1.)Steps of the scientific method will be introduced and explained by the teacher. Students will be given a handout of the steps of the scientific method for future reference. (see attached)
2.)Students will be shown the materials that will be used in this lesson. They will use a DANA or AlphaSmart to construct questions about the materials. Ask students, "How do we create questions that scientists can answer?" Lead students in creating investigable questions --"measuring," "comparison," and "what happens if" questions are found, generally, to be investigable, while "how" and "why" questions are not investigable. Beam or download the questions, project them on a Smartboard or other projection device and evaluate them as a class to determine which ones meet the stated criteria.
3.)Students will gather the needed materials to perform the lab activity.
4.)Students will form a hypothesis to answer the questions formulated in step #2.
5.)Students, starting with the penny, will use the pipettes to drop water one drop at a time onto the head of the coin. Drops will be counted until the water overflows the coin. This information will be recorded in AlphaSmart or DANA. (The tab key can be used to create columns or cells.)
6.)Students will repeat the activity (Step #5) with the nickle, dime, and quarter. The data will be recorded for each of the coins.
7.)Students will download the data and use spreadsheet software to construct a simple bar graph to show their results.
8.)Students will evaluate their data and use the DANA or AlphaSmart to write a conclusion referring to the original question and their hypothesis. (Students may also use the attached Lab Sheet.)
9.)Students will conclude this lesson by writing a paragraph to explain why each step of the scientific method must be followed and kept in the correct order.
10.)As a follow-up activity, students will complete a vocabulary worksheet on the scientific method (see attached).
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