Science Month by Month: Practical Ideas and Activities for Teachers and Homeschoolers - Softcover

Spencer, Julia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0471729019 ISBN 13: 9780471729013

Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 2006

Synopsis

If you want your students to think scientifically and have fun while they are doing it, Science Month by Month is the book for you. This collection of lessons, activities, calendars of historic science events, vocabulary word lists, and reproducible worksheets will help you develop seasonal science-theme units for your classrooms. The more than 80 activities are designed for flexibility and can be used in any sequence, any time during the school year. The activities are interdisciplinary, cover all areas of the science curriculum, complement other science programs and textbooks, and are easy to implement without special equipment or materials.

About this title

About the Author

Julia Farish Spencer, Ph.D., has taught science in grades 3 though 8 in Knoxville, Tennessee and West Hartford, Connecticut, public school systems. Spencer is the president of Literary Workshops and Publications, a publisher and certified Connecticut CEU provider of seminars and workshops for educators. She was an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut in Hartford.

From the Back Cover

Science Month by Month offers dynamic science activities for every month of the school year. This hands-on resource contains everything an elementary or middle school science teacher needs to make their classes more timely and engaging.

If you want your students to think scientifically and have fun while they are doing it, Science Month by Month is the book for you. This collection of lessons, activities, calendars of historic science events, vocabulary word lists, and reproducible worksheets will help you develop seasonal science-theme units for your classrooms. The more than 80 activities are designed for flexibility and can be used in any sequence, any time during the school year. The activities are interdisciplinary, cover all areas of the science curriculum, complement other science programs and textbooks, and are easy to implement without special equipment or materials.

Science Month by Month includes

• A blank monthly calendar that can be enlarged and posted on the bulletin board, used for teacher's lesson planning, or handed out for students to fill in.
• A list of dates to remember and background information for the activities. This list of calendar events highlights science-related historic events or landmarks and also includes basic background information for the activities.
• Reproducible activity sheets that are correlated to many of the calendar dates.
• Five weekly calendar sheets that are found at the end of each section. They can be reproduced and handed out to students, or teachers can use them to write lesson plan notes.
• Six appendixes covering information for ordering supplementary videos, DVDs, and software; a science almanac trivia game; and reproducible charts and forms for tracking student progress, preparing science mini-reports, and awarding students with science certificates.

Filled with more than 200 illustrations and references to fun, new Web sites, Science Month by Month is a one-stop science resource for activities to do in school, after school, and in home schooling.

If you want your students to think scientifically and have fun while they are doing it, Science Month by Month is the book for you. This collection of lessons, activities, calendars of historic science events, vocabulary word lists, and reproducible worksheets will help you develop seasonal science-theme units for your classrooms. The more than 80 activities are designed for flexibility and can be used in any sequence, any time during the school year. The activities are interdisciplinary, cover all areas of the science curriculum, complement other science programs and textbooks, and are easy to implement without special equipment or materials.

Science Month by Month includes

• A blank monthly calendar that can be enlarged and posted on the bulletin board, used for teacher's lesson planning, or handed out for students to fill in.
• A list of dates to remember and background information for the activities. This list of calendar events highlights science-related historic events or landmarks and also includes basic background information for the activities.
• Reproducible activity sheets that are correlated to many of the calendar dates.
• Five weekly calendar sheets that are found at the end of each section. They can be reproduced and handed out to students, or teachers can use them to write lesson plan notes.
• Six appendixes covering information for ordering supplementary videos, DVDs, and software; a science almanac trivia game; and reproducible charts and forms for tracking student progress, preparing science mini-reports, and awarding students with science certificates.

Filled with more than 200 illustrations and references to fun, new Web sites, Science Month by Month is a one-stop science resource for activities to do in school, after school, and in home schooling.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Science Month by Month, Grades 3 - 8

Practical Ideas and Activities for Teachers and HomeschoolersBy Julia Farish Spencer

Jossey-Bass

Copyright © 2006 Julia Farish Spencer
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-471-72901-3

Chapter One

September

September starts off with an annotated list of several important dates followed by activity sheets for many of the entries. You may want to recognize a particular event that occurred without doing an investigation or activity sheet. You may also want your students to read about an event and report to the class what they found out through their own research.

The information that follows is a brief overview to help you and your students with background information. You will want to consult other resources, including your science texts, for more specific information.

Some September Dates to Remember and Background Information for the Activities

Activity sheets are provided for starred dates only. It is your decision whether to give the students facts on each entry. And for the trivia game referred to, go to Appendix 5.

3* Viking 2 landed on Mars (1976). Viking 2 found proof of a past watery environment on Mars. Introduce your students to the fascinating facts about this planet-its canyons, channels, lava plains, and different seasons. See Activity Sheet 1.1.

A day on Mars is 24.5 hours in Earth time; a year is 687 days. Called the "red planet," Mars rotates on an axis similar to Earth's. Through space exploration, like the Mars Global Surveyor, Pathfinder, and Mars Odyssey, we have learned much about this neighboring planet. This is a great time to encourage your students to think scientifically. Have them read and find out about Mars and imagine what the planet is like, especially its seasons. Activity Sheet 1.1 encourages students to think about Earth and its seasons, as well as what seasons might be like on another planet.

4 Power Day in New York. On this day in 1882, Thomas Edison and his electric power company officially opened its first electric power station on Pearl Street in Manhattan, making New York the first city to have citywide electricity.

9* California Admission Day. The state of California was admitted to the Union on this date in 1850. This is an opportunity to recognize California as one of our largest states, in both area and population. California leads the United States in agricultural production, growing many important food products such as the avocado.

Avocados were first planted in California in the mid-1800s. They are an important crop and are very nutritious. Activity Sheet 1.2 will help students learn firsthand about growing plants from seeds, transplanting plants, and recording their observations systematically. Have students learn about California's geography and products by visiting the home page Web site: www.ca.gov/state/portal/myca_home page.jsp. (This is the first of several states students will encounter in this book.)

9 Birthday of Luigi Galvani (1737). Galvani was an Italian physicist and physician. He realized that animal muscle tissue had electricity as he observed and experimented with frogs' legs. His research influenced his contemporaries, such as Alessandro Volta, who created the first battery (the "voltaic pile"). The galvanometer, an instrument used to detect or measure a small electric current, was named in honor of Galvani. Volta proved that Galvani's theory was incorrect. He showed the frog's tissue was carrying an electric current between two metals.

10* Elias Howe received a patent for the sewing machine (1846). Where would we be without this important invention? This is a perfect time to introduce your students to the importance of science in the development of machines and other inventions.

Each year, thousands of people apply for and receive patents for their inventions. Introduce the students to the World Almanac, which lists the patents awarded each year.

Help students understand that a patent is an award-a grant and license given to someone for the exclusive use, sale, and distribution of his or her claimed invention. It is a legal protection. More than ninety thousand patents are distributed each year. Visit the U.S. Patent Web site at www.uspto.gov for information on patents. Let your students create an invention and describe it on Activity Sheet 1.3.

11 First operation of hydroelectric generator at Hoover Dam. In 1936, Hoover Dam sent power over 300 miles from the Colorado River in Nevada to Los Angeles, California. The dam stands 726 feet high and is 1,233 feet long. Encourage your students to find a picture of Hoover Dam in library books.

13* Birthday of Walter Reed (1851). This American pathologist is best remembered for his work in Cuba, where he helped identify the cause of yellow fever. Reed and his associates found that a mosquito was the carrier of this deadly disease, which infected many people.

This is an opportunity to find out about the anatomy of a mosquito and how it actually "bites" a person or an animal. Being aware of the feeding patterns of mosquitoes and ways to prevent getting bitten by them (they seldom feed in the middle of the day) is education for all. (See Activity Sheet 1.4.) Also, discuss any current events regarding mosquitoes and their nature, available through your newspapers, if appropriate, or Web sites. Updates on the West Nile virus can be found on the California state Web site: www.ca.gov/state/portal/myca_homepage.jsp.

13* World's highest recorded temperature (Africa, 1922). This is a good time to talk about seasonal differences around the world and temperature ranges (recording high and low temperatures). You may want to record your area's temperatures for a week and compare them to a previous year's statistics for the same dates.

Activity Sheet 1.5 helps students compute a mathematical average. It also helps them record important weather statistics. (September's trivia game in Appendix 5 reveals the recorded high temperature.)

14 Birthday of Ivan Pavlov (1849). This famous Russian received a Nobel Prize for his study of the physiology of animals and the structure of the brain and its relationship to nerves and muscles. (See the December entry and teacher information on the Nobel Prize.) He trained a dog to salivate on command, using a bell to teach the dog to associate food with a sound. Pavlov left a valuable legacy for science research. Many future scientists built on his findings in animal behavior and learning.

15* Birthday of Frank Eugene Lutz (1879). This famous American entomologist, educator, and museum curator was the first curator of the Department of Entomology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He established America's first guided nature trail in Harriman State Park, New York. As a young man, he was fascinated with insects and the process of metamorphosis, and he created insect dioramas.

In honor of Lutz, have students complete the chart on insect communication in Activity Sheet 1.6.

You may want them to work in small groups on completing the chart, and they could make a poster on insect communication and hang the posters in the classroom. You may also want to temporarily bring some insects into the classroom using bug cages, but only if the students have researched and safely caught the insect and plan to return it to its natural environment. Of course, for safety reasons, preapprove which insects may be observed, such as a cricket.

A visit to your local museum where insects are displayed may be an added benefit. Students can research insects online or in the library. The list of science books and literature in Appendix 2 can be used as a reference, but students should be encouraged to find their own more extensive and age-appropriate references by utilizing multiple resources.

Finally, talk to the students about seasonal autumn changes for insects, such as the migration of monarch butterflies and crickets laying their eggs. Since this is September, many insects are preparing for winter in certain climates, and for some, the last rite is the laying of eggs, which will usually hatch the following spring or summer.

18* Birthday of Jean Foucalt, French physicist (1819). Foucalt invented a method for measuring the speed of light. The experiment he devised was performed entirely within the laboratory. Foucalt found that the path of a light beam may be bent when it encounters an obstacle.

Activity Sheet 1.7 gives your students a chance to investigate what happens to light as it passes through water.

19* Birthday of George Cadbury, English manufacturer (1839). Cadbury chocolates are famous and enjoyed worldwide for their excellent quality and delicious taste. Chocolate has its own tale to tell. The production begins with the cacao tree, grown in regions near the equator, such as Africa, Indonesia, and South America.

The tree produces a fruit the size of a pineapple, ripe with cocoa beans. The beans are fermented, dried, and roasted. Then the nib or meat of the bean is extracted in a process called winnowing.

Have students visit the Cadbury Web site at www.cadbury.co.uk. They can learn about the history of chocolate and how it is made, and how the cacao tree is harvested. For nutritional purposes, they can read the list of ingredients on chocolate bars or on Cadbury chocolate eggs.

Cadbury's food processing techniques were scientific and as one of the first food processors to use scientific food processing techniques, this helped create a standard for federal legislation for good safety and guidelines for food manufacturing.

Have students research and find other food manufacturing sites for chocolate, such as www.hersheys.com. Here they can go on a virtual tour of the production of chocolate, from the trees used in production, to the dairy farms, to the final products. There is also a teacher site at www.hersheys.com to support this classroom lesson.

Students can complete Activity Sheet 1.8.

22* Birthday of Michael Faraday, English chemist (1791). Faraday contributed much to our knowledge of magnetism and electricity. He found that an electric current could be induced in a coil of wire when a permanent magnet is moved in and out of a wire coil. His work with electromagnets led to his law of electromagnetic induction.

Help your students discover these facts about magnets: magnets exist in natural and manufactured forms; lodestone, a natural magnet, is a rock containing iron; and manufactured magnets attract iron and other metals and are frequently made of steel or iron.

Magnets have two ends called poles. Opposite poles attract; similar poles repel. The magnet operates in a field of energy called a magnetic field. Lines of force are observable between the ends of the magnets, where the greatest strength is found. Larger, more powerful magnets have broader and wider lines of force. (See Activity Sheet 1.9.)

20-23 First day of fall, the autumnal equinox. On the day of the equinox, which takes place between September 20 and 23, depending on the year, the sun crosses the celestial equator, and day and night are everywhere of equal length. After the autumnal equinox, Earth's tilt on its axis means that more of the sun's rays are directed at the Southern Hemisphere, so the hours of daylight decrease and hours of darkness increase in the Northern Hemisphere, and there is warm weather in the Southern Hemisphere and cool weather in the Northern Hemisphere.

Have your students draw pictures of the sun and Earth during the four seasons. Shade half of Earth in darkness. Have the students label the North and South Poles and the equator, as shown in the illustration.

24* Birthday of Howard Florey, Australian-English pathologist (1898). Penicillin was discovered in 1928 by Sir Alexander Fleming. Following his discovery, two other scientists, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, isolated the drug and purified it for clinical use. All three men were awarded the coveted Nobel Prize. (See "Some December Dates to Remember" in Chapter Four.)

These advances in medicine have helped cut death rates from some infectious diseases. Penicillin is an antibiotic that works to destroy harmful bacteria.

Fleming discovered penicillin in common mold. He found that certain conditions encourage the growth of mold and certain conditions retard its growth. Help your students discover some of these conditions by doing the investigation provided in Activity 1.10.

You may also want to invite a pharmacist, physician, or school nurse to talk to the students about penicillin as a helpful drug. Also discuss the precautions in taking it and in storing it.

26 Birthday of Archibald Hill, English physiologist (1886). This is an opportunity to recognize the contributions of another Nobel Prize winner. Hill, who won the prize in 1922, was a biophysicist and physiologist who experimented with frogs and their nerve and muscle tissues. He discovered the importance of oxygen as a gas to the functions of the body, including its role in the relaxation and recovery phases of muscular contractions. Like Galvani and Pavlov, Hill's extensive experimentation contributed to our understanding of physiology.

Although no activity is provided in conjunction with Hill, you may want to observe and talk about tadpoles and frogs and their physiology. There are computer-generated frog dissection programs available for purchase through science materials catalogues such as the biological supply company listed in Appendix 2.

30* Birthday of Hans Geiger, German physicist (1882). Geiger is known for his study of the atom and the invention of the Geiger counter, an instrument used to measure particles of radiation. Geiger found and identified the alpha particle as the nucleus of the helium atom. Like Edison and Faraday, his research was based on an understanding of the principles of magnetism, electricity, and the nature of the atom.

Here is an illustration of an atom. In the center is the nucleus, containing protons and neutrons. Orbiting around it are electrons.

Protons and neutrons do not leave the atom, but electrons can. They can "hop" or move to another atom.

Geiger studied the composition of atoms, particularly helium atoms. You may want to have your students read about atoms, electricity, or helium. You may also want to introduce them to the Periodic Table.

Electricity, the study of the movement of electrons of atoms in different patterns, is investigated in the recommended activity for this date. If electrons move in the same direction or pattern, we call this DC, or direct current. If they move in different directions, we call that AC, or alternating current.

Batteries use conductors to carry the electrons. Batteries are used to start electric currents. They make electrons flow in a certain path or direct current. Sometimes copper is used as a conductor, as it was in the first battery, created by Volta. (See the September 9 entry for Luigi Galvani.)

Batteries are measured in volts. In the investigation using Activity Sheet 1.11, have your students observe the path or circuit of electrons by using a battery to illuminate a lightbulb.

Activity Sheet 1.1.

What Would the Fall Season Be Like on Mars?

On Earth, the fall season is different from the summer, spring, and winter seasons. There are changes in weather, the temperature, the growth of plants, the habits of animals, and the color of leaves in some trees. Think of all the changes that occur in the fall on Earth.

Now read about Mars and its seasons. Does the temperature change on that planet? Do the volcanoes, ice caps, and atmosphere change? Where is the planet in relation to the sun?

Use your imagination and some information you learn from your investigation to describe fall on Mars. Use the report form here to write your story. Be sure to include any interesting facts you learn about Mars. Remember there are science facts and there is science fiction, which is the art of embellishing the facts for the story. Then draw some pictures of Mars and share the story and sketches with your teacher and friends.

Visit these Web sites to tour Mars: www.mars.jpl.asa.gov/mgs and www.nineplanets.org/mars.html.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Science Month by Month, Grades 3 - 8by Julia Farish Spencer Copyright © 2006 by Julia Farish Spencer. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471729019
• ISBN 13: 9780471729013
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 364