Aims | Outline | Curriculum Relevance | Background | Activities |
The Blue Dragon
Programme 8: Changing Things
This programme aims to develop children's
understanding of changes in state and the idea that some things can
be changed through heating and freezing.
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In this programme the characters find themselves in a
Polar Region of snow and ice. They are hungry but cannot see food
and they are thirsty but all the water is frozen. Along comes an
animal called Po-Lar Bear, who shows them an ice-house (igloo)
where people have left food. The animals find that the food is
frozen but Cinders comes to the rescue by thawing, then cooking it,
but has some mishaps with chocolate and ice lollies. The programme
focuses on changes due to heat, both raising and lowering the
temperature.
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The programme
explores:
- changes in state of water from liquid to solid
(water to ice);
- changes in state of water from solid to liquid (ice
to water);
- different substances melting and solidifying, eg
chocolate, butter;
- changing food due to heat, eg making toast, cooking
eggs;
- reversible and irreversible changes.
There are many curriculum
links that can be made for example:
- Design and technology – designing and cooking
their favourite bread baguette pizza.
- English – create a list of words describing
cold places and challenge children to use them in written work on
Polar Regions.
- History – tell children the story of Sir
Ernest Shackleton
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Ice is water that has been cooled to freezing point
and changed to a solid. Although we cannot see it, the atoms in
materials are vibrating all of the time. When cooled they vibrate
less and move further apart and the water becomes solid (water when
turning to ice expands and becomes lighter so that it floats).
Whilst young children will not need to know about the changes at
the level of the atom, they do need to understand that cooling some
liquids to zero degrees centigrade will make them change from a
liquid to a solid.
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Make some 'Ice Hands'. Take
some ice into the classroom, but not just ice cubes, make ice
shapes or ice hands (filling plastic gloves with water and freezing
them). The latter will melt slowly through the day. Ask children to
predict:
- How long will the ice hand take to melt?
- Which part do you think will melt first, and
why?
- What other ice shapes could we make and how?
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