Best Practices
Science Workshops
By Sherlyne Gilles, Teacher, Ebbets Field Middle School, Brooklyn
Lesson 1
Instructional Objective: Students will analyze the rotation of a washer suspended by a string, and explain the path of the washer using Newton’s first law of motion.
Bloom level: analysis
Mini Lesson: Jet propulsion
Connect:
A jet throws compressed air gases backward, just as the balloon threw air back. Backward thrust moved the balloon forward, and it moved the jet forward as well. As long as there is a stream of burnt gas coming out of the back of a jet, there is enough force to push it forward. The burnt gas is a called a jet.
Title: What makes a plane travel quickly?
Purpose: To prove that forces in one direction are equaled to forces in the opposite direction.
Materials: String, straw, balloon, tape,
Procedure:
Run the thread through the straw. Tie the end of the thread to a chair placed 12 feet apart from another chair.
Measure four inches of adhesive tape and place it on top of the straw in the middle with two inches of tapes hanging on each side of the straw.
Blow your balloon and hold it. Fasten the balloon at the middle of the straw, with pieces of the tape still hanging down.
Step back and let go of the balloon.
Conclusion:
What fuel was used in the balloon? Is there a correlation between this experiment and the movement of a jet?
Explain in Newton’s third law of motion. Did the force of the balloon make it move forward? Guided reading.
Vocabulary:
-Jet propulsion
-Air pressure
-Samuel Longly = flew the first small flying machine
-Sir Isaac Newton
-Newton’s third law of motion (action reaction)
Related Questions for discussion
Q: What did men observe that made them want to fly?
A: Birds
Q: Will the birds get out of breath when they flap their wings?
A: No
Q: Is air traffic increasing or decreasing?
A: Increasing
Q: What does gravity do to a plane?
A: Pull it down
Q: What holds a plane up?
A: Air
Q: Why are planes streamlined?
A: So there will be less drag
Lesson 2
Instructional Objective: Students will analyze density
Density = Mass/ volume
Bloom Level 4
Title: Making a hydrometer
Materials: Straw, test tube, test tube rack, candle, triple beam balance, alcohol, water, corn oil, baby oil
Procedure:
Take some clay, roll it and push it inside of a straw, leaving a lump at the bottom.
Dip the clay end in melted wax to water proof and seal it.
Float your hydrometer in rubbing alcohol, corn oil, water and baby oil.
Make a scale indicating the floating level of each liquid.
Conclusion:
How does your hydrometer indicate relative density of each liquid?
Predict what will happen if you dip your hydrometer in a mixture of water, alcohol and corn oil?
The acid of a fresh car battery has a density of 1.3g/ml, this density decreases to 1.1g/ml as the battery discharges. At what level should your hydrometer float a) in the acid of a good battery, b) in the acid of a weak battery?
Substance |
Floating
level |
Density g/ml |
Water |
|
1.00 |
Corn oil |
|
0.92 |
Rubbing alcohol |
|
0.86 |
Baby oil |
|
0.83 |
Make a graph of density vs Floating level.
The hydrometer sinks deeper in liquids as the density decreases.#
Lesson 3
Bloom Level: Analysis
Standard: S4d Science as a human endeavor
Mini Lesson: Expand your thinking
Instructional objective: Student will focus about sequence, comparing, contrasting and cause and effect as they create various maps.
Materials: Construction paper, pen, marker, scissors, Hand out.
Read aloud, shared reading: The student resource book by David Hyerle, page 8.
Procedure: (modeled activity)
Each heterogeneous group will develop a map.
Group A: flow chart map: skill of operational analysis
Group B: Bridge map: Skill of seeing analogies
Group C: Brace Map: skill of structure analysis
Group D: Circle map: skills of think making
Group E: Bubble map: skill of qualification
Group F: Tree map: skill of classification
(A way to show how things have a similar relationship or connection)
Each group will explain to the class how they use graphic organizers and what thinking skills they are tackling.
Conclusion:
How does creating maps expand your thinking Skills?
When our minds are working, we are expanding our thinking by exploring, adding things together and sharing it with others.
What are the six thinking skills?
What are thinking maps?
Guided Group Challenge:
Devise a way to use these map in every subject.
Vocabulary:
Classification
Analysis
Qualification
Analogies
MTA map-> flow chart map -> brain mapping
1) Make power point presentation
2) bring slides
3) bring model
10-15 go over lesson
Describe flow or focus of unit. Pick one activity hands on.
……………………………….
=>Bring strings and model the peripheral nervous system
=>Use clay and permoplast, design a model of the brain, pretend the arteries are geologic rivers and deltas
=>p and S waves of the heart compared to waves in the brain. Interdisciplinary lesson incorporating math. How the body works with different waves, impulses.#
