Class Work
Grade 6 Science – Space Teaching Toolbox
May 24th
Today, we will be starting a new unit on Space. This current unit does not have specific information that needs to be covered – so I’m planning something a little different for you. Instead of me planning the lessons and content – it’s going to be the class. I call this activity the Teaching Toolbox. This activity is not new to me – but will need some explanation as you would never have completed it before. Thankfully for you – there is no assessment linked to it compared to previous years.
The basic setup is noted below:
- Students work in a Group of 1-3 students
- Each group chooses a topic in Space this is of interest to them which they want to share with the class.
- Your group will research this topic, then teach it to the class through a presentation and small activity. Your group will have 20 minutes to present.
- Some ideas for topics include: Black Holes, Comets, Hubble Telescope, Searching for Intelligent Life, Problems with Deep Space Travel & Humans, Strength of the Sun on Earth during different seasons, Supernovas, Composition of the Different Planets in Our Solar System (what they are made out of), Formation of the Solar System (how the Solar System was made), Supernova’s and others.
Each group will need to do the following:
- Make a presentation (PPT, Keynote, Google Presentations, Prezi) that includes the following:
- What is your topic? Explain briefly what your topic is about
- Why did you choose this topic? Explain briefly why you chose this topic
- Detailed explanation on what your topic does, what it is about etc
- Who first invented or looked into your topic? Give some general information
- Why is this topic for humans to study or know about? Give some information and state your opinion
- How can this topic help humanity? Or is it a topic that helps extend human knowledge only? Explain
- Include a small activity that helps students understand one or two ideas you want them to remember after you have completed your presentation.
- An example of my Presentation is HERE
Have fun – and thank you for teaching the class. Now I can sit back with my Coke Zero and do as little work as possible….
Grade 6 Science – Our Next Few Lessons
May 8th
In the next few lessons – we will complete the following 3 activities:
- Complete your experiment
- Make a Blog Post About Ueno Zoo
- Complete Study Guide for Upcoming Test
Instructions for Blog Post
- Describe what you did at Ueno Zoo. Have a heading of “What We Did”.
- Describe the general living environment of the different animals you visited. Was the enclosure large/small, did it look natural or man made, were the a lot of animals or few animals in the enclosure. Include pictures if you have some
- Did the animals look happy? Explain and include pictures if you have them
- Why do you think we have zoos? Explain why
- If you were an animal at the zoo, do you think you would be happy living there?
- What do you think the zoo could do to improve the lives of the animals at the zoo?
- Should we have zoos, or should we visit zoos? What do you think and explain why.
- Any other comments that you think would be interesting to the readers.
Study Guide Questions
Answer the following questions
- Describe what a habitat is, giving one example
- What is an ecosystem? Give an example
- Describe the seven main living processes (MRSGREN) Movement, Respiration, Sensitivity, Growth, Reproduction, Excretion, Nutrition.
- Be able to describe different physical features of an animal which helps it live in it’s environment
- Be able to describe different behavioral features of an animal which helps it live in it’s environment
- What is the difference between a food web and a food chain? Give examples.
- Be able to draw a simple food web or food chain for different living organisms
- Describe and identify living organisms which are producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, top predator or carnivore, herbivores and omnivores
- What is a diagnostic key? How can we use a diagnostic key to classify different things?
- How do animals produce their first cell? Give basic information.
- What is the difference between asexual and sexual reproduction in animals? How are they different?
- Explain how most cells reproduce and give examples in both plants and animals
Supporting PPTs are HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE HERE and HERE
Your Experiment
Your experiment instructions can be found HERE. The Write Up Sheet can be downloaded HERE
Grade 6 Ueno Zoo Brochure & Blog Post
Apr 24th
Over the next few weeks, we will be completing a brochure from our trip to the Zoo along with a corresponding blog post. Instructions are below and criteria are HERE
Brochure Instructions
Page 1
- Name Your Animal
- Include a picture of your animal
- Name the origin of your animal
- State “Current Residence is Ueno Zoo”
- State “Brochure Made By Your Name”
- Answer Question “What has been done at the zoo to re-create the animals natural environment?”
- Answer Question “How could the zoo improve the man-made environment to meet the animals needs? Was this done well/not well?
- State basic information about animal. This might include it’s size, the conditions the animal likes to live in, basic food chain, what plants and animals normally live near the animal etc
- Include a glossary with key words and their meaning for your animal
- Complete a Venn Diagram that compares the man-made environment, natural environment and similarities
- Analyse how well you think the zoo has met the needs of the animal
- Describe how the animal is fed in the zoo/natural environment
- What Science has been used to meet the animals needs?
- Where does the animal sleep at the zoo and in it’s natural environment
- Complete a bibliography using MLA format
- Describe what you did at Ueno Zoo. Have a heading of “What We Did”.
- Describe the general living environment of the different animals you visited. Was the enclosure large/small, did it look natural or man made, were the a lot of animals or few animals in the enclosure. Include pictures if you have some
- Did the animals look happy? Explain and include pictures if you have them
- Why do you think we have zoos? Explain why
- If you were an animal at the zoo, do you think you would be happy living there?
- What do you think the zoo could do to improve the lives of the animals at the zoo?
- Should we have zoos, or should we visit zoos? What do you think and explain why.
- Any other comments that you think would be interesting to the readers.
6B Science – Student Lead Conferences & Design Task
Feb 7th
Hi All,
Today, we will be completing a few things which are reasonably important. They are below”
(1) Complete the Student-Lead Conference Blog Post. Instructions are HERE
(2) Write-up your experiment to risk assessment.
(3) Complete the “Our Forces Design Task: From Planning To Starting Our Experiment” Blog Post. This will be quite a bit of work and I expect this blog post to be completed to an excellent standard. Below are step by step instructions…..
- Start a new blog post. Name the blog post “Our Forces Design Task: From Planning To Starting Our Experiment”
- Create a sub-heading called”Meet Our Team”. In this section, introduce the different members of your team and tell us a little about them including something a little quirky but not mean. This section has to have a picture of your group together uploaded in the blog post!!
- Create a sub-heading called “Choosing Our Experiment”. In this section, tell us how you decided which experiment to complete. Explain the basic idea for the experiment in 1 to 2 sentences. Don’t forget to tell us which experiment you chose along with telling us some that did not make the cut (ones you did not choose). Feel free to make it into a short story as I want this blog post to be interesting. Just don’t say that you are doing your experiment because I told you too!!!
- Create a sub-heading called “Making Our Prediction & Research Question”. Tell us what your research question is and what your prediction/hypothesis is.
- Create a sub-heading “Variables & Equipment”. Tell us your variables and include pictures for the three different variables. These pictures can be made using Doozla. Don’t forget to explain why you chose these variables. Also list the equipment that you will need to complete the experiment.
- Create a sub-heading “Our Method”. Explain how you will complete your experiment step by step. Including pictures will help.
- Create a sub-heading “Risk Assessment”. Tell us what risks there are and what you are doing to reduce or get rid of the risk….
We will be completing 2 large blog posts such as this. There are 2 options for how you are marked. You can be marked via your blog post or via the sheet I have given you….
6B Science – Licorice All Sorts Lesson
Dec 7th
Today – we are going to do lots of small activities to complete out work. What I want you to do is below in order of importance.
(1) Choose your groups activity and write down an equipment list on the write-up sheet. Information is HERE
(2) Complete your blog post. Information is HERE
(3) Complete the Graphing Activity. Information is HERE
6B – Practice Science Fair
Dec 6th
Below is a list of groups students will be working with over the next 2 weeks:
Group 1: Mathys, Charlie, Sara.
Group 2: Mark, Amane, Sayaka.
Group 3: Garrick, Emma.
Group 4: Jean-Baptiste, Freddie,
Group 5: Arief, Kanna, Lisa.
Group 6: Sho, Megiumi.
Today’s Lesson
1. Brain storm what you would like to experiment. It should be
- Easily testable
- Easy to collect data (time, mass, distance etc)
- Equipment should be easy to get
- The experiment should be reasonably quick to complete – so no growing stuff!!
(10 minutes)
2. Choose an experiment from the brain storm that you would like to complete. Everyone has to agree on one experiment.
(10 minutes)
3. Write down the equipment that you will need to complete the experiment. Do we have everything you need – or can we easily get it?
Lesson 2
1. As a group – write down the experiment question, prediction, variables, equipment and method into the booklets provided. The only that which MUST be different is your PREDICTION/HYPOTHESIS
2. Make sure that everyone in your group has finished this by the end of the lesson.
3. Early finishers can finish your blog post
6B Science – Flowers & Cells Study Guide
Nov 22nd
On Thursday 29th of November, we will be completing our Cells & Plants test. As such, it’s now time to revise for the test. Some study guide questions are below:
Our Study Guide Questions are below:
1) Name the different ways that we use to classify if something is alive?
2) What is the difference between an autotroph and a heterotroph? Give an example of each
3) What 2 gases do living things need to stay alive?
4) Explain how living things (plants and animals) can get rid of waste
5) Give an example of how an animal and plant may respond to stimuli
6) What is the simple names for the two different types of living things?
7) How are the two different types of cells for these living things different?
8) What are the two scientific names of the two main types of cells found on earth?
9) Which of these cells completes a specialized job, and which cell does everything itself? Give an example for each.
10) What are the 4 main magnifications found on the microscopes we used in class
11) Explain how you can prepare a microscope slide so you can look at it under a microscope
12) What are the two main types of plants? Explain how they are different?
13) What is the difference between flowers and cones in plant reproduction? Give examples
14) Name the main parts of the flower, including to give simple names if they are also called something else
15) Explain how both different types of plants can pollinate and form seeds.
16) How are seeds dispersed? Give an example for the 3 main ways seeds can be dispersed.
17) Name some of the main parts of the microscope
Here are some of the PPT’s for revision.
6B Science – Your First Science Blog Post
Oct 12th
For today, we are going to complete our first Grade 6 Science Blog Post. Here is what you need to do:
1) Log into YIS Blogs and Create A New Post
2) Type into the Heading “Science: A Little Bit About Matter”
3) Part 1: What I Have Learnt: In this section – describe what you have learnt about change of states and particle model.
4) Part 2: My Challenges: In this section – describe what you have found difficult or challenging to learn in this activity. This may be a skill or some information.
5) Part 3: Our Activities: In this section – describe what we have done to learn about changes in states and different types of matter. This might include activities, demonstrations, experiments etc.
6) Part 4: Review of Unit – In this section tell us what you thought about the unit. Did you enjoy it – what would you change – what would you like to be included if you were doing it again in the future.
Have fun and welcome to the Blogosphere!!!
6B Science Study Guide
Oct 4th
Dear Students,
Today we will complete 2 activities. They are:
(1) Complete your slime experiment and fill in the results.
(2) Complete your study guide:
Below are some questions called Study Guide, You will need to know these questions for your test next week.
- Draw how the particles look when they are a solid. Give one example of a solid.
- Draw how the particles look when they are a liquid. Give one example.
- Draw how the particles look when they are a gas. Give one example
- Explain melting, giving an example of where it occurs
- Explain boiling, giving one example of where it occurs
- Explain evaporation, giving one example of where it occurs
- Explain condensation, giving one example of where it occurs
- Explain freezing, giving one example of where it occurs
- Explain melting point and boiling point, along with giving at least one example of a temperature for both
- Explain the particle theory
- What happens to a particle if it is heated? Explain
- What happens to a particle if it is cooled? Explain
- Explain sublimation, along with giving one example of where it occurs in real life
- When you heat iced water to steam, when will the liquid be heating the quickest and slowest and why? Relate this back to a graph
- What happens to gas when it is heated?
- What happens to gas when it is cooled?
- Explain how objects can expand, giving one example
- Explain how objects can contract, giving one example
Information can be found HERE
6B Heating Water Lab
Sep 6th
Dear Students,
We started our first assessment task today in Science. It is due on Thursday 13th of September. The Instructions and criteria can be found HERE
If you have any questions on what to do – ask or email me before Wednesday next week!!
