This is an activity investigating friction using remote control cars. For this lesson I purchased three different remote control vehicles from K Mart - a four wheel drive, a sports car and a jeep/buggy. Use the powerpoint to guide the students through the learning activities which include writing a prediction, conducting a fair test and recording their findings. The powerpoint also includes a procedure explaining how to set up the investigation on your school grounds. Accompanying the powerpoint is a worksheet for these students to record details of their investigation and to record their findings and data on a table.

This bundle is a set of Manager, Speaker and Director badge inserts that can fit into plastic name holders. The document is in Word so that you can adjust the outlines to fit your name holders.

This investigation is a lot of fun for young children. You will need one old CD rom or DVD for each child. Take the children outside on a sunny day. If you’re in Australia make sure that the children are wearing hats. LOL No hat no play! Locate the Sun. Make sure that the children are standing in the full Sun. The idea is to capture the sunlight by angling the CD rom or DVD and then shining the light into a shaded area. I had the children stand on the oval and then shine the light onto the school’s ‘undercover’ area. There were plenty of objects like benches and bins for the children to shine their light. The area I chose also had plenty of people coming and going so the children were able to shine their light onto them. This activity can be a be tricky and you will find many children saying ‘mine doesn’t work’. To conclude and to ensure that every child can shine a sunbeam, I asked small groups of children to stand in the shaded undercover area while the reminder of the class sone a ‘disco’ onto them. We then returned to class and I demonstrated on the whiteboard how to draw a ray diagram to show how light travelled from the Sun to the DVD or CD rom and then onto an object or person. On the worksheet the children can draw themselves holding the CD rom or DVD and the object/person that they shone light onto. They can add ray arrows to show how light travelled. And finally write their own sentence about the investigation.

This powerpoint resource comes in two parts Part One - the students are guided to use microscopes to investigate a dry soil sample on a ‘sticky tape slide’. Then they create their own soil solution in a jar. You could set this over 2 x 60 minute lessons. Part Two - the students having left their solution to ‘settle’ for one week, then draw a diagram (to scale) of the layers in their solution using rulers to measure and magnifiers to observe the layers closely. Allow one hour.

This erosion investigation can be carried out in the school sand pit to investigate the effects of water on sand. Students can investigate what happens to a sandcastle when they pour differing amounts of water onto it. The powerpoint details the steps required for students to conduct their investigation. Students use the 'investigation planner' to determine variables and record their measurements and findings.

Students will examine images about Uluru to see how it has been affected by weathering, erosion and human activity. Students will carefully examine 6 images and describe the possible causes for the shape of the landform. Which type of weathering or erosion has caused the landform to change? Students record their ideas on the worksheet. Students draw a diagram predicting how the landform of Uluru might look 100 years into the future. At completion of the written task gather the students together to share their findings. This activity could be used as an assessment task to conclude a unit of work on erosion and weathering.

Students will learn that everyday tasks that seem easy to us are difficult for a mechanical robot to perform. Students will investigate this by using a robotic toy hand. As a class we will discuss the limitations and challenges that robots face in grasping tools and manipulating them. To conduct this lesson you will need to purchase up to 12 or 14 robotic toy hands. This can be purchased at Toys R Us for about $7(Australian dollars) each. There are plenty of youtube clips that you can show the students prior to the investigation that cover the use of robotic arms in industry and on the ISS. Once you have your equipment then you can use the powerpoint to guide the students through two investigations. Part 2 and Part 3 of this package is the worksheet to accompany the investigations.

Students set up a bug zapper in the evening at their own home to conduct their own 'fair test'. All the information you need is explained on the word document - investigation question, materials, procedure, analysing and explaining the results and extension ideas.

This powerpoint guide prepares students for a design task. Discuss with students what they have read or observed about robots helping to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities, or for use in medicine or in hospitals. The task is to design a robot that can help someone. Students label each of the robot’s parts or features and then write a paragraph on how their design could have a positive impact on the quality of a human’s life. Students include a comment predicting whether humans will accept or reject the new robot and why.

This is a 15 slide powerpoint that takes students step by step through an investigation into lava viscosity. Students will work in teams to mix different viscosities of flour and water then pour their mixture onto a paper plate to investigate flow. This investigation leads into a discussion on how different volcanoes take their shape dependent on lava flow. The powerpoint concludes with a focus on the possibility of past volcanic activity in Australia.

This is a great activity to follow on and consolidate my other resource 'Jump for robots'. Students carefully examine the pictures and ONLY colour in those pictures that they think are a robot.

The students set up their own bread mould investigation to observe and record over the period of one week. This worksheet accompanies the investigative activity.

Students were shown this powerpoint of rain images to stimulate a discussion about their experiences of rain. The focus question was - what happens when rain falls on different surfaces?

This activity was introduced to start off a new unit on birds and to generate discussion and ideas about the student's prior knowledge on birds. Students were placed in teams of two to work collaboratively. Some of the question triggers - what animals fly, have beaks, make nests

Students were taken to the school woodland and encouraged to take time to reflect and enjoy the woodland environment. Students completed four different tasks - a Y chart to draw on their senses, sketches of trees, leaves, bark etc and a search for habitats.

I teach a small group of students once a week and they work independently in teams of two to plan and conduct their own Science Inquiry question. to conclude the parents are invited to a presentation morning. The students prepare their own powerpoint presentations about their project. This powerpoint is a gude to setting up their presentations so that all components to their project are covered in the final presentation.

Take students on a walk around the school to investigate what objects are made of and whether they are HOT or not when in the Sun

The students work in teams with a torch to investigate if light penetrates through different materials such as bubble wrap, cardboard, clear plastic, coloured cellophane. Students record their findings on the worksheet. There is also a rubric to accompany the activity.

A rubric for assessing science presentations.

Assessing students prior knowledge and reflecting on what the students have learnt