Blair
Moody Elementary School students recently had an enjoyable time asking
questions, defining a problem and then planning and carrying out an
investigation (Science and Engineering practices in the Next Generation Science
Standards).
They
did this using Oobleck; a gooey green substance brought to life by Dr. Seuss in
his book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck.
The
students identified the properties of Oobleck through hands-on exploration. What
fun they had learning to become little scientists! The teams thoroughly
investigated the strange substance asking questions, and deciding how to
describe the substance. They listed all the properties they could think
of and then we held a Scientific Convention.
The
purpose of the Scientific Convention was to establish the "laws of
Oobleck." Everyone needed to agree on the properties. After
the voting was over we had a list of the "laws of Oobleck."
With
the laws in mind, students had to design a spacecraft that could land in an
ocean of Oobleck. The spaceship had to take the "laws of
Oobleck" into account. The drawing would be incomplete without
labels and a written explanation (a descriptive paragraph) of how the spaceship
could land in an ocean of Oobleck.
In
the end, the teacher explained that the students were really working and
learning in the same manner as scientists do. They worked in the Science
Laboratory, held a convention and designed a spacecraft. They followed
the Scientific Method, the same method that professional scientists use.
The
Viking scientists used the same processes as they figured out how to explore
the surface of Mars with the Mars Rover.
No comments:
Post a Comment