This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
Do you remember the first time a teacher brought a subject "alive" for you? I strive everyday to help my students make concrete connections to the abstract ideas in science. I also try to integrate the arts into my curriculum as much as possible.
I teach fifth grade math and science at a title one school in Arkansas.
My students are extremely economically disadvantaged. They often come to me with very little prior knowledge or hands-on experience in science. Fifth grade is the first year my students are exposed to many scientific concepts and allowed to perform labs as part of their learning experience.
My Project
The materials requested will enable us to perform several activities while exploring the states of matter. During our study of states of matter, we perform a lab where we take a solid (ice), melt it to a liquid (water), and continue heating until it becomes a gas (steam). We also watch this process in reverse by holding a cold beaker over the boiling water to collect the steam, which condenses and becomes water again.
The next lab activity we perform shows how a solid can be melted by applying heat and pressure. The students are given a piece of foil and chocolate. They wrap the chocolate in the foil, place it in their hands, and apply heat and pressure. We discuss how the molecules move differently in each of the states of matter - I even have a dance to demonstrate the movement!
The final activity we perform is to create an art project that illustrates the arrangement and movement of the molecules in each of the states of matter.
This unit is always a student favorite and they talk about it year after year.
By combining visual and tactile learning strategies, I am able to reach the majority of my students and they have fun along the way. Resources in our science department are getting more scarce each year. Please help me ensure that my students get the best learning experience possible.
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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 Ms. Harris and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.