Bubble Technology, Part 1: How Are Bubble Blowers Different?

Bubble Technology, Part 1: How Are Bubble Blowers Different? How are bubble blowers different? 1 of 16

Bubble Technology, Part 1: How Are Bubble Blowers Different? Suggested Grade Span K-2 Task How are bubble blowers different? Big Ideas and Unifying Concepts Cause and effect Design Form and function Physical Science Concept Properties of matter Design Technology Concepts Design constraints and advantages Invention Use of tools Mathematics Concepts Compare and contrast Data collection, organization and analysis Graphs, tables, representations Measurement Time Required for the Task Approximately 45 to 60 minutes. Context This investigation was a final assessment of the children s bubble explorations, which took place during four weeks in September. Students began with a week of free exploration, followed by body bubble activities, shape exploration, bubble measurement and, finally, bubble 2 of 16

technology. This series of bubble explorations enables first graders to build on their prior knowledge and engages them in taking risks with something familiar. The bubble investigations build a positive attitude toward science through fun explorations, and build confidence in using science skills such as observation, experimentation and communication. What the Task Accomplishes This investigation demonstrates how the children apply their skills in observing cause and effect by trying different junk objects to discover if they will make large bubbles, small bubbles, or no bubbles at all. By gathering information, they are beginning to do technical research. Technology involves the use of science to create something practical. The first graders have the opportunity to try a variety of bubble-blowing tools and then to use their observations to design a new bubble-blowing tool. This culminating investigation allows for introductory principles to be modeled through experimenting with mixtures, surface tension and adhesion. How the Student Will Investigate Through the constructivist scientific inquiry model, I have observed my first graders experiencing more success. I provide many opportunities for free exploration with new materials and concepts. With a wide variety of young first graders in the fall, I began the bubble theme in the first week with lots of messing about with the bubble solution and tools. This provided valuable information about where individual children were beginning in science. I circulated frequently among their cooperative groups observing, encouraging risk taking, and modeling open-ended questions that engaged them in more investigations and communication with each other. The second week of our bubble investigations involved observing bubble shapes and their colors. I encouraged the students to blow clusters of bubbles on the table or in their hands. They were looking for three-, four-, five-sided bubbles and more. The first graders used wet straws to help with this investigation. At this young stage I am not asking them to use technical geometric names, but I encouraged descriptions like this: looks like a honeycomb; that happens in the bathtub. They might be able to identify and name triangle, square and hexagon at this level. The third week of investigations involved bubble measurement. With young children I preceded this investigation during math time with nonstandard measurement experiences. Blowing table bubbles allows for size comparisons, and older students can explore relationships between circumference and diameter. The students used unifix cubes, wooden cubes, linker cubes, hands, arms and string to measure their large bubbles. The fourth week consisted of the bubble technology task for assessment purposes. This was a very engaging task that asked the students to discover what objects would make the best large bubbles, the best little bubbles, or no bubbles at all. They were also asked to invent a new bubble blower from straws and pipe cleaners, which they could shorten and lengthen any way they wanted. Children discussed the effectiveness of their bubble blower. Up to this point, a lot of our recording was done in whole-group share on chart paper. Now, I asked each child to use 3 of 16

his/her first recording sheet. The sheet consisted of column 1 (draw the bubble tool being tested), column 2 (predict if the tool will produce big, little or no bubbles) and column 3 (record the sizes of the bubbles observed). Interdisciplinary Links and Extensions Science Have the children use bubble gum to observe and discuss techniques in blowing bubbles. Investigate the durability of bubble wrap around a raw egg. Connect surface tension activities with eyedroppers and different surfaces of objects that have edges or don t have edges. Investigate different bubble solutions by different companies and rate them. Extend bubble activities outdoors to observe other factors that might effect bubble size and production. Extend bubble activities through balloon investigations. Social Studies Perhaps research other cultures to find out if other children enjoy blowing bubbles. Have there been any records set in bubble blowing? Ask partners or cooperative groups to investigate when bubble wrap is used. Language Arts/Music Literature selections are difficult to find, but poetry was used to integrate into this theme. Take the familiar song My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean and have the children change the words to fit My Bubble Lies Over The Ocean to describe the movement of bubbles. There is a resource that contains science poems from A to Z, called Apples, Bubbles, and Crystals Your Science ABCs, by Bennett & Kessler. Art/Movement Use guided imagery to experience the movement of bubbles. Perhaps begin with individual bubbles and extend to connecting shapes with groups of children. Make bubble paint and observe the characteristics of bubbles (1/2 cup Ivory Soap flakes, 1/2 cup water, add tempera paint). Mathematics Graph the sizes of bubbles with the corresponding bubble blowers that were investigated. Integrate some mathematical problem solving such as: You have five bubble blowers that produced 12 bubbles. More large bubbles than little bubbles were produced, and onr blower produced no bubbles. Draw and label your picture to show what might have happened. Introduce time activities to track how long you can count before a bubble pops. Graph bubble gum by the quality of producing large bubbles, and correlate these to the brands of gum. Teaching Tips and Guiding Questions I have frequently stated that open-ended questions are important to model before, during and after science investigations. Too often, teachers do not spend enough time, after the students have completed their investigations, talking about what they observed. This process brings 4 of 16

closure for children and encourages new questions to be raised or new investigations to be explored. Some questions that could be asked at different stages of the bubble investigation are: Can you find different ways to use your hands to blow a bubble? Do some bubble blowers make better bubbles than others? Why? What is the difference in the size of the bubbles and the size of the bubble blowers? Is it always the same? Why do you think some bubble blowers produce small, medium and large bubbles? Discuss: A bubble is...a bubble is not... My secret in blowing a great bubble is... What shapes do you see in your bubbles? Are they the same for all your bubble blowers? How were you able to blow a bubble inside a bubble? How does blowing or waving produce the best bubbles? What is the same about all the tools that make bubbles? How can you turn a non-bubble blower into a bubble blower? What happens when you blow too lightly or too hard? Can you tell when a bubble is going to pop? Which bubble junk makes the best bubbles? Which do not? Did you find any junk that did not make bubbles? Why? How does too much foam on the top affect the quality of bubbles? What is a bubble? Teaching Tips: This was one of the messiest units I have ever attempted, but fun. It is important to have some guidelines, such as: hold the bubble tool over the solution (as best as you can), everyone share in cleaning up as you go, and share one bubble tool at a time so everyone can make observations and discuss what they observe. It is equally important to stand back and let messing around with science happen for the whole week before adding more guidance. Extend your comfort zone in science! I began the other weeks with certain focusing questions, rather than demonstrations, to encourage the new scientists to take more risks. Concepts to be Assessed (Unifying concepts/big ideas and science concepts to be assessed using the Science Exemplars Rubric under the criterion: Science Concepts and Related Content) Physical Science Properties of Matter: Students observe and describe the effect of air on the bubble solution. Students observe surface tension and adhesion attributes. Students observe and describe the effects of blowing or waving on the size and quality of bubbles, and observe the size differences of small, large and no bubbles from the different junk that is investigated (cause and effect). Design Technology Use of Tools: Students recognize and describe how the shapes of different junk tools produce different sizes and shapes of bubbles. 5 of 16

Design Technology Constrants, Advantages and Invention: Students recognize that some junk materials are better than others, depending on the size of the bubbles that are desired. Students are beginning to identify several steps that are involved in inventing tools that are useful to people. Mathematics: Students use numbers and more than / less than / and none appropriately. Students use precise measurements and apply the concepts of compare and contrast. Students collect, organize and analyze data and use graphs, tables and representations appropriately. Skills to be Developed (Science process skills to be assessed using the Science Exemplars Rubric under the criteria: Scientific Procedures and Reasoning Strategies, and Scientific Communication Using Data) Scientific Method: Observing, predicting, hypothesizing, collecting and recording data, controlling variables, manipulation of tools, drawing conclusions, communicating findings and raising new questions. Other Science Standards and Concepts Addressed Scientific Method: Students describe, predict, investigate and explain phenomena. Students control variables. Scientific Theory: Students look for evidence that explains why things happen and modify explanations when new observations are made. Physical Science Properties of Matter: Students observe and describe changes in states of matter. (A bubble is a ball of air or gas surrounded by a very thin layer of liquid or other covering. Bubbles float, adhere and pop.) Design and Technology: Students recognize that tools extend the ability of people to make things and that manufacturing takes a series of steps, depending on the task, and a careful choice of materials. Mathematical Understanding: Students use geometric and measurement concepts to examine, compare and analyze real objects by one-, two- and three-dimensional features. Suggested Materials Give each cooperative group (three or four students) a tub of bubble solution to use. Make sure it is deep enough for easily dipping larger objects. In the early investigations students were given plastic straws that had been snipped at a diagonal to dip and blow bubbles with. This is a very messy unit, so it is helpful to cover desks with dark plastic garbage bags that can be cut up to extend over the edge (put a little water under the plastic so the bags will stick to the desk). Have plenty of paper towels ready for messy hands and spills. 6 of 16

You can purchase large jugs of bubble solution on sale at the end of the summer from toy stores, or make your own solution. In a plastic garbage container mix: four gallons of water, four cups of Joy or Dawn dishwashing liquid and 1/2 cup of glycerin. Stir the solution gently with a yardstick, being careful not to produce foam. This solution can easily be stored in reusable gallon milk jugs. Also, provide plastic trays for groups to put their wet objects in after they have tested them in the bubble solution. This makes for easier clean up and keeps the wet junk separated from the dry junk that will be used the next day. You can collect junk materials from home, or have each child bring in something to try. The junk materials that I provided for the children to choose from included: metal and plastic strainers, funnels, toilet paper tubes cut in half, different-sized straws, yarn, wire, pipe cleaners, fine-mesh wire-screen samples, rubber jar lids, canning lids, foil to be shaped, toilet paper, slotted spoons, large rubber bands, washers in different sizes, eye droppers, plastic and styrofoam cups with bottoms slit or removed, as well as items that do not make bubbles for comparison. It is important to include items that don t work in order to challenge students' observation and categorizing skills. Possible Solutions The bubble technology investigations provided opportunities for the children to use their research from the previous three weeks to predict what their bubble blowers would do and to design a successful bubble blower from the junk available to them. The child should become clearer about predicting whether the junk tested would produce bubbles and, if it did, prediciting the size of the bubble produced. Each child had to draw the object tested, predict the size of the bubble it would produce, and draw the size of the bubbles observed. The students were also asked to select and record at least two items that would not make a successful bubble blower. Another recording sheet reflected the design and testing of their newly constructed bubbleblowing tool. Task-Specific Assessment Notes Novice This student attempts to label predictions and observations, but the labeling is incomplete and lacks enough scientific reasoning. This child has frequent adult help during the task and still has a lot of difficulty predicting and observing actual results. (Some examples of: a plastic cup is predicted to have big bubbles instead of no bubbles; what is tried, predicted, and observed is unclear; the student does not predict that an open jar lid should produce a large bubble.) This student needs a lot of opportunities to observe, predict and dialogue before being asked to record. Apprentice This student completes the activity, but there are incorrect observations connected to the results. There is evidence about how the student tested the bubble tools, and the student is beginning to show reasoning through the use of scientific and design concepts. The student also attempts to collect data in an organized manner but is inconsistent with the observed 7 of 16

results. For example, the student does not predict the size of bubbles or predict how the size of the bubbles is related to the force of blowing on the bubble tool. Practitioner This student s solutions are complete. The recording sheet demonstrates clear evidence of using prior knowledge and using scientific reasoning. When the student is asked why questions about some of the results, the student is able to give reasonable explanations. For example, the student understands that s/he did not get large bubbles because "I blew too hard." The student also follows directions in trying bubble tools that would work and some that would not. Expert This student s solution is complete and detailed. Some of the drawings demonstrate a higher level of accuracy, showing how bubbles are often connected to each other and not separate as most of the children had indicated. The conclusions are supported by evidence of extended thinking, and the interviews clearly demonstrate responses of higher level scientific thinking. 8 of 16

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