Challenge for Year 7s

by Laura Garside,
Teacher of Science

I have being thinking of ways to challenge my very able top set Year 7's.

I was covering the carbon cycle with them and thought instead of simply telling them what it is, could the students themselves think about what the cycle would look like and find out how it works independently.

 

In order to do this, I spilt the class into 6 groups and gave each group a section of props which were; a toy car, a picture of a flower, some dead leaves, a piece of coal, an empty bottle labelled C02, a food carton labelled 'factory' and a bottle of crude oil. They also got some felt tip pens and sugar paper.

Before we started, we had a class discussion about what carbon is and why it is important. We discussed the processes of carbon dioxide in respiration and in photosynthesis.

I asked each group to try to link the objects together and make them into a cycle using arrows and key words. Each group then had a team leader who explained their completed diagram to the class.

 

 

 The results were amazing already! Despite having not been told anything about the cycle, they made very strong links and I was also able to pick up misconceptions like they thought coal made crude oil.

After this task...I still didn't tell them! I gave them a piece of comprehension about the carbon cycle and they had to read through the text highlighting where carbon was found, when carbon is taken in and when carbon is given out. They then drew their own cycle in their books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After this, I went through the carbon cycle, showed them an animation and went through it step by step. Students then completed a diagram that I provided them with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was very successful; they felt challenged throughout, but were also engaged as they wanted to solve the mystery of the Carbon cycle.