The Goodrich Way

The students in room 105 have been very busy being scientist during writing!

This unit focuses on informational writing in lab books and science books.

We first had to find out about how a scientist does research and conducts an experiment. We read Mad Margaret Experiments with the Scientific Method by Eric Braun and parts of the many Step into Science series to learn about the scientific method.

Then it was our turn to give it a try! I gave the students a little situation and

asked them for some help. We worked together to brainstorm some ideas on

how to build our experiment. We created a question and wrote down our hypothesis.

Next, we talked through which tools were needed and how to use them so we had reliable data.

Now we had to figure out a way to record and analyze our data. It was time for

them to give it a go! They had a blast working together zooming their cars down

the ramps!

After they recorded their data they talked with their group about their

findings. We started to write up our procedures.

But… we were not finished yet.

We learned that scientist have to be experts by researching information about a topic.

We read many books and watched some short videos on forces,motions,

pushes and pulls.

Now it was time to revise our writing using the new

information we learned!

We then moved onto having them repeat the process with some coaching

to see if they could follow the steps to write up a lab book. This time seeing

which would launch further a marshmallow or a cotton ball! Which one do you think will go farther?