Investigations. That’s where I want to focus this week
– how can we get kids to design an investigation, gather data, then draw
conclusions by arguing from evidence? Use the investigation to explore
part of your science core, but the focus is not on what you can “cover” by
doing this activity. It’s about the investigation itself. Grade level
ideas below!
See all ideas, plus some editorial posts from me, on my
blog: http://mrqsciencenews.blogspot.com/
Kindergarten Ideas: This is a little redundant from last
week, but for an easy investigation, try this: which rolls further down a ramp:
a big ball or a small ball? If you looked at something like that already,
play with other variables, like a heavy ball or a light ball. If you did
it already as a class, let the students generate which question to investigate
next, or pick up on a misconception you discovered during your previous trial.
I’ve put in enough pictures of balls and
ramps, so here’s something different.
First Grade Ideas: Here’s an indicator: “Identify how natural earth materials (e.g., food, water, air,
light, and space), help to sustain plant and animal life. “ Here’s your investigation:
What do seeds need to germinate? Your control is seeds in a Ziploc with a
damp paper towel, in the dark. Do two bags for each group: one control,
and one where they change a variable. Use soda instead of water.
Keep some in the light instead of the dark. Put some in the fridge instead of
room temperature. You might be surprised at what your seeds can do.
Try it with Diet Mountain Dew…
Second Grade Ideas: Here’s an indicator: “Investigate and provide evidence that matter is not destroyed
or created through changes.” There
are many ways to start to get at this one. Make things out of legos,
weigh the thing, then break it apart and weigh the individual pieces.
That one’s easy, this is harder: make something out of playdoh, and then
shred it down to the smallest pieces possible. Weigh the before and
after. Cut up a piece of paper, same thing. Let me know if you need
little digital scales – I have a bunch.
Weighs the same – assembled or
disassembled.
Third Grade Ideas: This indicator would work great for an
investigation: “Identify and discuss as a class some
misconceptions about heat sources (e.g., clothes do not produce heat, ice cubes
do not give off cold). “
How can they prove that a jacket does not produce heat? Here’s something
a little harder: How can they show how much heat a machine produces?
Hint: you’ve got to trap that heat, so think about putting a laptop in a
cardboard box, with a blanket over it. Now you’ve trapped the heat.
See me for digital thermometers – they work way better for this kind of thing.
All machines produce heat. Some more
than others…
Fourth Grade Ideas: Here’s an indicator: “Describe how the water cycle relates to the water supply in
your community. “ Here’s a
possible investigation: How does the shape of a container effect the rate of
evaporation? This is all about surface area. More surface area generally
means more evaporation. Compare a deep container with a shallow
container, with the same amount of water. Let them struggle with how to
collect data – how to quantify it. Hint: You can probably measure how
much the water level dropped, or weigh the containers. But let them
figure it out!
Fifth Grade Ideas: You’re on heredity, and it’s harder to do
an investigation there. Generation cycles just take way too long with any
living thing. So let’s look at something else! Back to chemical and
physical changes, because we can never get enough of those. This
indicator is perfect: “Hypothesize how changing one of the materials
in a chemical reaction will change the results.” This is a natural
fit. Do baking soda and vinegar inside a graduated cylinder. That
way you can measure how high up it bubbles. Then systematically change
the amount of reactants and see what you get. For example, always do 50
ml of vinegar, and do 1 tsp baking soda, then 2 tsp, then 3, and so on.
It is okay if the setup does not yield perfect data the first time – mess with
it! That is science.
No hats in school, Miss. But good job sciencing.
Sixth Grade Ideas: I just saw this one at Hawthorne, and the
kids were having a blast:
Plus it’s from NASA, so automatic cool points. Let me
know if you need help with any aspect of the setup, because it takes some
doing.
If that’s intimidating, I’ll steer you back to the stomp rockets
I mentioned in my last email. If you’re interested in doing other rockets
later (water bottle, or otherwise) it’s a cheap, fast, and safe way to run a
lot of prototypes. And that’s truly where the learning occurs – many
prototypes. Two or three is not many. Just let me know if you want to use
the stomp rocket platforms, I made three for your use.
I've already made the launchers, and I angle mine 45 degrees sideways. Then the kids make the rockets.
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