Bubble Festival GEMS Project, Amy Hazelett, Monica Vargas

Water*
2 one-quart containers of Dawn and Joy dish-washing liquid*
2 cups glycerin*
1 or 2 packages of paper towels*
150 drinking straws
2-4 five-gallon buckets for mixing bubble solution
1 empty one-gallon container
1 one- or two-cup capacity measure
3 or more squeegees
1 plastic squirt bottle
8 cottage cheese-style containers about 16 oz. each
dish pans for clean-up drop cloths, butcher paper, and/or a stack of newspaper to absorb spills
access to a laminator
file folders to make signs for tables

* Ingredients for bubble solution

Resources needed for Bubble Shapes:

2 cottage cheese containers
bubble solution

Resources needed for Bubble Measurement:

2 cottage cheese containers
bubble solution
plastic coated measuring tapes
meter-sticks
yardsticks
rulers
protractors
about 50 unifix cubes
1 yard string or yarn
popsicle sticks
pencils
coffee stirrers
toothpicks
uniform-sized buttons
concentric rings
laminated circles of labeled diameters

Safety Considerations:

Ensure that the students do not drink the bubble solution or put it in their mouth.
Go over blowing the bubbles to ensure that students do not inhale the bubble solution.
Instruct students on what the proper way to rinse out their eye if the bubble solution gets in it.
Instruct students that horseplay and splashing are not to occur to avoid someone getting hurt.
Remind students that paper towels are on the tables if an accident occurs and that the spills must be cleaned up promptly to avoid accidents and injury.

Supplementary Materials/Handouts:

Bubble Station Signs that tell students the name of the activity and give guided instructions for students.
The signs will read:
- Bubbles Shapes/What to do: Page 61 and 62
- Bubble Measurement/What to do: Page 70 and 71

ENGAGE TIME: 10 Minutes
What the teacher will do	Probing Questions	Student Responses and Potential Misconceptions
The teacher will ask questions to spark the students interest (probing questions)	Can someone tell me what an igloo is? Does anyone think that they can blow a bubble shaped like an igloo?	An igloo is where Eskimos live. They are made of blocks of ice. They are shaped like a tent.
Shapes are all around us. The teacher will grab the student's attention by challenging them to discover all of the different shapes and sizes of bubbles.	Those are all great answers. Bubbles can be blown into all sorts of shapes and sizes. I challenge you all to go to your stations and follow the directions to see who can discover how to make the most shapes and also who can make the biggest bubble. We will measure them using the items on the table. Make sure to write how large your bubble is in your journal so we can talk about it tomorrow.	All of the students will be excited to learn and come up with the most shapes and the biggest bubble as well. Each will challenge their friends to make the biggest bubble.

EXPLORATION TIME: 20 minutes
What will the teacher do?	Probing Questions	Student Responses and Potential Misconceptions
The teacher will first discuss the safety measures before the students move into their groups.	Can anyone tell me what would happen if the bubbles if the bubbles get on the floor or in our eyes? Yes, accidents may happen, but we are going to follow the safety rules in order for all of us to remain safe. The bubbles solution is to stay on the table. If a spill occurs, there are paper towels and newspaper at each table to clean it up as soon as possible. It is very important that no one runs due to the floor being slippery and do not put the bubble solution in your mouth or eyes.	The floor will get bubbles all over it and be wet. It will be slippery. What if the bubbles touch my cheeks? Is that okay?
The teacher will give a brief description of the 2 activities and split the students into groups to begin the bubble festival.	Today, we are going to be exploring bubble shapes and bubble measurement. At the shape station, you will be working on seeing how many shapes you can create out of the bubbles. At the measurement station, you will be measuring how big your bubble creations are.	I bet I can make the biggest bubble. I wonder if we can make a bubble as big as the table.
The teacher will walk around to ensure that all students are participating, exploring, and discovering. He/she will ask probing questions to build on the student's knowledge.	What have you discovered? Why do you think that is happening? I see that you made a dome shaped bubble. Do you think that you could make a triangular bubble? Which bubble do you estimate is larger? Do you think that your next bubble will be larger than this one? How many bubbles do you think it will take to cover the table?	I can make square bubbles, kind of circle bubbles, and I am trying to make more. No, you cannot make bubbles that are triangles. Well, maybe if you have a mold or something. Mine. It is taller than hers. No, mine is the widest and covers more of the table. I am not sure. You have to blow or stretch it just right, so we will see. About 107?

EXPLANATION TIME: 10 minutes

What will the teacher do?

Probing Questions

Student Responses and Potential Misconceptions

The teacher will have the students talk about what discoveries they made.

He/she will walk about the different types of shapes that the students were able to make.

He/she will also talk to the students about what their largest bubble was and what tools they used to measure it.

So, who was able to make a triangle bubble?

What other types of bubbles were you all able to make?

Did anyone try to make a bubble that was did not work? Can you tell us why you think that it did not work?

So who made the biggest bubble?

What tools did you use to measure it?

Some of the students would say yes and the others that did not shape their straws into a triangle would say no.

*I would ask the students that did make the triangle to share how they did it with the other students.

Circles, squares, triangles, dome, and igloo

I made the biggest bubble. Mine had a diameter of 7...mine had a ten.

*did anyone have larger than that?

Unifix cubes, ruler, straws, and yarn

ELABORATION TIME:
What will the teacher do?	Probing Questions	Student Responses and Potential Misconceptions
The teacher will introduce polygon cutouts and ask the students if they saw these shapes in the bubbles that they made.	Can anyone tell me what these shapes are? Did any of you all see any of these when you blew your bubbles?	A stop sign. A rectangle. An octagon.
The teacher will challenge the students to see how many bubbles can be blown inside a bubble, inside a bubble, inside a bubble and so on.	Did any of you blow a bubble inside of a bubble? Let's try to see if it is possible to blow a bubble inside of a bubble, inside of a bubble, and so on.	The students all believe that it is possible. They are go straight to see who can blow one bubble inside of another bubble.
The teacher will ask the students to find out the maximum amount of bubbles that touch one another at one time (in the honeycomb).	Now, I want us to try something a little different. How many bubbles do you all think can be blown on top of each other like a honeycomb?	The students are confused about the honeycomb challenge so I compare it to the bee honeycomb and they now understand. They go straight to see how many bubbles they can blow on their honeycomb.

EVALUATION TIME:
What will the teacher do?	Probing Questions	Student Responses and Potential Misconceptions
The teacher will flip through their Bubble Journals to ensure that they have grasped the concepts	N/A	N/A
As a whole, the class will create a Bubble Discovery Book.	Have you covered what you learned? Is there anything you left out or need to describe more deeply?	Yes/No.
Have the students tell you what their hypothesis is for how the shapes are formed	Can anyone tell me how the bubble shapes are formed and stay together?	The soap and water like the air pressure around and inside them. The gasses and air inside the bubble.