My Science Box

Time
10-15 min glue monsters demo
30-40 min alive or not alive card sorting and discussion
30-45 min create characteristics of life lists

Grouping
The card sorting activity and initial creation of a list of the characteristics of life is done in pairs. These pairs will eventually merge in groups of 4 to compare, discuss, and revise their lists. The remainder of the discussion takes place as an entire class.

Materials
For the “glue monsters” demo, the teacher needs:

• 1 overhead projector
• 1 tube of Duco® cement glue (according to Flinn Scientific, this is the only brand of glue that works reliably)
• 1 clear Petri dish
• water
• ground pepper or pencil shavings

For the card sorting activity, each pair of students needs:

• copy of the sorting cards on cardstock paper, cut out and placed in an envelope

For developing a characteristics of life list, each class needs:

• butcher paper or flip chart paper
• markers

Setting
Classroom