|
|
Hello Meredith,
That is awesome you work with K-4th grade ESL students!
My name is Gabriella Bulahan. I am a graduate student with Tennessee Tech University in Tennessee working on my Masters in Curriculum and Instruction with my major in Elementary Education. I am not currently teaching, but I just did a discrepant event activity assignment for my online Science course that I think would be cool for your 3rd grade students to try at home. Most of the materials you can find around the house (or improvise with some as I did, but I had to buy the window screen material and a quick tip: I purchased mine from a local hardward store, but learned a little late that it was not the best screen to be using for the activity and would try a mesh produce bag instead, but the screen material did okay for the activity.)
Now for this activity, we learned about discrepant events being things that puzzle our minds and we want to figure out why they are doing what they are doing (studying the phenomena). For this activity, it can be done at home and it focused on the 3rd grade TN state standard: 3.PS1.: Matter and Its Interactions: 1) Describe the properties of solids, liquids, and gases and identify that matter is made up of particles too small to be seen. You could talk about the phases of matter we see, how small water molecules are in their liquid matter form, and do the 'magic trick' of suspending the water in the jar to watch the students reactions and ask them questions as to why do they think the water did not leave the jar when turned upside down. I am not sure if you are from Tennessee, but I think you can find a similar standard to fit this activity. Here is the link: https://my.nsta.org/resource/7295/tried-and-true-water-screen-a-discrepant-event and its an NSTA resource, which was awesome to find out when I did my research for the assignment. I hope this activity can helpful! It was fun to do and work on!
|