Corvallis School district 509J

Hands on Science:
Science Kit Descriptions ~ 5th Grade

>  Environments:  Explore the relationship between aquatic organisms and their environment by monitoring water temperature, acidity, and salinity.  Use chemical indicator to measure acidity and indirectly monitor the carbon dioxide produced by the goldfish, but not by elodea.  Add pond snails, duckweed, and grammarus (small crustaceans) and observe interactions of organisms.  Investigate salinity as a factor in hatching brine shrimp eggs with a controlled experiment.  Grow seeds with a range of salinity to determine each plant's salt tolerance.  Learn about the salt cycle and inputs and outputs in the ocean. 

> Oil Spill:  Tehya who loves the out-of-doors notices an oil spill on her favorite stream and needs a way to clean it.  Test materials for their efficacy in removing oil floating on water.  Includes "booms" (rubberbands and yarn), "tools" (eyedroppers and spoons), and absorbent materials (cottonballs, filter paper, wool, sponges, felt).  Design an oil clean-up system.  All processes will be scored on two success criteria (amount of oil removed and amount of oil recovered) as well as constraint (cost of materials).  Redesign and retest. 

>  Landforms:  Practice the science of cartography by making maps of the schoolyard with a sand mixture and cubes.  Transfer the model to a grid and draw a paper map.  Use stream tables to observe the processes of erosion and deposition and the landforms created.  Study variables that affect erosion and deposition (slope of the land and the rate of flow).  Map the results.  Build a model of a mountain and use it to create a topographic map.  Learn to read USGS topographical maps and compare to aerial photographs. Includes FOSS Science Readers to supplement the lessons.

> Solar ovens: Lerato in Botswana needs a way to cook the evening meal without spending hours gathering wood that pollutes.  Test materials for insulating qualities and graph temperature results.  Do life cycle assessment for classroom paper and develop a plan to use less.  Use principles of green engineering to choose materials for constructing solar ovens.  Test ovens with thermometers and with s'mores. 

>  Variables:  Introduces the controlled experiment with variables.  Identify and control variables in experiments involving a swinging pendulum, a floating paper cup boat, a flying windup airplane, and a mini-catapult.  Results are graphed and analyzed.  Activities show that the relationships between things always involve interactions, dependencies and cause and effect events.  Includes FOSS Science Readers to supplement the lessons.

> Wind:  (OPTIONAL) Use the three wind turbines and multimeters to build and test a variety of wind vanes.  Try to maximize electrical output by varying length of blades, angle of blades to wind source (pitch), number of blades, type of materials, smoothness of blade surface, and/or blade shape.  Collect materials for blade construction: cardboard, Styrofoam meat trays, paper plates, index cards, aluminum pie plates, and other flat found materials.