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Physical change introduction and reversibility

Summary
Introduce physical changes (part of chemistry curriculum) with four simple stations. Students discuss whether the physical changes are reversible or not.
Science topic (2005 curriculum connection)
Life Science: Characteristics of Living Things (grade K)
Life Science: Needs of Living Things (grade 1)
Life Science: Animal Growth and Changes (grade 2)
Materials
  • pieces of scrap paper
  • balloons
  • tubs of marbles and gravel, and sieves (hole spacing that catches the marbles and allows gravel to pass)
  • pencil and pencil sharpeners
Procedure

Set up four stations for students to visit:
1. Pieces of paper that they can crumple and tear
2. Balloons that they can blow up, then deflate again
3. Students mix marbles and gravel together, then try and separate again using the sieve
4. Pencils that they can sharpen.

Students can use a worksheet (attached) to record whether they think each physical change is reversible or not. This is not always obvious and will lead to some interesting discussion.

Physical changes are, by nature, are usually technically reversible because the chemical composition has not changed, only the shape or how it is organized with other materials has changed. But is it not obvious how a torn piece of paper can become one piece again, and students can decide whether each of the situations are reversible.

Attached documents
Lesson 1 Worksheet Physical changes.pdf
Grades taught
Gr 2

Marble collisions

Summary
Roll marbles down a U-track and see how energy is transferred as they collide.
Science topic (2005 curriculum connection)
Life Science: Characteristics of Living Things (grade K)
Life Science: Needs of Living Things (grade 1)
Life Science: Animal Growth and Changes (grade 2)
Materials
  • foam pipe insulation ("foam pipe wrap" at Canadian Tire) 6ft by 3/4 inch, split in half (see last photo)
  • masking tape
  • marbles, preferably 4 different colours for each student group
  • optional: Newton's Cradle (ball collision desk toy)
Procedure

Distribute one foam track, masking tape and marbles to each student group. Ask them to tape their track to two desks, so that it hangs down in a U-shape between the desks. Ask them to also tape it to the floor so that it cannot swing.

Students place one marble at the bottom of the track and release another from the top of one side of the track. Watch what happens as they collide.
Record what happens on a worksheet (attached, also a photo), filling in the colours of each marble that they have.
Try with other numbers of marbles at the bottom and being released. The worksheet has suggestions, and leaves spaces for students' own ideas.

Note: I have only tried this with marbles of all the same colour, and the collision happens so fast that some students think that the marbles jump over the ones at the bottom before moving up the other side of the track. With different coloured marbles, I hope that they see that different marbles are bumped up the other side.
Note: if the track is not secured at the bottom, a lot of the energy is lost to the track moving around, and so marbles will not move as high up the other side after the collision.

Discuss their results, and how energy is transferred between the marbles.

Attached documents
Marble collisions worksheet no colour.pdf
Notes

Needs more testing.
Students want to join their tracks to make longer tracks, so do this activity first, then continue to roller coasters.

Grades taught
Gr 3

Wasps

Summary
Look closely at real hornets, their nest and pieces of the nest
Curriculum connection (2005 science topic)
Life Science: Characteristics of Living Things (grade K)
Life Science: Needs of Living Things (grade 1)
Life Science: Animal Growth and Changes (grade 2)
Life Science: Habitats and Communities (grade 4)
Materials
  • dead hornets in petri dishes
  • magnifiers
  • hornet nest
  • flashlight to look inside nest
  • pieces of hornet nest shell to look at closely
  • hornet nest cells to look at closely
  • images of wasps developing in their cells
Procedure

Several stations for students to rotate through:

Station 1:
Look at real hornets closely. Draw them.
Materials:
Wasps in petri dishes with magnifiers

Station 2:
Look at the outside of nests.
Peer into the complete one to see the cells inside.

Station 3:
Look at the outside of the nest with microscopes.
Materials:
6 microscopes, whole outside of nest, tape to put some nest in journal

Station 4:
Look at the inside of the nest. Draw how they built it.
Materials:
Nest inside, individual cells in magnifier boxes.

You tube video of nest building:
layers of nest being added over time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cymGYvpKGOg&feature=related
time lapse of outside of nest being built: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF25K9yg8oQ
half a hornet’s nest, see larvae being fed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=v4h_DIQKPPI

Notes

Some children are allergic to wasp venom. This activity may need to be avoided, or at least the materials contained.

Grades taught
Gr 1
Gr 2
Gr 3

Oil and water floating experiment

Summary
Make oil and coloured water layers. Optional: float beads between the layers.
Science topic (2005 curriculum connection)
Physical Science: Properties of Matter (grade 2)
Materials
  • veg oil in container
  • water in tube to add to container
  • food colouring, few drops
  • beads (rock, plastic and wooden)
Procedure

Tube of oil. Students add water and food colouring. Shake and observe layers.
The oil and water separate. The food colouring may bead up, then eventually separate.
Optional: add beads - wooden (floats on oil), plastic (floats at oil/water interface), rock (sinks).

Also try adding a couple of drops of food colouring to oil and tip the container to watch how it moves in the oil.

Notes

The plastic beads tend to stick to the side of a plastic container after a while, so do not remain floating between layers.

Make many more layers: https://www.teachengineering.org/view_activity.php?url=http://www.teach…

Grades taught
Gr 1
Gr 2
Gr 3

Compass

Summary
Make a simple compass
Science topic (2005 curriculum connection)
Physical Science: Force and Motion (grade 1)
Materials
  • piece of styrofoam, about 2 by 2cm with a flat base
  • thin wire that is attracted to magnets, long enough to stick through the styrofoam and protrude from each side e.g. straightened paper clip
  • magnet
  • tray of water, large enough for compasses to space 15cm apart
Procedure

Stroke the wire with the magnet, picking up the magnet between each stroke and starting again at the beginning of the stroke (so that the magnet is only moving along the wire in one direction). Stroke the wire about 20 times.
Without touching it against anything, push the wire through the styrofoam.
Place the styrofoam on the water in the tray.
The wire will slowly turn to orient along a north-south direction, as it is attracted to the earth's magnetic field. (If you the teacher know North-South already, place it in the water in an East-West direction, so that the spinning is obvious).
The compass will stay oriented in a North South direction, as long as it doesn't come near to another compass (they will attract each other) or the side of the tray (the compass is attracted to the edges of a tray).

With this home made compass, you will not know which way is north vs south, without keeping track of which side of the permanent magnet is used to stroke the wire, but it shows the principle of making a wire magnetic.

Grades taught
Gr 1
Gr 2
Gr 3
Gr 4
Gr 5

Magnet stations

Summary
Magnet activities are set up at separate stations. Students can either rotate through them or allowed to explore freely and independently. Class discussion follows on what they have discovered, and to distill out some properties of magnets and magnetism.
Curriculum connection (2005 science topic)
Physical Science: Force and Motion (grade 1)
Procedure

Lay out a selection of activities on separate tables - recommended group of four activities: What sticks to magnets?, Magnetic force through materials, Magnet pendulum and Magnetic force field patterns.

For guided experimentation, show students specifically what to do at each station and what they might find.

For free experimentation, The Play-Debref-Replay method of science teaching works great for this activity (see the resource). Explain to students that they will be freely exploring at each station, to find out about magnets. No ideas are wrong to try - just be safe and keep the materials at the station. Briefly introduce the students to each station: what materials are there; what themes they will be exploring (e.g. what materials are attracted to magnets at "Magnets: what sticks to them?").

Allow at least 8 minutes per station for students to explore with the materials independently - the teacher does not tell them what to do with the materials, but allows the students to explore independently. ("Play" period defined by Wasserman - see resource). Teacher can opt to have students move to a new station at designated times, or to move when they wish. Ideally, students write down what they discover at each station - they will refer to these notes when reporting back to the class, and for later experimentation; it also encourages good note-taking habits.

"Debrief" period: Regroup to hear what the students discovered. Write up students' discoveries while introducing them to the terminology of forces and magnets. Guide the conversation to allow students to conclude things about magnets.
e.g. Students might say that "Different materials "stick" to magnets; write up that magnets have a "force" that pulls things towards them and makes them stick. The materials are "attracted" to the magnet. Ask students about which materials were attracted to magnets, to have them distill out that metals are attracted, but only some metals (those with iron in them). (Some objects may have metal inside them, so confuse the issue, but students will often come up with ideas like this with time).
Other concepts to end up at: magnetic force can be a push or a pull, magnetic force can act at a distance, the force field around a magnet is of a varying shape depending on the magnet.

Optional: when students come up with further experiments to test their ideas, focus them on things to compare, how to reduce to only one variable so they can test a hypothesis etc. Then if time, allow students more time to try out their experiment ideas, and to explore further. ("Replay")

Notes

Part of Forces at-a-distance for Primaries lesson.
Part of Magnet stations and more magnets for a long lesson.

Grades taught
Gr K
Gr 1
Gr 2
Gr 3

The New Teaching Elementary Science

Summary
Many topic ideas and teaching philosophy behind the Play-Debrief-Replay teaching method.
Type of resource
Book
Resource details

The New Teaching Elementary Science by Selma Wassermann and George Ivany. Teachers College Press 1996.

Notes

A great resource for unstructured science activities. Loads of ideas, as well as help and inspiration for teaching science by the play-debrief-play method.

A summary of the method, with my own small additions:

Stage 1: Play (Gathering Knowledge)
Set up enough stations so that students have enough space and materials to work without competing for space and materials. Tell the students how much time you will give them for a particular centre. Wassermann and Ivany suggest 10 to 15 minutes. Ideally, allow students to work as long as most of them are engaged - then they have time to test many ideas and explore more deeply.
While the students are manipulating, circulate with generally encouraging comments, but none that are directive or evaluative. You want the ideas of what further to research to come from your students. For many free experimentation activities, I like to add note-taking, so that students can refer to them later when they may have forgotten exactly what they tried.
Stage 2:  Debrief (Promoting Understanding)
Call your students to a different space to debrief, bringing their notes with them.
This time should be a safe time for all students.  All students should be able to share what they discovered without judgement. If some students disagree on a result, you help them engage in respectful debate, and discuss how to proceed (e.g. repeat the experiment to confirm results, try the experiment in a different way).  Ask the students how they might test their ideas as to why something is working a certain way, and write the ideas on the board. At this point, I pair and group students with similar ideas/interests to work together for the Replay, and give them a question(s) to focus on.
Stage 3: Replay (Applying Knowledge)
Students go back to the materials, focusing on addressing the ideas that came up during Debriefing. Students may choose one of the ideas to test, or test several if they have time - this may need to be organized by the teacher. This is a time for students to do duplicate experiments, use controls, make sure of fair testing etc, to be as rigorous as they can - these methods should be familiar to the students or explained to them before and during their experimentation.
Stage 4 (optional): Final Debrief
At a final debrief, students report on what they found and the class concludes what they have learned so far. (There will be many questions still unanswered, which is real science!)

Circulatory System

Summary
Look at your own blood, find your pulse and look at a real heart
Curriculum connection (2005 science topic)
Life Science: Animal Growth and Changes (grade 2)
Life Science: Human Body (grade 5)
Procedure

First find places that you can see your own blood. (See Blood vessels, pulse and heartbeat activity.)
Work with a partner to shine the flashlight on or through your skin to find places that your blood is near the surface.

The heart pushes the blood through the blood vessels, to carry oxygen to all the cells of our body.

Look at photos of a heart and videos of it beating:

Or if available, look at a real heart to see the impressive heart muscle that pushes the blood through the entire body, and look at other parts of the heart including the valves.
Wash hands.

Students listen to their own heart beat using a stethoscope (see Blood vessels, pulse and heartbeat activity) and connect the sound to the closing of the valves on the real heart.
Students feel their pulse (see Blood vessels, pulse and heartbeat activity) and discuss that is is the movement of the blood that you are feeling.
This can be run as two stations to switch between, to halve the number of stethoscopes required (they should wipe the ear pieces off after use).

As a class, measure pulse before and after 30 seconds of vigorous on-the-spot exercise, to see that the pulse goes up automatically, to bring more oxygen to your cells and to remove the increased CO2 made by the body exercising.

When you exercise, your heart rate increases automatically. Do the CO2 acidifies water activity to find out how the brain measures blood acidity levels and signals the heart rate to increase.

Grades taught
Gr 1
Gr 2
Gr 3
Gr 4
Gr 5

Heart dissection

Summary
Study a dissected cow heart
Science topic (2005 curriculum connection)
Life Science: Animal Growth and Changes (grade 2)
Life Science: Human Body (grade 5)
Materials
  • Cow heart (previously cut open previously with a large class) - note cow hearts are less available now, try smaller lamb or even chicken hearts
  • Tray to contain the heart
  • Soap and water to wash hands that touch it
Procedure

Before the lesson, cut open the heart, so that it can be done without time pressure. Cut it from the tip to the wide top, so that as many chambers of the heart as possible are cut open, and valves can be seen. Fold the halves of the heart back together before class.

What makes the blood push through the blood vessels? The heart. Where is your heart?
I have a real heart here. What animal do you think it is from?
Compare the size of the cow heart with ours (the size of our fist), and relative body sizes that each heart pumps blood through.

Students should touch the heart so that they know what real heart muscle feels like, and hold it to feel its weight.
Wash hands with soap afterwards.

Show features on the outside of the heart: the white fat, branching blood vessels on the surface that bring oxygen to the heart cells, and the large blood vessels protruding from the top of the heart. The tough, thick, white-walled vessels carry blood from the heart to the body (aorta) and lungs (pulmonary artery), and withstand enormous blood pressure. Other vessels bring blood back to the heart (these maybe absent).

Open the heart to view the internal features:
The left and right ventricles are the largest chambers at the bottom of the heart, with the walls of the left ventricle the thickest, as it pumps blood around the whole body. The smaller chambers at the top (the left and right atrium) are harder to find. They receive blood from the body.
Valves between each atrium and ventricle have long tendons holding them in place. Valves just inside the large blood vessels leaving the heart (semilunar valves) prevent blood from flowing back into the ventricles after each heartbeat.

Students can push their fingers through blood vessels and valves and follow the route of the blood into, through, and out of the heart:
From the lungs into the left atrium (vein gone), through the mitral valve (an AV valve) into left ventricle. Then through semilunar valve and the aorta to the whole body. Then back from the body through the (missing) vein into the right atrium, through tricuspid valve (other AV valve) into the right ventricle. Then through the other semilunar valve through the pulmonary artery to the lungs.

Show large left ventricle muscles, and large aorta leading from it. This chamber pumps blood around the whole body.

Relate valves closing to the heartbeat sound (lub-dub):
"Lub" is the AV valves (between atria and ventricles) closing and the rush of liquid behind them. "Dub" is the semilunar valves (between ventricle and artery) closing and the rush of liquid behind them.
Students can listen to their neighbour’s heart with an ear on the chest, or with a stethoscope.

Your pulse is a the push of blood along the blood vessels with each beat of the heart. Students can feel their pulse in several places, including the side of the neck or on their wrist.

Notes

Other cow heart photographs at https://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artnov10macro/nina_Reznik/index.ht…
Gif of beating human heart at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart#/media/File:CG_Heart.gif
3D gif that you can rotate at https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/3d-animated-realistic-human-heart-v20-1…
Diagram of circulatory system: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Human-circulatory-system-adapted-fr…

Grades taught
Gr K
Gr 1
Gr 2
Gr 3
Gr 4
Gr 5
Gr 6
Gr 7
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