Gold Rush believes that students need to learn science by doing science. We strive to present concepts in engaging ways that allow students to connect with prior learning and life experiences. We then want students to explore concepts through hands-on experiments so that they can create hypotheses, generate authentic questions and test variables. We also want to explain different scientific principles so students can draw conclusions and apply their understanding in future investigations.
We see this approach in classrooms across grades K-5. Our youngest students have been learning the concepts of force and motion. They are building a catapult with two different types of force and a race car. Students are experimenting with how differences in force affect the speed of the car and the distance it travels. Third graders are currently learning about matter. In a virtual lab, students observed particles as change as they changed states. Students also produced carbon dioxide via an acid-base reaction. They were excited to mix a solid and liquid to produce a gas! Fifth graders are determining how much salt can be added to water before it becomes saturated. Students are comparing their results with those from other materials, such as rocks.
It is amazing to watch students' genuine enthusiasm and excitement during science! Their authentic questions and reactions represent our beliefs about how to best teach science.
