ingridscience

Print the challenges:
Print out the attached pages double sided, then cut the sheets in half to make challenges on each side of the two sheets. Laminate.
Each sheet will then have a maze on one side, and a written challenge on the other.
When the written challenge is read in the mirror it says either "DRAW A FACE" or "WRITE YOUR NAME".

Prepare the shoebox:
Remove the lid and tape a small flat mirror near one edge of the lid.
Open up one short side of the box and tape flat, to make an opening on one end of the box.

Show students how to set up the activity:
Clip the chosen maze or challenge to one end of the support board.
Place the opened-up box on its side, and place the board and maze inside. Place the edge of the lid under the other end of the board, so that the board holds the assembly in place (see first photo). If the lid still falls over, place a supporting box behind it.
Make sure the box is oriented to enable left- or right-handed drawing on the maze through the opened box side.

Students sit behind the box and look over it into the mirror, to see the reflection of the maze/challenge in the mirror. They should not look directly at the maze (though some will not be able to help themselves).
While only looking in the mirror, use the dry erase pen to solve the maze or challenge. It is hard, but a fun challenge for most students.

Discussion:
Students can describe their experiences. They will find that moving the up and down movements of the pen are reversed in the mirror - when the pen is moved towards you, in the mirror it appears to move further away, and vice versa.
This effect happens because the straight rays of light are reflected in the mirror.

Students make thin layers of sand in different colours. Tap the container between each layer so that they settle densely.
Once the container is completely full, seal the top with tape, to prevent the sand from shaking around and the colours mixing.

Discuss how sedimentary rocks are formed, and look at real sedimentary rocks to see the layered patterns they make.

Look at and touch the different kinds of rocks and discuss how they are formed.

My collection:
extrusive igneous - basalt (from Vancouver beaches), obsidian and cinders (from Oregon lava lands)
intrusive igneous - granite, pink and grey (from Vancouver beaches)
metamorphic - marble (offcuts from stone countertop store)
sedimentary - sandstone and mudstone (from Vancouver beaches)

Note: it is very hard, just by looking at a rock, and unless one is more expert, to determine whether a rock is sedimentary, metamorphic or igneous.

To break the geodes into many pieces, put one in a sock and hit it with a hammer. This will make many small pieces, that can be shared among students.

If there are more geodes available, and each student can take home a larger piece, you can try to break the geodes open by breaking them into just two or three pieces using the chisel and hammer.

Put a magnet under the card below the car or cardboard car/boat/luge etc, and move the magnet to drag the vehicle along, following the track.

Discuss the pushes and pulls: the magnet pulls on the vehicle through the board to hold it to the board. As the magnet is moved the vehicle is pushed and pulled around the track.

Students can design their own race tracks.

I am giving you animal life cycle cards.
There are 4 different animals in your set, with four different stages of their life cycle.
Try to place the cards into four separate life cycles on your mat, so the arrows link each stage in the life cycle - start with the egg and cycle through two stages to the adult.
Some will be easy as you have seen them before, some you’ll have to guess. Don’t worry about getting it right, but look at the variety of life that goes through metamorphosis.

Discussion:
Barnacle is a crustacean, related to shrimp and crabs. Barnacle egg grows into a larva, which swims in the ocean. The larva develops into a cypris, which settles on a rock and metamorphoses to form the adult.
Crustaceans: some release fertilised eggs into the water, others hold on to the eggs until they hatch incl. barnacles. Larva called nauplius.
Jellyfish: Egg grows into a swimming larva, which attaches to a rock. Metamorphosis to form a polyp. Young jellyfish bud off. Eggs fertilized outside the parent. Larva called planula.
Starfish/sea star: The eggs grow into a swimming larva, which attaches to a rock, goes through metamorphosis to form a juvenile starfish, which grows into an adult. Eggs fertilized outside the parent. Larva called bracholaria.

Plankton
Show plankton images e.g. from https://plankton.photography/
Show larvae image and find ones like barnacle and starfish larva.
They are tiny and drift with the ocean currents. Plankton are food for other larger animals.
The adults make many young so that some survive to the next stage.

Lay the thick paper/card over the magnets.
Pile the pins or shapes onto the card, and arrange.
They can see how tall they can build the sculpture/what shapes they can make etc.

Remove the backing from the contact paper and tape it, sticky side up, to the table in front of a student.
Students stick hexagons of tissue paper to the contact paper, arranged as a honeycomb (or not). Tell them that once the tissue paper touches the contact paper it is impossible to get up again without tearing it.

It can be hung in a window as "stained-glass" art.