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 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?

This factual text contains the main features of ants. It includes body parts and structure release of pheromones how they use their different body parts the ant colony There are plenty of literacy and science activities that could facilitated with this text.

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.

Investigate the surface tension of liquids by following the lesson steps on this set of slides. You will need milk shallow dish detergent food colouring cotton bud or popstick When the cotton bud touches the milk, the colours shift and swirl away from the deterent and a colourful pattern is formed. This is because the detergent breaks the surface tension of the liquid.

This powerpoint guides your students to experience 4 different chemical and physical changes. The experiments that you will demonstrate are Melting chocolate Freaky hand Making butter Rainbow milk The resource includes a final slide for students to ansser questions and review the demonstrations.

This is a powerpoint to review a chromatography investigation. You would need to set up your own chromatography experiment with your students then use the slides to review and conclude the activity. There are several chromatograhy investigations to be browsed on the internet. One of my favourites is the chromatograhy dancer.

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

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.

The students were placed in teams to view Robots in Industry from this website (cut and paste this address) . This website has been crated and designed by Crickcrick which is me an author and seller on TES http://thescienceworkshop.weebly.com/year-6-robots-in-industry.html Each team viewed a set of youtube clips about a type of robot or drone. Some examples are - car manufacturing, drones, marine robots, surgical robots, autonomous vehicles, NASA robots and robots for manufacturing. After viewing the video clips students work in their teams to discuss the questions on the worksheet about the role and task of robots and the positives and negatives of robots in our society and for the future.

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 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.

Students will learn that everyday tasks that seem easy to us are difficult for a mechanical robot to perform. Students will investigate this by using a robotic toy hand. As a class we will discuss the limitations and challenges that robots face in grasping tools and manipulating them. To conduct this lesson you will need to purchase up to 12 or 14 robotic toy hands. This can be purchased at Toys R Us for about $7(Australian dollars) each. There are plenty of youtube clips that you can show the students prior to the investigation that cover the use of robotic arms in industry and on the ISS. Once you have your equipment then you can use the powerpoint to guide the students through two investigations. Part 2 and Part 3 of this package is the worksheet to accompany the investigations.

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.

Students will examine images about Uluru to see how it has been affected by weathering, erosion and human activity. Students will carefully examine 6 images and describe the possible causes for the shape of the landform. Which type of weathering or erosion has caused the landform to change? Students record their ideas on the worksheet. Students draw a diagram predicting how the landform of Uluru might look 100 years into the future. At completion of the written task gather the students together to share their findings. This activity could be used as an assessment task to conclude a unit of work on erosion and weathering.

This is an activity investigating friction using remote control cars. For this lesson I purchased three different remote control vehicles from K Mart - a four wheel drive, a sports car and a jeep/buggy. Use the powerpoint to guide the students through the learning activities which include writing a prediction, conducting a fair test and recording their findings. The powerpoint also includes a procedure explaining how to set up the investigation on your school grounds. Accompanying the powerpoint is a worksheet for these students to record details of their investigation and to record their findings and data on a table.

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 were given the following materials to complete this investigation a ruler a large foldback clip with the steel pin removed - this is the fulcrum several objects -small blocks, erasers, sharpeners etc easily sourced around the classroom. Plus a few heavier objects for investigation 3. Investigation 1 - First class lever The students set up their equipment to balance two objects Investigation 2 - Second class lever The students set up their equipment with the fulcrum at one end of the ruler and then balance two objects. Investigation 3 - Third class lever The students set up their equipment to lift a load. In their Science Journal the students choose two of the investigation and draw a diagram including these labels - fulcrum, object and ruler.

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.