I need an idea or for a hands-on science lesson for elementary or middle school students?

Question

I am current taking a science class for elementary education majors. I am required to teach a lesson to elementary students, I am nervous because this will be the first time I have ever done anything like this. I have come across many different lesson plans over the internet but haven't found the "perfect one" yet. I would love to hear some ideas!
Thank you!

Answer 1

Here is a site that has alot of science experiments that work well with the elementary age group.

http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/

Answer 2

You say that you are "required to teach a lesson" which is different than just being required to design a lesson. Remember that learning doesn't happen in a void. It's very important that you make connections between what you teach in your lesson and what they have already done in class and/or will do in future classes. I'm sure that your education program has repeatedly drilled the importance of starting with the main idea or key concept and working backwards from there, rather than starting with your activity and building from that point. Make connections between your lesson and the curriculum for that grade level. Curricula are different in every state / province, so you'll have to talk to the teacher whose class you'll be working with to find out what the students are / will be working on. Students will get nothing from a random lesson that doesn't seem connected to the other things they've done in class (this can be ESPECIALLY confusing when it's not their regular teacher who is leading the lesson).

Give us more information about what the students are doing in their class and we can help you more. It would be insulting to you and your students to just randomly throw out ideas with no further background information. These aren't the days of one-room schoolhouses anymore!

Answer 3

I bought some little light bulbs, wires and batteries at a hardware store and we made electricity. There is a lesson plan for this. I think I have it at school. At your library, there should be some good teacher resource books for this. So try that. Plus you could maybe find something on line at one of the teacher websites. Just type in science lessons and you will find different teacher sites and click on the subject -science and see a variety. You could always make play doh or something simple, depending on the age.

Answer 4

You can teach how to make bottle rockets with water as the fuel and 100 psi

You can also make mini hover crafts powered by balloons

For chemistry you can change pennies either silver or gold with electric charges and vinegar..also some water

Make mini cars powered by balloons and use soda caps for the wheels

Answer 5

This was a good one:

Convection.

Hot air rises and cold air falls...

Burn incence in a small glass container that closes. Put ice cubes on top and watch! the hot air from the burning incence will rise since it's hot, but when it cools down it will fall. You can see it happening because of the smoky incence. Good luck!

Answer 6

I loved growing plants from bean seeds.No soil just a wet paper towel, cup and lima beans. How about soak an egg in vinegar that was always cool. This time of year teach them why it snows and snowflake shapes.

Answer 7

how about showing air has weight. you use two balloons and a balance beam. Put one on one side and the other one on the other side. Of course one should be bigger than the other.

Another could be showing capillary action by taking celery and putting it in red died water. As the celery takes up the died water you can see the small "veins" of the celery.

Answer 8

What about something 'hands on'? My old science teacher brought in a tank of tadpoles and we learned about amphibians and how they grow etc. And it was also fun to actually see them, and at the end of the class he let us take them home, for pets.

Answer 9

it is good job do you know
you can take calss for student . but be little cool
but cool dont get tensed
if thing that your taking class
know you are a teacher so you should be little bold
think all the student as friend then you will not get nervous

teachers are one step before god

Answer 10

teach them to make ice cream! we did that in middle school and i will never forget it. i actually forgot what the lesson was (maybe to study the solid/liquid properties or some type of reaction) but it was fun! also we did the wintergreen lifesavers spark in the dark test (to study chemical reaction).