on the stick. Now we have a fixed
reference point in an otherwise blank sky, so if the moon moves a little, we
can tell. We won’t be able to see it any more through the straw. We
could aim a new straw at its new location. Which is exactly what we’re
going to do. Here’s our prototype rig below, with just one straw taped to
it so far. The thumb tack in the picture is coincidentally roughly where
the moon was when we had it outside.
Come back in an hour, and tape a
new straw to your rig. Repeat at regular intervals throughout the
day. Maybe once an hour. You should end up with a sort of fan shape of
straws, all pointing to different spots in the sky, along the path of the
moon. And if you look through them one by one, you can visualize where
the moon was at different times.
If
you enjoyed that, now visit the same place outside at the same time for a
week. This is the same idea, but now you’re observing how the moon
moves day over day. It’s important to go at the same time every day,
otherwise the pattern you observe won’t seem consistent. Very fun
stuff!
This could work OK this week,
but better next week. We'll have a new moon on Friday, so it'll wax (get
bigger) from there. Next Monday, the moon will rise at 10:00 AM and set
at 8:40 PM, just to give you a reference. Find all that information
here: http://www.timeanddate.com/moon/usa/salt-lake-city
As always, feel free to ask for
any clarification.
3rd - Here's a simple idea for
simple machines. Get a smooth pencil, and drape yarn over it. Tie
the yard to something with a little weight, like a pair of scissors. Lift
the scissors with the string - you have a pulley. You've changed the
direction of the force - a downward pull becomes an upward lift. Now, get
two pencils. Here's the hard part. tie one end of the yarn to one
of the pencils. See photo. Wind the yarn around the pencils a few
times. Now one kid holds both pencils, and the other pulls the
string. Notice how much string needs to be pulled to move the pencils.
You have to pull a long distance to get a big force. For this one,
since the string is wrapped 7x, you’d need to pull seven inches of string
through to move the pencils one inch. But you’d get seven times the
force! (Minus friction but don’t get into that too much right now…) Feel
how much force is exerted on those pencils. Notice how hard you have to
push to "separate" the pencils, but how quickly it reels in the
string. So when we apply a lot of force, we get movement over a lot of
distance. Keep talking about those trade-offs!
4th – This one from Barb
Rogers. Misconception: metamorphic rocks have layers. Let’s get
away from this terminology. Instead, what we’re usually seeing is banding
– when the original rocks are undergoing metamorphosis, the minerals inside can
reform into bands. (Occasionally, we can still observe the original
bedding layers in a metamorphic rock, like a sandstone that turned into
quartzite, but that usually not what we’re seeing when kids notice the
banding.) It’s a different mechanism than the formation of layers in
sedimentary rocks, and understanding that process helps kids understand the
story of metamorphic rocks.
I’ll add another strategy
tip, which is teaching rock classification into igneous, metamorphic, and
sedimentary rocks by how they were formed, as opposed to how they look.
The rock’s physical characteristics give us evidence on how those rocks were
formed, but the evidence itself does not make it one type of rock, or
another. It’s a fine distinction, but I think it’s an important one.
Think about geology as a story, as a series of events.
5th - A few last
details for electricity. This is a great time to circle back to electro
magnets, and talk about circuits within the context of building them. We
need the kids to know that the more winds of wire, the stronger the
magnet. Here’s a bit of an exploration, if you’re curious: can we make an
electromagnet without a nail or a bolt on the inside? Using a soda straw,
or pen tube for example? (Hint: we sure can!) What would happen to its
strength if we did that?
6th - Once again, see 2nd
for overlapping ideas on the moon. Here's your indicator: "Compare
how objects in the sky (the moon, planets, stars) change in relative position
over the course of the day or night."
I'll emphasize the fact that we
can observe the moon during the day. As teachers, it's all we've got.
I'd have the 6th graders all design and build their own rigs for tracking
the moon. They might use soda straws, or some other method for showing
how it moves across the sky. It might also help them observe the changes
in its appearance.
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