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Revisit the concepts of Air
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Reflecting on concepts about Air
- Immediately following the investigations above, ask your students
to share their drawings.
- Begin with the cup investigation, and confirm that everyone drew
or circled the same arrangement. (If different arrangements were
chosen, ask someone to repeat those arrangements to test the wetness
of the material in the bottom of the cup.)
- Ask the students to explain why the straight down approach worked
while the others did not. Coach the students as they respond until everyone
gets the idea that the cup was filled with "something" that
kept the water from getting to the puffs. What might that something
be? Ask the students to label this space on the drawing as "Air".
- Now have your students reflect on the wood, mallet and paper experiment.
Ask them how air is involved in what happened. (They should be able
to conclude that the air acted like hands holding down the wood. You
might need to explain that the newspaper allowed for even more air to
push down since a bigger surface was involved.)
- Ask students to add an arrow to their drawing labeled with the word
"air" to show that air was responsible for holding down the
wood on the table.
- Finally ask the students what they have learned about air. (A
concept map would be an ideal way to organize their understanding.)
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