Oftentimes, the last school day before a break is a day of lost instruction.  My goal in forestalling this before Thanksgiving was to plan a lesson based around the science of things found on a Thanksgiving Day table.

The activity began with students performing a factor label calculating the number of seconds that have transpired since the first Thanksgiving.  Students then rotated through stations that asked them to investigate and predict, then experiment to see if a stick of butter could be used as a fuel source for a candle, what the insides of cranberries look like in that makes them float, what the water content of popcorn was, and what happens to a marshmallow when it is microwaved.  Click here for a full length copy of this activity.

This activity utilized InTASC standards 3-5-7-8.  I like how timely this activity was and how it related to low cost real-life items.  It also was a review of previous concepts such as factor label and density.  The kids were actively engaged and enjoyed working with partners of their choices.   HLPs 2-6-13-14 were used in planning and implementing instruction for this project. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with the incentive of food being a main draw for student engagement, and science coming along for a ride.  Incidentally, a popcorn kernel from this activity landed in a leaky sink, and sprouted over break.  We have since recused it, potted it in a beaker and it is now Corny, our class mascot.