SCIENCE investigation

Name: Valerie Chandler
Content Area: Science: Investigation
Grade Level: 4th
Date: November 3rd 2015
Big or Essential Question:
How can I determine if two substances form a solution?
Curriculum Standards:
1. 3.2.4.A4: Recognize that combining two or more substances may make new
materials with different properties.
2. 3.2.4.A6:
• Ask questions about objects, organisms, and events.
• Understand that all scientific investigations involve asking and answering
questions and comparing the answer with what is already known.
• Plan and conduct a simple investigation and understand that different questions
require different kinds of investigations.
• Use simple equipment (tools and other technologies) to gather data and
understand that this allows scientists to collect more information than relying only
on their senses to gather information.
• Use data/evidence to construct explanations and understand that scientists develop
explanations based on their evidence and compare them with their current
scientific knowledge.
• Communicate procedures and explanations giving priority to evidence and
understanding that scientists make their results public, describe their
investigations so they can be reproduced, and review and ask questions about the
work of other scientists.
Lesson Objectives:
1. Students will be able to describe and label through writing what happens when
two substances are combined scoring at least an 8 out of 10 on the recording
sheet.
2. Students will be able to collect and record data based upon a science investigation
with full completeness.
Assessment:
1. Teacher will assess students by scoring the recording sheets to see that the
students were able to score an 8 out of a possible 10 points.
2. Teacher will assess students by observing them conduct the science investigation
and review their recording sheets to look for completeness of all data.

Materials and Resources:
1. 27 clear plastic cups- With a 2 inch line marked on the cup from the bottom. With
warm water filled to the line.
2. Bag of candy corn- At least 45 pieces
3. 9 Raisins- One for each group of two
4. 1 Cup of sugar- One table spoon for each of nine groups
5. 18 Recording Sheets (see attached)
6. 18 Take Home Sheets (see attached)
7. “Bartholomew and Oobleck” by Dr. Suess
8. A clear cup with warm water and a dissolved candy corn for demonstration
9. 27 cups of hot water
10. 27 coffee stirrers
11. Large writing chart paper
Literary Connection:
Title: “Bartholomew and Oobleck”
Author: Dr. Seuss
Summary of Story: In this short story a king complains that all that ever falls from the
sky is rain and snow and hail. He demands that someone creates something new to fall
from the sky. Magicians come along and put unknown things together to create a mixture
that falls from the sky. This goo/oobleck is sticky and slimy and gets everyone stuck.
Later in the story the king apologizes for making such a crazy request and the goo/
oobleck disappears. This book connects to the topic as is touches on the topic of mixing
substances together to create something new and the different properties of this solution.
Vocabulary:
1. Mixture: A combination of two or more substances: substances in a mixture can
be separated.
2. Solvent: The substance that takes in, or dissolves another substance
3. Solute: The substance that is dissolved.
4. Solution: When one or more substances are dissolved in another substance.
5. Solubility: A measure of the amount of substance that will dissolve in another
substance

Prior to Class:
Prior to class I will have read “Bartholomew and Oobleck” to the students. A half
hour before the lesson a piece of candy corn should be dropped into a clear cup of hot
water and set aside.
Anticipatory Set:
I will ask the students if they have ever made hot chocolate with mini
marshmallows. I will have them briefly discuss their experiences with making and
drinking this. I will discuss how when I have made hot chocolate in the past I enjoy
stirring around the mix and watching it disappear with the marshmallows. I will tell the
students that sometimes I wonder what else I could mix in the water and what would
happen, similar to how the magicians in “Bartholomew and Oobleck” created their own
unknown combination of ingredients.
Procedures:
1. I will explain to the students that just like in the book “Bartholomew and
Oobleck”, and similar to how I made hot chocolate, I would like to make my own
concoction, but I need help figuring out what to use. I will tell the students I am
stuck between using sugar, raisins and candy corn, but I am not sure what will
happen when I try to mix them with water.
2. I will tell the students that they will now get to become scientists. I will review
with the students how scientists act and the things that they do, such as they are
observant, keep a clean work area, are gentle and take good notes. I will put the
students into groups of three. I will ask the students to explain to me how they
believe a scientist should act and finalize the expectations.
3. I will ask the students to retrieve a cup with all of the materials placed inside and
bring it back to their desks.
4. I will pass out recording sheets to each student. I will have the students look at the
first question which asks students to make predictions about what will happen
when they place a spoonful of sugar into a cup of warm water. I will ask each
student to write down their predictions and share their predictions with their
partner.
5. The responses will be shared with the class and written on the large chart paper on
the board. I will ask the students why they predicted what they did.
6. I will then ask one member from each pair to go to the back table and retrieve a
cup of warm water and a stir stick. They will then drop a spoonful of sugar into
their group’s cup. I will allow the students to use the stir stick to stir the water
around. I will have the students observe what is happening and write their
findings on their recording sheets. (Note: The sugar will dissolve into the water
completely)
7. I will have the students share out their predictions and observations and write a
few of them down on large chart paper in the front of the room. I will ask the
students why they believe their predictions will come true. I will then ask that
one person from the group brings the cup of water to the back of the classroom
and empties it out.

8. I will then have the students predict and record what they believe will happen
when they drop a raisin into the cup of warm water. I will then ask one student
from the group to retrieve a new cup of warm water and bring it back to the table.
I will come around to each group and give them a raisin. I will have a member in
each group drop the raisin into the water.
9. I will have the students use the stir stick to stir the water. I will then ask them to
record their observations on their recording sheet. (Note: the raisin will not
dissolve in the water) I will then have the students share out their findings and
write it on the large paper. I will have a student dump out the cup of water.
10. I will then ask students to make predictions about what they think will happen
when they drop candy corn into warm water. I will again have one student from
each group retrieve a cup of warm water. I will give each group one piece of
candy corn and have them place it into the warm water. I will give the students a
few minutes to observe and record their findings. (Note: The candy corn will peel
off in layers and will dissolve in the water). I will write students observations on
the large paper. I will have the students explain what they are seeing and why they
think the candy corn is reacting the way it is.
11. I will then show the students the candy corn that I had sitting the warm water for a
few hours to show that eventually it will completely dissolve into the water. I will
ask the students why they believe the candy corn dissolved. I will allow the
students to place their cups on my desk for the rest of the day so they may watch
as the candy corn completely dissolves.
12. I will have the students sit back in their seats with their recording sheets. I will
explain that this experiment has allowed them to learn more about many science
concepts. I will write the word mixture onto the large chart paper and explain that
a mixture is a combination of two or more substances that can be separated. I will
explain that all of the experiments today were examples of mixtures, I will briefly
talk about how after evaporation occurs the sugar remains from the sugar and the
candy corn will still remain.
13. Then write and define the word solution as two or more substances that can be
dissolved into another substance. I will ask the students to put a star next to the
experiments that were solutions. I will also have the students tell me what they
put a star next to and why they believe this is a solution. I will then define and
explain both a solute and a solvent and have the students highlight the solute and
the underline the solvent on their recording sheets.
14. I will then talk to the students about solubility; a measure of the amount of a
substance that will dissolve in another substance. I will have the student figure out
and discuss which mixture was most soluble to least soluble and why.
Adaptations:
1. For the student with a learning disability I will make recording sheets in a larger
font and have bigger spaces to write to allow him to read the text and write more
easily.
2. For students who are English language learners I will provide visuals with the
vocabulary words; I will provide a photograph of a mixture and a solution to show

the student how the two look different and to help the student make a more clear
connection to mixtures and a solutions.
3. For students who are English language learners I will translate the parent letter to
the student’s native language as well as the take home activity. This will help the
students guardians learn what is happening in the class as well as promote parent
teacher communication.
Closure:
I will remind the students of my hot chocolate example. I will have the students
determine if the example was a mixture or a solution and why. I will then explain that in
this example a solution was made and that the hot coco mix and the marshmallows are
the solutes and the water is the solvent. I will remind the students of my initial question
of which would be the best to use to make my new concoction. I will ask the students to
respond to this question in at least two sentences; one stating which they think would be
best and a sentence stating why this would make the best concoction. I will have the
students highlight the solute in their answer and write wither their concoction would
create a solution or not.
Extension Activity:
I will provide each student with two pieces of candy corn to take home along with
a note to parents and a recording sheet. This note will explain to students what we are
learning about in class and explain to the parents that I have ask the students to see what
happens when they place candy corn into other solvents such as a cup of milk, cold water,
vinegar, juice and soda. I will ask that the students record what new solvent they tried and
what they discovered and bring their recording sheets back the next day to discuss in
class.
Reflection on Planning:
I knew before this lesson that planning was an important component of teaching a
lesson and specifically important in an inquiry based lesson. However, after teaching this
lesson I believe even more so that planning is a very important process of the lesson.
Planning out the lesson helps assure that there will be enough time to teach, and that the
lesson will run smoothly. Prior to teaching this lesson I felt I was prepared, however, to
feel even more prepared I taught this lesson to my roommates. This was a great part of
my planning as it helped me see areas that I could improve, such as putting all the
materials together prior to the lesson, originally I was not going to do this, but after
running through the lesson with my roommates I realized this would help with time
management. Planning is also very important as it helped me think about how much time
I would have and plan for student responses and questions. Had I planned this lesson
based on how quick I could complete the activities and not taken into account students
responses and their curiosity I would not have had enough time to do this lesson. It is
important to plan for such aspects of a lesson as it helps the lesson run more smoothly
and assures that as a teacher you are more prepared for what you are teaching.
Reflecting on this lesson, I believe it would have been improved by asking more
effective questions. This is one area that when taught in the classroom I did not do as
much as I believe I should have. Asking the students why they believe what they do and

why they thing various results will occur will help not only me but the students as well. I
will be able to informally assess the students and where they are with their prior
knowledge. This in turn can help me to see where I should take the lesson based on the
student’s responses and content vocabulary used. The students would also benefit from
being asked effective questions as it would promote deeper level thinking and require the
students to take ownership of their answers and what they see happening.
After completing this lesson I realize that it is also important to have various
strategies, revisions, adaptations and assessments when teaching a lesson. Had I only told
the students what would happen when they mixed the two substances together it would
not have allowed the students that are hands-on-learners as well as the whole class to
have a deeper understanding about what was happening. Using multiple strategies and
differentiation of teaching allows all students to learn more about the content and make
the lesson more meaningful to the students.
Lesson Evaluation:
The following three reflection responses are based off the lesson taught before
various changes were made. The changes made shown in the plan above are marking the
cups with lines, as well as more effective questioning, more specifically asking the
students why they believe various things will occur.
1. What happened during my lesson (what did the students and I say and do)? How
effective was my lesson design and teaching?
During the lesson I told the students about the concoctions I had created as a child
and that I wanted their help in creating a new special concoction. I had the students
experiment with dropping sugar, a raisin, and a piece of candy corn into hot water to
observe what would happen. Before dropping the objects in the water I had the students
make predictions about what they thought would happen. I had the students verbalize
their predictions as I wrote them on the board, I also had the students do this with their
observations. I then brought this back to science content about mixtures, solutions,
solvents, solutes, solubility. I then asked the students to name other liquid substances that
they could mix with the candy corn. Some of the student responses were “Kool-Aid,
milk, syrup, lemon-aid and soda”. I gave each students two pieces of candy corn to take
home and experiment with.
Overall, I felt my lesson design and teaching was good, but had areas that could
be improved. I felt I had issues with time management, to help me in this area I could
have planned to line the cups to indicate how far to fill the water, and I could have filled a
pitcher with hot water to be easily accessible. I believe my teaching can be improved by
assuring that the students are quiet before speaking. This will allow me to know that the
students are hearing what I am saying and will create a classroom conducive to learning.
Next time, I would think about ways to improve set up time. During the
experiment, there was a few times where the students were not engaged in the
investigation portion as they had to fill up the cups with water, and empty the cups out. If
I were to do this investigation again, I would think about ways to limit time spent setting
up for the investigation. Limiting set up time would provide more time for the students to
test their predictions and make observations.

2. What evidence can I show about my students’ learning (e.g. student work)? How
effective was my assessment plan for getting information about my students’
learning?
I was able to collect and grade students recoding sheets. This allowed me to
assess the students in meeting the desired goals. Using the recording sheets as a means of
assessment allowed me to learn a lot about student learning. I was able to see who was
making clear and detailed predictions and observations. The recording sheets also
allowed me to see that the students were able to decide on a concoction they liked best
and provide a reason/s why they believed what they did.
I also sent home an at-home investigation that the students could complete if they
wanted, I received several of these investigations the following day. These sheets had
students choose a new substance to mix with the candy corn, make predictions, and
observations. The sheets that were turned in showed the students ability to make careful
observations and conduct experiments on their own. This allowed also allowed me to see
students transfer the information they learned to other materials not showed in class.
3. How did I do in meeting my desired results for this lesson? What are my next
steps to improve student learning?
I believe I met my desired results for this lesson very well. The students were able
to meet the objectives for this lesson accurately. Later in the day when recapping the
lesson the students were using the key vocabulary words that I wanted them to use.
During the following day the students were discussing their experiments and what they
discovered about the mixtures and solutions they put together. During these discussions
the students were using the vocabulary content covered in class.
My next steps to improve student learning would be to have students make
predictions and make hypothesis about why certain objects dissolve while others do not.
This will lead into conversation about particle and molecule make up and breakdown.
This inquiry science experiment would provide a solid background for diving deeper into
concepts about why and how objects dissolve. By teaching the students about this it may
better help them figure out how objects will react when placed in water or other
substances. This in turn can provide students with higher critical thinking and analytical
skills.
Best Concoction
Substance Number of Responses
Sugar 5
Raisin 2
Candy Corn 11

Will it dissolve predictions
Think it will dissolve Think it will not dissolve
Sugar 17 1
Raisin 2 16
Candy Corn 5 13
Did it dissolve results
Yes No
Sugar 18 0
Raisin 0 18
Candy Corn 18 0
Results of Completion of at Home Investigation
2nd
Substance Prediction Result
Student 1 Filtered Water Sink, Dissolve, and
Change color of
water
Sunk, Dissolved,
Changed water
colors
Student 2 Soda It will not dissolve
just sink
The color turned to
a reddish orange, it
dissolved when I
stirred it
Student 3 Cranberry Juice Sink and Dissolve Wax from candy
corn fell off, it sunk
and dissolved
Student 4 Vinegar Candy corn will turn
white then dissolve
Took some of the
color away, when I
woke up the next
day the candy corn
was gone! The
vinegar was orange
with no candy corn.
Student 5 Pink Lemonaid It will dissolve and
fall apart because it
is mostly made of
sugar
After 33 minutes the
candy corn
completely
dissolved and turned
the pink lemonaid to
orange

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