Kindergarten Mini Rocket Inquiry: Part 5

Early Years (Age 3 – 6)

Curriculum Goal

Kindergarten: Problem Solving and Innovating

  • State problems and pose questions in different contexts and for different reasons (e.g., before, during, and after inquiries)
  • Communicate results and findings from individual and groups investigations (e.g., explain and/or show how they made their structure; state simple conclusions from an experiment; record ideas using pictures, numbers, and labels)

Kindergarten: Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours

  • Investigate the idea that a number’s position in the counting sequence determines its magnitude (e.g., the quantity is greater when counting forward and less when counting backward)
  • Explore and communicate the function/purpose of numbers in a variety of contexts (e.g., to indicate quantity, to indicate ordinality, to measure, and/or to label or name).
  • Interpret data presented in graphs (e.g., “There are more children in the pizza line than in the hot dog line – that means more children like pizza”) and draw conclusions (e.g., “We need to order more pizza than hot dogs for play day”)
  • Respond to and pose questions about data collection and graphs
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Appendix A&C
Appendix B
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Context

  • This is the final part of the mini-rocket launch inquiry.
  • Students have built their mini-rockets based on their first draft designs, launched their mini-rockets, and measured the distance their mini-rocket travelled.

Materials

  • Mini-rockets and first draft drawings (each student has created their own)
  • Paper for drawing – labeled at the top: Mini-Rocket Design #2 (Appendix A)
  • Chart with measurements from “Mini-Rocket Launch Day!” (Appendix B)
    • Depending on your class, you may choose to use the chart as it was written on the day of the mini-rocket tests, or you may re-write the chart so that the distances the mini-rockets traveled are in order from shortest to longest (or vice-versa).
  • Pencil and eraser for each student

Lesson

Introduction:

  • Gather the class in a circle.
  • Lead students through a “debrief” of their mini-rocket launch experiment.
    • Ask students: Did your mini-rocket travel as far as you anticipated? Did your mini-rocket travel the same distance both times? What questions do you have after seeing all our mini-rockets get launched? What conditions may have impacted the distance of your flight?

Lesson:

  • Show students the chart with the measurements that were recorded on “Mini-Rocket Launch Day.” Lead a discussion to help students think about and compare distances.
    • Ask students: What is the smallest distance on this chart? What is the largest distance on this chart? How might we figure out the difference between those two distances? Are there any distances that we see more than once on this chart? Are there any distances that are similar? How else might we display this information so that someone can see what we did?
    • If you are using the chart as it was written on the day of the experiment, lead students through the process of sorting the measurements from longest to shortest (or shortest to longest!). This is an opportunity to clear up misconceptions about how to interpret data, particularly for non-standard units of measurement.
      • Ask students: How do you know which measurement is longest and which is shortest? Why is two metre sticks and three blocks longer than one metre stick and five blocks?
    • Have a few students whose mini-rockets traveled different distances (one with a longer flight, one with a shorter flight, and one in the middle) bring their designs up to the front.
      • Ask students: What differences do we see between these designs? Why do we think some mini-rockets traveled further than others?
    • Have the three or four students with the mini-rockets that traveled the furthest bring their mini-rockets up.
      • Ask students: Do these designs have anything in common? What might our observations tell us about how we can improve our designs?
    • Have the students return to their workspaces and hand back their first-draft designs. Give each student a blank sheet of paper for their second draft, and have them revise their designs based on the classes observations.
      • Remind the students whose mini-rockets traveled the furthest that they should be revising their drafts as well.
    • Work with students to label their revised designs after they are complete.
      • Ask students: Can you show me the new features of your design? How has your mini-rocket changed? How big is your mini-rocket going to be? Is there anything in your design that we can’t see in your picture?

Conclusion:

  • Have students turn to a partner and share the differences in their two designs.
  • To wrap-up the unit, you can repeat Parts 2 and 4 of the lesson sequence so that students can build their second designs and observe the differences between how far their first and second mini-rockets fly. As a concluding activity, the class can review the charts from both launch days to compare the distances their mini-rockets traveled each time.

Look Fors

  • Can students compare measurements, understanding which are larger and which are smaller?
  • Are they identifying key features of the data (highest numbers, lowest numbers, numbers that repeat, clusters of similar numbers)?
  • Are students observing and recognizing features of mini-rockets that support flight?
  • Are they able to compare and contrast the performance of different designs to identify features that allow mini-rockets to travel the furthest distance?
  • Are they able to use their observations to revise their original designs?
Print Lesson
Appendix A&C
Appendix B
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

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