PR-6170RUK Science A STEM Approach - Primary 1

Living Things
LIVING THINGS HAVE NEEDS
Teacher Notes
STEM Project
STEM Project: Make a Home for a Parrot
Pupils work in pairs to design and create a home for a parrot out of recycled and natural
materials. The home must be able to hang in a tree and must meet the parrot’s needs. Pupils
must then create a video of their bird house, describing the needs of the parrot and how the
features of the home help to cater for these needs.
Estimated duration: 4 weeks
1. Introduce the project
• Read the problem on page 32 to pupils.
• Watch the first 27 seconds of the online
video clip from the film Rio at . This video clip shows
a macaw and its owner getting ready in the
morning in a very unusual way.
• As a class, ask pupils to close their eyes
and think about these questions: Do all
birds live the way Blu lives in the film clip?
What kinds of homes do birds live in? What
do they need in their home to survive?
• Read the task and the important things to
do on page 32 to pupils. Show pupils the
cardboard cut–out of a parrot using page
34. Pupils will need to make sure their bird
home will fit a parrot of this size. Note:
Keep the design brief on display on the
interactive whiteboard or print an A3 copy
and put it on display for pupils to refer to.
2. Find out information
• Provide time for pupils to find out
information about birds.
——
Place images of different bird homes on
the interactive whiteboard for pupils to
look at.
——
Provide a selection of non-fiction
and fiction texts for pupils to look at,
ensuring that only factual information is
transferred.
——
Talk to people that care for birds
such as zookeepers, pet owners
and vets to see how they care
for birds.
3. Design, plan and manage resources
• Pupils plan their bird home and create a
diagram of it, labelling the features that
cater for the bird’s needs. They should also
draw the needs of the bird around the bird
home to ensure they cater for each one.
• Pupils collect the materials necessary.
Remind pupils about resource
management, conserving resources and
ensuring that resources are shared.
4. Create
• Pupils choose which materials they will use
to make each feature of their bird home.
• Pupils create their bird home according to
their diagram.
5. Evaluate and refine
• Pupils evaluate their designed bird home
to ensure that all the criteria on page 32 is
included.
• Pupils make any adjustments necessary to
their designed product.
6. Communicate
• Pupils create a video of the bird home
using a tablet computer application or a
digital camera, explaining to Jack the things
birds need to survive and how each feature
of the home caters for the bird’s needs.
• Display the bird feeders outside and
have pupils, in their pairs, take turns to
share the features of their bird home and
explain how it will help a parrot meet its
needs.
• Pupils complete the self-assessment
on page 35 to show how well they
participated and cooperated.
Viewing sample
www.prim-ed.com – Prim-Ed Publishing 978-1-912760-14-5 Infants
Science:
A STEM APPROACH
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