I thought you’d like to hear about our successful science lesson today. We’ve been learning about Neil Armstrong and the Wright Brothers so I found an experiement called The Rocket Balloon. You are probably familiar with it. Anyway, first I demonstrated it for the class. Then I divided them into four teams of four. Each student had an assigned job and all the materials were ready on the table. I told them that part of their science grade was to see how they worked in teams because astronauts can’t argue in space about whose doing what. It was interesting to just sit back and watch them working together. After letting them do the experiment four or five times, they cleaned up and wrote about it in their journals. I’ve never seen them write so quietly and so focused before! One of the requirements was to explain what they had learned. It was a little hard for some to put it in to words but they were able to explain the activity very well. It is definitely one that I will do again next year.
Take care,
Marianne