Becoming Scientists

What is a scientist and what do they do? These are the two essential questions we use to start our first science unit. After exploring what different scientists do and the steps they use to form ideas, we started to try it out ourselves. One of the first thing scientists need to do is make observations. As scientists, we stepped outside our school to observe nature and all the surroundings in the environment around us. Students shared what they saw, heard, touched, and smelled. Through exploration the students discovered that scientists use what we call "the five senses." 

We are going to be focusing on each sense individually to get a better understanding on how we can make observations using them. The first sense we focused on is the sense of taste. What better way to start the unit right?! I can't say we tested anything too exciting though. I used baby food to make this taste testing game a mystery. Students weren't allowed to see, smell, or feel the food(at least not in its original state). Even if the kids peeked the mushed up pears, bananas, peaches, carrots, and apples hardly resembled their original state to give it away. By taking away their other senses, it helped them to only hone in on the sense of taste. Students had to try to take what they already know to make observations on the food through taste to discover what the food was. Check back soon to see how we explore the other senses!