Spooktacular Science

Grades 3-5: Interactive livestream series

Overview

Which do you find most spooky: bugs, bones, or guts? Can you think of why each of these are important to study? During this science unit we will focus on each of these topics to solve a larger mystery of a decomposing animal found by scientists at the Academy. Sessions and associated activities will support aspects of the NGSS and ELA Common Core.

  • Session 1: Bugs and Bones

  • Session 2: If Skulls Could Talk

  • Session 3: Animal Guts!!

Schedule: October 2020

  • 3rd grade, English Only: Tuesdays at 11:00am PT (Oct. 6, 13, and 20)

  • 3rd grade, Bilingual in Spanish & English: Wednesdays at 11:00am PT (Oct. 7, 14 and 21)

  • 4th & 5th grade, English Only: Tuesdays at 10:00am PT (Oct. 6, 13, and 20)

  • 4th & 5th grade, Bilingual in Spanish & English: Wednesdays at 10:00am PT (Oct. 7, 14 and 21)

Registration is now closed, but don't fret! We'll be posting all the recordings here within 48 hours of each live session.

What is an interactive livestream series?

An interactive livestream series consists of three weekly consecutive sessions in one month. Each live session is a 30-40 minute lesson, taught by a team of professional educators, and broadcast to multiple classes at the same time via YouTube. Students will interact with the educators through hands-on activities, and by using Mentimeter. Teachers and students have access to optional extension activities to do in between each session. These options are great for classes who may meet asynchronously because links of the recordings will be shared.

Prep for students & Extension activities

Materials: Students will need a pencil and a piece of paper to sketch on during each webinar.

Prep & extension activities: these are designed to be self-directed by the students or used as class group work, and may be built upon by the teacher if they desire. Activities range from 5-30 minutes long. Students | Estudiantes

NGSS connections

This unit supports the following standards:

Crosscutting Concepts

  • Structure and Function

Related Performance Expectations

  • 3-LS4-3. Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

  • 4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

  • 5-LS2-1. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.

ELA / Literacy Common Core connections

This unit’s supporting lessons can augment and provide a real life context for these ELA standards.

Text Types and Purposes (grades 3-5):

    • 1. Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

    • 3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique

Research to Build and Present Knowledge (grades 3-5):

    • 7. Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.

    • 8. Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

Connection & technology information

A week before the first session, registered parties will receive an email containing the unique YouTube destination for the live programs. There are several ways to tune in:

  1. Share the link(s) with students, or parents in advance to bookmark the location(s). Individuals can watch the livestream in a browser on their own device. Consider using a Google sheet, Padlet, or other platform to simulate a chat within your own class to share their thoughts, ideas, and observations during the event.

  2. A few minutes before the livestream begins, paste the unique YouTube link in the chat box of your virtual classroom. When students click the link, a browser will open on their device and they can tune in. (If you have your virtual classroom running at the same time, remember to mute everyone!)

  3. If you are able to stream a Youtube video to your whole class on the virtual platform of your choice (for example, Zoom or Google Meet), then screen-sharing the YouTube Livestream to your class may also work. We highly recommend testing this out in advance, perhaps by streaming the first 30 seconds of the Skulls: Scaffolding Under the Skin video. Are the visuals choppy? How is the sound? If you experience any weirdness, it's best to have students watch the stream from their own device's browser.

Pro-tip: You can make the livestream Full Screen by clicking the icon in the lower right of the video.

Rest assured that we'll be posting the recording within 48 hours of the livestream, so if technology issues or asynchronous schedules get in the way, you can still assign the video for viewing afterwards!

If you have questions or need us to resend the email (check your junk folder first!), please contact us at distancelearning@calacademy.org. We also recommend adding that email address to your contacts to help ensure our messages are accepted by your district's email domain.

Distance Learning is open to all K-8 students wherever they are set-up to engage in remote learning this fall—be that in a classroom, at home, in a learning pod, or at a community learning hub. Interested in other livestreams for your class this year? Visit the Distance Learning website.