Fungi: Odes to Fungi

One of the activities included with the textbook I used to use was an Ode to Fungi.  The worksheet provided students with four lines of a poem, and then the students were to continue said poem, including various facts about fungi.

I've been known to use that poem starter, but have found that most of my students are happy to start from scratch.  The starter "locks" students into a rhyming scheme and a lot of students take their poems in a different direction, so the rest of their poem doesn't really make sense in the context of the first four lines. 

You can also read the poem "Mushrooms" by Sylvia Plath - proof that "real" poets write about fungi!  This can be fun to read and discuss with your class, even if you don't have your students write their own. 

After students write their poem, usually for homework (after starting it in class), I have them copy it onto a construction paper mushroom.  We then hang them in the hall for all to see.

Earthquakes: San Francisco Earthquake Accounts

I happened to be teaching about earthquakes in April 2006.  I hadn't given it much thought, but I was watching the Today show on the morning of April 18, and there was a segment on the 100th anniversary of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. 

Well, the timing couldn't have been better (well... I could have planned a bit further ahead and been a bit more prepared...) so when I got to school that morning I went searching for something to share with my students to mark the date. 

I came across The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco.  There, I found a whole collection of eyewitness accounts as well as lots of other information. 

I printed out a few accounts and shared parts of them with my students that day.  These do tend to be longer narratives, so you won't be able to read several whole accounts, unless your students are much more patient than mine. 

Since this was a plan that was hatched about an hour before school started, I read the accounts and left it at that.  You may want to take it further...

Assign each student a different eyewitness account to read as homework.  Then, have them summarize their story for the rest of the class the next day. 

Perhaps you could have your students write their own account of what it would have been like to survive the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.  Or maybe you'd like them to research another earthquake and write an account of that experience in the first person.  If you live in a place that experiences earthquakes, you could have your students write of their own experiences.  (Talk to the language arts teacher, maybe it'll work out that your students are working on writing first person narratives or memoirs and you could team up).

You could adapt this exercise to other natural disasters: hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes, etc.

Density: A Sweet Demonstration

Before your students arrive, unwrap a Snickers candy bar and a 3 Musketeers candy bar (any size is acceptable).

Have a large, transparent container filled with water set up in the front of the classroom.

Drop the two, seemingly identical, candy bars into the water.

One floats, one sinks.

Why?

Nuts are dense. The Snickers, packed with peanuts, sinks to the bottom, while the nut-less 3 Musketeers floats.

You could test your students’ understanding of density by asking them to predict what would happen with other size 3 Musketeers bars. For example, would a king size candy bar float or sink? Some might think it will sink because it’s bigger, but remember, density is an intrinsic property, it doesn’t depend upon size.

How Does that Work: Is All Plastic the Same?

Go through your recycling and pull out several different plastic containers. Cut up the different types and place each in water.

What happens?

Sorry - the PET disappears in the water, but it's there, on the bottom.

PET plastics (soda bottles, #2) will sink. HDPE plastics (milk jugs, #1) will float.

There are lots of different directions you can go from here:

-What do PET and HDPE stand for?

-What are they each made of?

-Why does milk get packaged in HDPE but soda and water in PET?

-Is the recycling process different for the different types of plastics?

-Is one type of plastic more environmentally sound than another?

I'll admit, I don't entirely understand the differences, but that doesn't stop me from sharing things with my students.  It's a great opportunity for us to learn together. 

Acid/Base Chemistry: pH of Household Substances

Gather a large collection of household substances; cleaning products, health and beauty products, beverages, etc. (See below for a more detailed list).

To perform this experiment in a classroom, place a small amount of each substance into a small beaker. Label the substance, either with a label on the beaker or an index card next to the beaker. Place a stirring rod (or comparable tool) in each beaker.

Students will touch the stirring rod to a piece of pH paper. They will then consult the key that comes with the pH paper to determine the substance's pH (I have laminated several of the keys and try to tape one to the end of each lab table, so there's always one nearby and all students are crowded around one or two small pieces of paper).

By touching the stirring rod to the paper (as opposed to dipping the paper into the substance) students will be able to test 3 or 4 substances on each piece of pH paper.

After testing each substance and recording the pH, students can create a pH scale of household items.

Have your students look for patterns... foods, skin care products, cleaning products, etc.

What are the commonly used numbers on the pH scale? Are there any numbers that weren't used at all?

What results surprised your students?

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Some substances you might* want your students to test:
ammonia
lemon juice
toilet bowl cleaner
Coke
coffee
liquid soap
rubbing alcohol
shampoo**
orange juice
glass cleaner
lotion**
bleach
Borax**
milk
Simple Green
grapefruit juice
vinegar
cranberry juice
tea (regular and herbal)
aspirin**
tub/tile cleaner
Brasso
7-Up
plant acidifier (MirAcid)**
soap scum remover
Drano**
oven cleaner
saline solution (for contacts)
Rolaids/Tums**

*Always use your best judgement and keep your school's policies in mind.
**Dissolve in water.

Genetics: SpongeBob Genetics

If you haven't visited Science Spot yet, you really do need to get there. 

One of the most popular (at least by my unofficial survey of people I talk to and come in contact with) items found there is the SpongeBob genetics worksheets (scroll about half way down the page).  My students LOVE these, and they provide good practice with phenotypes, genotypes, Punnett Squares, etc.  And, of course, she includes an answer key with each worksheet. 

I just hope SpongeBob remains popular for a long, long time! 

Do yourself a favor and get over to the Science Spot! 

Renewable vs. Non-renewable Resources

You'll need two different types of dried beans/peas/lentils.  Pick two kinds that are distinctly different in appearance.  One type will represent coal, the other wind power. 

Before your class arrives, place about 100 of each bean around the room.  They don't need to be hidden, but they should be spread pretty far and wide.  I always tell the students that they don't need to open any drawers or doors to find the resources, but they may be behind something that's sitting out.

Divide your class into two teams.  One team will be the coal miners.  The other team will be the wind farmers.

Show the students what the "coal" looks like and what the units of "wind power" look like.

Send the teams into the field to look for their appointed resource.  Give them 30 seconds to find as much as they can.  When the 30 seconds are over, they should report back to their team headquarters with any resource they found.  While the teams are counting the resources they gathered, take a lap around the room adding some more of the wind power while you go.  After the counting is finished, have each team record the number of resources they collected on the front board.

Give the teams another 30 seconds to collect as much of their resource as they can.  Again, they'll return to their headquarters and count.  And again, you'll add more wind power to the supply. 

Repeat at least one more time (more if you wish).

At some point during the process, the students will notice you adding wind power.  They'll start to ask questions (especially the coal miners!) - I just shrug my shoulders and say we'll talk about it later.

At the end of the experience, the students will notice that the coal miners collected less coal with every round, while the wind farmers collected about the same amount of wind energy with every round. 

In my experience, this really helps young students (I've used it with 4th graders) get a feel for the difference between renewable and non-renewable resources and leads to some great discussions about the two.  And it's really fun! 

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This activity is based on something I found online one time.  I can't locate my paper, nor can I find it with a Google search.  If anyone's familiar with the original source, please let me know and I'll credit them properly.  I believe it came from an energy company.