Unit planner: Year 3 Science school

Intercultural Understanding





Science involves making predictions and describing patterns and relationships (ACSHE050)

Science knowledge helps people to understand the effect of their actions (ACSHE051)

Questioning and predicting

With guidance, identify questions in familiar contexts that can be investigated scientifically and predict what might happen based on prior knowledge (ACSIS053)

Suggest ways to plan and conduct investigations to find answers to questions (ACSIS054)

Safely use appropriate materials, tools or equipment to make and record observations, using formal measurements and digital technologies as appropriate (ACSIS055)

Processing and analysing data and information

Use a range of methods including tables and simple column graphs to represent data and to identify patterns and trends (ACSIS057)

Compare results with predictions, suggesting possible reasons for findings (ACSIS215)

Evaluating

Reflect on the investigation, including whether a test was fair or not (ACSIS058)

Communicating

Represent and communicate ideas and findings in a variety of ways such as diagrams, physical representations and simple reports (ACSIS060)

Everyday materials can be physically changed in a variety of ways (ACSSU018)

At this year level

Heat can be produced in many ways and can move from one object to another (ACSSU049)

Solids, liquids and gases have different observable properties and behave in different ways (ACSSU077)

Investigation

Have the demo set up before students enter the class. Write the investigation question for the lesson on the board.

• 
  What did you see, hear, feel?
  
• 
  Do you think the bottle is hot? Why?
  
• 
  Could you feel heat from where you were?
  
• 
  Where did the heat come from?
  
• 
  Why is heat important?
  
• 
  How do we use heat?
  

Students discuss in groups what they think heat is and place their ideas on post-its. These post-its are placed under the ‘T’ on the TWLH Chart.

Students generate questions about what they would like to know about heat and put these ideas on post-its under the ‘W’ on the TWLH Chart.

(Alternate is to do a Commit and Toss: students ideas about what heat is are written on paper scrunched into a ball and tossed to another student. After a few tosses each student reads the ideas they have on the piece of paper they caught.)

Read: The Mitten by Jan Brett

• 
  How many of you know this story?
  
• 
  By looking at the cover, what do you think it is about?
  
• 
  Why do you think the animals climbed into the mitten?
  

Students gather pictures of things that produce heat in their home. These are placed on a class pictograph.

Discuss how they are different/the same as each other.

How is the heat being generated?

Friction e.g. rubbing your hands together

Motion e.g.

Electricity e.g. clothes dryer

Burning fuel e.g. cooking with gas/ Whoosh Bottle

Sun e.g. solar panels

Does the mitten fit here? Does a mitten produce heat?

Students should revisit their ideas on heat in their journals.

Give each group a Ziploc bag with an ice cube in it.

Students race to use whatever method they can to melt the ice cube.

Students record their process in their journals

• 
  What method(s) they used.
  
• 
  What sources of heat they used
  
• 
  What they did and how successful it was
  
• 
  What they would change next time.
  

Which method worked the best? Why do you think this was the case?

The student will:

• 
  Carry out an experiment to determine how quickly they can melt an ice cube
  
• 
  Make predictions
  
• 
  Record results and observations
  
• 
  Evaluate their method and suggest improvements
  

What did heat do in these situations?

1. Outline a puddle in chalk and after about 10 minutes, make another outline to see how much has evaporated.

2. Place a mixture of water and salt in a saucer and leave in the sun.

What is left when the water evaporates?

3. Time how long it takes for a block of ice to melt

• 
  In the sun
  
• 
  In the shade
  

• 
  What changes did heat make?
  

• 
  If you hold a chocolate bar in your hand for a while what happens?
  
• 
  Can you change it back?
  

• 
  Does it dissolve faster in hot or cold water?
  

Give each group cards with the words freezing, cold, warm, hot and boiling

Ask students to sort them on a vertical scale on a thermometer template

Students can paste the words onto the template and display them on the classroom wall.

Explain that these words describe the temperature of a place or object.

Show students a display thermometer

• 
  What do the numbers mean?
  
• 
  What are the markings for? What is the scale?
  
• 
  What positions/numbers mean freezing, cold, warm, hot and boiling?
  

Give students instructions on how to use the thermometers

Correct any problems before the investigation

Measuring temperature: Investigation

Each group is given three cups of water: one hot (no hotter than 40C), warm and cold

Each group member use their hands to feel and record a description of the temperature of the water

The group now must make predictions as to what temperature each cup will be measured by the thermometer. Record predictions

The group now uses the thermometer to measure the temperature of each cup of water. Ask students to start with the coldest cup first.

Record their data in a table and mark the temperatures on a thermometer diagram pasted into their books.

• 
  Why do we use a thermometer to measure temperatures?
  
• 
  Why did we measure the coldest cup first?
  
• 
  Were your predictions supported by the data collected?
  
• 
  How much hotter is the hottest cup than the coldest cup?
  

The student will:

• 
  Carry out an experiment to determine the temperature of water
  
• 
  Make careful measurements
  
• 
  Make predictions
  
• 
  Record data and observations
  
• 
  Compare observations with predictions
  
• 
  Perform simple calculations
  
• 
  Reflect on the usefulness of thermometers
  

Show picture of chocolate being held and melting

• 
  Is heat moving in this picture?
  
• 
  What makes you think that heat is moving?
  
• 
  What is the source of heat in this picture?
  

To see if heat is moving we must look at what it does because we can’t see it.

Place small dots of wax equally spaced along a metal knitting needle.

Heat one end of the needle in a candle flame

Have the students time how long it takes for each wax dot to melt

Is heat moving?

What evidence do you have that the heat is moving from the source (the candle) to the wax?

Students record their claim and the evidence is their journals
This type of heat transfer is called CONDUCTION
Light bulb: Demo

Have students stand around an incandescent bulb (They must not touch the bulb!)

Can they feel the heat?

Is heat moving?

What evidence do you have that the heat is moving from the source (the bulb) to them?

Students record their claim and the evidence is their journals
This type of heat transfer is called RADIATION
Spiral: Demo

Hold a spiral made of paper over the bulb or the candle

What happens?

Is heat moving?

What evidence do you have that the heat is moving?

Students record their claim and the evidence is their journals
This type of heat transfer is called CONVECTION
Revisit the melting chocolate picture. What sort of heat transfer is this?
Draw a flow diagram of how you think heat moves from the candle to the wax.

Go back to “The Mitten”. What does the mitten do? Does it add heat or stop heat from flowing from a hot area (your hand) to a cold area?

• 
  Present a clear and concise claims using evidence to justify your claim
  

Ask the children how they might prevent a cold thing from warming up or a hot thing from cooling down. ( A cold can of Coke on a hot day, or a hand on a cold day )

would test to see whether something is staying cold or not.

Discuss the need to make this a fair test and ask the children how they can make the investigation fair.

• Ice cubes must be same size and shape.

• Attempt to start all groups at the same time.

• Groups should only use one layer of insulating material.

• Groups should briefly check ice cube at regular intervals

In between observations, children produce drawings of what they did and describe procedure.

Compare the results of each group, discuss the class findings and conclude the best material.

Set up the following demonstration. Place a range of different spoons in a jug of hot water. After ten minutes or so invite groups of children to come and feel how hot the handles have become.

Ask the students to write a conclusion in their journals.

Which type of material conducted heat the best? (Which spoon got hot the fastest?)

How do you know that this material conducted heat the best?

• 
  Was this a fair test?
  
• 
  What type of spoon would you choose to stir a large pot of hot spaghetti? Why?
  

Students follow a procedure to test which colours absorb heat more than others.

• 
  Work in teams to plan an investigation
  
• 
  Measure, observe, record data
  
• 
  Represent investigation results
  
• 
  Make claims based on the evidence collected
  
• 
  Apply knowledge to a new situation
  

(What student investigations or applications of knowledge would extend their understanding? What do you want students to be able to do? How will they demonstrate this?)

Students follow a basic template to build a solar oven

• 
  Based on what they have learned they choose what colour to paint the inside base of the box
  
• 
  Based on what they have learned about conductors and insulators they choose material to insulate the box
  
• 
  Draw a labelled diagram of your solar oven
  

Test the oven outside on a sunny day

Temperatures can be taken every five minutes and recorded in a data table and displayed in a column graph
What is the heat source? How is heat being transferred?

Can you improve the efficiency of your oven?

What did you do? Did your oven work better? Why?
Cooking with the oven

On a sunny day cook with the oven. (use oven gloves and wear sunglasses and hats)

Foods that could be cooked in the oven include popcorn, mini pizzas, s’mores
Launch a Solar Hot Air Balloon: Class Activity (can be done while the food is cooking!)

The balloon will visually demonstrate the power of solar energy.

1. 
   Fill the balloon with air. Tie the balloon.
   
2. 
   Add a long cord students have marked off in ten centimeter increments so that elevation can be measured.
   
3. 
   As the black balloon is allowed to sit in the sun, it will heat up and begin to rise.
   
4. 
   Start timing as soon as the balloon begins to rise. Record the elevation every minute. Use Solar Balloon handout to record the results.
   

5. Each student now constructs a simple line graph of elevation vs time

• 
  Work in teams to construct a simple solar oven
  
• 
  Measure, observe, record data
  
• 
  Present investigation results in a simple graph or table
  
• 
  Evaluate their method and suggest improvements
  

• 
  Measure, observe, record data
  
• 
  Construct a simple graph
  

There’s a simple answer to help ease some of these problems, that can save millions of trees, provide clean, safe drinking water, doesn’t pollute, and that costs very little –a solar cooker.

Watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SFFOZ7OxtkQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZWIpKRuur0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_yhZsGPj0o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7-1uuvknF0&feature=player_embedded#!

As a class investigate how and why solar ovens are being used to better peoples lives in such places as Kenya, Rwanda and Afghanistan.

Each student can contribute ideas, thoughts, research, pictures or questions to a SOLAR SAVES project board in the classroom.

• 
  Science journal entries
  
• 
  Class discussions
  
• 
  Science Project board contributions