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.
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.
There are 8 slides in this powerpoint. The students are encouraged to look closely at a variety of images and make observations about the ancient drawings from the Kimberley region of Australia.
This resource is a powerpoint to teach students about fish adaptations and how fish survive in their habitat. Teachers could use this tool in several ways
As a factual text with each student choosing one species and conducting their further research about the adaptations of their chosen fish.
Drawing a detailed picture of the fish with annotations to explain the adaptations.
Teachers could get their students to draw a table in their Science Journals and use the information in the slides to classify different features for each fish eg how is the body covered, how does it move, where is it found (in rock pools or deep ocean), how it finds it’s food etc
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
This is a powerpoint to guide students to conduct their own research about a volcano.
The students can create their own powerpoint or Keynote and use the information on the slides to guide their research. The information on the slides include
Volcano name and location
Which country and continent is volcano?
Type of volcano and number of eruptions over the past 500 years.
Closest city and population
Distance closest city is from volcano and date of last eruption
A guide to setting up hydroponics using a 2 litre bottle. Materials e.g. cocopeat or clay balls, pH digital monitor and nutrient mix to be purchased at a hydroponics store. This is the first part in a series of three files. This as part of a unit of work looking at how humans will be providing food for the future. Students considered implications of growing our own food on Mars as in 2025 the first human settlement is planned for Mars through the Mars One project. Students can learn more about this by exploring the Mars One website. The first file explains the method involved in setting up a hydroponics system. The second file is a daily recording sheet to monitor water levels and pH. The third file is to conclude the activity after the students have been nurturing their plant for several weeks and it is a journal to record their findings. I referred to the Epic Gardener website for many of the ideas and found it most helpful.
This is a lesson plan, powerpoint and an accompanying worksheet about water pressure. The first investigation is with the teacher demonstrating how water stops flowing out of a plastic cup that has holes in it when it is dropped from a height. In the second investigation the students conduct their own trial by allowing water to be released from a hole in the bottle one at a time and measuring how far the water comes out at. There is also a challenge activity for the students to discuss on youtube.
The students investigate how many how metal objects it would take to change the temperature of a cup of water. The students work in their cooperative teams to make a prediction and set up a fair test investigation by measuring the temperature of the water before and after placing hot metals objects into the cup. The students evaluate the investigation by concluding whether the hot metal pieces are heat producers or heated by something else. To conduct this investigation the students will need a thermometer, tongs to pick up the hot bolts, a timer, a polystyrene cup and several hot bolts from a hardware store. The bolts need to be placed in the sun to heat up prior to the lesson. This resource includes a PowerPoint presentation explaining how to conduct the investigation, an accompanying worksheet to record findings and an assessment rubric.
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!!
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.
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 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.
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 conduct this investigation with your class you will need two varieties of fish scales from two different species. This is so the students can compare two of the four main types of fish scale.
You can remove my images of herring and perch and replace with fish species that suit the ocean or waterways where you live.
The students will conduct their investigation and record their findings by drawing a detailed picture of their fish scale and identifying important features such as
•shape,
•thickness
•colour
•size
After careful observation of their fish scale under a microscope the students should be able to compare their scale to the diagrams on the powerpoint and be able to identify if the scale is placoid, ganoid, ctenoid or cycloid.
This is a powerpoint to guide students in an investigation on melting 4 different materials such as
a small piece of cheese
small piece of butter
4 choc buttons
a metal bolt
The powerpoint slides include the components of ‘fair testing’, developing an investigation question, a list of materials, how to set up the investigation and a slide of review questions
Part One
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.
Part Two
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.
Part Three
Investigation - What can you put on an apple to stop it from turning brown?
Students conduct their own investigation with an apple to see which liquid is best at preventing it from turning brown.
This Science investigation tests how powerful the sun is at drying out a piece of wet paper towel. Students set up two investigations to compare sunlight and shade. Students record how many minutes it takes for the paper towel to dry.
There is a powerpoint to accompany this activity with a slide of review questions - Sunlight and shade questions.
This bundle is a set of Manager, Speaker and Director badge inserts that can fit into plastic name holders. The document is in Word so that you can adjust the outlines to fit your name holders.
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.
This powerpoint resource comes in two parts
Part One - the students are guided to use microscopes to investigate a dry soil sample on a ‘sticky tape slide’. Then they create their own soil solution in a jar. You could set this over 2 x 60 minute lessons.
Part Two - the students having left their solution to ‘settle’ for one week, then draw a diagram (to scale) of the layers in their solution using rulers to measure and magnifiers to observe the layers closely. Allow one hour.