STEAM: Arts and Maker Activities in the Science Classroom

 

Here is a collection of my previous posts that fuse science topics with the arts and/or making things.

Decorate Classroom with Student Collages

This activity works well at the beginning of the school year or after a school break but can really be used anytime to foster a sense of community. While creating collages about themselves, students get to know each other better. Displaying their work helps give students a sense of belonging in the classroom space.

Edible Cell Model Made of Pasta

Try making edible cell models if you have other adult hands to help you. It requires a little juggling but is a lot of fun!

Trashion Show!

The annual Trashion Show was probably the most fun project for my students. I was always amazed by the outfits students came up with! This project takes time but is a memorable way to approach sustainability. It was also my secret for keeping students enthusiastic about coming to school as summer break grew closer.

Low-Prep Games for Teaching Vocabulary

Playing charades and guessing vocabulary words based on sketches are fun ways for students to develop their science vocabulary.

Drooling Pumpkin Lab

The art of making jack-o-lanterns is combined with learning about chemical reactions in this Halloween lab.

Illustrating Science Vocabulary: Plant Cell Organelles

Students illustrate the names of different plastids to help learn their meaning.

Future City Competition

Students design and then create a physical model of a city of the future using repurposed materials. Teams may simply create their cities as a class project or participate in an international competition.

Model Photosynthesis and Respiration with Berries

One of my former students said, "Now I get photosynthesis and respiration!" Manipulating the berries to simulate these chemical processes makes them more concrete- and they taste good, too! 

I hope this collection of lessons gives you some ideas for incorporating the arts into your science classes.

Introducing The Creative but Not Scientific Catalan Pooping Log!

 

If you have never heard of Caga Tió, the Catalan Christmas pooping log, you have to check this out! This is a repost of my very first post on this blog, one I wrote before focusing exclusively on science education content. I hope you enjoy it!

Keeping students engaged in the days before Winter Vacation is quite a challenge for a teacher, but for Caga Tió, it's effortless! When I told my middle school students about Caga Tió and asked whether they would like to care for him in our classroom as part of Spanish class, they were all in! 

Early in my teaching career, I spent a year in Barcelona, where I taught English and lived with two Catalan roommates. My roommate Quim described a Christmas tradition of wrapping a log in a blanket to keep it warm, giving it food and water, and then, on Christmas morning, hitting it with a stick to make it "poop" turrón (almond candy). For a long time, I didn't believe him and thought he was trying to make a fool of his American friend. One day, he insisted I come quickly to see what was on TV, and sure enough, there was a black-and-white video of children singing and beating a log with a stick. It was true!

The Caga Tió, or "poop log", I used in my classroom was one given to me by a friend. It's a simple little log with two sticks attached to look like legs and a face drawn on the front:

I wrapped it in a large throw blanket- large enough for hiding the nuts and turrón later on. Before we welcomed Caga Tió into our classroom at the beginning of December, my students assured me that they would take good care of Caga Tió by keeping it safe and warm, feeding it little pieces of food, and bringing it water. There were a few seventh graders who took on most of this- it was very sweet! 

We kept Caga Tió close to my classroom nook in a corner of the room that was visible yet a little less accessible in order to avoid any possible rough handling. My students asked if I had a little cup for water, and I found one in my science closet. Students filled the cup daily, and I gradually emptied it throughout the day when they weren't looking. I did the same with the food they left, which was mostly fruit.

On the last day of Spanish class before Winter Break, I taught students a simplified version of the Caga Tió song, one that my friend had taught me. The song is not in Spanish but in Catalan, a language spoken in the state of Catalonia. (You can find the traditional Caga Tió, or Tió de Nadal, song on Youtube) It was a good opportunity to tell students that Catalonia has its own distinct language and culture.

Before passing out sticks to my students, I reminded them that the sticks were, of course, not for sword fighting or hitting each other but for gently hitting Caga Tió. For Spanish class, I had a smaller class size of about 12 students, making this activity more manageable. Although my class sizes are usually around 25 students, during Spanish class, half the students are in P.E., while the other half is with me. 

Caga Tió was set on a desk, and students walked around him together in a circle, hitting him with their sticks and singing the Caga Tió song. Then they heated their sticks in a fire- made by my wonderful teaching assistant Nicole- before returning to hit Caga Tió and sing to him again.

When we thought students had sung enough for Caga Tió to work his magic, we lifted the blanket. It worked! He pooped!

  

I first offered almonds to students and then worked at cutting the turrón into pieces. (I have found turrón in the Little Italy neighborhood in my city of San Diego, and you can also buy it online.) There are two types of turrón- hard and soft. The hard turrón, or turrón duro, is difficult to cut into pieces but doable with a good knife. For students with allergies to almonds and/or eggs, I had alternative candies under the blanket marked with their names on sticky notes. 

Having Caga Tió in our classroom in December gave students something to look forward to in coming to school, and I had the chance to have a little fun with them!

If you would like to know more about Caga Tió, you can read this NPR article:

A Catalan Log That Poops Nougats At Christmas

This video includes the Caga Tió song and a description of the tradition:

Caga Tio or Tio de Nadal Comes to the United Kingdom

For any students out there who do not believe in Tió, here is video proof that he can eat and drink:

Tió menjant 

Thanks for reading my blog, and Happy Holidays!

Repost: Drooling Pumpkin Chemistry Lab for Halloween!

 

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought it was a good time to repost this description of a fun chemistry lab you might like to try.

In this Halloween chemistry lab, students create a jack-o-lantern that foams at the mouth! You can use the lab to address NGSS standard MS-PS1-2 as students observe properties of the reactant (hydrogen peroxide) and the bubbly products of the reaction.

I have used the "drooling pumpkin lab" with students in seventh and eighth grade. The class size has usually been about twenty-five students, and there has always been another adult in the room with me. This is helpful for managing materials and spills and to keep an eye on safety because sharp tools are required to carve the pumpkins. Students usually keep their behavior in check because they are excited to do the lab and know that safe behavior is a requirement for participation.

Students work at tables in pairs or small groups. They start by carving their pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern.

Before carving the pumpkins, be sure to put them onto a tray or paper to protect the tables because it gets messy! Suggest to students that positioning the jack-o-lantern's grin lower on the pumpkin will help the reactants flow out of its mouth. (After carving the pumpkins, you will have lots of seeds, so you could ask parents ahead of time if they would like to take some home to roast in the oven.) Depending on how much time you have with students, carving the pumpkins alone can take a full class period.

The reaction used to create the foam that oozes out of the jack-o-lantern's mouth is the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, a liquid easily found in solution at pharmacies. Yeast is used as a catalyst in the reaction, so this is a good opportunity to teach students how a catalyst does not take part in the reaction but merely helps it happen. (I found a one-pound bag of yeast online and stored it in the freezer for many years.)

To activate the yeast, student groups mix a few tablespoons of yeast with a few tablespoons of lukewarm water in a small container and let it sit for about 5 minutes, forming a paste. Meanwhile, students pour about 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide solution into another small container and mix in a few drops of dish detergent. (I recommend using an unscented soap for students sensitive to smells.) The dish detergent will capture the bubbles produced by the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, creating a foam.

Students lower the container of hydrogen peroxide solution with dish detergent into the jack-o-lantern, add the yeast paste, and stir. Soon, the reactants flow out of the pumpkin's mouth, causing it to drool! In some cases, positioning the container of hydrogen peroxide close to the jack-o-lantern's mouth can help students get this effect.

So, where did the bubbles come from? Yeast speeds up the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into hydrogen and oxygen, and these gases are captured by the soap, creating the foam. Students can easily see that a chemical reaction has occurred!

If you are interested in other fun chemistry labs, you might like this blogpost on making "gel worms":

https://www.scientificcreative.com/2022/05/polymer-lab-gel-worms.html

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Introduce Science Vocabulary with Creative and Engaging Activities

In science class, students need to understand lots of unfamiliar vocabulary words that may leave them feeling confused. Introducing some of these words at the beginning of a unit can help your students’ comprehension of the material and boost their confidence. Through playing games, asking students to illustrate new words, and having students find connections between different terms, you can help your students feel more comfortable with new scientific terms. 

One vocabulary game that my students enjoyed is charades. It plays on different intelligences than other science activities, so in addition to teaching science vocabulary, the game motivates some students who might be less engaged with other approaches. Another game we played is similar to charades but involves drawing rather than acting. An earlier blogpost I wrote has more details on these games:

Low-Prep Games for Teaching Vocabulary

After reviewing new vocabulary words, you can ask students to illustrate the words in some way. By doing this, you can create a colorful display of student work that also serves to remind students of the meaning of challenging science vocabulary. Here is a link to a blogpost that explains more about illustrating words related to plant cell organelles:

Illustrating Science Vocabulary: Plant Cell Organelles

Hexagonal thinking is an approach to teaching new terms that was created by Betsy Potash. Her lessons mostly center around language arts, but this technique can also be applied to teaching vocabulary in other subjects, including science. Hexagonal thinking involves working in a group to discuss how words in a list relate to one another. Of course, in order to discover connections between the words, students need to understand the definitions of these words. Hexagonal thinking can be used to introduce a unit or to provide a summary after a topic has been covered. To learn more about hexagonal thinking, you can read this blogpost:

Hexagonal Thinking:

Connections and Discussion in Science Class

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Back-to-School Activities for Building Classroom Community

In the first days of school, you may want to select activities that help build community in your class as students ease back into academic life. I will share several such activities that my students have enjoyed in the past. 

A very simple activity is to give students Venn diagrams to complete about themselves. This can be done with student pairs, as with deskmates, or with groups of three using a three-circle Venn diagram. It helps to brainstorm with the class some categories of information that could be written in the Venn diagrams, such as hobbies, talents, sports, music, family members, pets, and favorites: foods, colors, animals, places, seasons, weather. As students fill out the Venn diagram, they get to know each other better and find some things they have in common. A blogpost I wrote earlier has more details about using Venn diagrams in the classroom:

Classroom Icebreaker / Getting to Know You Activity: Venn Diagrams

A popular game I have used is Two Truths and a Lie. Each member of the class, including the teacher, writes their name along with two true facts and one lie about themself. The teacher reads each paper, and everyone guesses which is the lie before the student reveals the correct answer. Students love this game because they see how much they already know about each other while being surprised by things they never knew about their friends! It also provides new students with an opportunity to introduce themselves to their classmates. One year I used this game to reveal to my class that I was pregnant!

To beautify your classroom with student art at the beginning of the school year, have them create collages about themselves using images and words from magazines. Making collages encourages students to learn more about their classmates' interests and style. As they work, they talk about the images and words they are using and help one another find pictures in the magazines. This activity takes a little preparation, but asking parents and other staff members for magazine donations makes it fairly easy. Here is a link to an earlier blogpost about making collages:

Beginning of the School Year Activity: Decorate Room with Student Collages

A game similar to Two Truths and a Lie is Snowball Fight. In this game, everyone writes three true things about themself but omits their name. After crumpling up the paper, the class has a "snowball fight" for about ten seconds (or longer). Everyone then picks up a piece of paper and opens it. You may have students walk around the room and find the person who wrote their paper. Another variation is to ask students to take turns reading their papers aloud as the entire class attempts to guess who wrote it. To help students keep control of their bodies during the snowball fight, you can make a rule that students need to be touching their chair or desk as they throw their snowballs. It's helpful to know your students a bit before trying this game to be sure that students can handle the snowball fight.

One last activity I will mention can be used to preview vocabulary for a coming unit while decorating the classroom with student art. This involves giving groups of students vocabulary words to illustrate. Within the group, individual students can choose which word to draw so long as the group includes all of the words. Here is a link to a blogpost I wrote about this activity:

Illustrating Science Vocabulary: 

Plant Cell Organelles

I hope these activities give you some ideas for beginning the school year, and I hope that you have a great first week of school!

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Low-Stress Summer Lesson Planning: Start with the Fun Stuff!

It's so important for teachers to take a break and recharge over the summer so they can return refreshed for the new school year. As we all know, it's also necessary to do some planning before school starts up again. A strategy I discovered to ease back into prepping lessons is to begin with the fun stuff. Coincidentally, this planning needs to be done first anyway!

Planning fun events and activities can be enjoyable and make you look forward to the upcoming school year. For me, the "fun stuff" includes field trips and projects that connect students with parts of our community outside of the classroom. 

Some field trips that are popular with students can get booked quickly, and this is the perfect excuse to work on this task first! In San Diego, one popular excursion is a field trip to the tide pools at Cabrillo National Monument. Once the trips open up on their website, they go like hot concert tickets. (Well, almost!) These trips are usually available to book beginning in mid-to-late August.

Another project that can might entice you to get a head start on your lesson planning is the Future City Competition for students in grades six, seven, and eight.

In the Future City Competition, students are challenged to imagine and design sustainable cities of the future. (The competition itself is not required.) Every year a new theme is chosen that relates to an issue currently in the news or, as I have found, one that soon after becomes a headline. I have found that participating in the Future City project has given my students and me insights into pressing issues around sustainability.

Another great way to connect students with the greater world beyond the classroom is through service learning experiences. It can be helpful to start making connections over the summer.

As a science teacher, you may want to give your students the opportunity to volunteer at a community garden or nature preserve. There are many possibilities for homeroom and other classes, too.

Beginning your summer lesson planning with "the fun stuff", like field trips and special projects, can make the planning seem less like work. You'll be getting yourself ahead in the game and enjoying the process, too! Sometimes it's just the thing you need to get yourself started in preparing for the school year ahead.

For those who live in San Diego, here is a link to the science education programs Cabrillo National Monument:

Cabrillo National Monument: Science Programs

This is a link to an earlier blogpost about exploring the tide pools at Cabrillo National Monument:

It's Tide Pool Season in California!

If you are interested in learning more about the Future City Competition, see my previous blogpost:

Students Explore Engineering and Sustainability through the Future City Competition

Link to Future City Competition website:

Future City Competition

For more service learning ideas and to see how it can benefit students, see this previous blogpost:

Students Give Back with Service Learning

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A Trip to Muir Woods

 

While on vacation in San Francisco, my family took a short drive to Muir Woods National Monument. We were surprised to find such tranquility so close to the busy city.

Muir Woods is best known for the towering coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees that made us feel tiny by comparison.

There were multiple other visitors at Muir Woods, but many times we found that we had the trail to ourselves. This may be because we visited the park on a weekday in the fall.  Because it was autumn, we caught a hint of fall foliage, something we sometimes miss from our days living on the East Coast.

Another surprise and benefit to visiting Muir Woods in the late fall was seeing clusters of little red ladybugs huddled together in preparation for the winter.

You can see these clusters of ladybugs beginning in late fall and continuing into early spring. They stay close to each other to keep warm and find a mate. The ladybugs can easily be found on wooden fence posts on the Fern Creek and Bootjack Trails.

We often enjoy attending guided walks when we visit a national park. The guided walk at Muir Woods lead by a volunteer was very informative and something I would recommend.

My daughter was able to add to her collection of Junior Ranger badges by completing an activity booklet and taking a pledge to protect all national parks, continue  learning about them, and to share her knowledge with others.

Our family thoroughly enjoyed our time in San Francisco, and Muir Woods is definitely a spot we would all like to return to one day.

Here is a link to the Muir Woods National Monument website:

National Park Service: Muir Woods National Monument

If you plan to go to San Francisco and are interested in other places to visit, check out this blogpost about the California Academy of Sciences:

Teaching Resources from the California Academy of Sciences

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Summertime Science: Garden Plant Families

 

Who doesn’t love their produce garden-fresh? One of the most satisfying endeavors for me personally is growing and harvesting food in my garden. Picking something right off the plant to enjoy myself or share with others is very rewarding. I enjoy the process of supporting the plants’ growth, and I appreciate understanding how each of my plants is related to the other wild and cultivated plants in our world.

I am fortunate to have the privilege of tending a plot in our local community garden. Recently I planted a couple of cherry tomato seedlings. You may know that tomatoes are part of the nightshade family (Solanaceae). If you compare the flowers of a tomato plant with those of a wild nightshade, you will notice similarities.

Tomato Plant Flowers

Nightshade Flowers

Flowers of both the garden tomato and the wild nightshade are perfect, or bisexual, flowers. They are star-shaped with five petals, and at the center, fused anthers (male part) surround the style (female part). Other members of the nightshade family that you may see in your garden include bell and hot peppers, eggplant, and potato.

Some of the other plants now in bloom are members of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae). In addition to gourds, this plant family includes pumpkins, squash, melons, and cucumbers.

Cucumber Blossom

Squash Blossom

A wild member of the gourd family native to Southern California is wild cucumber. Despite its name, it's not edible. The fruit is prickly and toxic!

Wild Cucumber (Marah macrocarpa)

Members of the gourd family typically have flowers with five fused petals. Flowers are unisexual, meaning that each flower has either male parts or female parts. It can be fun to hand pollinate these flowers. If you are interested in trying hand pollination in your garden, there is information about this in an earlier blogpost: 

Summertime Science in the Garden: Pollination

One of the showier flowers currently in bloom is the sweet pea.

Sweet Pea Flowers

My Daughter with Sweet Pea Flower Bouquet 

Sweet peas are members of the bean family, or Fabaceae. Flowers are bisexual with five petals. They have bilateral symmetry, with one large petal at the top and four smaller ones below. Green beans and other kinds of beans, peas, lentils, and peanuts belong to this family. So do many wild plants, including acacia, locust trees, and lupines. 

Lupine, Member of the Bean Family

If you have the chance, I highly recommend spending some time in a garden this summer!

If you would like to read other blogposts related to exploring science in the garden, see these blogposts:

Springtime Science in the Garden: Plant "Cousins" and a Baby Skunk!

Summertime Science in the Garden: Pollination

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