Scientific+Method

=﻿Activities Using the Scientific Method:=

Kids Science Experiments: []

In this activity, students are given a 5x5 square of tinfoil, a bucket of water, and pennies. They try to create a boat that will hold the most amount of pennies.

I have attached a worksheet for dissolving m&m's in different liquids. We put them in vinigar, saltwater, sugarwater, tap water, and lemon juice. We tried plain m&m's and penut m&m's. Each group choose a different color to test and then they compared their results.

Another thing would be to have students use the scientific method using paper airplanes of different shapes to predict which would fly further with the same amount of force etc Here's my paper airplane template. We marked off 5 ft. sections on the playground and tested the same fold on two different sizes of paper.

As you can see, some of the worksheets have more blank spaces for the students to fill out than others. When they got really good at it, I had them make their own.

We did two ramp activities, one they tested ramp height the other was the ramp surfaces. Here's the other ramp worksheet.

I get many of my science activities from www.pbskids.org/zoom

www.pbskids.org/fetch

Then I make my own worksheets or set it up to follow the scientific method.

I do several mini-investigations that focus on each step of the scientific method. Here are some possibilities: - I like to tell the story of Louis Pasteur's life as a interesting hook to what is science (exploring, curiosity, asking how and why)- asking questions - to practice asking good scientific questions & developing hypotheses: how many pennies will fit in the almost-full jar of water before it overflows? (this always fools them!), how many pretzels can a science student eat in 2 minutes? (this fools them too- they love it!) which will hit the ground first when dropped from the same height- a ping pong ball or a golf ball (tell the Galileo/Leaning Tower of Pisa story)? which will water pour out of faster: a bottle with one hole or two? which will bounce higher: a ping pong ball or a tennis ball?

- for teaching observations, I use SCUMPS (Size Colour Use Materials Parts Shape), which is a good mnemonic throughout the year. I ask: How can you tell a hardboiled egg from a raw egg? or I give groups four pieces of chocolate bars, ask them to SCUMP each piece and then have the group use the SCUMPS to match to each piece, then if they get them all right, they can eat the chocolate; I've also had them SCUMPS a penny and then see if they can find someone's penny from a big pile of pennies just using the SCUMPS description (for homework, they SCUMPS a fruit or veggie in their fridge and we see if we can guess it the next day. Then I reinforce that the best kind of characteristic to describe is a structural characteristic- this is what the biological classification system is built on- so Materials and Parts are the most useful SCUMPS descriptors).

I do a weekly science project in my class called the Traveling Scientist. I wish I could take credit for this activity cause its awesome but its from a coupld teachers that work in my district who put it together. A student is chosen each week to create a science project to present to the class using the Scientific Method.

I decorated an old college backpack with science words, graphics, etc. Then put in about 5 used science experiment books that i purchased at like thrift stores, yard sales, etc. Inside I have a folder that has a letter to the parents, a filled out example of the scientific method worksheet, and an empty scientific method worksheet that they fill out.

But with students repeating this process and reviewing it weekly with experiments it makes it enjoyable for the students scientifically with a review.

Our **question** was, "Will a cranberry float?"

Then each students wrote their own **hypothesis.**

The **procedure** was I gave each child a small paper cup of water and then a single cranberry. I instructed them to wait until I said, "Go" to put the cranberry in the water.

The **result** was the cranberries did float.

Then I cut each cranberry in half for each student. If you provide plastic knives students can do this for themselves easily enough. There is a hole in the center of each berry with a few tiny seeds. There is also room for air which will make the seed float well.

Students wrote their **conclusions** and then we read an article about cranberries. If cranberries are fresh they will float and bounce .

=**Introducing Scientific Method**=
 * BrainPop Jr. []**
 * Movie about the scientific method: []**
 * Movie about observation skills: []**
 * Movie about science projects: []**
 * Movie about tally charts and graphs: []**
 * ProTeacher site: link to math and science activity ideas []**
 * The Science Spot has experiment ideas []**