At the beginning of March was Dr. Seuss week. Our school, Lincoln, took part in many activities to remember Dr. Seuss and his work. On Wednesday of that week, we had Dr. Seuss day where we did even more activities as a school together. This unit was inspired by the Dr. Seuss week, and went along with his book "Bartholomew and the Oobleck." It is a unit that is taken from A GEMS guide inspired by Oobleck.
Day 1
Introduce/ read the book "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" by Dr. Seuss.
during reading time.
Day 2
Lab Investigation
Student will take a look at an "unknown" green substance we "received" from NASA.
The students will take a look at the substance and brainstorm within groups the
properties of the substance and discuss whether it is more solid or liquid. (We had been
discussing properties of water and such in science.) Students will make posters with their
observations on them and will present them to the class after investigation.
Day 3
Science Convention
Students will take another look at the substance, which they have already named Oobleck,
and perform duties that are carried out at Science Conventions. It is the class' objective to
come up with laws of Oobleck. These laws only become laws after we have come up with them,
investigated to prove them, and voted them into laws just like a science convention.
Day 4
Space Craft Design
With the laws we now know about Oobleck, students will use that knowledge to design a spacecraft
that will fly to, and land on the planet Oobleck is from, collect Oobleck, and return safely. The students
are required to label all parts of their spacecrafts and color them.
Day 5
Writing Assignment
Students will create a non fictional story of their trip to the Oobleck planet to collect the Oobleck sample
in their own designed spacecraft.
Lesson Plans
4th Grade Science
Oobleck Day 2
Jason Inmon
Objectives:
-Students will describe what the word “property” means when discussing a material
-Students will use 3 of the 5 senses to observe and describe the substance oobleck
-Students will work in groups to list 5 properties of oobleck
Standard:
II. Physical Science
A. Structure of Matter
Students will compare and contrast the mass, shape and volume of solids, liquids and gases.
Materials:
-Bulletin board paper -Paper towels
-Oobleck
-Markers
Anticipatory Set: To set the stage, read the story, “Bartholomew and the Oobleck” by Dr. Seuss. The next day, have oobleck ready and see if students make the connection immediately or if questioning will need to take place for students to guess the substance’s name. Tell the students that there has been a shipment of the substance called oobleck from another planet and NASA has asked us to investigate its properties.
During: Review with the students what the word “property” is and tell them that they will be using three of their five senses to investigate the oobleck’s properties. The three they will be using are sight, touch, smell. Stress that it is not safe to taste the oobleck. We do not know if its edible and nothing in science lab should be tasted. Allow the students some time to explore the oobleck and begin to form a list of 5 properties that they came up with regarding oobleck. Also, have students star which properties that they believe to be most important in explaining under what circumstances oobleck acts as a solid or liquid.
Closure: As a class, we will post our lists of oobleck’s properties on the wall and discuss each and which sense they used to investigate that property. Discuss questions such as, “How does oobleck behave when you press on it?” “When does oobleck behave like a liquid?” “When does oobleck behave like a solid?”
Assessment:
-Group work -Lists of properties -Class participation
4th Grade Science
Oobleck Day 3
Jason Inmon
Objectives:
-Students will participate in a science convention to create laws of Oobleck
-Students will collaborate with partners to come up with laws of Oobleck
-students will discuss the properties of Oobleck
Materials:
-Oobleck
-Old Newspaper
-Large sheet for writing laws
-Markers
Anticipatory Set:
Begin with allowing students to take another look at the Oobleck. By now, it will be dried out, so discuss what can be done to make it like it was the day before. After adding water, allow the students some time to look at it and the properties again.
During: Bring class back together and discuss their most important properties on their posters. Then, describe a scientific convention and the voting process for creating/ proving laws in science. Tell the students we will proving, writing, and voting on laws of Oobleck. Then, go around the room and record what each group feels should be a law. When all potential laws are recorded for all to see, begin the voting process and discuss why a proposal should or shouldn't become a law.
Closure: When all laws are decided on and proved, record the laws onto the final poster that will be hung in the classroom for the students to see for the next day's lesson.
Assessment:
-Group work -Discussion/ reasoning for laws -Participation
This is a picture of the official laws the class came up with at our Science convention during our 3rd Dr. Seuss lesson.
Resource:
Sneider, Cary. OOBLECK: What Do Scientists Do? Lawrence Hall of Science.
Student work
This picture is a picture of higher quality work. The assignment was to color, name, and label all parts that can help with the collection of Oobleck and the return from the planet covered in Oobleck. As you can see, this student did all of the requirements and even decided to put a layout of one of the floors inside the spacecraft next to it.
Here is an example of lower quality work. The student has coloring, minimal labels that do not help with understanding how it works, and did not name the spacecraft.
Assessment Piece
Oobleck Narrative Rubric
Student Name:____________________
Science
1. Group work- consider participation, cooperation.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2. Self-evaluation- consider honesty in self evaluation for group work
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
3. Spacecraft design- consider if spacecraft is designed to land on Oobleck, quality, and detail
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
The Writing Process
1. Ideas are clearly stated.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2. Organization-events are in proper sequences.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
3. Conversations- proper spelling and punctuation is used.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Teacher's Comments: _____________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Writer's Comments: ______________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
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