About This Lesson
This is a two-day lesson that incorporates direct instruction about variables with a hands-on experiment for students to conduct. The lesson teaches students about variables and how they contribute to the results of an experiment or process. To introduce students to variables, they will make paper airplanes to understand independent and dependent variables, as well as control groups. The lesson also integrates what students already know about magnets and magnetism with an experiment on day two. Groups of students will change different variables in a magnetic slime recipe.
Then as a class, they will compare the magnetism, viscosity, and other elements of the slime to see how changing the different variables affects the slime. Students will learn how to document their process and assess the data at the end of the experiment. To assess understanding, students will complete an assessment, demonstrating their knowledge of experimental design and variables.
