Science Is A Verb! Part 1 LET S DO IT! ISBN

Transcription

1 LET S DO IT! Science Is A Verb! Part 1 ISBN

2 Contents INTRODUCTION Lab Title How bright can you make the light bulbs? Students know how to design and build simple series and parallel circuits by using components such as wires, batteries, and bulbs. What does a compass detect? Students know how to build a simple compass and use it to detect magnetic effects, including Earth s magnetic field. How can electricity cause magnetism? Students know electric currents produce magnetic fields and know how to build a simple electromagnet. Students know the role of electromagnets in the construction of electric motors, electric generators, and simple devices, such as doorbells and earphones. How Do Charged Objects Interact? Students know electrically charged objects attract or repel each other. How Do Magnets Interact? Students know that magnets have two poles (north and south) and that like poles repel each other while unlike poles attract each other. The Electricity Challenge Students know electrical energy can be converted to heat, light, and motion. How are all living things connected in an ecosystem? Students know plants are the primary source of matter and energy entering most food chains. Students know producers and consumers (herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and decomposers) are related in food chains and food webs and may compete with each other for resources in an ecosystem. Students know decomposers, including many fungi, insects, and microorganisms, recycle matter from dead plants and animals. Students know many plants depend on animals for pollination and seed dispersal, and animals depend on plants for food and shelter. Page

3 lab title What Are the Living and Non-Living Things in an Ecosystem? Students know ecosystems can be characterised by their living and nonliving components. Students know many plants depend on animals for pollination and seed dispersal, and animals depend on plants for food and shelter. How Do Adaptations Help Animals and Plants Survive? Students know that in any particular environment, some kinds of plants and animals survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. Can Microorganisms be Beneficial? Students know that most microorganisms do not cause disease and that many are beneficial. Students know how to differentiate among igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks by referring to their properties and methods of formation (the rock cycle). How can you tell minerals apart? Students know how to identify common rock-forming minerals (including quartz, calcite, feldspar, mica, and hornblende) and ore minerals by using a table of diagnostic properties. Does Everything Happen At The Same Speed? Students know some changes in the Earth are due to slow processes, such as erosion, and some changes are due to rapid processes, such as landslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes. How Can Be Broken? Students know natural processes, including freezing and thawing and the growth of roots, cause rocks to break down into smaller pieces. Students know moving water erodes landforms, reshaping the land by taking it away from some places and depositing it as pebbles, sand, silt, and mud in other places (weathering, transport, and deposition). Page

4 Introduction to the lab manual: This lab manual provides structure for teachers who wish to engage students in hands-on interactive learning but also provides support for teachers who are more comfortable with inquiry based learning. If you are a teacher who is taking their first dive into hands-on Science, the background material is designed to provide enough structure to help support the organisation of the lab and its materials. Most of the materials are commonly found in local supermarkets and department stores at a nominal cost. A few materials, like scales and hand microscopes can be found on-line. The lab sheets can be given to students so they follow step by step, or they can be told a general structure to follow. The critical portion of any lab is to have a thorough discussion of the results and their thinking after the experiment is completed. It is suggested that you take as much time as the experiment to have this discussion with students. The real learning occurs not from the hands-on experiment, but from a deep discussion of the experiment, while making connections to the concept they are learning. For this reason, it is suggested that the students do the experiment FIRST, and then have the students learn the concepts. They will have a better understanding of the concept if they first conduct an experiment, gain the experience, and then discuss a new concept. Even without a strong Science background, get into the habit of asking questions. The process of asking questions and being inquisitive will generate more excitement for students and will engage them in a deeper way of learning Science. I don t know is as important to learning as having all the answers. Together you can learn Science and discover the major ideas that Scientists research. If you are an experienced teacher, the Teacher Guided Questions to Inquiry are designed to provide prompts for students. These questions are not intended to be assessment questions, but ones that will engage students in the general direction of the benchmark. The teacher may select one or two, but not all of them, to have students start on an open inquiry approach to learning. The students will engage in their own experiment, create their own procedures, and make conclusions from their data. For this reason, there are no answers to those questions. They are open ended and can be used to formulate interesting experiments for advanced students. The slight variation in some of the questions in each of the labs is designed to provide a sufficient number of prompts at various levels of Blooms Taxonomy to engage students. Throughout the year, encourage questioning, student dialogue, and the scientific process. There is no one exact scientific method as is often suggested. The process of learning about the world and universe, drawing conclusions from facts, and building these facts into strong scientific theories is the work of Science. Science is always growing, stretching, and expanding its knowledge base. It is about challenging well supported ideas to discover weakness. This is exactly what students should be encouraged to do! And in the end, Science is not something to study, it is something to do! Science is a VERB!

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6 62 Description: Students will use crayons to model the rock cycle by first examining a crayon, shaving bits of two different ones to form sedimentary rock, and then melting the bit together to form metamorphic rock. Student Materials (per group): Crayons Plastic Knife Aluminum foil Cups Book Additional Teacher Materials: Pot for hot water Background and Misconceptions: s form from a variety of processes that are all linked. All rocks at one point started as a magma that solidified to form rock. But through weathering, pressure and heat, other types of rock are formed. After an igneous rock forms from magma, it can undergo all weathering that breaks into smaller pieces. As these small pieces of sand and gravel collect in valleys, lakes, rivers, and oceans they can be covered by additional layers that apply pressure. With enough pressure, the bits of sand and gravel can be pushed together to form new types of rocks. These sedimentary rocks are distinct in that they appear to be made of different types of rock. Weathering and Erosion Sediments Deposition Burial Compaction Cemebting Igneous Sedimentary Solidification Magma or Lava Melting Metamorphic Metamorphism Heat or pressure

7 63 If these sedimentary rocks undergo additional heating and pressure, they can be transformed into a new different rock with different properties. This new type of rock is called metamorphic. The metamorphic rock has different characteristics from sedimentary in that the material has changed form. Often the rock looks like parts have fused or there is distinct layering. Finally, if they melt completely again, they can be transformed into a pure igneous rock again. And in between each type of rock can cross over into any other type of rock. What is important to note is that the process of forming the rock is what defines the type of rock that is found. It is important for students to understand that how the rock is formed is how the name is assigned. And there is no single path to the formation of the individual rocks. Teacher Guided Questions to Inquiry: Use these questions to get the students started on their own inquiry! How do different types of rocks form? What do you think would happen if you were to try to squeeze sand together? What would it look like? How can a rock change from one type of rock to another? Additional Hints: Make sure that the aluminum foil is sealed before putting in water. If it is not, the crayons will melt and leak and create a big mess. As an introduction, show students different types of rocks. Ask them to hypothesise how the rocks might have formed. A rock kit will contain the three types of rocks. As the lab proceeds, point out how the steps that are followed in the lab are similar to the rock cycle steps: The shaving of the crayon is the same as the weathering of rock to create sand and gravel; the pressure is the same thing that happens when sedimentary rock is formed under layers of material that push down on the sand; the heating that occurs from the hot water is the same that occurs to form metamorphic rock.

8 64 TEACHER ANSWER KEY Description: s go through a cycle in which they form, evolve and change over time. In this experiment, you will use crayons to simulate the rock cycle. Materials: 3 Different coloured crayons Hot Water Aluminum Foil Book Plastic knife Procedures: 1. Examine a whole crayon. How do you think that it was formed? If this were a rock, what stage of the rock cycle do you think this would be? How did the crayon form: By melting wax at high temperatures. Drawing Student drawing. What stage of rock cycle? Igneous

9 Using at least 2 colours of crayon, shave the crayons using the plastic knife. Collect the shavings on the aluminum foil. Fold the aluminum foil over and then use a book to push down on the shavings. Open the aluminum foil and examine the shavings that are pressed. What do they look like? What stage of the rock cycle do you think this would be? How did the pressed shavings form: Drawing Using a book to squeeze the shavings together using high pressure. What stage of rock cycle? Sedimentary Get a cup of hot water. Fold aluminum foil around the pressed crayons to form a boat. Place the foil into the hot water. Watch the crayons carefully until they just begin to melt. Observe the crayons. What do they look like? Make a drawing.

10 66 How did the new crayons form: Drawing Heat and after pressure was applied. What stage of rock cycle? Metamorphic 9. Fold aluminum foil back over the crayons and place in the hot water for several minutes. Make sure it is watertight! 10. Open and observe. How did the new crayons form: Drawing Additional heat and pressure it applied. What stage of rock cycle? Igneous

11 67 Questions 1. Draw the rock cycle based on this experiment. Label what happened to form each type of rock. Weathering and Erosion Igneous Solidification Magma or Lava Melting Sediments Deposition Burial Compaction Cemebting Sedimentary Metamorphic Metamorphism Heat or pressure