At the beginning of the year in second grade science, two of the first questions we ask are, “What is a scientist?” and “What do scientists do?”. These free back to school science activities will help you answer those questions and introduce your students to the scientific processes all scientists use.
What Do Scientists Do?
Scientists help us understand our works and how it works. And it all starts with a question. Human discovery, innovation, and new design ideas begin with someone wondering, what would happen, how a problem could be solved, or by searching for an explanation to something unexplained.
Encouraging our students to wonder and question teaches them to think like a scientist.
Introduce the Inquiry Process
Scientist use a special process called the inquiry process. Focusing on each step of this process teaches students the actions scientists take to answer a question.
By becoming familiar with the inquiry process, students gain an understanding of how to plan and carry out investigations.
The lessons in this free unit familiarize students with the steps to the inquiry process. The lessons, teaching Power Point, and activities are included in both a printable and digital version on Google Slides.
Teach Science Process Skills
Students are introduced to the many skills required to design and carry out a reliable science experiment. Those skills, called process skills, standardize an experiment ensuring it is accurate, repeatable, and meaningful.
In this science mini unit, students are introduced to process skills:
- observation
- inferring
- predicting
- classifying
- measuring
- communicating
- experimenting
- representing data
- controlling variables
After each lesson, students complete turn and talk partner discussions, and journal activities.
Introduce Science Tools and Safety Rules
One of the most important things to teach in science at the beginning of the year, is science safety. Introducing students to science safety rules is a key component, not only for classroom management, but to keep students safe. Familiarizing students with the tools scientists use and proper ways to use them, also ensures student safety and successful labs. I highly recommend teaching those the first week you start science.
Get FREE Science Lessons
Build a foundation for science in your classroom and get these back to school activities for FREE! Pop your email in below and I’ll send the entire unit straight to your inbox! (Be sure to check spam if you don’t see my email.)
Additional Digital Science Units
CLICK HERE for more interactive, digital science units with narrated audio lessons. Students easily work independently at home or in the classroom!
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Happy teaching!
I recently bought your habitat unit for 2nd grade. I would like the free copy of “What do Scientists Do?”
Hi Joe,
Add your email address to the form in this post the unit will be automatically sent to you. I hope your students enjoy it!
~Linda
I would like the files to go with this lesson!
Hi Lauren,
There is a form in this post to drop your email address into and the files will be automatically sent to your inbox.
This looks amazing!!!
Thank you! Teaching science virtually is tough.
where do we find the powerpoint slides that go along with the lesson plan for the free introduction to inquiry?
Hi Katylin,
It is in the folder the download comes in. If you don’t see all the files, it sounds like you still need to unzip the ZIP file the download comes in. Right click on the folder after it is saved to your computer, then click ‘extract all’.
I hope your class enjoys the unit!
Linda
Thank you. I love the simplicity and creativity of your lessons!