Weather - Water Cycle

The purpose of this post is to give students an introduction to the water cycle. Below are some videos that can be used to introduce the water cycle unit.

Magnets - What Will A Magnet Attract??

The purpose of this lesson is for students to discover what objects will be attracted by a magnet and why.

There are 4 separate activities for this lesson plan

1. Predict. Print out the prediction page through the link at the bottom. This page is meant to be done before you start the lesson. Have the students cut out the objects on the page then glue them in either the attract of not attract categories on the paper if they think the magnet will pick it up or not. 

2. This activity is meant to be done in class with several different materials, so the students can test the different objects out and keep a record of them.

3. This activity is meant to be done at home after doing the other one in class. Giving each student a magnet to borrow and take home have them try to find things around their home that may or may not be attracted by a magnet then recording them on their paper.

4. This last activity is optional. It can be used as an assessment at the end of the unit, or additional work if the students need extra practice to retain the information.

Link for all 4 activities: Magnetic Attraction

Background Information:

All substances actually display magnetic properties, but most show them to such a very small degree that we usually consider these materials nonmagnetic. Highly sophisticated scientific equipment is needed to detect magnetic characteristics at these low levels. On the other hand, a few metallic elements such as iron, nickel, cobalt, rare earths, plus some of their alloys like steel and strontium ferrite display magnetic properties strongly enough to be considered magnetic. All metals are not considered magnetic. A common misconception easily corrected by observing a common magnet's effect on brass, copper, or aluminum.

Discussion Questions:

-What do you know about magnets that should help you make good predictions?

-What is the most important piece of info about an object that will help you make a good prediction about its magnetic attraction?

-How many objects were attracted to the magnet?...not attracted?

-Were you surprised by the reaction of any of the objects? Why? What happened?

-Did everyone have the same results? What caused the differences?

Sound - Sound is Vibration

The purpose of this lesson is to show students how sound is created through vibrations, and how different vibrations make different sounds.

Materials:

Wooden Rulers

Tuning Forks

Popsicle Sticks

Ping Pong Ball

Rubber Band

Thread and Tape

Pencil

Glass of Water

Butcher Paper

Background Information: 

Energy must be used to produce sound. Whether it is the plucking of guitar strings, the striking of a drum, or the blowing of a trumpet, energy is involved. The energy causes the object to vibrate, producing sound. Whenever a sound is produced, somethings is quivering, throbbing, or vibrating. Such movements are the basis of the sound we hear. Sound vibrations can be something we see, like a violin string vibrating; or it can be something we feel like the vibration of a person's vocal cords; or it can be something we hear, like a ticking clock. All the sounds can be traced to a vibration of some material. 

In order for a sound to be heard. the vibrating material must move back and forth at least 16 times per second. The vibrating materials may be solid, liquid, or gas.

There are 2 separate activities that can be done for this lesson. The first one is having the students close their eyes and listen to all the sounds they hear for a full minute, then have them open their eyes and record what they heard. Then have them do it again with their eyes open. After that is done you can take them outside, if possible, and do it all again. 

The second activity involves them using all the material to discover vibration and sounds for themselves. Once the activity is done have the students record what they found on the butcher paper.

Both worksheets for these activities can be found here: Sound is Vibration

Discussion Questions:

-What do all the sounds have in common? [vibrations, vibrating sources, traveling energy]

-What do vibrating objects look like? [objects moving back and forth rapidly, blurry]

-What do vibrations feel like? [tingly, wiggly, etc.]

-Describe the change in sound when you move the pencil and change the length of the rubber band. [the sound becomes higher or lower. The rubber band vibrations are different]

-What caused the ping pong ball to bounce away from the tuning fork? [rapid back and forth movements of the tines of the tuning fork]

Extensions:

Have the students remember sounds that they enjoy hearing. List their responses on a chart labeled "I Like to Hear..." Have them remember sounds that they did not like to hear and add those to the list under "I Do Not Like to Hear..." Later categorize the list into high, low; loud, soft sounds.

Brainstorm some important sounds and how people should react to them. [fire alarm, fire engine and ambulance siren, school bells, smoke detector alarm, teacher or police officer's whistle]

Sound - Paper Cup Telephone

The objective of this lesson is to demonstrate how sound can travel through solids. 

Materials: paper cups, string cut into 6 meter lengths, sharp pencil, paper clips. 

Procedure:

1. Make a small hole in the bottom of the cups with a pencil

2. tie one end of the string to the paperclip and feed the other end of the string through the inside of the cup, that way the paper clip is on the inside of the cup

3. Thread the other end of the string through the bottom of the other cup and tie a paper clip onto the end of it so that both cups are tied together in opposite ends of the string.

4. Allow the students the chance to discover how to operate their telephones.

Below are some other suggestions you can have the students do to experiment and hypothesize with different types of sounds and vibrations.

Paper Cup Telephone

Sound - The Lion That Roars

The objective of this lesson is to demonstrate how sound is created and moves through the use of vibrations. 

Materials: styrofoam cup, 8 oz., heavy string, sharp pencil, paper clip, crayons, damp paper towel, lion head print out.

Procedure: 

1. Print out the page of the lion's head onto cardstock.

2. Cut string into 50 cm pieces

3. Color and cut out the lion

4. Distribute a cup, string and paper clip to each student

5. Tie the paperclip to the string

6. Poke a small hole through the bottom of the cup, place the paperclip through the hole and lay flat on the inside of the cup

7. Cut out the circle of the lion's mouth

8. securely place the cup inside the lion's mouth, leaving the end with the paperclip sticking out the end.

9. grip the string between both ends of the damp paper towel and slowly pull the towel along the length of the string.

10. String will vibrate, causing the lion to 'roar'.

Connecting learning discussion questions:

1. Can sound travel along a string? How do you know?

2. Could you see the vibrations? How could you prove the system was vibrating?

3. What made the string vibrate?

4. Would we still get a noise if we didn't use the cup?

Lion Printout: Lion that roars

Step by Step Guide:

1.Print out Roaring Lion page

2. Cut out lion

3. Cut out the mouth, making sure the cup fits snugly

4. Poke a hole in the bottom of the cup, tie one of the string to the paperclip

5. Poke paperclip through bottom of cup so the paperclip is sitting inside the cup

6. Finally put the cup into the lion's mouth, take a damp paper towel and, pinching the string between the paper towel, move to slowly down the string. You should be able to not only hear the sound, but feel the vibration in the string.

Magnets - Through It All

This lesson will be taught through the online site Nearpod. This activity can be done in class or as homework at home. Please make sure that all students have access to an electronic device that can access the internet, or has the Nearpod app downloaded onto it.

The purpose of this lesson is to teach students the strength of magnets and the things that magnets can pass through.