With the strong emphasis on literacy and mathematics in the primary grades science is often a neglected area of the elementary school day. Science is an area where often students working below grade level in other subject areas may be motivated and able to excel. This provides an outlet for students' curiosity about the way things in their environment work, while providing hands-on experiences to build knowledge. This curriculum unit aims to serve as a meaningful and appropriate science unit, which is designed with the State of Connecticut Performance Standards in Science and Language Arts for grades K-4 in mind. While this curriculum is written with first grade in mind, all of these activities could be modified for grades K-2.
This curriculum unit aims to give students the opportunity to explore one aspect of physics in their day to day lives. Children often wonder how and why things work. However sound is something they usually take for granted. The children will be engaged throughout this unit due to their underlying curiosity of the world around them. This unit will also serve as a springboard into the wide world of physics, hopefully opening the minds to all of the possibilities.
