Layers of the Atmosphere Activity

Any textbook in your classroom should give most of the information for the activity. If there is a fact or two missing, you could supply a short supplementary text or the fact to the students.

What surprised me the most when I did this activity was the high test scores. I did not lecture, give notes, go over review questions. The activity was it.

I grouped students in groups of three and four. I selected groups. I deliberately mixed high ability, low ability and average in every group.

Each group was given an approximately 3 ft by 3 ft piece of butcher paper  (The white paper use to cover bulletin boards). Any poster sized paper would do. In a pinch 11 X 17 copy paper can be used. I would just expect students to work in groups and make an individual drawing.

The activity was done with a sixth grade classroom. I gave students the instructions and rubric being used to grade them.

For this rubric, emphasizing that each component was completed was important versus quality of drawing issues. I would voluntarily start grading the project when asked and put a big X where the information was missing then sum the grade. Even though the project was attractive, children were surprised they had a 60 because they had not listed all the facts. This helped guide them to get all the necessary facts on their diagrams for the real grade.

I did separate the A's from the B projects by presentation. I also did not give students another sheet of paper to start over. We all work on a deadline. Letting them start over and over will cause some students to take extraordinary extra time or never complete the project. It also helps teach students to think ahead. Since you grade on whether a fact is listed, an incomplete project can be graded.

I also allowed students to borrow large circles found around the room to draw their atmospheric layers. I did not encourage this in that I would tell students that the layers blend together and do not have neat divisions between them.

I never marked students down for poor art skills. There is a difference between rushed, sloppy work and poor motor skills.  I never had a child challenge me with my grades in comparing their work with another.

Instructions:

You will need to make a diagram on this poster to demonstrate the information assessed in the following rubric. Use your textbook or the text supplied to find this information. I suggest you find the information and plan before you begin to draw. You will not be supplied another piece of paper.

Atmospheric layers Rubric                  

Group members ______________ ______________ ______________

Quality	possible points	self assessment	earned points
1.  Label Earth	5
2.  Five layers labeled	5
3.  Distance from Earth of each layer	5
4. Temperature range of each layer	5
5.  Facts placed in appropriate layer
- layer in which we live	5
- layer in which all weather occurs	5
- ozone layer is found here	5
- coldest layer	5
- hottest layer	5
- ionosphere is found here	5
- meteors occur here	5
- blends in with outer space	5
-space shuttle and satellites found here	5
6.  Illustrations
- Earth	5
- Weather	5
- show ozone layer blocking ultraviolet light	5
- hottest layer	5
- space shuttles and satellites	5
7.  Effort	5
8.   Neatness	5
9.   Total points	100

          

A Rose By Any Other Name, Oobleck is fun!

Kadinka Pink, Pabooba Blue, Latrella Yellow, Oobleck Green

A mixture of water, food color and corn starch can lead to a lot of discovery and increase interest in your classroom.

Pour a box of cornstarch into a bowl.

Add a few drops of food color. Green is usually used.

Slowly add water and knead into mixture. It has the right consistency when the mixture is hard in you hand when you squeeze your hand close and flows like a liquid when you open your hand.

As people play with the mixture, it dries. Adding more water brings it back to life. I resurrected the mixture the next day. However, keep an extra box of cornstarch and make more. It gets most foul after several classes use it.

One big point I shared with students was the fact that once everyone put their hands in the mixture, it became a germ hothouse. After the activity was completed, I shared that the cornstarch was a great source of food for bacteria, mold, etc.

This activity is incredibly messy yet easy to clean up. After all, it is only cornstarch. Cornstarch washes out of ordinary clothes. It might be tricky to get off a wedding gown. So fire your wedding planner if they suggest Kadinka Pink at any time. Use a wash cloth and bucket of water to wipe down surfaces. A bucket of water to rinse their hands before going to a sink to wash their hands.

Clean-up alert: Collect leftover Oobleck and have children stay in their seats during the activity. Reducing the amount of time students walk with oobleck reduces the amount spilled on floors or smeared on other surfaces.

Write simple observations that students can make on the board. Tests 3 through 5 below are good. Allow students to play with the mixture for about 10 to 30 minutes. Demonstrate test 3 while students are working with the mixture and the other tests after the clean-up.

Tests.
1. What happens when you apply heat?
2. What happens when you leave some on a plate overnight?
Students can usually predict what will happen by the residue on desktops or lab tables.

3. What happens when you run a magnet underneath and over a plate containing Pabooba Blue.
4. Demonstrate how the material gets hard under pressure and flows when pressure is not present.
5. Test how the substance adheres to different surfaces. (Metals, plastic, cellophane, Styrofoam, wood, glass, ceramics, fired clay)

Questions and activities.
Allow students to give the substance a name. Don't settle for common names like goop, slime, oobleck, silly-putty, etc.
Have students design a spacecraft to land on the substance, collect the substance and take off from the substance.
Have students write stories about the substance.
Let students brainstorm uses. The younger they are, the more uses they will uncover. List them all. A dowager at a party asked Michael Faraday what use it was to be studying electricity? Luckily, Michael Faraday continued and you know the rest of the story.

The mixture is called a Non-newtonian fluid. Your classroom can discover the difference between a newtonian fluid and a non-newtonian fluid. Interestingly enough, glass is a fluid. This is why old window panes are thicker at the bottom and gaps often appear at the top.