Doing What Scientists Do: This Is What Science Looks Like!
Help me give my students science laboratory kits to model seafloor spreading, map the unknown sea floor, investigate sedimentary strata, and experiment with plate tectonics and island formation.
My amazing sixth-grade students are smart, creative, spontaneous, and full of a love of learning! They come to school each day with lots of questions about the world around them. Whether working on math problems or conducting science experiments, my students love to learn by doing.
Our school serves many military families from the nearby Air Force base, a Navy EOD school, and an Army Special Forces cantonment.
We are in a unique area to have military families from so many different branches of service. Because of the challenges of military life, my students are resilient and hard-working.
My Project
The best way to learn is to learn by doing! I want my students to see and do what real scientists do. The IF/THEN Collection will provide "guest speakers" that will help my students see themselves in various STEM careers.
In this project, my students will see what science looks like by hearing from an IF/THEN Collection scientist, and the do what the scientists do through a variety of hands-on lab experiences related to the featured scientist's field to enhance our Earth Science class.
First, through the IF/THEN Collection, my students will hear from oceanographer and deep-sea explorer Katy Croff Bell to learn how she studies the ocean floor. Then, using the Seafloor Spreading kit, my students will complete a series of investigations to discover how the age of crustal rocks provides evidence of seafloor spreading, use magnetic data to model seafloor spreading and explore the density of oceanic and continental crust. Next, they will hear from ocean scientist Allison Fundis about her work at the bottom of the ocean. My students will follow up using the Mapping the Unknown Sea Floor lab activity kit to model mapping the seafloor to create a three-dimensional map. Additionally, archeologist Becca Peixotto will show my students how she studies fossils. Then, my students will use simulated drill cores from the Correlating Sedimentary Strata kit to determine the relative ages of rock layers and construct a timeline showing the relative time spans of each fossil found in the strata. Finally, geologist Kyla Edison will explain how scientists study volcanoes. My students will then explore plate tectonics and island formation using the hands-on labs.
These materials will let my students SEE what science looks like, and then DO what scientists do!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Russ and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
