Crocodiles sharpen up science skills

With the help of a special guest, Cleveland Elementary students dove into science with some outside-the-box activities. Judie Becarro, an elementary science instructional coach for the school system, visited Crocodiles in kindergarten, 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade to conduct creative science investigations. 

“Is Water Sticky?” taught kindergarteners to use math, social studies, and science to investigate the properties of water to determine if it is sticky. They made predictions and collected data about the number of drops of water that each coin would hold and also used models, graphing, and ordering of numbers. 

The 3rd graders studied “Quick Frozen Critters,” an activity where students describe adaptations related to predator and prey relationship and explain the importance of adaptations in predator and prey relationships. They played the role of predator or prey found in the Piedmont region of Georgia and collected data about the number of prey captured and used the data to form a line plot.

“Light Optics Lab” thrilled 4th graders as they used a light source, convex and concave lenses, mirrors, and prisms to observe how light behaves when it interacts with objects. Using their new-found knowledge, they made predictions about how light travels and what happens when light interacts with the objects.

The 5th graders focused on “Poison Pumps,” a scenario where they applied scientific investigative skills used by epidemiologists to trace the source of contagious diseases to foil a killer on the streets of London.