Key Words: Curriculum Materials, Science, K-3
Document: 1 2
Date: Mon, 9 Dec 1996 13:20:55 -0500
Since so many people are sick from a cold virus currently, I asked my
daughter's classroom teacher to let me come to school and talk about germs. My
daughter is currently in first grade, mainstreamed and the only deaf child
in the school. As a Scientist I had so much fun with the kiddies (and so
did they with me) that I would like to share some ideas, for you teachers
out there.
I talked about bacteria and viruses, showed some pictures of both. Viruses
do look very pretty and I had something to show around and to touch that
looks just like a virus (golden spray painted Sycamore seeds, the round and
spiky ones).
We talked about the size of the germs. I showed them a sewing needle and
the small needles ear. Under the microscope (picture of a microscope)
the needles ear looks very big (showed oak tag board on which I drew a 2 foot
long needles ear) and bacteria are visible (tiny round green bacteria on
the huge needles ear). Viruses are even smaller than bacteria (poked needle
through the oak tag next to bacteria to show size relation between bacteria
and virus).
If viruses could be seen with the eye, people would be more careful. I
showed them how a sneeze could contaminate a big area. I sneezed into my
hand and sprayed while sneezing some sparkling hair spray (from Halloween)
into the palm of my hand then I went around and shook some hands. Tiny bits
of sparkle was on everybody hands after a few minutes and they really
needed to wash their hands with soap to get it off. We talked about
somebody being contagious.
I had some Bacto Agar plates (which are basically beef broth, sugar and
gelatin) which they could touch, cough on, put money on, etc. They were
excited to observe bacteria growing during the following days.
We talked about defender cells (drew picture of a white blood cell)
attacking a virus, Antibodies and Immune System. We talked about ways to make
the defender cells strong (showed various fruits and vegetables and tried
to trick them with Orange flavored candies and fruit flavored chewing gum).
We talked about vaccination (prop: cut a tiny piece out of the virus
picture and put it into a 50 ml syringe). The goal of the vaccination is to show the defender cells how the virus looks like such that they can make special weapons (Antibodies).
We talked about good bacteria in your body that help to make vitamins.
Bacteria are used to make cheese, flavors, yogurt, vitamins. Bacteria are
important to degrade things (picture of plant, cow, man, bacteria in a
cycle). The kiddies immediately knew the cycle of life from the "lion king"
movie.
We made Yogurt (one cup of Yogurt with Lactobacillus acidophilus) and 1
liter of warm milk in a Thermos (Incubator) with warm water over night.
It was a lot of fun. Lots of language. The teacher liked the idea of using
a lot of props and written words with it. My daughter definitely got a lot
out of it, just like the hearing kids.
It was amazing what some kids knew about the immune system (they watched
the magic school bus video).
Birgit
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X-Sender: lgcen@pop.mindspring.com
To show my preschool class why they should cover their nose for a sneeze or
mouth for a cough, I took the holes from the 3 hole punch, put them in my
hand and pretended to sneeze (threw the "germs" out from me). We watched
the "germs" spread during the day.
It was fun and now some of the children cover up when sneezing or coughing.
Linda
Uploaded By: Jodi Gray/KSU/Deaf Education Major
Reply-To: A Practical Discussion List Regarding Deaf Education
Sender: A Practical Discussion List Regarding Deaf Education
Subject: Hands on science
To: Multiple recipients of list EDUDEAF Document 2 of 2
Date: Tue, 10 Dec 1996 20:03:07 -0500
Reply-To: A Practical Discussion List Regarding Deaf Education
Sender: A Practical Discussion List Regarding Deaf Education
Subject: Re: Hands on science
To: Multiple recipients of list EDUDEAF