Overview
I have compiled 4 different activities to use in October for the fall/Halloween season.
Best of all, each one requires minimal prep on your end! I hope these simplify your
life and provide something FUN for you and your students to enjoy! Below you will
find a table of contents with a few notes about each resource and what is included
on the following pages.
• Creepiest Creatures
o
o
o
Includes teacher notes on p.2 and student handout on p.3
Best used for a biology course
Topics covered: adaptations, research, and persuasive writing skills
• Protect the Pumpkin
o
o
o
Includes teacher notes on p.4 and student handouts on p.5-7
Best used for physical science, physics, or STEM courses
Topic covered: force (with an extension/challenge question related to
conservation of energy)
• Glow Stick Science
o
o
o
Includes teacher notes on p.8 and student handouts on p.9-11
Best used for physical science or chemistry courses
Topic covered: the effect of temperature on reaction rate
• Messed Up Medical Practices
o
o
o
Includes teacher notes on p.12 and student handout on p.13
Best used for an anatomy & physiology course
Topics covered: obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2021
Overview:
Teacher Notes
In this research activity, students will work on their own or with a partner to find what they believe
is the creepiest creature on Earth. After researching, they will make a one page visual
advertisement to summarize why their creature is arguably the creepiest. These ads will be
”pitched” to the class in 30-second commercial-style presentations. At the end of the period, the
class will vote on which creature is the creepiest. This resource is a fun way to do something
seasonally relevant with your students, all while having them practice conducting research and
writing persuasively.
Prior Knowledge:
Students don’t really need any prior instruction to do this activity, however, adaptations are
referenced on the student handout. It is a great activity you can refer back to later in the year
when you get to evolution!
Assessment:
I would use this research activity as an in-class assignment and count it as a 50-point minor grade
using the rubric included on the student handout. You could also just do this simply for fun, and
offer a few bonus points or a dropped quiz grade to the winners based on the class votes.
Materials:
• Copies of the student handout on p.3
• Access to technological devices and the internet in order to conduct research
• Computer paper and various coloring utensils (or can have students make these digitally in
Google Slides™ - your call!)
Implementation details:
• This is totally up to you if you want to have them work with a partner or on their own. I would
not let them work in groups larger than 2.
• Go over the project and assign partners (if you choose). I like to let students choose their
creepiest creature. Once they decide the creature they want to research, have them come
tell you so that you don’t have any duplicates (no one wants to hear 4 pitches about the same
thing.)
• If you would like to provide a list of options, here are some great ones: Box jellyfish, black widow
spider, vampire squid, vampire bat, ghost shark, gharial, Komodo dragon, Atlantic wolffish, killer
bees, naked mole rat, goliath tigerfish, aye-aye, pufferfish, and the mosquito (this is a great one
because you really can argue that it’s creepiest because it is the most dangerous!)
• You can easily give students two 50-minute class periods to do this, but if you are trying to
squeeze it into one class period, I recommend the following pacing for the period:
→
→
→
→
5 min to go over the activity
10 min to research and pick a creature
25 min to finish researching and make their ad
10 min to present to the class (give students 30 seconds and time them!! With quick transitions you
can get them all done in 10-15 minutes – especially if they work with partners.)
• Make it extra fun! à They can take this however they want – scariest, deadliest, freakiest –
whatever Halloween-esque spin they choose to take! Have the class vote at the end of the
period on which creature won each of those categories. Make it even more fun by making
the categories superlatives like: creature you would least want to find in your bed in the middle
of the night, creature most likely to win Best Actor in a horror movie, etc.
© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2021
Name:
Research Activity: Creepiest Creatures Ad
Overview: We live in a world filled with creepy creatures. From glow in the dark eyes to venomous bites, these
creatures range from disturbingly deadly to just downright terrifying to look at. In this activity, you will be
researching one creature that you find extremely creepy. The information you gather will be used to create a one-page
advertisement to convince your classmates that your creature is, in fact, the creepiest of them all. You can do this by
hand or using a device. The ads will be presented to the class as a 30-second commercial-style “pitch” so that we can
vote on who best convinces us of the creepiness of their creature.
Ad Requirements:
q Scientific and common name for the creature
q Key characteristics of the environment the creature lives in
q Characteristics about the creature, including:
• Specific traits it has that make it unique
• Identification of at least one of its creepiest traits that can be considered an adaptation and why (adaptation
= a feature that aids in an organism’s survival and/or reproduction)
• How it obtains necessary energy
• Any unique responses it has when threatened by another organism or when it experiences environmental
stress
• Fun and interesting facts that make your creature really CREEPY
q COLORFUL, neat, and visually appealing
q Overall ad demonstrates accuracy
q Must fit on an 8.5 x 11 piece of computer paper and be completed and turned in ON TIME
• If done by hand, must be 2-D so that it can be scanned in so we can all see it projected.
• If done electronically, must still be 8.5 x 11 and saved as a PDF so formatting doesn’t shift.
q Research is appropriately cited and included.
q Presentation is within the 30-second time limit, and information is delivered in a confident and passionate tone in
order to convince the class that this is, by far, the creepiest creature.
Rubric:
© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2021
Overview:
Teacher Notes
In this lab activity, students will work in groups to apply scientific and engineering principles to
design, evaluate, and refine a device that minimizes the damage on a pumpkin when it is
dropped out of a classroom window (HS-PS2-3 from NGSS.) This resource is such a fun way to do
something seasonally relevant with your students (hence the pumpkins) while applying an
understanding of force and energy to a real-world engineering challenge. This will be a lab
activity your students will talk about for YEARS to come!!
Prior Knowledge:
Students will need prior knowledge of force and acceleration due to gravity. An understanding
of energy (specifically gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy) and momentum is
helpful, but not necessarily required (only really needed for the extension question.)
Assessment:
I would use this lab activity as an in-class assignment and count it as a 50-point minor grade for
completion of the student handouts on p.5-7.
Materials:
• Copies of the student handouts on p.5-7
• 1 pumpkin per group (have students bring these in!!)
• Materials students choose to include in their designs (you can provide a few that they request
and have them bring in any specialty items, or have them provide them all!)
• Scale large enough to measure the mass of the pumpkins
• Tarp for the pumpkins to land on to make clean up easier
• Permission from your admin to do this!!
Implementation details:
• Day 1 DESIGN DAY: Assign students to groups (I recommend groups of 2-4 for this) and go over
the guiding question, purpose, and overview. Feel free to give them ANY specific constraints
here that you want – I kept the student handouts simple on purpose! (Ex. if you are providing a
specific set of materials, or if they have a budget for their device, etc.) Then let them
brainstorm ideas! They should be discussing what would decrease the force of impact, best
materials to use, and sketching ideas. Walk around and ask clarifying questions to get them
thinking. By the end of class, they should know what their design will be and have a list of who
needs to bring in what (including if they are bringing in their own pumpkins!)
• Day 2 BUILD DAY: This is totally up to you how much time you want to give them. You can
make them build in 20 minutes, and then do all the drops after. Or you can give them an
entire day to build their devices, and save a whole day for the epic drops!! They should draw
what they made on the top of p.6. Get masses of pumpkins both with and without devices on
this day, too.
• Day 3 DROP DAY: Make this a big ceremony! Have the class watching from the ground while
you or the group drops their pumpkin. Record these to watch the impact later! After, have
students record their observations and work through the reflection questions.
•
Note: All answers will vary so there isn’t a key for the student handouts. However for #5, they
should use F = ma, with m being the mass of the pumpkin and device, and a being acceleration
due to gravity of 9.8 m/s2. For the extension question, they will first calculate GPE using GPE = ham
(will need to know the height of the window in meters). If all energy is conserved, then GPE = KE,
and students can then rearrange KE = .5mv2 to solve for velocity, and thenuse p = mv to find
momentum.
• Make it extra fun! à Award bonus points for different categories such as: most protective, best
use of inexpensive materials, most creative, and/or “best dressed” if they give their device a
Halloween costume!
© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2021
Name:
Group Members:
Lab Activity: Protect the Pumpkin!
Guiding Question: How can you design a device to best protect a pumpkin, dropped from the classroom window, in
order to minimize damage?
Purpose: The goal of this lab activity is to use scientific and engineering principles to design a device that minimizes
the force with which a dropped pumpkin will hit the ground below.
Overview: You will work with a group to design a protective device to surround the pumpkin when it is dropped.
These will be constructed in class from materials your group brings in. On drop day, you will measure the mass of
your pumpkin and the mass of your pumpkin with its surrounding device prior to the drop. After all pumpkins are
dropped, we will make qualitative observations to determine which device best protected the pumpkins from damage.
You and your group members will then reflect on your design and refine it.
Brainstorm:
© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2021
Design on Drop Day:
Mass of pumpkin:
Mass of pumpkin and device:
Observations post-drop:
© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2021
Reflections:
1. Looking back at your design, what was successful about it?
2. What was unsuccessful about your design that you didn’t anticipate?
3. How could you have potentially prevented the issues you listed in #2 using the same materials you used in the
original design?
4. If you could modify your original design in ANY way with ANY materials, how would you refine it to improve its
effectiveness? Sketch the refined design and describe the changes you would make below.
5. Calculate the force with which your pumpkin hit the ground. Show all work.
Extension: Assuming all energy is conserved, calculate the velocity and momentum your pumpkin had just before it
hit the ground. Show all work necessary to get to your final answer.
© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2021
Overview:
Teacher Notes
In this inquiry investigation, students will work in groups to apply scientific principles and evidence to
provide an explanation for the effect of changing temperature on the rate at which a reaction occurs (HSPS1-5 from NGSS.) Using the provided materials, students will design a simple lab investigation, implement
their designs, and collect data that they will graph and analyze. Doing this lab in a dark room with the
glow sticks makes it a fun and easy way to feel seasonally relevant while still learning a key topic in
chemistry AND practicing their experimental design skills.
Prior Knowledge:
Students will need prior knowledge on experimental design in order to be able to come up with their
procedures for the investigation. If they do not have this prior knowledge, I recommend designing the
procedures together as a class. They do not necessarily need prior instruction on kinetic molecular theory,
although it is helpful.
Assessment:
I would use this investigation as an in-class assignment and count it as a 100-point minor grade for
completion of the student handouts on p.9-11.
Materials:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Copies of the student handouts on p.9-11
Glow sticks (minimum of 3 per group)
Foam cups (minimum of 2 per group)
Hot plates, beakers, water, and thermometers so students can make hot water
Ice water
Stopwatches (or phone timers)
Implementation details:
•
•
•
•
You will need approximately 2-3 50-minute class periods for this lab activity, although you can shorten
the time by not having your students develop their own procedures. Totally your call!
Day 1: Assign students to groups (I recommend groups of 2-4 for this) and go over the introduction,
guiding question, and purpose.
From there, have them work in their groups through the background knowledge and hypothesis
sections. Pause and discuss their prior knowledge. Their hypothesis should be a testable prediction
about the effect of temperature on the rate of the chemical reaction happening in the glow stick.
Let them know the materials available to them and have them write those down on p.9. After, have
them work in their groups to “make a plan”. Depending on the level of your students, you may want to
pause and go over their answers before going any further, or do this section entirely as a class (Ex. IV =
the temperature of the water, control group = a glow stick at room temperature, DV could be a variety
of metrics, but simplest is timing how long they stay at their brightest point before starting to fade.)
•
•
•
After you have reviewed their plans, have them write out their procedures. I would do this as a class so
that you can collect class data and calculate averages. Goal = have everything designed by the end
of the first day.
Day 2: Data collection. Depending on the metrics you decide upon for your dependent variable, this
could take a while, so you will want something else they can work on while you watch and wait!!
•
•
•
The science: Glow sticks have chemical potential energy. When “cracked”, they are activated so that the
fluorescent dyes mix with the hydrogen peroxide inside and react. The chemical energy gets converted to
light energy during the reaction. Increasing temperature should increase the rate of the reaction.
Note: You don’t want the hot water to be greater than 50 degrees Celsius or else you risk the plastic melting!
Day 3: You will most likely need an additional class period to gather class data, create graphs, and write
analyses and conclusions.
Make it extra fun! à Have the lights off for all of day 2 and play fun spooky music to set the tone!
© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2021
Name:
Group Members:
Inquiry Investigation: Glow Stick Science
Introduction: In this investigation, you will be planning and conducting an experiment using glow sticks to gather
evidence to explain the effect that temperature has on the rate at which a reaction occurs.
Guiding Question: Write an overarching question to try to answer for this investigation.
Purpose: Re-write your question as a “To determine…” statement.
Background Knowledge: What do you know about glow sticks and how they work? What do you know about
energy? What do you know about factors that affect reaction rates? Jot down anything relevant below.
Hypothesis: Based on the background knowledge you have, make a prediction about the effect of temperature on the
rate of a reaction.
Materials: Make a bulleted list of all of the materials that are available to you.
Make a Plan:
a. What will be your independent variable in this investigation?
b. What will be your dependent variable?
c. What will be your control group?
d. What constants do you need to plan for in your procedures?
© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2021
Procedures: Now that you have planned your investigation, make a specific numbered list of what you will need to do
for this investigation below.
Results: Set up a data table for how you want to collect your data. After conducting the experiment, create a graph
that best represents the data you’ve collected.
© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2021
Analysis: Write a paragraph answering the following questions.
a. What does your data show you? Refer to your graph in your answer.
b. In what ways could you have improved your experimental design to eliminate experimental errors? List at
least three specific weaknesses or errors in your design and three specific solutions for how these could be
prevented in the future.
Conclusion: Write a paragraph answering the following questions.
a. Does the data cause you to support or reject your hypothesis? Explain how you know.
b. What did you learn about factors that affect the rate of a chemical reaction from this investigation? Defend
your claim with evidence and reasoning.
c. If you were to do a variation of this lab in the future, how would you change up the investigation to expand on
the knowledge you gained from it?
© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2021
Overview:
Teacher Notes
In this research activity, students will work in small groups to research medical practices – some
historical and some still used today – that are honestly a little bit disturbing. After researching,
they will make a 60-second video reel or TikTok® to teach the class about their medical practice.
Students will share their informational reels to the class and answer questions from their peers after
the 60-second video is presented. This resource is a fun way to do something seasonally relevant
and spooky with your students, show them anatomy “in action” by connecting it to the real world,
and provide them with practice obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information.
Prior Knowledge:
Students don’t need any prior instruction to do this activity. It is a fun one that can “interrupt”
your lesson plans for the holiday while still giving students practice with valuable skills (particularly
the NGSS SEP to obtain, evaluate and communicate information, but in a FUN way that will really
engage them!)
Assessment:
I would use this research activity as an in-class assignment and count it as a 50-point minor grade
using the rubric included on the student handout.
Materials:
• Copies of the student handout on p.13
• Access to technological devices and the internet in order to conduct research, create the
video reels, and then project them for the class to see
→ Depending on the technology you have access to, students can send the videos to your
computer, plug in their phones, or connect to your projector via AirPlay.
Implementation details:
• I would assign students to work in groups of 2-4 (3 is the magic number for me on projects like
this, but I know not all class sizes are divisible by 3.)
• Go over the project and assign groups (if you choose). With any activity like this, I like to let
students choose their topic, but you can also assign them, if you prefer. No matter what, have
each group come tell you what medical practice they are researching so that you don’t have
any duplicates.
• If you would like to provide a list of options, here are some great ones: leech therapy, maggot
therapy, fecal transplants, the iron lung, trepanation, hand to ankle grafting, ECT, and awake
craniotomy. You can also have students research historical medical practices that we no
longer use, like the ones listed in this article. There are so many ways to take this!!
• I feel like students will really need 1.5 hours to do this well. I recommend spending 1.5-2 50
minute class periods on this, if you are able.
→ Day 1: go over project, assign groups, select topics, research, and outline key points they will hit in
their videos.
→ Day 2: make the actual TikToks/reels and share with the class. Each group gets to share their 60second video but then gets 3-4 minutes to answer questions from their peers. This allows the videos
to pique the class’s interest, but the discussion afterwards can really reveal what the group
learned from their research.
• Make it extra fun! à You can have the class vote on the most messed up medical practice
and reward bonus points to whoever is the most convincing. This is a fun way to really motivate
students to be detailed, persuasive, and knowledgeable in their communication of the
practice.
© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2021
Name:
Research Activity: Messed Up Medical Practices
Overview: We live in a world with a history of pretty disturbing practices in the medical field, a lot of which are
thankfully no longer in use. But there are still plenty of medical practices used today that just sound downright
messed up. In this activity, you will be researching a pretty creepy medical practice that may or may not be still used
today in modern medicine. The information you gather will be used to create a 60-second informational video
reel/TikTok® to teach your classmates about your messed up medical practice. These will be shared with the class
and you will be required to answer follow-up questions to demonstrate your understanding of the practice and how
and why it is used.
Requirements:
q Video is 60-seconds, submitted on time, and in a high-quality format that can be played for the class without issue.
q Video has appropriate volume so that we can clearly hear what is being said.
q Video content includes:
• Name of the medical practice that is researched
• Description of what it is and how it is used
• Explanation of different maladies or injuries it is used to treat
o This is to include how it was historically used vs. how it is used at present (if it is still a common
medical practice.)
o If the practice is no longer used, explain why and what has since replaced it.
q Images and visuals included in the video are relevant and appropriate.
q Overall video demonstrates accuracy.
q Research is appropriately cited and included on a separate sheet of paper.
q All work is original and in the students’ own words.
q Each student can demonstrate their understanding by answering questions from their peers about the video and
medical practice with confidence and clarity.
Rubric:
© It’s Not Rocket Science® 2021
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