On Monday, March 24th, a scientist from Scientists in School presented their “On the Move” workshop to our JK1 class. Students started by exploring a box of objects to learn how things “move”. They discovered that things can be pulled or pushed by a force in order to move. They had a chance to push objects such as cars, pizza cutters and rolling pins. They also pulled objects like socks over their hands!
Next, students looked at a picture of a see -saw. They learned that this simple machine uses a lever to move things up and down. They even made their own see-saw using two plastic cups attached to a stick with velcro. The were also given a triangle piece (the fulcrum) to balance their see-saw. Using a plastic animal of their choice in one of the cups, they explored filling the opposite cup with objects such as blocks, pompoms or plastic buttons to understand that weight was important to enable a see-saw to balance or bring the opposite cup upwards! They also practiced counting the number of buttons required to lift their animals.
Students then moved on to another balancing activity. They were tasked with putting two clips on a “cat head” so that they can balance all three objects on their finger. Through trial and error, the students moved the clips until they learned that the clips should be positioned towards the bottom of the cat head. As a class, they discussed the role of gravity in pulling the weight downwards.
For some, the next activity – creating a “paper copter” – was the best part of the workshop. Through active listening and lots of patience, the students folded a pre-labelled sheet of paper and added a paper clip to create this marvellous “flying” object. Students launched their “paper copters” and squealed with excitement as they watched their creations spiral downwards like helicopter propellers. After their test flights, the scientist explained that gravity pulls their paper copters downwards but air between the propellers cause them to spin.
For the last activity, students explored how movement changes with the use of an incline plain. To the children, this resembled a slide. They created their own slides with paper cups and pieces of cardboard. Once they assembled their incline plain, they had a chance to slide flat surfaced objects and roll round ones down. They realized that round objects move faster down a ramp. They also increased the angle of the incline by swapping or adding a taller second cup to their slide. Round objects rolled down even faster! This was very evident when students created their own “cars” out of paper wheels, an axel and an clothes pin and rolled them down the ramps!
To conclude the workshop, the scientist asked students to share their favourite part of the morning. For some, it was the “paper copter”. For others, it was creating the race car. However, for many, it was “everything”. This was such a wonderful introduction and exploration about force, motion, movement and gravity!
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