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.
The âCatch a falling rulerâ powerpoint guides students to conduct an investigation exploring their âreaction timeâ when a 1 metre ruler is held at eye level and then released. 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 âreaction timeâ.
The results could be graphed in a line graph.
This is a great activity to follow on and consolidate my other resource âJump for robotsâ. 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.
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 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 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.
This investigation is a lot of fun for young children.
You will need one old CD rom or DVD for each child.
Take the children outside on a sunny day. If youâre in Australia make sure that the children are wearing hats. LOL No hat no play!
Locate the Sun. Make sure that the children are standing in the full Sun.
The idea is to capture the sunlight by angling the CD rom or DVD and then shining the light into a shaded area.
I had the children stand on the oval and then shine the light onto the schoolâs âundercoverâ area. There were plenty of objects like benches and bins for the children to shine their light. The area I chose also had plenty of people coming and going so the children were able to shine their light onto them.
This activity can be a be tricky and you will find many children saying âmine doesnât workâ.
To conclude and to ensure that every child can shine a sunbeam, I asked small groups of children to stand in the shaded undercover area while the reminder of the class sone a âdiscoâ onto them.
We then returned to class and I demonstrated on the whiteboard how to draw a ray diagram to show how light travelled from the Sun to the DVD or CD rom and then onto an object or person.
On the worksheet the children can draw themselves holding the CD rom or DVD and the object/person that they shone light onto. They can add ray arrows to show how light travelled. And finally write their own sentence about the investigation.
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 itâs food etc
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 powerpoint resource comes in two parts
Part One - the students are guided to use microscopes to investigate a dry soil sample on a âsticky tape slideâ. 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 âsettleâ 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.
This powerpoint includes five slides to guide your student to set up a decomposition investigation in a small take away plastic container. each team of students will need a small piece of apple, paper, plastic and cloth.
Once the student have covered their materials with soil or potting mix and secured the container they will construct a table in their Science book and write predictions for the materials.
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.
Commence the lesson sharing the story of the âlittle house with no doors or windows but with a star insideâ. 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 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.
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.
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
This activity was introduced to start off a new unit on birds and to generate discussion and ideas about the studentâs 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 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
This is a rare sight - Uluru or Ayers Rock in the rain. The students viewed this powerpoint as part of a unit on desert biomes and how rain in the desert is a very rare event.