Below are 6 science activities appropriate for 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. We created these to encourage more hands-on science that also includes a lot of the scientific principles behind the cool stuff happening. All of these activities
contain pre- and post-activity questions, connections to relevant Indiana 5-8th
grade science standards, suggested discussion topics, supply lists with notes
on what worked in our testing, and either instructions and/or relevant links to
the original instructions. These activities were chosen because they involve
non-toxic and easily accessible supplies for teachers who don’t have access to
a full chemistry stockroom.
Activities
 |
| An example assembled Curie Engine |
- Students build or assemble a small Curie point engine. The Curie point of a metal is the temperature at which it loses any magnetic properties. Using a candle, a semi-powerful magnet, and a small piece of nickel, students can observe how a Curie point works.
- Related topics: magnetism, engineering, data collection
- Includes the activity overview, a student worksheet, and instructional videos
 |
| An example of a conversion factor. 6 beads = 1 paperclip |
- Students practice unit conversion by exchanging actual
objects while walking around the room. In the end, the activity also
introduces the concept of moles relating to atomic weight.
- Related topics: unit conversion
- Includes the activity overview and a student worksheet
 |
| An example fluorometer with an open top to see inside |
- This activity involves building a very basic fluorometer out of a box. A fluorometer is an instrument to observe and measure fluorescence. Students use different colors of light to observe how fluorescence works in relation to different wavelengths of light.
- There is also a full sub-activity involving a fake forensic investigation and other possible extensions.
- Related topics: fluorescence, wavelengths of light, energy transfer, electromagnetic spectrum, minerals, scientific instruments, forensics, data collection
- Includes the activity overview and instructional videos
- The instructions for the main section of this activity originally came from the Journal of Chemical Education.
 |
| The puzzle pieces in action! |
- The intention of this activity is simply to introduce the idea of ionic compounds. Writing formulas for ionic compounds is complex enough that many beginning chemistry students struggle. Introducing it earlier can help combat that. For non-chemistry teachers, this also helps with pattern recognition and some basic math, especially the idea of a least common denominator.
- Related topics: ionic compounds, covalent molecules, empirical formulas, least common denominator, matching
- Includes the activity overview, student worksheet, and puzzle piece files
 |
| A screenshot from the time lapse video showing the movement of the iron filings |
- There are 4 related activities involving magnets in this section.
- Iron is extracted from breakfast cereal with a magnet.
- Students are given the opportunity to observe the shape of magnetic fields with a bottle of corn syrup and iron filings.
- A magnet is dropped through a copper and a plastic tube. Due to electromagnetic forces, the magnet falls more slowly in copper.
- Flat kitchen magnets have an interesting and easily observable magnetic field orientation. This section also fits well with nanotechnology.
- Related topics: magnetism, electromagnetism, nutrition, magnetic fields
- Includes the activity overview and relevant videos
These 3 pictures show the 3 steps in one of the activities talking about the alignment of polymers.
- This activity has 3 different subsections exploring polymers while using easy to source materials. Students observe the different physical properties, such as bending and breaking, along with super-absorbent polymers and different linking.
- Related topics: polymers, Law of Conservation of Mass, atomic bonds, synthetic materials, physical change vs chemical change, data collection, using a balance
- Includes an activity overview and student worksheet
These activities as of July 2018 are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Comments
Post a Comment