Learning Activity Guides in Association With Sheffield Hallam University Institute of Education
The following guides have been developed alongside Sheffield Hallam University Institute of Education. These plans can be used as a general scaffold to build a set of lessons from to be performed over a few different practicals.
Please note these are written in Google Docs so if downloading in Word or as a PDF you may see some formatting errors. Google Docs is available for free to anyone with a Gmail account.
Although we have set these out in year groups each of these guides can be adapted in complexity to suit the age or ability of the children you are teaching so have a look at them all.
As ever, your feedback is much appreciated and have fun!
The Moti-Lab Team
Child Led Exploration – Early Years
This activity guide gives an overview of the many uses Moti-Lab can be put to for child led learning in Early Years Foundation Stage science and maths curriculum. It highlights how you can use existing resources to augment the learning that can be performed on Moti-Lab and various strategies to promote exploration, investigation and teamwork as well as highlighting the sensory learning Moti-Lab promotes.
Year 1 – Sort It Out
This activity guide explores many aspects of KS1 Science curriculum. Focusing on materials and their ability to flow / float etc and how we can use simple experiments in Year 1 to classify these objects. With several areas of focus you can adapt this guide to perform a number of experiments and investigations over a period of time to suit you.
Year 2 – Stop The Flow
This activity focuses on water and flow. Children are encouraged to investigate how their interactions with Moti-Lab determines how water flows around the modules. Interventions by the children are hypothesised and carried out, and reflections on the results are encouraged. Encompassing various elements of the KS1 Science curriculum such as volume ad materials. Carry out an investigation into waterproof materials by stopping the flow!
Year 3 – Super Slides
Investigating shape and materials as well as friction, Super Slides is a fun group of activities all relating to speed and how fast or slow objects move and why. Great for bringing in timing exercises, measurement, angles and data presentation in simple graphs.
Year 4 – Liquid or Solid?
Exploring changes of state by experimenting with different materials on Moti-Lab with investigations such as does ice flow? Is it faster than water. Liquid or Solid has a large focus on working scientifically and scientific thinking, data recording and presentation.
Year 5 – Go Slow
Take it easy, slow down. This activity investigates the none contact force of gravity and how to control its effect upon a downwards moving object. A fun practical, building the slowest marble run possible, it brings in a huge amount of engineering principles, timing, data collection and presentation as well as relating the learning to real life examples.
Year 6 – What Goes Up Must Come Down
A really engaging activity on forces building on previous knowledge and relating gradients to cycling races. Children investigate different angles and explore their effects on speed of objects going down the gutters, using these results further calculations can be predicated and tested.