SCIENCE AS INQUIRY

Notes

1a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing understanding of how the scientific enterprise operates.

Students will be able to:

A.  Observe and describe objects in their environment in order to organize information and make comparisons (e.g., cats have fur, fish live in water, rocks are hard)

B. Identify patterns in events (e.g., sunrise and sunset, tidal schedules, movements of thrown or falling objects, stream flow and rainfall)

C.     Manipulate an object to discover characteristics not apparent by observation alone

Ask "How do we know?" and "Are we sure the same thing will happen the next time?"

Have children (or teacher) bring in a pile of interesting things: animal skins, fascinating rocks, silly putty, banana, kitchen utensil, etc.  Sort items according to attributes, hard, soft, large, small, try to find items that have more than one attribute

 Gravity – Schlolastic; Pass the Globe(see activity)

Ball of blue clay on outside – yellow clay on inside – squish together to make green clay (pro playdough; etc); eat a cookie – what’s inside?

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY

NOTES:

Notes

2a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to use measuring instruments to gather accurate and/or precise information.

Students will be able to:

A.  Invent their own unit of measurement (e.g., the room is nine "Nancys" wide)

B.     Explain the need for standard universal measurement units (e.g., initiated by measuring width of room using one's own feet and a meter stick)

Use rulers, thermometers, and balances to observe, measure, and construct objects

Everyday Math; monster footprints –

Literature Links - Where the Wild Things Are; How Big is a Foot – Queen’s Hand…

Measure living things – pond creature pictures

2b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to use technology to observe nature.

Students will be able to:

A.    Recognize that scientific tools often give more information about things than can be obtained by using our senses directly

Use simple tools in a safe and responsible manner

Thermometer activities – Everyday math - model how we say it is  hot, or cool outside, but show on thermometer, how accurate information is obtained.  Allow students to measure hot and cold water with the thermometers.

Another example is your mom feels your head when you are sick to see if you have a fever, but a thermometer shows accuracy.

Provide students with interesting objects and magnifying lenses.

2c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to analyze, synthesize, and communicate scientific information using technology.

Student of the day could record weather or moon phases on a chart on the computer.

What do you do when you have only one computer in room?

Whole class watches software on TV, or gather in small groups, print up information to display.

Show students how to email teachers in another classroom. Perhaps ask a question of another class like "What is your favorite color?" and have them graph the results.

Get students on the computer.

Students will be able to:

A.    Use a computer to record observations and to write short descriptions of natural events

B.     Share data with children in other classrooms

Use age-appropriate instructional software

2d. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand how technology is used to synthesize new products

Marshmallow’s and toothpicks

Attribute block pictures

Discuss real problems in the school/world and discuss with students how to solve these.  If possible attempt to solve it. Use imagination to invent a product that would help you.

Manufacturing Crayons…  book and video

This web site shows clear graphic pictures of a crayola crayon manufacturing plant. Compare one person melting wax to mass production.

In class have children peel off papers of old crayons, sort into color groups.  Using an old pot and a hot plate melt crayons and pour into molds.

Students will be able to:

1. Construct simple structures by following directions

2. Seek out problems in need of solution and invent ways to solve those problems

3. Describe ways that machines are used to manufacture items faster and in greater quantity than one person can do alone

2e. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that science and technology affect individuals, and that individuals in turn can affect science and technology.

Students will be able to:

1. Write and illustrate s story that describes where, in their home, the water comes from, and where the sewage goes

2. Describe what would occur if the power at their home was disconnected during a snowstorm, and what behavior changes would be necessary

May be interesting to see what kids think first before you invite the janitor or community member in.

Water and Light – Littleton Sewage Treatment plant visit; Magic School Bus – Through the Waterworks - book and video

They’re natives of New Hampshire and this would provide a different experience during a power outage than a child from Florida.

UNIFYING THEMES AND CONCEPTS

NOTES:

6a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to recognize parts of any object or system, and understand how the parts interrelate in the operation of that object or system.

Dinosaur jig saw puzzle of body parts; take apart a bike; pieces of a clock; paper clocks from everyday math; take apart flashlights

Show music box

Show parts of a flashlight, work only when put together.

Students will be able to:

A.    Explore and identify the parts and materials that comprise simple objects and how they are connected (e.g., disassemble common household objects -  flashlight)

B.     Predict the effect of removing or exchanging parts of an object (e.g., a mechanical toy, a jigsaw puzzle)

C.     Discuss how parts when put together can do things that they could not do by themselves

6b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate their understanding of the meaning of stability and change and will be able to identify and explain change in terms of cause and effect.

Seasons, plants, caterpillar, changing bodies (growing), dinosaurs, rain/sleet/snow, mercury dumped into lakes, introduction of alien species – like milfoil, purple loosestrife, fishers

Sand coming from large rocks…, growing of a plant, hair growth

Pop popcorn to display immediate change, cut out and laminate pictures from magazines that can be sorted in change quick or slow.

Examples someone with wet hair - quick, or hair cut - quick someone w/long hair - slow, picture of tree - slow

Old Man of the Mountain falling down, glaciers, flash floods, weather events – tornados

Ant farms – movement, traffic flow in school, auto traffic on roads

Students will be able to:

A.    List several things that change through time or because of a change in the environment

B.     Recognize that some changes are so slow that they are hard to observe (e.g., display monthly photographs of the class and teacher; record and graph the height of each student and the teacher)

C.     Classify events or objects as changing quickly, slowly, or not at all

D.    Observe the movement of people or objects (e.g., record traffic patterns of students moving in the school building)

6c. Curriculum Standard: Students will understand the meaning of models, their appropriate use and limitations, and how models can help them in understanding the natural world.

Plastic dinosaurs; globe/real Earth

Language arts curriculum

Students will be able to:

A.    Identify ways in which models are the same or different from the real object (e.g., a plastic flower and a garden flower; a stuffed animal and a real animal; toy car and actual)

B.     Describe how a particular occurrence or event is like a different occurrence or event.  Analogical thinking (e.g., That person is as busy as a bee; that child is growing like a weed; she is as pretty as a picture)

6d. Curriculum Standard: Students will increasingly quantify their interactions with phenomena in the natural world, use these results to understand differences of scale in objects and systems, and determine how changes in scale affect various properties of these objects and systems.

Man-made rocks; man-made diamonds (cubic zirconia), “replacement” Old Man, real plants - fake plants, model of globe vs. earth, real house vs. Popsicle house. 

Draw any object, like a spoon, the size that it is, then compare it to a drawing of kids eating with a spoon to scale.

Solar system very large objects vs. a drawing of an insect parts

Thermometers and household scales can be used in class to represent temperature and weight changes.

Students will be able to:

A.    Observe and explore objects in nature and those that are manmade, which have very different sizes, masses, ages, and speeds.

B.     Draw simple objects in actual size and compare the drawing to scale pictures

C.     Explore simple scale models of very large and very small objects that can be made from simple familiar materials (e.g., clay, sand, paper, wood)

D.    Explore the use of various types of scales that are used in making observations (e.g., thermometers, rulers, color wheels, musical scales)

LIFE SCIENCE: Characteristics of Living Things

NOTES:

3a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand fundamental structures, functions, and mechanisms of inheritance found in microorganisms, fungi, protists, plants, and animals.

Each of these are self-explanatory

Curling tongues, widows peek, pinky finger curling out- usually if the parent has these the child does too.

Biological parents pass their traits to their children.

Students will be able to:

A.    Identify real or representations (pictures, drawings) of living things found near their home and ask questions concerning their attributes and needs for survival

B.     Identify different external features of humans, such as size, shape, color of hair, eye color, earlobe (attached, unattached), etc.

C.     Compare pictures of themselves and family members to identify similarities and differences.

3b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to recognize patterns and products of evolution, including genetic variation, specialization, adaptation, and natural selection.

Students will be able to:

A.    Group students using a particular attribute or characteristic (e.g., gender, hair color, eye color, size of hands or feet)

B.     Sort a collection of mammal photographs into two or more groups using one or more attributes or characteristics (e.g., size, type of fur, habitat, food preference)

Each of these are self-explanatory

3c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that organisms are linked to one another and to their physical setting by the transfer and transformation of matter and energy to maintain a dynamic equilibrium.

Students will be able to:

A.    Explore the various needs of living things (e.g., water, food, shelter)

B.     Sort a collection of materials into living of non-living

Grade One Science - Mailbox Theme Box - pg. 3 "What's Alive?"

See Laura Bromley - Grade One, Lisbon

Could have pictures or real objects.

Literature Link: Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse

                          Velveteen Rabbit

EARTH SCIENCE: Weather

NOTES:

4a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that the Earth is a unique member of our solar system, located in a galaxy, within the universe.

Introduce Solar System and Earth position in it.

Tomie DePaola's Cloud Book, have class make their own cloud book and moon phase mini-book and/or moon calendar.  Ask questions such as, Does the moon shine? Model experiment of moon glow by placing a circle of cut out tin foil on a wall, shut out lights, shine flashlight on the circle, it will reflect light.

Class could document changes by making a bulletin board and taking photographs or drawing pictures of different seasons outside your school building.

Students will be able to:

A.    Describe how the sky looks at different times (e.g., day and night, clear or cloudy)

B.     Describe the changes in the sky's appearance (e.g., the shape of the moon during the month, the location of the sun in the sky at different times of day)

4b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that the Earth is a complex planet with five interacting systems, which consists of the solid Earth (lithosphere), air (atmosphere), water (hydrosphere), ice (cryosphere), and life (biosphere).

Everyday Math/ and or make class graphs for discussion.

Littleton Water and Light Dept. - safety video

Everett Frizzell,, PSNH, Lancaster

Students will be able to:

A.    Keep daily records of temperature (hot, warm, cool, cold) and precipitation (some, none, lots) through a period of time and organize the information in a chart of graph

B.     Describe safe behavior regarding electricity and lightning

4c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing understanding that energy can be transmitted by waves, using light and sound as examples.

Shadow Activities - go outside at different hours of the day, mark shadows with chalk, compare sun's position.  Use a flashlight on an object, move its position to change length of shadow.

My Shadow, My Friend Play - see Deb Kezerian at Lakeway - Gr 1

Students will be able to:

A.    Explore the relationships between shadow size and shape and the position of a light source

4d. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing understanding that heat is the product of many natural processes.

To demonstrate that the sun provides warmth, discuss surfaces and the variation of temperatures.  Solar balloon.  On a sunny day, students could check a variety of objects, for example - a car hood, a sidewalk, a dark jacket, a light jacket, water, rock , thermometer in shade and sun.     

Students will be able to:

A.    Observe how the sun warms the land, air, water, and other objects

PHYSICAL SCIENCE: Forces

NOTES:

5a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that relationship among different types and forms of energy

Introduction - Provide simple items, asking the students to identify the pushes or pulls of each one.

Students will be able to:

A.    Suggest what is required to make things operate (e.g., yo-yos, pinwheels, waterfalls, flashlights, windmills, bicycles)

5b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing understanding of how electrical and magnetic systems interact with matter and energy.

Probably best to not let the kids walk around the room trying the magnets out on anything (danger to computers; tv’s).  Give them a variety of different materials to check (try to have a wide range – different metals, different non-metals).  The teacher can go over other materials in the classroom.

Grade One Science - Mailbox Theme Book  pg. 75 "Magnet Mania" see Laura Bromley, Grade One - Lisbon

Students will be able to:

A. Observe and record the interactions of magnets with various objects

B.     Classify materials as interactive or not interactive with magnets

C.     Manipulate objects using a magnet (e.g., a game that requires steering an object through a maze without touching the object)

5c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing understanding of how an unbalanced force exerted on an object causes a change in the state of rest or motion of that object in the direction of the unbalanced force.

Each of these are self-explanatory

Swing - back and forth, spinning

Position something at the top of a slide

Students will be able to:

A.    Describe what they feel when riding in a car or school bus when the vehicle starts/stops or goes around corners left/right, and suggest an explanation for what they feel in each case.  Devise an experiment with toy cars and objects on them to test their explanations.

B.     Play the game tug-of-war and discuss the roles of pulling hard and number of pullers on the results (Safety alert!)

C.     Observe and describe the various directions in which objects can move (e.g., playground equipment)

Instructional Resources for Grade 1

Resource

Location

Notes

Properties Delta Science Module

Lakeway