ingridscience

Before handing out the worms. practice using magnifier; look at the lines on your finger.
Look more closely at worms and how their body structure helps them survive in their habitat.

Hand out one worm per student enclosed in a small petri dish with a film of water in the bottom.
Ask students to draw what they see (not what they think they see).
After a while, ask the students what they have noticed. Ask if they noticed the segments, how they move, the blood vessel, the dark soil in the gut, which is head and tail.
Allow more time for the drawing.

Show image of worm and relate to what students have found, and which body parts are similar and different to ours.
Head, tail, mouth, anus, segments, clitellum, blood vessel. Organs: heart, brain, blood vessels.
Try this link for an image: https://thebiologynotes.com/nervous-system-of-earthworm/

How do worms breathe?
We breathe by pulling air into our lungs. Worms breathe through their skin, by absorbing the oxygen from water - hence they need to stay moist to keep getting oxygen.

How do worms see? (There is no obvious eye).
Although we can't see any eyes on a worm, they do have rudimentary eyes. Eyes closed activity to show how worms see: ask students to look up at the light, then close their eyes and notice that they can still see some brightness. While keeping their eyes closed, face away from the light and notice how the light dims. Worms are able to detect where the light is with rudimentary eyes - they cannot focus to see an image but can detect which direction the light is coming from. This allows them to dig down into the soil (away from the light) to avoid predators.

How do worms move?
They move by muscle contraction and by gripping with the bristles (called setae) on each segment.
See these images to show the sequential muscle contractions that move them along:
https://www.macmillanhighered.com/BrainHoney/Resource/6716/digital_firs…
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Earthworm-Locomotion-Mechanism-adap…

Other worm information:
They are both male and female in the same body but still need to mate to reproduce, by joining clitella (the smooth band on their bodies near the head).
They are decomposers, eating dead plant and animal matter and turning it into soil. They also aerate soil as they dig through it, making it more habitable for plant roots and other soil animals.

States of matter in water demonstration
1. Here is an ice cube (or give each student one). Is it solid, liquid or gas? Why? Fixed size, fixed shape.
What is happening to it? Melting. It is changing to a liquid because it is getting warm in the hand. The molecules are moving apart enough that they can flow past each other and make drips of liquid.
The name for a solid changing into a liquid is Melting.
2. Now we start with liquid water. We can turn it into a gas by warming it up even more - give it more energy. Use a see-through kettle or a hot plate to boil water.
What is happening to the liquid? Bubbles of gas are forming in it. It has enough energy to heat it up enough to turn to gas. The name for a liquid turning into a gas is Evaporation. (Alternatively, spread a drop of water on black paper and in a warm classroom or in the sun you can watch it evaporate.)
3. Now we will turn the gas back into a liquid by cooling it down. Put a glass lid/bowl over steam escaping from hot water - see droplets of water forming inside the glass. Why do the drops form on the glass? Because it is cooler, and they lose enough energy to move more slowly and become water again. The name for a gas turning into a liquid is Condensation.
4. How can we make the liquid turn back into a solid?
Cool it down even further. Optional: make frost on the outside of a can: www.ingridscience.ca/node/227 (set up at the start of the lesson - it takes 15 mins to form). Name for a liquid to a solid is Freezing.

Measure the temperature of water in each state
1. Measure the temperature of ice:
Half fill a styrofoam cup with ice cubes, then immerse a thermometer in it. Read the temperature once it has stabilized (maybe a few minutes). If the thermometers are properly immersed in the ice they should read 0°C or below. Students can add their temperature reading to a graph on the board. Explain that ice forms at 0°C and remains solid at any temperature below that.
2. Measure the temperature of liquid water:
Pour water into the cups by mixing boiling and cold water to vary the warmth of the water in each cup. Ask students to measure the temperature of their water, and add it to a graph on the board. All measurements should read between 0°C (the melting point of water) and 100°C (the boiling point of water).
3. Measure the temperature of liquid water boiling:
This should be a demonstration. Using heat proof tongs, dip a thermometer into the water as it comes to the boil. Ask one student to read out the temperature as it rises to 100°C (the boiling point of water). If the thermometer can be held in while it continues to boil it may rise above 100°C, as more and more bubbles of gas form within the water.
4. Optional: graph the temperature data. Liquid water will always be between 0°C and 100°C. Ice will be at or below 0°C. The gas in boiling water can be above 100°C.

Discuss what a solid, liquid and gas are.
A solid is hard. The particles are packed together so tightly that we cannot push through it and we can see it.
A liquid we can see but the particles are further apart, so it can flow and we can move it around with our hand.
A gas we cannot see as the particles are so far apart. But we can feel the particles hitting our hand (wave hand through the air).

Students are given a clipboard holding their scavenger hunt worksheet, and a pencil.
Students hunt around the classroom or school grounds looking for solids, liquids and gases. They write down each item and check off whether it is a solid, liquid or gas. They should try and find at least one of each state.
Gather to review and discuss.

Could be used as a review for older students - ask them to look around from where they are sitting and find a solid, liquid then gas.

Prepare the activity:
Lay a piece of cling wrap over the top of the plastic tub. Use masking tape to secure the cling wrap most of the way round, leaving it open the last 1/4 of the length.
Add the salt and food colouring at one end of the plastic tub (make separate piles). Place the pot in the middle of the tub.
Alternatively, students can later add the salt as you visit each of their tables to set up the water cycle model.

In class:
Boil the water, then immediately add it on top of the salt to a depth below the rim of the pot (it will not work unless the water is only just boiled). Clip the lid shut by securing the cling wrap with binder clips. The cling wrap may balloon up. Place the marble in the middle of the cling wrap, and push the cling wrap down, so that the marble is directly over the pot.

After 5 mins or so, drips of re-condensed water will fall from under the marble into the pot. After 10 or 15 minutes there will be enough drips of water in the pot to have made a puddle.

The students can optionally taste the water in the pot ("the lake") and the tray ("ocean") - give them a Q tip to dip first in the lake water and taste, then use the other end of the Q tip to dip in the ocean and taste. The ocean water is salty and the lake water is fresh. Only the water evaporates from the ocean - the salt is left behind. The food colouring also stays in the ocean, but does not appear in the lake.

Each student makes a bracelet with coloured or shaped beads. The beads are threaded in an order that represents the stages of the water cycle.
With with smaller pony beads we repeated the cycle four times and with large shaped beads we used one of each bead shape.
Once made, an adult can secure their bracelets on each student's wrist. By tucking the pipe cleaner ends inside the adjacent beads, an unbroken circle of repeating bead colours represents the endless cycling of water on earth.

If using the worksheet and small coloured beads:
Cut a short length from each student's pipe cleaner before class.
Distribute the short lengths of pipe cleaner and one set of the 6 bead colours, to each student.
Students thread the beads on the short piece, in the agreed colour order for each water cycle word. Tape the short bead sequence on the worksheet next to the water cycle words. This key shows which colour represents each stage of the water cycle.
Then students use their longer pipe cleaner piece and more beads to make their bracelet, in the correct bead colour order, and repeating several times.
(Alternatively, coloured pencils/markers can be used to show the bead colours of each water cycle word on the worksheet).

If using the worksheet and larger wooden bead shapes:
Draw the bead shapes next to each water cycle word.
Then make the bracelet in the correct order of bead shapes.

Optional: start by reviewing the states of matter, while asking students to find examples in the classroom. Solids have a fixed shape and are hard. Liquids can change shape, but always take up the same amount of space (same volume) as they flow in their container. Gases change shape and fills the space they are in (so change volume). Some students might mention plasma, the 4th state of matter.

The particles (molecules or atoms) are arranged differently in different states of matter. Tell students that they will model the particles in each of the three states of matter. They are each a molecule. Ask them to stand in an open space of the classroom.
In a solid the molecules are packed tight, held together by strong bonds. Ask students to model a solid by linking arms with their neighbours, so that they are packed tight together in a group. The individuals can jiggle a little, but the group maintains its shape.
As a solid gains energy the molecules gain energy and can move around more. They are still bonded to each other, but more loosely. Ask students to model a liquid by spreading apart and moving around more, but always touching at least one other student with an outstretched arm. The bonds between molecules break and form continuously, so that the group stays together but can move and change shape, like a liquid.
As a liquid gains even more energy the molecules gain enough energy to move completely apart and evaporate. Ask students to break all bonds with each other and move around the room, spreading out to fill the room. Students can be asked to lose energy and become a liquid again (condensation), then a solid (freezing).

For younger students, simplify the language:
Stand up close together, arms linked. Stay still. You are not moving. You are stuck together, so you cannot change shape. I can see what shape you are. Which state are you? Solid.
You have a bit more energy. Now you can move around a little more. Walk around, but always stay touching at least one other person. So you can change shape but stay the same size. Which state are you? Liquid.
Now you have even more energy. You can now move around even more, let go of each other. You now can change shape and size. Which state are you? Gas.

Videos of educators/students acting out states of matter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUa3F2CfbPE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmBRpuXI5AA

Image of particles in the three states: http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/943/966267/fig10.gif
Longer cartoon video of the particles in solids, liquids, gases at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guoU_cuR8EE

Each student: open a small baggie and add 2 tablespoons whipping cream, 0.5 teaspoons sugar and 2 or 3 drops of vanilla essence. Seal. Double bag the mixture by fitting this bag neatly inside a second baggie. Hang the baggies down the inside of a large container (500/650 g/ml) and fold the ziplock top over to the outside of the container. The bottom of the baggies should be hanging near the bottom of the inside of the container. Two students can hang their bags on each side of the same container.
Each pair of students: add 2 tablespoons of salt and about 10 ice cubes to a the container. The container should be about 2/3 full.
Snap the lid on the container over the top of the baggie.
Holding the lid on, shake the container for 5-10 minutes (yes, it takes a while), until the cream turns solid. (Double bagging ensures that punctures of a baggie by the ice cubes do not go through both layers.)
Eat out of the baggie with a spoon - quickly before it melts again!

Ice cream is frozen cream with air pockets that make it light.
The air is added as the cream is shaken.
The temperature is reduced enough to freeze the cream by adding the salt. The salt lowers the freezing temperature of water, so that as the ice melts, liquid water lower than zero centigrade surrounds the cream, causing it to freeze.

Visit a forest, park or other area with native plants. Teach students the native plants (and animals) for the area.

Scavenger hunt:
Clip one copy of each card to its respective plant before the lesson.
At the lesson, give each student a card, ask them to find the same card pegged to a native plant.
They can stack the cards and peg them together, before getting another card, or helping others find theirs.

Bingo:
Give students bingo boards (each a little different from each other). Students call Bingo! when they have found all the plants on their sheet.

iSpy:
iSpy cards can be the same for each student, and the group can work together to spy each of the plants.

Optional discussion on how native plants are used by Indigenous cultures:
fern: young leaves for food (called fiddleheads - look for them in your food market)
red flowering currant: berries for food
salmonberry berries: for food
salal: berries for food, leaves for a cooking flavour
skunk cabbage: leaves for lining berry baskets
cattail: leaves woven into mats and seeds for pillows and wound dressings
moss: for bedding and pillows
iris: leaves braided into snares for catching large animal prey
fir tree: wood for fuel, and for making spear handles and spoons and other tools
cedar tree: wood for canoes, houses, totem poles, arrow shafts as well as fuel; cedar bark for baskets, rope, mats and woven with wool for clothes; roots for baskets and ropes.

Hand out Doulas fir cones to look at and retell Indigenous story about Douglas Fir cones:
Long, long ago there lived a mouse in the forest. The mouse was fearful all day and all night, for the sly fox always tried to catch him and eat up him. The mouse was very clever and was able to hide from the fox for a long, long time. But one day, he let his attention wander, and before he knew it, the fox was right there! The mouse was very scared and ran off as fast as he could. But he knew the fox was faster, so frantically he searched for a place to hide. He spied a cone that he thought was big enough to hide him, so he scurried inside. Well, he was hidden well enough that the fox couldn't find him, but really the cone was too small. And to this day, you can see the hind legs and the tail of the mouse sticking out from the Douglas-fir cone, where he is STILL hiding from the fox!
Students can find their own Douglas fir cones until time to go back to school.

Bog information:
Bogs are a valuable natural resource. They store water, which prevents flooding by slowing the water entering streams and rivers. They are a carbon sink, as the plants in them do not decay. They are natural filters.
Bogs have unique ecosystems - they are low oxygen and acidic - bog plants are adapted to live in this environment.