The Ideas and Inventions module consists of four sequential investigations that promote student creativity and inventiveness. Each investigation provides valuable science content while introducing a conventional technique for revealing the unseen.

FOSS expects students to:

• Use techniques to see details about the world that would otherwise be difficult to observe.
• Explore the techniques of chromatography, rubbing, carbon printing, and mirror imagery.
• Solve problems using the techniques of chromatography and carbon printing.
• Record and compare patterns observed in leaf veins, fingerprints, and ink pigments.
• Gain experience with texture and pattern in a variety of materials.
• Express individual and group creativity through open-ended discoveries and inventions.
• Invent applications to extend the use of specific techniques.
• Acquire the vocabulary associated with texture and patterns of materials and exercise language in the context of science.
• Use scientific thinking processes to conduct investigations and build explanations: observing, communicating, comparing, and organizing.
  

Parts List

Grades 5 - 6

The four investigations in the Models and Designs module provide experiences that develop the concept of a scientific model and engage students in design and construction. The atmosphere generated by this module is one of open discussion, free exchange of ideas, and development of ideas into products.

FOSS expects students to:

• Manipulate objects and materials.
• Design and construct conceptual and physical models.
• Look for relationships between structure and function of materials and systems.
• Organize and analyze data from investigations with physical objects and systems.
• Apply mathematics in the context of science.
• Acquire vocabulary associated with engineering and technology.
• Gain confidence in their abilities to solve problems.
• Learn that there is often more than one solution to a problem.
• Communicate ideas to peers and work in a collaborative scientific manner.
• Use scientific thinking processes to conduct investigations and build explanations: observing, communicating, comparing, organizing, and relating.
  

Parts List

Grades 5 - 6

Some of the most important scientific concepts students learn are the result of their ability to see relationships between objects and events. Relationships always involve interactions, dependencies, and cause and effect. The Variables Module has four investigations that help students discover relationships through controlled experimentation. Students will fling, float, fly, and flip objects as they discover relationships in each investigation.

FOSS expects students to:

• Gain experience with the concept of variable.
• Gain experience with the concept of system.
• Design and conduct controlled experiments.
• Construct materials that will be used in the investigations.
• Acquire some understanding of the behavior of pendulums.
• Gain experience with buoyancy.
• Use data to make predictions.
• Apply mathematics in the context of science.
• Record and graph data concretely, pictorially, and symbolically to discover relationships.
• Acquire the vocabulary associated with controlled experimentation.
• Use scientific thinking processes to conduct investigations and build explanations: observing, communicating, comparing, organizing, and relating.