Teacher preparation - Collect two buckets of soil from two different locations. Put the students into teams. Each team takes a cup of soil and tips the contents onto a piece of large butchers paper. In each corner of the paper write - plants, animals, soil, other. Students use tweezers, paintbrushes and magnifiers to carefully examine their soil sample and move their findings into one of the four corners. Record their findings on the worksheet. Gather students together to conclude the activity by sharing their findings.

This resource is a powerpoint to teach students about the different ways that fish move and what their bodies are covered in. Teachers could use this tool in several ways as a factual text with each student choosing one species and conducting their own research about their chosen fish. drawing a detailed picture of the fish with annotations. teachers could get their students to draw a table in their Science Journals and use the information in the slides to classify different feature for each fish eg how is the body covered, how does it move, where is it found (in rock pools or deep ocean) etc.

As a whole class the students made playdough. I found this to be the best recipe as it did not require cooking. Ingredients · 2 cups plain flour · 2 tablespoons vegetable oil · 1/2 cup salt · 2 tablespoons cream of tartar · 1 and a half cups boiling water (adding it slowly until it feels just right) · food colouring (optional) · few drops glycerine (secret ingredient for stretch and shine!) Method Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl. Slowly add boiling water into the dry ingredients. Stir continuously until it becomes a sticky, combined dough. Add the glycerine. Allow it to cool down then take it out of the bowl and knead it vigorously for a couple of minutes until all of the stickiness has gone. This is the most important part of the process, so keep at it until it’s the perfect consistency. If it remains a little sticky then add a touch more flour until just right. Before the students were given their blob of playdough, we conducted a class brainstorm about all the ways we could manipulate it. These were recorded in our Class Science Journal eg, press, pinch, squeeze, roll, flatten etc. Then the students were given time to get creative. Once the students had completed their model they were asked to use the words on the worksheet to describe how they formed and molded the dough. This is where the worksheet comes in handy as the students had a visual copy of the words. Students who struggle with literacy and to write a full sentence were encouraged to circle the words that they used to create their model.

This is a design activity with the final goal making a set of shoes made from a variety of everyday materials. The students will test the following materials in this investigation. wood plastic sponge fabric cardboard There are 4 tests for the students to conduct. Investigation 1 - Heating and cooling Test each material by holding it against different surfaces for 1 minute and recording findings in a table. Investigation 2 -Friction Rub the material against different surfaces such as carpet, grass and paving for 1 minute to see if there is an effect on the material. Investigation 3 - Force Set a timer for 1 minute while standing on the material. Describe the material after standing on it. Investigation 4 - Water Immerse the material in water for 1 minute and recording findings in a table. To conclude the investigation the students share their findings and decide on the best materials to use to make their set of shoes.

This product is a 7 slide presentation about owl pellets and how they are formed. It guides students to design and construct a small animal using Lego that could be a food source for an owl such as a rodent, frog, cricket, spider, moth, centipede. Students must build their animal and then create instructions by setting out the drawings of the Lego pieces on 1cm grid paper. You can also take a photo of their completed Lego animal to assist them with remembering how to build it. It conclude the lesson the students pull apart their Lego animal and pack it into a zip lock bag along with their instructions. In the follow up lesson the students swap their packages with another team and using the instructions and with help from the photos, try to build the animal.

For this investigation you will need to collect a very small amount of beach sand from your closest beach. Place some beach sand in very shallow trays. The students will be making a ‘sticky tape’ slide and then observe their slide under a microscope or magnifiers. There are ten slides in this resource which will guide the students into understand the components of beach sand and how it contains carbonate and no carbonate materials. The highlight is using drops of vinegar into a sample of beach sand and making observations to see if there is a reaction.

This resource includes a powerpoint presentation to guide students as they investigate water with their fives senses. Some of the activities include shining a torch onto the cup of water and dropping a marble into the cup of water. Included is a worksheet for the students to record their findings about water.

Students will investigate the following question ‘How much soil is blown away when we use a straw to blow consistently on a landscape for 20 seconds?’ Students will take two containers and using a spoon fill each container to the top with soil from the garden. Then leave one container ‘dry’ and use a spray bottle to ‘dampen’ the soil in the second container so that it is moist. Students will weigh the dry soil and record the weight. To conduct the investigation one student places the dry container at the end of an A3 piece of paper and sets the timer to 20 seconds. The student places the tip of the straw at one end of the container and blows across the soil landscape for 20 seconds. They are modelling the effect of a strong wind. The student weighs the container a second time (after blowing) and records the weight Now repeat for the second (moist) container. The powerpoint explains how to conduct this activity and includes review questions.

This is a powerpoint, youtube clip and worksheet that explains to students how to set up a fair test to investigate coral bleaching. Students will take two marine shells, weigh each shell then place one shell in a bowl of tap water and the other shell in a bowl of vinegar. Over the next week the students make observations and record the changes to each shell. There is also a worksheet to accompany this powerpoint. The worksheet is called ‘Investigating Coral Bleaching student worksheet’ . The students will make their own conclusions about the effect of Carbon Emissions on our coral reef ecosystems. The worksheet can be adjusted so that the investigation runs over a sorter period eg, one week.

This is an interactive investigation where the students are taken to a bushland setting in Perth Western Australia or have access to a bushland area on their school site. The students use the worksheet to guide their investigation about the Nyoongar season of Kambarang which occurs in October/November Djeran which occurs in March/April Makuru which occurs in June/July Djilba which occurs in August/September There are several Nyoongar Six Season posters that can be purchased or found online. I purchased mine from SERCUL in Beckenham. I do not have a worksheet for Birak. This season is over the Jaunary/December period and Australian students are on their summer holidays at this time.

The students work in teams of two to investigate ’How many times can the bottle be lifted to shoulder height in 30 seconds?’ This powerpoint explains how to set up the investigation. The final slide in the powerpoint includes discussion questions.

This is an exciting lesson. I was able to set up a night activation camera in the hollow of a tree inhabited by a family of Southern Boobook Owls. Southern Booboook Owls live in Western Australia and they are the smallest owl on the Australian continent. These movies can be used to show the behaviours of any owl species. There are six owl movies. Movie 1 - the baby owlet rotates it’s head/neck 180. Movie 2 - the adult owl delivers a mouse to the owlets in the hollow. Movie 3 - the adult owl delivers an invertebrate (possibly a moth) Movie 4 - the adult owl delivers another invertebrate. Movie 5 - an adult owl enters the hollow. Movie 6 - a second adult owl enters the hollow. Here is link to the owl movies that have been uploaded onto my website. https://thescienceworkshop.weebly.com/southern-boobook-owls.html Use the accompanying worksheet to guide students as they view each movie. Students record what the owls are doing, what they eat and what goes on in an owl hollow in the middle of the night. It’s very busy!!

This investigation provides students with a hands-on experience to demonstrate how gravity separated the planets. Students work in teams to conduct and record findings in a fair test investigation to demonstrate how the planets were separated in the Solar System. Each team fills three plastic cups with sand, rocks and water. The students take turns to gently tap each cup with equal force and then measure how far the contents spread. Students record their findings and data on the worksheet. The students use the data to construct a column graph. Final slide includes review questions.

This activity is about the frogs in the area where you live. The students choose one frog commonly found where they live. In their journals or a piece of paper they divide their page into quarters like shown on the powerpoint. The students read through the text for their chosen frog and then sort the information into habitat, description, noise and food by recording the information into each box.

This worksheet guides students as they work in teams to investigate the different properties of rocks. Each team is given a rock and worksheet. You will need th following materials to conduct the tests magnifiers digital scales tape measure water and pipette scissors torch vinegar and eye dropper

This is a powerpoint to guide students through an individual investigation where they explore their nervous system. To conduct the investigation the students will need one pin 1 paper clip ice a polystyrene cup hot water a fine tipped black texta a piece of 1cm grid paper The students will use a black pen to draw and 1cm grid on the back of their hand. In this grid they will use different materials to test out their sense responses. The students will make a duplicate grid on a piece of 1cm graph or grid paper. On this piece of paper they will record their responses using codes. The final slide in this resource includes discussion questions.

To conduct this activity you will need to purchase about 10-12 Hexbug Nanos. I recommend fishpond.com. Explain to the students that Hexbug Nanos are robotic toys that move and react with sensors. Explain to the students that they will be working in teams of three to construct and create their own maze. Firstly get the students to draw a maze design that they will be able to build. Give each team the lid from a box of A4 photocopy paper. Cut an entry and exit opening for the students. Get them to make a mark where they want the opening to be cut. Pre cut several strips of hard cardboard with a guillotine (this will make it easier and quicker for the students to commence construction). Students construct their mazes using the strips of cardboard and masking tape. When their maze is complete they can test it out with their Hexbug Nano. On the worksheet the students can measure and record the distance travelled by their Hexbug. Then the students are ready to conduct their trials. For each trial the students place their Hexbug at the entry point and using a timer record how long it takes for the Hexbug to travel through the maze and out through the exit. If the Hexbug gets ‘stuck’ they re to record at which point it gets stuck and then make improvements to the maze. The goal is to continually improve the maze so that the Hexbug improves it’s travel time with each trial. The worksheet includes further questions on evaluating their investigation.

The students make their own Scribblebots in teams of three. Once the students have completed their Scribblebot’s conduct a brainstorm with the students and record their ideas on how they could test out their Scribblebot’s performance. Give each team very large piece of paper. Use the worksheet to plan the investigation and record data. At the conclusion of the activity each team presents their findings to the class and gives a demonstration on how they conducted their challenge.

This is a resource to set up on display in your science classroom. Each fortnight a different photo is displayed. The students guess what the photo is and submit their entries. This resource includes labels to set up your Mystery Science Photo display poster, how to construct the poster and how to make the shoebox for the entries. The resource includes enough photos for a 10 week term or two terms if you choose to put up one photo per fortnight. Before placing you photo on display be sure to snip off the answer located at the bottom of the page and place it someone safe so that you will remember what the answer is.

Students were shown this powerpoint of rain images to stimulate a discussion about their experiences of rain. The focus question was - what happens when rain falls on different surfaces?