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This Minute takes your students deep below the ocean's surface to meet some fascinating creatures - they will love the trip. |
English/Language Arts
Explore questions as lead sentences
Another Minute that starts with a question for a lead - add this to the list! Then ask your students why the sentence Author Jenkins starts with works so well. Take a look at some of the other Minutes that have started with questions (just do a quick search to find them). Do you notice how many of them are science-focused Minutes? Ask your students why questions and science go together like…[make them come up with the simile - ELA extension].
STEM
Explore light energy
What exactly is light? For answers to lots of your questions, try out this article at Explain That Stuff! Once your students have a basic understanding, head over to the Exploratorium to check out experiments to try out in your quest to better understand the properties of light. Experiment with refraction and reflection, and ask kids to design an experiment to test how light and color behave in water.
Explore biome adaptations
The fish introduced by Author Jenkins live in pretty extreme conditions, and he explains several adaptations that allow life to survive deep below the ocean’s surface. Ask kids to create a list of characteristics that exist in this habitat and then think of other animal and plant adaptations they might see. Finally, send them looking for the facts - are their predictions correct? If they cannot find confirmation, is there more research to be done? How do researchers explore such environments so hostile to human beings?
Research Skills
Explore the Internet - learning to evaluate websites
Website evaluation is a skill that must be developed over time and with much practice. While many use checklists and acronyms (like CRAAP - Currency, Reliability/readability, Accuracy, Authority, and Purpose), there is no substitute for critical thinking. Differentiating between fake sites and true sites is only the beginning. The real skill lies in differentiating between good sites and good-for-me sites - a more nuanced but practical skill set. Take a look at How-to Geek’s list of “The Best Websites for Expanding Your Scientific Knowledge” or Kidsites list of science sites, or any other curated list of science sites. Ask students to try searching for specific scientific concepts, and use what they know to identify which sites work the best for them and why. For a more advanced critique, check out this article and infographic from the American Council on Science and Health reviewing the best - and worst - science sites (with justifications for their opinions, of course).
Explore questions as lead sentences
Another Minute that starts with a question for a lead - add this to the list! Then ask your students why the sentence Author Jenkins starts with works so well. Take a look at some of the other Minutes that have started with questions (just do a quick search to find them). Do you notice how many of them are science-focused Minutes? Ask your students why questions and science go together like…[make them come up with the simile - ELA extension].
STEM
Explore light energy
What exactly is light? For answers to lots of your questions, try out this article at Explain That Stuff! Once your students have a basic understanding, head over to the Exploratorium to check out experiments to try out in your quest to better understand the properties of light. Experiment with refraction and reflection, and ask kids to design an experiment to test how light and color behave in water.
Explore biome adaptations
The fish introduced by Author Jenkins live in pretty extreme conditions, and he explains several adaptations that allow life to survive deep below the ocean’s surface. Ask kids to create a list of characteristics that exist in this habitat and then think of other animal and plant adaptations they might see. Finally, send them looking for the facts - are their predictions correct? If they cannot find confirmation, is there more research to be done? How do researchers explore such environments so hostile to human beings?
Research Skills
Explore the Internet - learning to evaluate websites
Website evaluation is a skill that must be developed over time and with much practice. While many use checklists and acronyms (like CRAAP - Currency, Reliability/readability, Accuracy, Authority, and Purpose), there is no substitute for critical thinking. Differentiating between fake sites and true sites is only the beginning. The real skill lies in differentiating between good sites and good-for-me sites - a more nuanced but practical skill set. Take a look at How-to Geek’s list of “The Best Websites for Expanding Your Scientific Knowledge” or Kidsites list of science sites, or any other curated list of science sites. Ask students to try searching for specific scientific concepts, and use what they know to identify which sites work the best for them and why. For a more advanced critique, check out this article and infographic from the American Council on Science and Health reviewing the best - and worst - science sites (with justifications for their opinions, of course).
© Karen Sterling, 2018 - May be used for educational purposes without written permission
