I am a Primary Science teacher in Perth Australia. I enjoy developing resources for my students that encourage hands on inquiry and investigation. I would like to see my students develop a life long passion for Science and to become active advocates at conserving and protecting the Earth's precious resources.
I am a Primary Science teacher in Perth Australia. I enjoy developing resources for my students that encourage hands on inquiry and investigation. I would like to see my students develop a life long passion for Science and to become active advocates at conserving and protecting the Earth's precious resources.
1. Ask students to define stormwater. Record their ideas in the Class Science journal or on the whiteboard.
2. Show students a video clip explaining what is stormwater.
Discuss the need to keep our waterways free from pollution.
3. Take students on a tour around the school to identify drains, gutter, downpipes and grates etc.
4. Use the powerpoint to guide students through their written responses.
This is a great activity to follow on and consolidate my other resource ‘Jump for robots’. Students carefully examine the pictures and ONLY colour in those pictures that they think are a robot. Put an X on the pictures that are not a robot and circle the pictures that may be a robot.
The students were taken on a discovery tour of our Australian school bushland to identify evidence of animal habitats. The students had to circle ‘yes’ of ‘no’ as to whether there was evidence that the depicted animals lived in the bushland. We then returned to discuss their findings.
This resource could be used in any Australian school yard or alternatively take your students on an excursion to a local park.
This is a powerpoint of 11 slides. Each slide has a true or false question about robots eg, humans can go anywhere a robot can go, a robot could save your life one day and most robots are working out in space. The question on each slide provides a stimulus to encourage students to think about the diverse role of robots in the 20th century world.
This bundle includes
Investigating with a toy robotic arm
Am I a robot worksheet
The Scribblebot challenge
Designing a medical robot
The Rise of Robots worksheet
Robots review - true or false
The above items can also be purchased individually.
This activity was introduced to start off a new unit on birds and to generate discussion and ideas about the student’s prior knowledge about birds. Students were placed in teams of two to work collaboratively. Some of the question triggers -
List animals who fly?
List animals who have beaks?
List animals who make nests?
List animals who sing?
List animals who can sing?
Commence the lesson sharing the story of the ‘little house with no doors or windows but with a star inside’. If you Google the story you will find plenty of versions on the internet.
In this investigation each student is given one half of an apple and a ruler.
The students complete the following tasks about the apple
Label your drawing with these words
leaf
stem
core
flesh
skin
seed
My apple has _____________ seeds.
My apple is __________ high.
My apple is ____________wide.
Write two sentences describing your apple.
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 Noongar season of Birak which occurs in December/January. There are several Noongar Six Season posters that can be purchased or found online. I purchased mine from SERCUL in Beckenham.
Follow this link to my website for some detailed information about Birak.
https://thescienceworkshop.weebly.com/birak.html
Bread mould investigation powerpoint
This is a powerpoint to guide your students at setting up a bread mould investigation.
It includes the following slides
what do you know about mould and what things effect mould growth
procedure for setting up the investigation
prediction
variables
developing the investigation question
presenting results and reviewing the investigation.
Bread Mould investigation worksheet - this can be found as a free resource on my shop
Students were placed into teams of three and given a slice of bread to place into a zip lock bag. We then discussed the different locations around the school where they could leave their investigation for a week to encourage bread mould to grow. Do you think bread mould would prefer warm, cold, moist or dry environments? During the week the students were encouraged to make daily observations. At the conclusion of the activity the students completed the remainder of the worksheet.
Bread mould rubric
This is a rubric to accompany my ‘free’ resource called ‘Bread Mould Investigation’.
Some of the assessable outcomes include
Student predicts the conditons and location that are best for mould growth.
Student observes mould on bread samples with magnifier.
Student attempts to draw a labelled diagram of mould growth.
Student uses word wall to assist when spelling difficult or new words.
Student evaluates findings and completes questions.
Student works cooperatively in a team and performs team role.
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 Noongar season of Bunuru which occurs in February/March. There are several Noongar Six Season posters that can be purchased or found online. I purchased mine from SERCUL in Beckenham. Follow this link to my website for some detailed information about Bunuru.
https://thescienceworkshop.weebly.com/bunuru.html
Delight your students with this chemical and physical changes quiz. Students can work in teams or individually to answer 10 quiz questions. The questions are presented on slides with images.
Here is the answer key
Perfume evaporating on your skin - physical.
Butter melting - physical.
Digesting food - chemical.
Burning fuel in a lawnmower - this one is NOT a physical change.
burn (combustion) - chemical, crumble - physical, melt - physical, rust - chemical, crush - physical, freeze - physical, grind - physical, rot - chemical
Fogging a mirror with your breath - physical.
Mending a broken bone - chemical.
Paper ripping - physical.
Glass cracking when placed in cold water - physical.
Slicing potatoes to cook fries - physical
To use this resource firstly print off slides 2- 12. There are 10 stations. You will need to provide the materials at each station for the students complete the investigations.
Here is what you need to prepare
Slide 2 Iron filings and sand - in a tray add sand and a few spoons of iron filings. Students use a magnet to collect the iron filings.
Slide 3 Fizzing tablet and water - glass of water and a fizzing tablet such as Aspro Clear.
Slide 4 Inflate a balloon with vinegar - bottle, measuring cups, funnels, balloon, vinegar, bicarb soda.
Slide 5 Glowsticks - 2 glow sticks, 2 large beakers, 2 thermometers, 2 pieces of black card, icy cold water from the fridge, hot water from a kettle.
Slide 5 Burning candle - candle, large glass jar, matches.
Slide 6 Autumn leaves - a tray of autumn leaves, crayons, lithograph paper
Slide 7 Melting ice investigation - 2 petri dishes, ice cubes, salt, measuring spoons.
Slide 8 Milk and lemon juice - lemon juice, pipette, milk, glass beaker.
Slide 9 Investigating nails - 2 trays of nails (rusted and not rusted).
Slide 10 Plasticine - various colours of plasticine.
Slide 11 Chalk - various colours of chalk, paper
Print the recording sheet on Slide 12.
Allocate the students to the different stations and allow them to complete the investigation and record their findings on the worksheet.
Gather students together to share findings.
If you have time rotate students to another station.
Gather students together and conclude by sharing the Conclusions on the PowerPoint.
The “Catch a falling ruler” powerpoint explains to students how to conduct an investigation with a partner to explore their ‘reaction time’ when a 1 metre ruler is held at their eye level and then dropped. The student must grasp the ruler and record their results for 5 trials.
This product also includes review questions to evaluate the investigation.
There is a final slide to explain ‘reaction time’.
The results could be graphed in a line graph.
For each pair of students make up a small tray containing the following -
blob of plasticine
piece of paper
a marble
a balloon
rubber band
The students test each material and then record their findings on the worksheet.