End of School: Movie Time

When all else fails, you can always use a movie to fill a few class periods. 

As you already know, there are countless videos that can be connected to science curriculum.  Some featuring hard core science, others popular theater-run movies with science content.  And while not a substitute for hands-on learning and thinking, they do provide a nice way to change things up every so often. 

If/when you go with a movie, I highly recommend you check out Movie Sheets.  There you will find worksheets to accompany movies, created and uploaded by other science teachers. 

The films are sorted by science topic, which is useful if you're unsure what to show but want something to fit your curriculum. 

But, if you have a move-in-hand that you want to show, you can search for that title as well. 

Many films have more than one worksheet available, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs.  Or, you can choose the best part of each worksheet and create your own. 

The best part of the Movie Sheets database is that the list of movies runs the gamut: NOVA videos, Bill Nye videos, the Eyewitness video series, animated features and Hollywood action flicks.

End of School: Tips for Surviving Science

This activity doesn't have the same excitement factor as the previous activities, instead the students need to be a bit reflective. 

At the end of the year, I sometimes ask my 7th grade students to write a letter to next year's 7th grade students.  The idea being to give the incoming students tips for succeeding in science class - what to watch out for, what to look forward to, etc. 

When I'm assembling the beginning-of-the-year materials, I'll add a section of tips from the previous class amongst class procedures and grade breakdowns. 

I really enjoy reading what the students write and it can provide great insight as to how the students perceive the class as a whole and what they most enjoyed throughout the year (you know you've got a winner when they write about something you did months ago).

End of School: Playing with Polymers

Tracy from The Science Spot has come through once again with a fantastic unit, Playing with Polymers, in which students make four different polymers - Gloop, Boogers, Goobers, and Super Slime.

Tracy does this as part of curriculum, as part of a study on petrochemicals.  I did it at the end of the school year, and the one drawback to doing it then is that this activity does require quite a few supplies and pieces of equipment.  But, the students LOVE it - I'll take the mess if I can have engaged students right up until school's out! 

And, Tracy does make it fairly painless for the teacher; she includes lists of materials (in quantities for 100 students), recipes, set-up instructions and so on.  If you keep the materials well-organized and labeled, things will go smoothly.  And your students will love you!

End of School: By Golly, By Gum

I didn't have any on hand for this picture, but you'll want to make sure you include a super-sugary gum in your testing (Bubblicious, Hubba Bubba, etc.)

By Golly, By Gum is one of the free sample activities from AIMS. 

Students find the mass of a pack of gum, before and after chewing.  Most of gum's mass comes from sugar, which dissolves during the chewing process, so after chewing for a bit, the mass will decrease significantly and students can calculate a ratio.  Students can then compare different brands/varieties of gum looking at both the ingredients and the mass ratio. 

My students were so excited by the novelty of being allowed to chew gum in class that they very willingly carried out the measurements and calculations, despite the impending vacation (if I remember correctly, I used it before Christmas vacation, but the mindset is the same). 


In a similar vein, Tracy, from The Science Spot, has a Bubble Gum Physics activity in which students calculate the speed with which they can chomp gum.  You could easily tie this in with By Golly, By Gum and have your students calculate their speed while doing the chewing necessary for the mass measurements.

End of School: Surivivor Science

This week, I'm going to deviate a bit from my normal science activities and share some ideas for filling in that last week or two of school.  You know, those weeks when you're still responsible for educating your students, but they are so far done with being educated. 

ETA: As I'm putting together this series of posts, I've been looking up the original sources for some of my favorite end-of-the-school-year science activities and I'm noticing a common theme: The Science Spot.  I didn't set out to highlight everything Tracy's done - I just wanted to share things that have worked for me.  That so many of them come from the same spot is a testament to Tracy's great ideas and her willingness to share freely with everyone.  If you haven't already, please go explore The Science Spot. 

The first series of activities I want to share with you is Survivor Science, from The Science Spot. 

I found this to be a wonderful collection of activities that keep my students reviewing science concepts, and a brilliant theme that inspires competition and thus motivates the students to participate. 

There are very few supplies needed - perfect, as no one wants to be getting out all kinds of things while they're trying to pack up their classroom for the summer. 

I found that it could be very flexible, which was of great importance to me.  The last week or two of school were marked with crazy schedules, such that I rarely saw every class every day.  I scheduled the Survivor Science challenges in my plan book and then whichever classes I saw on a given day completed that day's challenge.  The other classes missed out on that challenge, but had their chances with other challenges.  All of my classes were participating, but I didn't have to worry about which class was on which challenge.  They weren't competing amongst classes, just amongst the teams within their own class, so it made no difference if one class had completed more challenges than another.