Activity

Chook Science

Key Learning

Students will learn how to plan and conduct science investigations to find answers to questions.

The Australian Curriculum > Science/ Science Inquiry Skills / Planning and conducting
Content description / General capabilities
Literacy
Personal and social capability
Critical and creative thinking
Numeracy
With guidance, plan appropriate investigation methods to answer questions or solve problems.CodeACSIS103andCodeACSIS086
Content description
Suggest ways to plan and conduct investigations to find answers to questions. CodeACSIS065

Focus Questions

  1. Discuss the Chook Science BtN story with another student.
  2. What did Iggy discover that the chickens were eating that helped to produce larger eggs?
  3. Grass
  4. Worms
  5. Pizza
  6. What did Iggy want to find out in the Chook Science BtN story?Can you remember Iggy’s hypothesis?
  7. Briefly describe what Iggy’s scientific experiment involved.
  8. Name some of the types of protein that Iggy fed his chickens as part of his experiment.
  9. Fill in the gaps. At the end of the experiment I averaged the ______, ______and ______of the eggs.
  10. What did Iggy discover from hisscience experiment?
  11. Iggy was named the winner of Australia’s biggest school science award, what was the award called?
  12. Who encouraged Iggy to do science?
  13. Name three facts you learnt watching this story.

Activity

Q&A discussion

Facilitate a questions and answers discussion to encourage students to engage with science, with a focus on the BtN story Chook Science. Here are some questions starters:

  • What is a hypothesis?
  • What was Iggy’s hypothesis in the BtN story?
  • What is a scientist?
  • List some areas of science that scientists might explore.

Consider inviting a local scientist to your classroom to hold a Q&A discussion which will form part of your research on a science topic you are currently studying. Alternatively go to the ABC Science Ask an Expert website to ask a curly question!

Design an experiment - students become scientists

Provide students with the opportunity to think and behave like a scientist. In pairs or small groups students work on designing a science experiment to answer a question or solve a problem. Here are some examples of possible questions as a starting point for a scientific inquiry.

  • Are you already focusing on a science topic in class? Use this as a basis for your experiment.
  • Visit your school or local community garden to discover possible scientific experiments. Working with a partner, students must identify a researchable problem and conduct an investigation based on their observations. For example, which vegetables grow best in shade?
  • Refer to the ABC’s ExperiMENTALS website for a science experiment idea.

Investigation Framework

Here is an investigation framework to guide students when planning and conducting their experiments.

  • What am I going to investigate?
  • What do I think will happen (prediction)?
  • Why do I think this will happen?
  • What steps do I need to follow to investigate my prediction?
  • What materials and equipment will I need? Make list or draw and label each item.
  • How will I make it a fair test? What variables am I going to keep the same?
  • Write a sentence that summarises what happened?
  • A labelled diagram or a table of my results or observations to demonstrate what happened.
  • Was this what I expected? Yes or no.

Think of creative ways to explain/answer your science question (using multimedia, models, video or a Prezi presentation Take a look at this Prezi presentation called Science Investigation Project 2012 for inspiration.

 Related Research Links

Landline – Sleek Geek

Australian Museum – Teacher Resources

ABC Science – Dr Karl: Sleek Geeks

Brain POP – Science Projects

ABC the experiMENTALS – Do an experiment

ABC Science – The Surfing Scientist Lesson Plans

CSIRO – Do-it-yourself science

©ABC 2012