Education 312 Journal
Class Activities
Class 2/3
Materials: table covered in paper, crayons, lots of stuffed animals, activity sheets
Procedures:
1) Teacher enters classroom (safari guide) searching for animals: “Have you seen my
animals? I was put in charge of watching them and they seem to be gone!”
2) Students separate animals into groups the way they like (make it like a zoo- draw with
crayons)
3) Classify animals together as a class with activity sheet (invertebrates and vertebrates) and
explain why they are classified that way. Go over animals that students were unsure
about.
4) Write topics on the board of characteristics and classes
Class 2/5
Materials: plates, plastic gloves, chicken wings, razors
Procedures:
1) Go over pictures of birds, ask questions like, “What makes a bird a bird?” “How do birds
fly?” Show slide with pictures.
2) Hand out materials and have students take off skin of wing and check for the tendons,
muscles, and bones.
3) Show how pulling on bicep or tricep makes the wing move. Ask students why certain
parts are important. Show how chicken bone structure is similar to human bone structure.
4) Label diagram of important parts and bones for homework.
Class 2/10
Materials: chicken bone, scalpel, bleach, vinegar, water, alcohol, scale, activity sheets
Procedures:
1) The question is: “What are bones made of?” We want to see if dogs can eat bones.
2) Clean off the chicken bone as much as you can with a scalpel. Weight the chicken bone
to check the mass. Record the mass on a sheet of paper.
3) Different groups will put their bones in bleach, vinegar, and water.
4) We will let these bones sit in these liquids overnight to see what happens.
Class 2/17
Materials: All materials from class 2/10
Procedures:
1) Take chicken wings out of liquids and rinse them off.
2) Weigh the chicken wing and record mass. Record what happened to the chicken wing
(any physical changes).
3) Put the chicken wing back in the liquids to sit overnight again.
Class 2/20
Materials: All materials from class 2/17
Procedures:
1) Rinse chicken wing and weigh it to find mass. Record any physical changes.
2) Go over differences between group results and make inferences as to what happened
3) Vinegar got a rid of calcium and left collagen; bleach got a rid of collagen and left
calcium.
4) “What would happen if we put chicken wings that were in vinegar in bleach and vice
versa?” We recorded our predictions and did so.
Class 2/24
Materials: Chinese New Year coins, Chinese envelopes
Procedures:
1) Give students envelopes with Chinese New Year coins in them. Have students predict
how much is in the envelope.
2) First, students need to figure out if it’s American currency or not. Students cannot open
envelope; they must use sight, sound, and touch to figure it out.
3) Discuss what we did to try to figure what was in it (some students held it up to the light,
some weighed it).
4) This leads into Chinese New Year and its relatedness to Mardi Gras. For homework, we
need to find the connection.
Class 2/26
Materials: cups, string, paper clips, paper towels, water
Procedures:
1) The connection between Mardi Gras and Chinese New Year- moons. Talk about the bird
call of the loon. Why is it called a loon? Loon is connected to lunatic which is connected
to lunar (moons).
2) Students are given materials and put it together so that the one paper clip is attached to
the string and poked through the bottom of the cup. Then, at the other end of the string,
another paper clip is attached. Hold the cup upside down, as string hangs down with
paper clips at both ends (one paper clip is used so that the string doesn’t go through the
hole). Use a wet towel, and glide the towel down the string. It will make a sound like a
bird call.
3) Discuss in groups and then as a class why it made this sound and how.
4) Make a list of all the words we used in class that have to do with our bird-calling (like
high pitch, low pitch, sound, size, tight string).
5) For homework: Put all the words in “buckets.”
Class 3/3
Materials: plastic “moon” balls (colored half white and half black)
Procedures:
1) Use the plastic “moon” balls to show the moon’s position from the sun and earth.
2) Talk about waning, waxing, gibbous, etc. (all terms that have to do with the moon).
3) Put the stages of the moon in order.
4) Talk about the distance of the moon to the sun and earth and how we get our seasons. It
also relates to our months.
Class 3/5
Materials: cow bell, tuning fork, something to hit the tuning fork (forget what it’s called), cup of
water, buttons, foil
Procedures:
1) Show students a cow bell from Cambodia that makes an odd sound. This leads to the
question: “How do things make sound?”
2) Take a tuning fork. Hold it over a cup of water. Hit the tuning fork with a certain object
(forget what it is, but it makes the tuning fork make a sound). “What will happen if we
place it in water?” Write down predictions.
3) Hit the tuning fork and place it directly in the water. Record observations and then talk
about it as a class.
4) What would happen if we hit the tuning fork and touched it to foil where buttons are
placed? Record predictions.
5) Place buttons on a foil sheet. Hit the tuning fork and touch it to the foil. The buttons
jump! Record observations.
Class 3/10
Materials: “Spirit bowl”
Procedures:
1) Use spirit bowl as an intro to the class. Show how the spirit bowl makes a sound and how
it changes pitch and volume. The spirit bowl was used in Thailand to chase spirits away
in a house.
2) Make a diagram showing how sound is related to volume, pitch, wavelength, frequency,
and vibrations.
Class 3/12
Materials: Program online, microphone, activity sheet
Procedures:
1) Pull up the program online that shows wavelengths. Show students that if you change
your voice into a microphone, it shows on the program how the wavelengths change
height and width.
2) Talk about wavelength, frequency, amplitude, etc. Use activity sheet for students to draw
the wavelengths and label characteristics of them.
Class 3/26
Materials: Magic sliding sheet, glass, candles, lighter, two different pipes, magnets
Procedures:
1) Show how magic sliding sheet is just magic and prove to students that they need evidence
to prove something is right, not just to believe the teacher.
2) Set up glass so it is vertical. Put one candle behind the glass and one candle in front of the
glass. Light the one candle and pretend that you lit the other candle. Show that you can
put your hand over the one candle behind the glass and it won’t burn you. It’s a “cool
flame.” Really, what’s going on is that the glass is transparent so the flame shows
through (it’s reflecting) and if the candles are lined up correctly, it looks like the candle
behind the glass is lit, when really it’s not.
3) Relate this to transparency, reflection, light, filter, etc. Then, talk about absorption,
refraction, and transmission.
4) Pole experiment- Take two poles (both made up differently), and put a magnet through
the holes of each and see that the magnet goes through the one pipe faster than the other.
“I can stop gravity!” Am I right? No. The poles are made differently (one pole attracts the
magnet from the inside, so it slides down slowly). Talk about magnetic force field.
Class 3/31
Materials: Sand, buckets, seashells, random items, rocks, sifters
Procedures:
1) Talk about beach and how it is nice out. Anyone ever gone to the beach? “How is sand
formed?”
2) Provide students with bucket of sand with different things in it (seashells, rocks, little
plastic bugs). Have students predict what will be in it. Then, have students dig through
the sand and record observations.
3) Stack sifters on top of each other. “What would happen if we poured it in the sifters?
How would it separate?” Record predictions. Have students pour bucket of sand into
stacked sifters to separate the different things in the sand. Record observations.
4) Talk about weathering, erosion, and how these topics relate to how sand is formed.
Class 4/9
Materials: paper, crayons, and activity sheets
Procedures:
1) Give student the confusing Latin term for the cricket (Don’t remember what it is).
2) Have them draw what they think that is. Go over drawings.
3) Then, talk about what students might possibly know about the word. Why did they draw
their pictures? Was it a guess? Was there something in the word that clued them in?
4) Give students crickets in a container. Have them draw the crickets
5) Go over the parts of crickets and label them on activity sheet.
6) Talk about how different insects are made up differently, and how not all insects are
bugs. Talk about Latin terms of certain insects, like the butterfly, and see how we got the
word butterfly from that Latin term. Example: Lepidoptera- lepido- means scaled, and
ptera- means wing so scaled-wing, which is a butterfly!
Class 4/14
Materials: real flowers, fake flowers, and activity sheets
Procedures:
1) Have students draw a flower and try to label any parts they know.
2) Give students real flowers and discuss the parts of flowers. Let students take them apart
and really dissect the flower. Use the activity sheet to draw and label.
3) Then, give students fake flowers and discuss the similarities and differences between the
fake ones and the real ones. “So, what does something have to have to be considered a
flower?”
Class 4/16
Materials: lima beans, corn seeds, iodine, gloves, plates, and activity sheets
Procedures:
1) Have students predict what they think the inside of a lima bean and a corn seed look like.
Draw predictions on activity sheets.
2) Use iodine to spread onto seeds. Record observations.
3) “What are seeds made up of?”
4) For homework, bring in 3 different foods from different food groups.
Class 4/21
Materials: Food brought in by students, iodine, gloves, and plates
Procedures:
1) Use foods brought in for homework, and spread iodine on them. Record observations.
Did any of the foods show signs of seeds?
2) If the iodine changed the color of the food to black and outline something similar to what
we saw in the seeds the day before, it must contain seeds.
3) Homework: Draw a scientist.
Class 4/23
Materials: Scientist pictures, video on woman in Uganda, T/F worksheets
Procedures:
1) Discuss students’ drawings on scientists and explain to students that anyone can be a
scientist. Everyone views a scientist as Albert Einstein. This leads into the video of the
woman who visits Uganda who actually is a scientist herself. She teaches at University of
Maryland.
2) Give students worksheet on T/F on Cassava and Malaria. Have students fill it out without
discussing at all what Cassava and Malaria are. Then, watch the video of the woman who
is trying to find a prevention of Malaria, which is a serious and deadly disease in Uganda.
3) After watching the video, we find that Cassava is actually something you can eat, and it is
also a prevention of Malaria. It keeps the mosquitoes away (mosquitoes carry Malaria).