Overview This lesson will engage students in an open inquiry lesson related to popcorn. Students will pose their own questions about the properties and behaviors of popcorn and do brand comparisons as appropriate. They will design a procedure for investigation, collect data, and analyze it to answer their question. They will build measuring skills and work on data organization
Overview This lesson extends students’ understanding of magnetism and electricity through a structured inquiry on static electricity. Students make predictions about different materials and their ability to generate static. The students will use a balloon to test the materials’ ability to generate static and will test the strength of the static charge as they pursue
Overview After engaging students by a watching a demonstration of “floating objects” (ring magnets repelling each other) or videos about magnets, students will freely explore magnets and magnetism with a variety of objects. The teacher will guide students as they generate and identify their own testable questions that can be answered in the classroom, or
Overview Students will work in groups designing their own investigations to answer teacher-‐posed questions about evaporation. Students will make connections to previously learned information as they design an apparatus to test their predictions for grade K. Grade 2 students will take it a step further by investigating factors that play a role in evaporation including
Overview Students begin this lesson by engaging in the process of classification of seeds based upon attributes or properties that describe objects in a collection. Students are introduced to the idea of classification as an organizing principle of science and are given the opportunity to classify seeds. This classification introduces students to the diversity of
Overview After watching an engaging video on Olympic alpine skiers, students then participate in a teacher-‐modeled “think-‐aloud” about generating questions. These activities prompt students to explore aspects of motion using a variety of materials with the goal of generating questions about the properties of motion. The students’ questions are considered as to whether they can
Overview Second grade students study the life cycle of the white-‐tailed deer as they examine how teeth help tell the story of a life cycle. Teeth are used as evidence and are a visible sign of the life cycle at work. 2nd grade students “collaborate” with Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries scientists as
Overview Students will carry out a structured inquiry investigation to determine how mulch affects soil moisture. By testing the effect of the presence (or absence) and type of mulch on the soil’s moisture content, the students will apply their findings to plant growth and viability. The process of investigating should engender other lines of inquiry
Overview After collecting climate data (on-‐line) for two locations on opposite sides of the globe, the students will: first, analyze the data; second, present data in a chart format; third, share their findings with the other students in the class; and fourth, use their data to answer the investigation question, “How do the average monthly
Overview In this structured inquiry lesson, the students will explore several simple machines and their functions. They will also use a new measurement tool, a spring scale. They will collect and analyze data as they compare the force required to lift a load (a water bottle) without and with the assistance of a simple machine.