Scavenger Hunt for Notes

We started a new unit on fluids this week in science.  Rather than reading the textbook and giving the students notes, we created a scavengerhunt for the students to do.  It included all the information from the first section of the text.  The clues were scattered all around the school and they were given a "fill in the blank" sheet to complete throughout the scavenger hunt.  When the studentss returned, we went over the material and discussed it.  It was a great way to start the unit and get the students interested.  Almost all the students commented "that was fun" when they got back. The next class we did a little coke and mentos experiment.  We tried two different things with the coke and mentos, the regular one where the coke shoots straight up and out of the bottle.  That was successful.  We also tried making a rocket out of it.  We had a little success with that as well.  We then went back to the class and discussed why this happens.  After the little experiment and discussion, we did a crossword on the scavenger hunt material.  The following day the students had a quiz on the scavenger hunt/crossword material and they all did very well.  A much different approach than the traditional and it was very fun and the students proved they learned the material by doing well on their quiz.  I will attach the video of the mentos experiment soon.