Now in Easter times – why don’t try some egg experiments?
At Blue Bear Wood:s blog can you find ideas on how to dissolve egg (is Coke or orange juice worst?), or make them grow.
Kategori: English
Play with the experiment!
Why don’t try to make a ”can-phone” (have no idea if this is the correct term)? Many have done it sometimes.
Try to experiment with it; how long thread can you use?, what difference does the thread quality make?, can you listen around corners?…
When you’re done experimenting, let the kid use it to play with, and they’ll might find more questions to ponder…
The manual (in Swedish) is found from experimentskafferiet.se, though their site seems to be down for the moment.
The Three Billy Goats STEM Challenge
A fun and engaging lesson to introduce engineering and STEM learning in the classroom.
Student Learning Objectives: The students will be able engineering concepts to build a bridge that will hold the weight of a toy goat and record and self evaluate their designs on their digital portfolio.
Standards: K-2-ETS1-2. Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.
Grade Ranges: K-1
Attention Getter: The teacher will introduce the lesson by playing the NASA for kids engineering video for the class.
Direct Instruction: The teacher will announce to the class that today they are going to work as engineers. Present the Google Presentation The Three Billy Goats Gruff STEM Challenge. Pose the problem- How can the goats cross the river with the troll? (Solution- Build a bridge). Then go over the steps in the engineering process and explain the next step is Plan. TTW go over the task and the materials available. Presentation
Guided Practice: The teacher will pass out the planning sheet and have the students draw the materials and the blueprint for their bridge. The teacher will encourage students to talk with their classmate and work collaboratively to come up with a plan.
Independent Practice: Students will gather materials and begin building their bridge. When students have finished they will bring their bridge to the testing area. They will test their bridge to see if it fits over the river and can hold one toy goat. Then they will go to the recording station to record their results. Students will use the SeeSaw App to take a picture of their bridge and post it to their learning journal. Students will record how their bridge worked and what changes they think would improve their design.
Wrap Up: Students will gather on the carpet. The teacher will show SeeSaw on the bridge and allow students to share their journal entry. The students and teacher will discuss what materials and techniques worked well and what did not work well.
Attachment: Lesson plan & students worksheet: Technology Lesson Plan- STEM Three Billy Goats Gruff
Build a tower together
Try to work together and build a tower. It’s understanind of mechanics and demands a whole lot of cooperation.
See link for a clip on how it works: Link
Find letters in the everyday environment with your phone
Taken from Bodil Johansson ’s blog
Have you thought on that the selection at the end of a swimming pool looks like a T or that a round pot from above becomes an O or that from a certain angle the cycle path marking becomes a Q? All you need is to look closer, change directions and suddenly you see the letter.
This is an exercise that is about learning to see the motives and how you, by thinking about the image composition, that is, how the different parts of the picture are connected, bring out the message of the image.
In addition to training in recognizing and naming letters, it can be an introduction to photography that will then give inspiration to more.
Material
- Phone
- Image editing app like VSCO or Snapseed (both free)
Preparations
- Make sure that the battery in the phone is fully charged because it takes a lot of battery power to shoot.
- Clean the camera lens on the smartphone to get clearer images.
- Make sure you have an image editing app installed on your phone .
- Think of a round that you should go and ”find” letters on. Also think about alternatives in case the weather makes you have to be indoors.
- As a teacher , you should familiarize yourself with the latest version of the image editing app.
Arrangement
- Start by telling the children how it is possible to see letters in the city’s architecture. That if they watch and look for letters that are otherwise hidden as store handles or bench supports , they can see them.
- Then talk about how they can compose a picture. In order for the object, the letter, to be visible, what is around is not allowed to take over the background. Finding lines in the architecture that help the eye find the subject.
- Then you go to a photo tour to discover letters along with your phones. Remember to change image angles, take a picture from a frog perspective (low angle of view) and someone from a bird’s-eye view (high angle of view).
- When you are back, image editing can begin. Ask the children to select three pictures each of which they are happy with and which they can then edit in an app. Perhaps the image needs to be mirrored in order for the letter to become visible? Or cropped? Ask them to make different variations of the same image. For example, a color and a black and white variant of the same image. What happens to the subject then? In what variation will the motifs of the image appear best in?
- Put over the finished pictures on a computer so that the children can then tell about their pictures and tell how they thought when they photographed and why they chose that picture. Ask if it is something they would like to do differently and if they experienced any difficulty finding their letters.
To think on
- In order for the object to become as clear as possible, one should go as close as possible to isolate the ”letter” from its environment.
- . If it’s not fun, it’s wrong.
How to Shoot Frozen Soap Bubbles
The only thing needed is a bowl of soap water, a straw and a little patience. Then you can blow beautiful frozen soap bubbles that give unique pictures.
Perfect frozen bubbles with secret ingredients
You can either use the ready mixture in the soap bubble containers that you buy in the toy store, or you can make your own blend based on the following recipe:
- 35 ml detergent
- 35 ml of glycerin
- 2 ml of sugar
- 200 ml hot water
Glycerin makes the bubbles thicker, and the sugar causes the surface to get the beautiful crystals. Then to the problem of how to freeze the bubbles so that they can later be photographed.
For best results, the temperature should preferably be below or below 6 degrees Celsius. It is possible to freeze bubbles even in milder weather, but it is more difficult and takes longer.
It is also best to perform the experiment when it is windless so that the bubbles do not burst or blow away before they land and can freeze.
How to Shoot the Bubbles:
- Select a location where it falls in a lot of light and there is a nice background. It may be good to have a cold surface, eg. a snow or ice-covered garden table that you can blow in the bubbles from up close. Otherwise you risk freezing in the air and bursting when they land.
- Set the camera so that the focus point is approximately where the bubble will land. Put the camera on a tripod so you have your hands free to blow bubbles.
- Dip the straw in the soap mixture and blow a bubble. Blow gently and avoid making the bubble too large. Once the soap bubble has landed, you can adjust the camera’s focus as needed to get the details in focus.
- Shoot! Once you have learned to freeze your bubbles, you can try to make a timelapse video. You could use, among others Lapse It eller Osnap!
Hints for an Exploring Methodology
This idea is taken from Ann-Catherine Henriksson’s course ”I explore my surroundings” at the Center for Lifelong Learning (CLL) in Turku.
To clarify the process when reasoning about natural science phenomena, one can introduce five toys/hand puppets with different characters:
• 1 who ponder, ponder, questions
• 1 has lots of ideas / hypotheses
• 1 practitioner – how should we do, what do we need for things to implement it
• 1 organizer – how should it be documented, should we tell, draw, take pictures ..
• 1 storyteller – tell us what we have come up with
To clarify the process when reasoning about natural science phenomena, one can introduce five toys/hand puppets with different characters:
• 1 who ponder, ponder, questions
• 1 has lots of ideas / hypotheses
• 1 practitioner – how should we do, what do we need for things to implement it
• 1 organizer – how should it be documented, should we tell, draw, take pictures ..
• 1 storyteller – tell us what we have come up with
How Teach a 5 Year Old to Think Like an Engineer
Science doesn’t have to be hard. Here’s a nice example to prove that:
It’s 2017 teacher of the year in Washington, Camille Jones, that discusses an engineering lesson with Bill Gates.
Try Geocaching
Join the world’s largest treasure hunt. It takes you places you never knew existed!
There are millions of smart containers called geocaches hidden in almost every country on earth, just waiting to be found. There are probably some close to you right now.
If you want to try, you can try either Geocaching, a slightly simpler app in the free version or Cachly, a slightly more advanced app for some euros.
Magnifying Glass in the Ipad
Are you out in the forest and want to look closer on something. Try to use an magnifying app on your Ipad. With eMagnifier can you even save photos from what you looked at.