Save Fred!!!

Fred has been spending his summer boating in the Great Lakes. But he’s not too bright (after all, the brains of worms are pretty small). He’s never learned how to swim and he never wears his life preserver. The worst has happened! His boat has

capsized and he’s stuck! Fortunately, his life preserver is in the boat, but unfortunately he

does not know how to reach it without falling off and drowning.

Save Fred!!!What are you responsible for? You will be completing a write-up for your Save Fred experience. This is not necessarily how we will complete write-up’s in my class, but it will give us a great start! Each student needs to complete a write-up. You will need to complete the following steps:

Step 1: Question

Step 2: Research

Step 3: Hypothesis

Step 4: Materials

Step 5: Test Your Hypothesis

Step 6: Procedure

Step 7: Observe/Collect Data

Step 8: Conclusion

Save Fred!!!Question: How can you and your partner save Fred using only 4 paper clips?

Save Fred!!!

• Research:

• Make some observations about Fred and each of the materials listed. Remember they can be qualitative or quantitative observations.

Save Fred!!!

Hypothesis:

With your partner, write down in one or two sentences how you two plan to save Fred. (Remember that a hypothesis is an ‘if-then’ statement: I think that if I do this, then this will happen)

Save Fred!!!

Materials:• 1 gummy worm• 1 gummy life preserver• 1 plastic cup• 4 paperclips

Save Fred!!!

Rules:1.Fred can only fall 1 time.2.Fred cannot be injured.3.You may only use paper clips to touch anything.• Fred, the boat, the life preserver can be

touched only with the paper clips. NO HANDS.

Save Fred!!!

• TEST YOUR HYPOTHESIS:

• Brainstorm the specifics of how to execute the plan you stated in your hypothesis (You don’t need to write anything down for this step).

Save Fred!!!

Procedure:

-As you work with your partner to save Fred, remember to write what you did STEP BY STEP! Anyone should be able to read your procedure, follow it step by step, and get the same results as you did.

Save Fred!!!

Observe/Collect Data:

Draw THREE pictures in the boxes provided…A. A picture of the set up before you saved

Fred.B. A picture of the set up during the saving

procedure (Were the paper clips holding something? Etc).

C. A picture showing how Fred looked like when he was saved.

Save Fred!!!

Conclusion:

Look over your data and revisions and write out how you saved Fred.

If you have not saved him, what do you think needs to be done? How could your experiment be tweaked? What were your challenges?

Save Fred!!!

Reflection:

Why did we do this activity? What was the purpose?