Keystone Science Network teachers share their experiences
working with inquiry science kits in their classrooms.
Air and Weather (FOSS)
as experienced by
Becki Fry
Becki says that some of her students'
favorite Air and Weather activities are those that use
syringes to help them explore air as a gas mixture, finding
out that it is matter, that it occupies space, and can be
used to move things around.
Read more!
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Experiments with Plants (STC)
as experienced by
Gloria McPherson
Gloria says that both she and her students
liked working with the fast plants, and they especially
enjoyed them because they "could actually see the growth
cycle in a reasonable short period of time."
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Food Chemistry (STC)
as experienced by
Carolee Waite
The kit helped her facilitate the science
behind the activities because, as she says, "The kit allowed
the children to predict, test, and conclude on their own."
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Food and Nutrition (FOSS)
as experienced by
Gloria McPherson
To extend the kit's theme, Gloria uses parts
of a food and nutrition curriculum…[with] fun
activities such as baking chocolate cupcakes using the
package recipe and two different substitutes for the fat, to
compare taste and nutritional value.
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Landforms
(FOSS)
as experienced by
Maureen Benner
She was particularly pleased when they were
able to relate their stream table activities to the
formation of the Grand Canyon.
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Levers and Pulleys (FOSS)
as experienced by
Laura Schmalhofer
"I think this helped definitely show
levers, the classes [of levers], what they are used for, and
pulleys and how they can all make work easier for us."
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Magnetism and Electricity (FOSS)
as experienced by
Paul Wade
"They love the hands-on aspect. I usually
use two kits so the students do the activities in pairs
instead of the groups of four that the kit supports."
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Microworlds (STC)
as experienced by
Maureen Benner
She cautions that the "hay infusion [in
which students grow cultures] is smelly but very
interesting."
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Mixtures and Solutions (FOSS)
as experienced by
Maureen Benner
"Since they were able to experience a
chemical reaction, they really understood the concept."
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Motion and Design (STC)
as experienced by
Kathy Massey
"Just doing the activities let them learn
basic physics concepts without realizing it."
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New Plants (FOSS)
as experienced by
Becki Fry
"It's amazing to see that the first place
they go every morning is to check their seeds and plant
growth."
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Plant Growth and Development (STC)
as experienced by
Joy Slavin
The water and dirt is a little messy, but
there are only a few lessons in which there are many
materials to distribute. Joy shares that Lesson 3—which
is the seed-planting lesson—should be done in two days.
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Varibables (FOSS)
as experienced by
Eloise Laskowski
Although this presented some problems for
analysis, it did open up some further discussions of
variables. Why did the baseline data change? Were there
unexpected variables causing the results to alter over time?
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Weather (STC)
as experienced by
Susan Maxwell
"The only difficulty I encountered was when
we were supposed to go outside and observe clouds and we
were in the middle of the drought and there were no clouds
to be found!"
Read more!
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