We Did Do Science Too!

Appraisal indicators include Science, and I thought I'd best show evidence of this, and that we had actually done more than just our rock study and space study, all relating to Planet Earth and Beyond. While learning through Mantle of the Expert, we became geologists and then astronomers. But we also did lots of other Science stuff!

During Science Weeks, I, as a teacher, learnt a bit too! For the first Science burst I chose light refraction as a topic. This was really neat, the experiments were awesome and didn't end up costing a fortune (like the year I bought a whole lot of things like iodine and fizzy vitamin tablets and peroxide, and searched for some weird "ingredients" that you can't even buy anymore but the local chemist might be able to order it from somewhere...) so I was pretty happy I had everything I needed right there in my kitchen. Youtube had fabulous demonstration videos, the experiments were easy to carry out, and successful!  And we all Responded with Wonderment and Awe, we really did go "Wow," because it was like magic. I love anything to do with visual perception!

The broken straw

This worked with backwards words, arrows and patterns. Pretty cool!

The floating coin trick!

The following Science Week, I chose Sound as the focus. This too was pretty good, the best parts were the sound experiments using balloons and coins, making cup phones, amplifying sound with plastic cups, string and damp sponges, and exploring sound vibrations with string and teaspoons. Again, this cost very little, I only had to purchase cheap teaspoons! No photos though, I filmed that one, because you can't hear sound in a photo!  I can just put on a couple of screen shots...

Sound vibrations traveling up the string

The Chicken Dance! I put the music on and the children did the noises with their damp sponges run down string and amplified through the cups. Cutest video on our end of year DVD.

When we were offered a Mister Science super science trial box, I jumped at the chance. This was truly an awesome resource and I hope we really do get them for the future because it was so easy to use, all of the equipment and materials were there, and instructions on how to use it, and there was enough for the whole class. The best bit... kids actually tried it out at home after carrying out the experiment in class, made changes to the experiment (fair testing even!) and brought their slime to school to share and discuss.

Slime made with the Mister Science kit. Guar gum, water, food colour and Borax. You can get Borax at Bin Inn, and guar gum I have seen at Indian supermarkets.

Example of childrens experiments at home, - slime made with Elmers clear glue instead of guar gum!

What I've learnt:
Science links really well with the other curriculum areas, eg. maths - statistics, ART! literacy - reading and writing, social studies, ICT can be used throughout... the list goes on!
It was really nice to not limit the little science bursts to Planet Earth and Beyond. We had lots of 'unplanned moments' (like trying to open a coconut - biology/seeds/forces) and sharing a pomegranate (originally intended for literacy, but only 1 child out of 21 even knew what it was, let alone what it looked or tasted like, so the whole biology thing happened again with the seeds, plus they all got to predict, smell, taste, write descriptively, read Persephone and the Pomegranate Seeds, and paint, with the fruit as a subject for art!). We made butter (changing state of matter). We did some work on seasons as they changed. We did some work with fabric, tie dyeing and bleaching. We had our Cabinet of Curiosities which was continually being added to, and promoted further inquiry.  
Science made me wonder, it made the children wonder, and it's really fun trying to find the answers to our wonderings together. It's ok to not know all the answers as a teacher!...
Like my WOW moment back in October, when I saw a moonbow! For real, this was really amazing, I didn't even know they existed until I saw one. I had to go online and research! I took photos...as you can imagine, they did not come out.
The best thing about Science is that you have access to demonstrations for practically any experiment online, you just have to find the good ones!

Salt crystals in a jar, we tried lots of different types of salt

Imogen makes her own crystals at home after making them in class.

Ready to dye!

One of our salt crystals. Pretty pretty!

Shake the cream, make the...

...butter!