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Pennsbury School District, Edgewood Elementary
School By sharing one of her own interests with her students, KSN teacher Gloria Levitt has developed a rich interdisciplinary extension for a unit on balancing and weighing. Using STC's Balancing and Weighing Kit, Gloria has helped her 2nd grade students at Edgewood Elementary School in the Pennsbury School District explore some key science concepts about balance and weight. She then goes on to use her own collection of antique scales to acquaint students with a variety of weighing instruments and to provide a unique opportunity for developing math and problem-solving skills.
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Gathered over a period of fifteen years, Gloria's
collection includes both beautiful and utilitarian
weighing tools, in a variety of sizes, shapes and
mechanisms. Some are too delicate for hands-on use by
students, but ideal for generating interest in the
history of technology and curiosity about how the
scales work.
Earlier in the unit, students represented their ideas
about balance and weight in drawings of ballerinas,
trained seals, skateboards and other examples from
experience or imagination. They also had plenty of
questions about the topic. |
Building the colorful mobiles that decorate the room
had given the children a chance to apply what they
had learned about balance and weight as well as to
experiment with a fascinating art form. In their
science journals, they wrote about their experiences
and what they had learned. "Mobiles are like shapes in a circus." "I think it was frustrating but it was still fun." "I learned that if one side is down, to make it balance you have to move the fulcrum or the beam. " "I learned that if you put the same weight on each side it will balance." |
The day before our visit, Gloria had introduced what
students called her "weighing things," and explained
how to use them. The class was organized in teams of
three to rotate through numbered stations, and use
the scale at each station to answer a particular
question. |
One question was "How many pennies make an ounce?"
Of course, the other question is how to use this
scale to find the answer.
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Each question required that teams not only weigh
certain objects, but also develop a strategy to solve
the problem. For example, the students were asked to
complete this sentence: "The basket with 4 eggs
weighs ______ more than the empty basket."
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