The Grade 3’s have designed a Science experiment to see which surface material will make a plasticine ball ‘splat’ the most. After making their predictions, they set off in pairs to see if they could set up a ‘fair test’ using the equipment they were given. To insure that their experiment was a fair test, they knew that they must change only one factor at a time while keeping all other conditions the same.
Scientists call the changing factors in an experiment variables. The different surface materials needed to be the only changing variable, everything else needed to stay the same.
Click on to see the children working on their experiments…
“Is this a ‘fair test’? Maybe we should measure the height we drop the plasticine on each surface and keep this the same each time?”
“Yes a good idea, that way we keep that variable the same”,
“Shall we make lots of different plasticine balls to drop on the different surfaces? No, we need to use the same amount of plasticine each time so this variable stays the same?”
“Will you draw around the ‘splat’ or shall I?”
Here they are discussing their results. They had to record their results by drawing around the ‘splat’ on centimetre squared paper. To find out the area of each ‘splat’ they counted the amount of squares each ‘splat’ covered. At first, they were not sure whether to count the squares which were only a half or a quarter covered. In the end, they decided to use their skills of adding fractions and rounded up to the nearest whole square covered.
Great science work, Grade 3! You all showed that you understood the importance of creating a fair test. Did your predictions match your results?