Lesson video

Hello everybody! Welcome back to your practical skills science lessons with me, Ms. Roberts.

It's so great to see you all back here.

Lenny and I are really excited for today's lesson because we're going to be writing up a method for scientific experiment that we're going to show you.

So let's see what resources you'll need as well as your favourite teddy if one's going to get them.

You all need a pencil and a pen, a ruler, a notebook to write in and an A4 piece of paper.

If it's just an old piece of paper that's got writing on that you don't need, that's okay.

It doesn't need to be blank.

Pause the video and go and get the resources you need.

And if you want to, you can get your favourite teddy as well off you go.

Okay, now you've got what you need.

Let's look at the lesson ahead.

So we'll start with our STAR words, then we're going to look at folding paper.

I'll explain that in a moment.

Then we'll learn what the scientific method is.

We'll learn how to write the method and then you'll go and do your learning review quiz at the end of the lesson.

So do you remember team? STAR words! STAR words! STAR words! Good job.

The first word is method.

Your turn.

Well done.

A scientific method is what we do.

A scientific method is what we do.

Well done.

The next word is instructions, and I'm doing a step-by-step with my hand.

So your turn.

Instructions.

Oh, I don't see everybody doing the actions.

Let's do that one more time.

My turn.

Instructions.

Your turn.

Good job.

Then next word or phrase, I should say for this one, is adverbs of time.

Adverbs of time.

Your turn.

Adverbs of time.

Your turn.

And I'll explain what those are when we write our method out.

The next word is present tense.

Your turn.

Present tense.

Your turn.

Well done.

The present tense is what's happening right now.

The present tense is what's happening right now.

So not the.

Future tense, well done, and not the past tense either, but the present tense.

So we have past, present and future.

That's good.

Our next word is fair test.

You're turn.

Oh, I love your thumbs up for that one.

Fair test.

You're turn.

Good job, team.

And last one is variables.

I'm making a big V with my hands.

Variables.

You're turn.

Variables.

Your turn.

Great job, team! Wow! You've done your STAR words so well.

Okay, so what we're going to do is we're going to fold some paper.

So get your piece of A4 paper in front of you and I'm going to tell you how to fold it.

So you need to be listening carefully.

I'm not going to show you on the screen for a specific reason, which I'll explain in a moment.

So are you ready? I'd like you to fold your paper in half.

I'd like you to fold it in half again.

If I go too quickly, you can always pause the video.

Now, I'd like you to fold the corner on one side and the corner on the other side down.

Have you finished? Pause the video if you need more time.

Okay.

I, now, am going to show you what my piece of paper looks like when I do those instructions to fold it.

I wonder, does it look the same as yours? Let's have a look.

Is that what your piece of paper looks like team? Interesting.

I don't think it probably does because I wasn't clear enough with my instructions.

When I told you to fold the corners down, I didn't say which one or which side, so maybe you have opposite corners.

When I told you to fold it in half and then half again, it probably looks very different to mine.

Because when we write a scientific method, it's what we are doing, and the instructions need to be crystal clear so that somebody can replicate your experiment.

So for instance, your piece of paper looks different to mine, so my instructions weren't good enough.

In a scientific method, you want to write instructions that somebody could follow so that they could do your experiment exactly the same.

So they can do the experiment, how? Exactly the same.

Not just a little bit the same.

Not roughly.

Not nearly.

We want it exactly the same.

So that's why it's really important that we learn how to write a scientific method.

So let's do exactly that.

A scientific method, first of all, is for other people.

It's for other people to follow your experiment so that they, firstly, know what you did and they know exactly what you did, and if they want to, they could also do the same experiment again.

The instructions that you write need to be step by step.

So not in one big paragraph, like a story, you need to separate them out one by one.

Lastly, it needs to be very, very clear.

So not just fold the paper because there's lots of ways you can fold paper; in half, in quarters, diagonally.

So you've got to be really clear on what your instructions actually are.

The other thing that you need, which is very important, is you need to write an equipment list.

So when you're carrying out an experiment, you need to know what resources you're going to need for that lesson, oh sorry, for that experiment.

The reason I said lesson is actually, because I was thinking of an example in my head, which is at the start of this lesson, I told you what resources you needed to prepare.

I told you needed a pencil and a pen, a ruler, a notebook, and a piece of paper.

What did that mean for you for this lesson, team? Can you tell your screen? It meant that you could get? Ready, well done.

You could get all of the things that you need so that you're ready, and that's exactly the same as writing an equipment list for a method.

Because people need to know what equipment are used, and so they can also get ready if they're doing the experiments as well.

You can see that in my equipment list, I haven't used numbered steps.

What have I used? Can you tell your screen? Bullet points.

Well done.

I bullet pointed what equipment I need.

In this case, it was one seed tray, seed compost, tomato seeds, and water.

So my equipment list is a bullet pointed list of things that I used in the scientific investigation.

Followed by the equipment list, you would write out the method and this is where you have the numbered steps.

So let's look at this method.

I'm going to read it to you and then I'm going to show you exactly what tools I've used to write a really good scientific investigation method.

So number one was.

Let me just get rid of that arrow actually.

So number one was, First, we'll come back to that, fill the tray with seed compost.

Number two.

Next, add water to moisten the surface of the compost.

If you think I'm just doing crazy actions, team, I'm not just doing silly actions for fun.

What I'm doing is relating it to our STAR words.

So see, as I carry on reading, if you know what I'm talking about by my actions.

Number three.

Sprinkle the seeds evenly over the compost.

Number four.

Place the seed tray in a warm place.

Step five.

Spray the seeds with water once a day.

So let's have a look at the rules for writing a method and see if my silly actions from my STAR words were what you thought they were.

So at the top, just like my equipment list, I need to write method and underline it at the top of my page on the left-hand side.

Where do I write it? On the left-hand side.

Well done.

The next thing I need, did you get this STAR word that I was doing.

I was tapping my wrist.

I actually haven't got my watch on.

It's right here.

Normally, I have a watch on my wrist.

Because you need to write adverbs of time.

First and next are adverbs of time.

Can you say that with me? First and next are adverbs of time.

Well done.

So when we write down to our instructions, we use adverbs of time.

What do we use? Well done.

In pink, there are some words and I was doing this action.

Which STAR word was this action? Can you tell your screen? I'll give you clue if you're not sure.

Well done.

It was using the present tense.

So we want to write in the present tense, in our numbered steps, because we need to make sure that first is going to be number one.

Next are going to be the ones in between, and you might use an adverb of time, which might be finally at the end.

There are lots of adverbs of time that you could use.

I've given you two examples here.

So underline your method title at the top, adverbs of time, numbered steps and present tense.

I'd like you to pause the video and I'd like you to read out those important key information for how to write a good method.

Pause the video and read them out loud to your screen now.

Well done.

Okay, pause the video if you need more time to read those out.

If not, let's carry on.

So let's think about writing a method.

What we're going to do together is we're going to write our own method.

I'm going to show you a scientific investigation, Yes! and you're going to help me write it up into a scientific method.

So let me show you.

I'm going to show you my experiment so that we can write it up together.

So what's the first thing that you need to write up? What comes before the numbered steps? The equipment list.

Well done.

So let me show you the equipment.

Today, I'm making a string telephone in one of my sound experiments.

You're going to see Lenny the lion here.

He's just on the side.

So my equipment for this is a pair of scissors, a piece of string and two plastic cups.

That's the only equipment that you need for this investigation, so let's write that up as if we were writing out our method together.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to turn it onto my visualizer and I'm going to show you what I would write.

So here you can see I've already written my title "Equipment" and underlined it ready.

Now I need to write out the three pieces of equipment that I showed you.

So number one was my scissors.

I'm going to use my nice, neat handwriting.

So I use scissors.

I then need my one piece of string.

And lastly, I had two plastic cups.

I want you to pause the video now and write out your equipment list for the investigation.

Pause the video now and have a go.

Okay, well done, everyone.

You're doing so well.

So you should have written your equipment list now.

Let's have a look.

So what I now going to do is I'm going to show you the experiment and then we'll write up the method together.

So using my equipment, what I'm going to do? The first thing you need to do.

Have a think.

If you want to make notes, as I write this down, then you can do and then we can write it up neatly together.

The first thing I'm going to do is take my plastic cup and my scissors and make a hole in the base of my cup.

You need to this carefully.

I'm also going to do it in the base of the other cup.

In right in the centre.

So the both cups now have a hole in the bottom.

Next.

You might want to use that word in your writeup.

Next, I'm going to thread the string into the base of one of the cups if I can get it through.

So I'm going to thread it through and then I'm going to pull it through like this.

I'm going to tie a knot in the string like this.

That's nice and tight.

You can see the big knot there.

So that when I pull it through to the bottom, it stays.

It doesn't come through as I'm pulling it.

And I need to repeat that on the other cup.

So here's the other cup.

Threading the string through.

Well, I can't quite reach it.

There you go.

Pull it through and tie a knot in the string on the inside of the cup.

Because if I said to somebody tie the knots on the outside, they might tie knot there, which wouldn't be very useful.

So the knots need to be on the inside of the cup.

So now I have my string attached to the cups with knots inside the cups.

Then in order to use the.

This is my string telephone for my sound experiment and then need to pull it taut, and you speak into one end of the cups and somebody else listens on the other end and you can hear yourself.

Have a look at the sound topic if you want to know more about that.

So I'm just going to pause there for a second.

That was my experiment to make a string telephone.

But I told you about it talking quite quickly and I was elaborating.

I was giving you lots more information than you need if I was writing out the method.

So let's have a look what would I actually write if I was going to write that out.

Let me show you what I would write.

So first things first, I need to write method at the top and underline it.

Pause the video and do that now.

Well done.

What's the first thing I need to do on the left-hand side? Is it going to be a bullet point or is it going to be a number? Can you tell your screen? Well done.

It's going to be a number.

So number one.

What's going to be my first adverb of time? Will it be firstly or lastly? Well done.

I wouldn't write lastly for number one, because that wouldn't make any sense.

So firstly.

I know the adverbs of time, firstly, always have a comma after them.

So firstly.

What did I do? I use the scissors.

Use the scissors.

What did I do with the scissors and the end of the cup? Can you tell your screen and finish my sentence? Firstly, use the scissors to.

Well done.

I hope you've had a go at that to your screen.

Firstly, use the scissors to make a hole.

in the base of.

Is it just one of the cups or was it both cups? Well done.

So I could say, "of each cup." Pause the video and write the first step of your method out now.

Well done.

Pause the video if you need more time.

If not, I want you now to think about what the second thing would be.

What was the second step? I did something with a string through the cup.

So let's use the adverb of time next and I want you to have a go all by yourself.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you.

This is what I'm going to show you.

So we've written our equipment list.

Now, I want you to finish writing out the method.

So we've done the first one together and I've given you an adverb of time for number two and for number three.

So I want you to have a really good go at writing out that whole method all by yourself now that you know how to do an scientific investigation and write up the method.

If you need to, you can go back and watch the experiment that I did again in case you've forgotten some of the steps, 'cause I know that there was a lot to remember, so you might need to go back and forth.

So have a go, team, at writing out your method.

Okay.

I hope you had a good go at writing that out.

It might've been a bit tricky for you, but I'm sure you had a really good go.

Lenny and I are really, really impressed.

So well done everyone and we'll see you next time.

Bye!.