Guide to Exploratorium Activities That Align with California Science Content Standards

Transcription

1 Guide to Exploratorium Activities That Align with California Science Content Standards The following activities are recommended by the Exploratorium Field Trips program as Exploratorium activities that align with the California Science Content Standards. The activities are organized by grade level and matched with the corresponding standard. Please note that for each activity it says whether it relates to California Science Content Standards or connects to California Science Content Standards. Relates to means that the activity has an implicit connection to the standard. To fully connect with the standard, it requires the teacher to deepen the experience with a classroom discussion. Connects to means that the activity explicitly connects to the standard. Grade Activity Grade Activity 1 Film Canister Farming 6 Earthquake Science: Soil Liquefaction Seismic Slinky! 2 Bottle Blast-Off The Dirt on Dirt 7 Bird in a Cage Slide Projector Activities 3 Up Periscope! 8 Build a Solar System Model 4 Electrical Fleas Descartes Diver Mold Terrarium Downhill Race Scribbling Machines Drawing Board Stripped-Down Motor Gas Model 5 Copper Caper Fog Chamber 2012 Exploratorium 1

2 Grade 1 Activity: Film Canister Farming Experiment with water, temperature, and light to see what makes a seed come out of its shell. Life Sciences 2. Plants and animals meet their needs in different ways. As a basis for b. Students know both plants and animals need water, animals need food, and plants need light. e. Students know roots are associated with the intake of water and soil nutrients and green leaves are associated with making food from sunlight Exploratorium 2

3 Grade 2 Activity: Bottle Blast-Off Make your own rocket and launcher with everyday materials. 1.The motion of objects can be observed and measured. As a basis for a. Students know the position of an object can be described by locating it in relation to another object or to the background. b. Students know an object s motion can be described by recording the change in position of the object over time. c. Students know the way to change how something is moving is by giving it a push or a pull. The size of the change is related to the strength, or the amount of force, of the push or pull. Activity: The Dirt on Dirt Learn about soil composition by separating it out into different layers of sand, silt, and clay. Earth Science 3. Earth is made of materials that have distinct properties and provide resources for human activities. As a basis for c. Students know that soil is made partly from weathered rock and partly from organic materials and that soils differ in their color, texture, capacity to retain water, and ability to support the growth of many kinds of plants Exploratorium 3

4 Grade 3 Activity: Up Periscope! Use everyday materials to build a mirrored tube that allows you to see over walls and around corners. 2. Light has a source and travels in a direction. As a basis for this understanding: a. Students know light is reflected from mirrors and other surfaces Exploratorium 4

5 Grade 4 Activity: Electrical Fleas Learn about the effects of static electricity and how objects react to each other when they have positive, negative, and neutral electrical charges. 1. Electricity and magnetism are related effects that have many useful applications in everyday life. As a basis for e. Students know electrically charged objects attract and repel each other. Activity: Mold Terrarium Make careful observations about how organic materials decompose while watching molds grow on leftover foods. Life Sciences 2. All organisms need energy and matter to live and grow. As a basis for c. Students know decomposers, including many fungi, insects, and microorganisms, recycle matter from dead plants and animals. Activity: Scribbling Machines Using wires, batteries, and a simple offset motor, create a motorized contraption that moves in unusual ways and leaves a mark to trace its path. s 1. Electricity and magnetism are related effects that have many useful applications in everyday life. As a basis for a. Students know how to design and build simple series and parallel circuits by using components such as wires, batteries, and bulbs. g. Students know electrical energy can be converted into light, heat, and motion. Activity: Stripped-Down Motor Learn about electromagnetism by making a basic motor using everyday materials. s 1. Electricity and magnetism are related effects that have many useful applications in everyday life. As a basis for c. Students know electric currents produce magnetic fields and know how to build a simple electromagnet Exploratorium 5

6 Grade 5 Activity: Copper Caper Watch pennies go from dull to shiny to blue-green, and learn about the atoms and molecules involved. s 1.Elements and their combinations account for all the varied types of matter in the world. As a basis for a. Students know that during chemical reactions the atoms in the reactants rearrange to form products with different properties. b. Students know all matter is made of atoms, which may combine to form molecules. Activity: Fog Chamber Learn how clouds are formed. In a bottle, cool the water vapor by changing the pressure and watch it turn into water droplets. Earth Sciences 3. Water on Earth moves between the oceans and on land through the processes of evaporation and condensation. As a basis for b. Student know when liquid evaporates, it turns into water vapor in the air and can reappear as a liquid when cooled or as a solid if cooled below the freezing point. c. Students know water vapor in the air moves from one place to another and can form fog or clouds, which are tiny droplets of water or ice, and can fall to Earth as rain, hail, sleet, or snow Exploratorium 6

7 Grade 6 Activity: Earthquake Science: Soil Liquefaction Learn what happens to sand and landfill during an earthquake by creating a model using simple materials. Focus on Earth Sciences Plate Tectonics and Earth s Structure 1.Plate tectonics accounts for important features of Earth s surface and major geologic events. As a basis for g. Students know how to determine the epicenter of an earthquake and know that the effects of an earthquake vary, depending on the size of the earthquake, the distance of the region from the epicenter, the local geology, and the type of construction in the region. Activity: Seismic Slinky! Explore the different types of waves traveling from an earthquake s epicenter by modeling them with a slinky. Focus on Earth Sciences Plate Tectonics and Earth s Structure 1.Plate tectonics accounts for important features of Earth s surface and major geologic events. As a basis for g. Students know how to determine the epicenter of an earthquake and know that the effects of an earthquake vary, depending on the size of the earthquake, the distance of the region from the epicenter, the local geology, and the type of construction in the region Exploratorium 7

8 Grade 7 Activity: Bird in a Cage Learn about the color-sensitive receptor cells (called cones) in the retina of your eye and what happens when they are stimulated by a particular wavelength of light. Focus on Life Sciences Physical Principles in Living Systems () 6. Physical principles underlie biological structures and functions. As a basis for e. Students know that white light is a mixture of many wavelengths (colors) and that retinal cells react differently to different wavelengths. Activity: Slide Projector Activities Investigate light, images, and lenses using a projector as your light source. Focus on Life Sciences Physical Principles in Living Systems () 6. Physical principles underlie biological structures and functions. As a basis for c. Students know that light travels in straight lines if the medium it travels through does not change. d. Students know how simple lenses are used in a magnifying glass, the eye, a telescope, and a microscope Exploratorium 8

9 Grade 8 Activity: Build a Solar System Model Make a scale model of the solar system and learn the real definition of space. Earth in the Solar System (Earth Science) 4. The structure and composition of the universe can be learned from studying stars and galaxies and their evolution. As a basis for understanding this concept: c. Students know how to use astronomical units and light years as measures of distance between the Sun, stars, and Earth. e. Students know the appearance, general composition, relative position and size, and motion of objects in the solar system, including planets, planetary satellites, comets, and asteroids. Activity: Descartes Diver Squeeze the sides of a plastic soda bottle to change the fluid pressure inside. Changes in fluid pressure affect the buoyancy of an object inside the bottle. Density and Buoyancy 8. All objects experience a buoyant force when immersed in a fluid. As a basis for a. Students know density is mass per unit volume. b. Students know how to calculate the density of substances (regular and irregular solids and liquids) from measurements of mass and volume. c. Students know the buoyant force on an object in a fluid is an upward force equal to the weight of the fluid the object has displaced. Activity: Downhill Race Find out why two cylinders that look the same roll down a hill at different velocities. Motion 1.The velocity of an object is the rate of change of its position. As a basis for a. Students know position is defined in relation to some choice of a standard reference point and a set of reference directions. b. Students know that average speed is the total distance traveled divided by the total time elapsed and that the speed of an object along the path traveled can vary. d. Students know the velocity of an object must be described by specifying both the direction and the speed 2012 Exploratorium 9

10 Grade 8 (continued) Activity: Drawing Board Create a beautiful pattern with a pen and a moving pendulum. The diminishing size of the pattern demonstrates how friction dissipates the energy of a moving object. Motion 1.The velocity of an object is the rate of change of its position. As a basis for a. Students know position is defined in relation to some choice of a standard reference point and a set of reference directions. Force 2.Unbalanced forces cause changes in velocity. As a basis for understanding this concept: a. Students know a force has both direction and magnitude. b. Students know when an object is subject to two or more forces at once, the result is the cumulative effect of all the forces. e. Students know that when the forces on an object are unbalanced, the object will change its velocity (that is, it will speed up, slow down, or change direction). Activity: Gas Model Learn about states of matter by observing a model of the motion of molecules in a container. Structure of Matter 3. Each of the more than 100 elements of matter has distinct properties and a distinct atomic structure. All forms of matter are composed of one or more of the elements. As a basis for d. Students know the states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) depend on molecular motion. e. Students know that in solids the atoms are closely locked in position and can only vibrate; in liquids the atoms and molecules are more loosely connected and can collide with and move past one another; and in gases the atoms and molecules are free to move independently, colliding frequently Exploratorium 10