The Grades group was assigned to build a paper rollercoaster through which a glass marble could travel. The Rollercoaster needed to travel the height and length of the school staircase, 18 steps high. Each student needed to contribute parts, and the parts all needed to fit together. Only paper and tape could be used. The group had to work collaboratively, using creativity and problem-solving strategies to get it to work.

Students need to make a marble run that takes as close to 5 seconds to finish as possible, it needs to start at the top of the board and end at the bottom, students can only use ONE marble, the run needs to stand by itself (no touching!).

Materials needed:

• 30 cm x 30 cm piece of cardboard (as your backboard) (do NOT cut or bend)

• Cardboard to cut for your base to support it

• Scissors

• 1 m of masking tape

• 1 Marble (ONLY)

• Skewer sticks

• Stopwatch.

Students have to design their cardboard marble run and create two2D drawings in their process journal - oneof the front/top and one of the side. When the project is complete students should test out the cardboard marble run. Marble run pack here.

1. Lay a shoe box (without a lid) on its side. Then cut a piece of thread longer than the height of the box.

2. Tie a paperclip to one end of the thread. Cut a butterfly shape out of tissue paper and tape it to the paperclip

3. Hold the butterfly inside the box, almost touching the top. Pull the thread tight and tape it to the bottom.

4. Lay a magnet on top of the box, directly above the point where the thread is taped to the bottom.You could use felt tip pens to draw patterns on your butterfly.

5. Hold the butterfly near the magnet, so the thread is tight. Then let go. The butterfly should hover by itself.What's going on?

6. Try moving the butterfly further away from the magnet, by shortening the thread. Does it still hover?

Metal paperclips are made from steel which contains iron. The attraction between the magnet and the iron is strong enough for the magnet to pull on the paperclip, even without touching it. The thread stops the paperclip from being pulled onto the magnet. The stronger your magnet, the further away you can move the paperclip and still make it hover.

Learning Intention: This activity shows how water becomes heavier on the top of the cloud, and gravity causes it to fall as rain.

Materials:

★ Clear Jar

★ Water

★ Shaving Foam

★ Food coloring

Procedure

1. Fill the jar halfway with water (water represents air).

2. Add a thin layer of shaving cream (clouds – water vapor).

3. Place drops of blue food coloring on the top of the shaving cream (water droplets).

4. Wait for the “rain” to fall.

What is the conclusion?

Conclusion: The food coloring (rain) went through the cloud (water droplets) to make rain.

Group 1

What is a water cycle?

Group 2

What is freezing?

Group 3

What is melting?

Group 4

What is evaporation?

Group 5

What is condensation?

Group 6

What is precipitation?

Group 7

What is collection?

Cooperative learning:

Roles:

• Red - write brainstorming ideas

• Green - write the answer

• Yellow - check time/ everybody says something

• Blue - will present

Students must work together to build a device that will allow an egg to reach the ground safely from 2 to 3 meters. The students will need to use the materials provided and nothing more. This project will need to fulfill four roles: two engineers, one economist, and one presenter. Materials: cardboard, paper towels, straws, tape, popsicle sticks, plastic bags, string, spaghetti, and cotton balls.

The Egg Drop project you can find here.

Students must draw a picture of their rocket design with all the details. After the drawing, students must build the rockets with the materials provided (paper in colour, scissors, ruler, glue, tape, glue gun…) Students fill the bottles with water and launch the rockets with the help of the launcher in the schoolyard.