Science Extensions Menu
Performance-Based Extension Activity
Without a Trace
Activity Description: Without a TraceThe Milton Bradley Toy Company is sponsoring a contest to discover the next great creator of board games! It is a golden opportunity for YOU to come up with a new twist on an old idea! The game theme for the contest is…Without a Trace! However, there are a few requirements in order to be considered! You must provide the playing rules, the playing board, the player pieces and of course, the question cards! In fact, this game must teach others about trace fossils and body fossils in order to be considered! A focus group will be assembled to play your game and evaluate your efforts. Don’t forget…..games aren’t only child’s play!
Grade Level: Third / Quarter: First
Bloom’s Taxonomy Level: Application, Analysis, Evaluation
Related Academic Strands: Earth Science / Rocks and Fossils
Related Standards and Elements:
· S3E2 Students will investigate fossils as evidence of organisms that lived long ago.
Checklist for Providing Guidance:
1. Manila folders for the game board
2. Ruler
3. Pencils, crayons, markers
4. Pipe cleaners (shape into playing pieces)
5. Index cards (for question cards)
6. Computer
7. Ziploc bag for storage of cards and player pieces
8. Science book
Resources:
· http://www.valdosta.edu/~lakidd/topic.html
· http://www.wacona.com/promote/fossils/facts.htm
· http://www.wacona.com/promote/fossils/different.htm
· http://www.english.fossiel.net/informatie/glossary.php
· http://www.zoomschool.com/subjects/dinosaurs/dinofossils/Fossiltypes.html
· http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec670/boardgame/BoardGameDesign1.html (helpful resource)
· http://www.uniqueteachingresources.com/game-board-book-report.html (examples)
Designing a Board Game – Hints and Tips
Types of Game
There are thousands of different board games, in many different styles, but there are certain basic types of game that we can identify such as:
• Race Games – often controlled by a die, players race along the board according to the rules, to be the first one to complete the track. Examples are Snakes and Ladders, Backgammon
• Games of Alignment – the game is won by getting all your pieces into a specific position. Examples are Noughts and Crosses
• Memory Games – the game is won by remembering where items are and locating them. An example is Pairs
• Acquisition / Resource Management Games – players use money or other resources to acquire goods or other items in order to win the game. An example is Monopoly
• Positional Games – the game is won by occupying the largest or most significant territory or area. Examples are Risk, Go
• War Games – the game is won by annihilating or immobilising the opponent. An examples is Chess
Key Features – What Must My Game Have?
· An Aim – there has to be a clear OBJECTIVE.
· Rules – there must be rules governing how to attain that objective that players must follow. These need to be clear and easy to follow. Avoid conditionals … ifs and buts … wherever possible!
· Equipment – pieces, a board, cards … whatever you need in order to be able to play the game.
· Interaction – what one player does should affect all the other players!
· Tension – the game needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end, like a good story, and it should build up to the end. If no-one can be 100% sure who is going to win the game until the last move, that should be a tense and exciting ending!
· Competition – there can only be one winner, and the game is a competition to find out who it’s going to be.
· Fun – most importantly, the game must be fun to play. We play games to enjoy ourselves, and to be entertained!
Things to Avoid
· Overly complicated rules. Try to keep them to one side of an A4 page!
· Overly complicated or specialist components. A game is what people play, not what they play with. The pieces you use help us play the game. Part of the secret of designing a good game is to make it easy to make, as well as easy to play.
· Multi-player solitaire. If everyone is busy doing their own thing and not communicating or interacting with each other, it’s unlikely to be much fun.
Things to Ask Yourself
· Who is the game for (who will play it?)
o One of the first things to get clear in your mind is who will be playing the game. Is it a game for children? For adults? Or for the whole family?
o If it is a game for kids – what ages? Board game makers usually aim their kids’ games at different age groups such as:
• Pre-school (3 to 6)
• Younger kids (6 to 9)
• Older kids (8 to 12)
o Depending on the age of your intended players, your game could be very different. For instance:
· Pre-school
o Game should not take too long to play – no more than 15 minutes. Rules should be simple and clear. Often pre-school games will help with learning as well as being fun to play – they may help co-ordination, colour and pattern recognition, number and letter skills, or even simple socialization (such as turn-taking). They are often played with an adult (such as Mum).
§ Suggestions : matching games, counting games, simple collecting games
· Younger kids
o Games can take a little longer to play, but you should still aim to play in under 30 minutes. At this age games are more often played by children between themselves, though frequently a parent is involved. Remember that younger kids may not read as well as you, so avoid putting lots of text on cards or playing boards.
o Kids in this age group will enjoy games with simple strategy, as long as it doesn’t make the game too dry. One of the secrets in game design is to combine luck and skill together so you don’t know who is going to win, but you do at least feel that you have some kind of influence.
§ Suggestions : memory games, race games, more complex collecting games
· Older kids
o Your game can be more complex and take longer – however, for most people 60 minutes is long enough for an average game. After all, you can always play again! In games for this age group you can incorporate cards with instruction text etc. – but do bear in mind that they have to be read during game play, and if it takes too long or gets too complicated, it can slow the game down so it isn’t fun any more.
§ Suggestions : acquisition games, territory/positional games, simple strategy games
· Does the game have a theme?
o In this case, we know it does. The game is going to be about Space – so you can think about different planets, spaceships, rockets, black holes, aliens … all sorts of things!
o This is a key question! If you have decided to design a game for pre-schoolers, then a complicated space battle game is probably not going to appeal, and they may have difficulty remembering all those wonderful and complicated rules.
o On the other hand, if you want to make an exciting, immersive and compelling game about space travel that will appeal to boys aged 10 to 12, then a simple memory game with pictures of different colored spaceships that you have to match and collect is also not going to be very popular.
So …
o KNOW your audience
o THINK about the theme
o BUILD the game like a good story and …
o Above all …!
o KEEP IT SIMPLE.
If it takes you longer to set up and explain the game than it does to play, it’s going to be really hard to persuade people to join you. If you can explain what you have to do and why in a couple of minutes and get people started, you know you are on the right track.
GOOD LUCK!
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Performance-Based Extension Activity
It’s About Time
Activity Description: It’s About Time!Days, years, centuries….I’ve completely lost track of time! One minute I was happily swimming down the Mississippi River basking in the beautiful sunlight and the next thing I know I’m stuck! No…really stuck! In this rock! I’d love to tell the personal story of my passage from fish to fossil but I need your help! Can you be my ‘voice’ and help me tell the story of how I got from the raging river of my Mississippi home to YOUR teacher’s science center. I’d love to share my tale in next month’s edition of Rolling Stone Magazine so let’s get rockin’!
Grade Level: Third / Quarter: First
Bloom’s Taxonomy Level: Application, Analysis, Evaluation
Related Academic Strands: Earth Science / Rocks and Fossils
Related Standards and Elements:
· S3E2 Students will investigate fossils as evidence of organisms that lived long ago.
Checklist for Providing Guidance:
Story board planning sheet for students
Grading Rubric for teacher to use
Fossil pictures
Writing paper
Pencils
Dictionary
Thesaurus
6 + 1 Traits
Resources:
· Mr. Roosevelt's Steamboat by Mary Helen Dohan
· Mississippi River Activity Guide with Teacher Guide by: Pat Middleton
· Rivers: Nature's Wondrous Waterways by David Harrison
· Minn of the Mississippi by Clancy Holling
· The Mississippi River by Nathan Olson
· http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/curriculum/6_traits/information.html
· http://www.readinglady.com/index.php?module=documents&JAS_DocumentManager_op= viewDocument&JAS_Document_id=8
Name: ______Date: ______
Story Board for Fish to Fossil
Paragraph #1
Description of my life in the Mississippi River before I became a fossil / Paragraph #2
What ‘events’ caused my fossilization?
Paragraph #3
Details about how I was collected as brought to
(Name of school) / Paragraph #4
Any future plans as a fossil in your third grade class
Don’t forget to check the 6+1 traits of writing.
Story Writing Rubric: It’s About Time
CATEGORY / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1Introduction / Each paragraph has a "grabber" or catchy beginning. / Some paragraphs have a weak "grabber". / A catchy beginning was attempted but was confusing rather than catchy. / No attempt was made to catch the reader's attention in any of the paragraphs.
Focus on Assigned Topic / The entire story is related to the assigned topic and allows the reader to understand much more about the topic. / Most of the story is related to the assigned topic. The story wanders off at one point, but the reader can still learn something about the topic. / Some of the story is related to the assigned topic, but a reader does not learn much about the topic. / No attempt has been made to relate the story to the assigned topic.
Organization / The story is very well organized. One idea follows another in a logical sequence with clear transitions. / The story is pretty well organized. One idea may seem out of place. Clear transitions are used. / The story is a little hard to follow. The transitions are sometimes not clear. / Ideas and scenes seem to be randomly arranged.
Spelling and Punctuation / There are no spelling or punctuation errors in the final story. Character and place names are spelled consistently throughout. / There is one spelling or punctuation error in the final story. / There are 2-3 spelling and punctuation errors in the final story. / The final story has more than 3 spelling and punctuation errors.
Creativity / The story contains many creative details and/or descriptions that contribute to the reader's enjoyment. The author has really used his imagination. / The story contains a few creative details and/or descriptions that contribute to the reader's enjoyment. The author has used his imagination. / The story contains a few creative details and/or descriptions, but they distract from the story. The author has tried to use his imagination. / There is little evidence of creativity in the story. The author does not seem to have used much imagination.
Neatness / The final story is readable, clean, neat and attractive. It is free of erasures and crossed-out words. It looks like the author took great pride in it. / The final story is readable, neat and attractive. It may have one or two erasures, but they are not distracting. It looks like the author took some pride in it. / The final story is readable and some of the pages are attractive. It looks like parts of it might have been done in a hurry. / The final story is not neat or attractive. It looks like the student just wanted to get it done and didn't care what it looked like.
Going Beyond / Points awards in this category awarded by teacher for "going Above and Beyond" the minimum requirements
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Mineralogy Mystery
Activity Description:Compass? Check. Pick and chisel? Check. Your bag is packed and you’re ready for your next rock adventure. Your reputation as a top geologist has landed you a job offer you can’t resist. Townsfolk high up in the Appalachian mountains recently discovered some unusual rocks when mining for coal. They need an expert to test the rock and figure out its mineral make-up. Since this type of rock has never been seen before, they want to know if it is safe and if the minerals inside can be used for something.
You need to make a model of the mystery rock to study that reveals the minerals. Science journals will want your notes to share world-wide, so you also need to record your findings on a lab report, complete with labeled illustration. As a top mineralogist, you’ll share your full report at a rock doctor conference – complete with presentation. Your peers can’t wait to hear about your latest discovery!
Grade Level: 3 / Quarter: 1st
Bloom’s Taxonomy Level: Evaluating and Creating
Related Academic Strands: Earth and Space Science
Related Standards and Elements:
S3E1 Physical Attributes of Rocks and Soils
Students will investigate the physical attributes of rocks and soils.
Element: S3E1a Rock and Mineral Differences
Explain the difference between a rock and a mineral.
Element: S3E1b Test/Measure Rocks and Minerals
Recognize the physical attributes of rocks and minerals using observation (shape, color, texture), measurement, and simple tests (hardness).
Checklist for Providing Guidance:
Supplies:
From the classroom science kit, gather some modeling clay, random shapes and objects to be used for the mystery minerals (bits of rock, twigs, small beads, rock chips, etc.). The science kit microscope can be used to closely examine the minerals and the kit’s plastic lids are ideal to fill in as microscope plates.
Have writing supplies, coloring pencils, crayons or markers and paper for the illustration and labeling; and a desktop computer for research or use of software programs, such as Microsoft Word or Power Point to create a presentation. The attached graphic organizer helps students arrange examination of their rock and its minerals.
Students may use the following websites to research rocks and minerals to begin their research. (If you use www.ikeepbookmarks or Delicious bookmarks, these could be added to a class account).
Fast FAQ’s About Rocks and Minerals http://www.childrensmuseum.org/geomysteries/faqs.html
What is a Mineral? http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/geology/min_intro.html
What is a Mineral? http://www.rocksandminerals4u.com/what_is_a_mineral.html
What’s That Mineral? http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/geology/mineral_id1.html
Mineral Identification http://www.rocksandminerals4u.com/mineral_identification.html
Mineral Gallery http://www.rocksandminerals4u.com/minerals.html
Mineralogy for Kids http://www.minsocam.org/msa/k12/k_12.html
Rocks and Minerals Slide Shows http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/education/vwlessons/lessons/Slideshow/Slideindex.html
Mineralogy Mystery Lab Report