Bend it! Stretch it! addresses the AC Science Understanding ACSSU018 Everyday materials can be physically changed in a variety of ways, in the context of manipulating familiar materials like paper, plastic, metal, and playdough.

Bend it! Stretch it! provides students with hands-on opportunities to:

  • explore how to use twisting, stretching, scrunching and bending to physically change the shape of everyday materials
  • observe how the properties of familiar materials might change under different conditions
  • consider why some physical changes do not last

Students apply their new learning by:

  • planning and conducting an investigation about the effect of heat on the ability to shape playdough

Linking science with literacy

In the Primary Connections approach, students are supported to create representations that draw on and strengthen their literacy development. In Bend it! Stretch it!, students represent and explain their understanding about how everyday materials can be physically changed in a variety of ways, by creating these representations:

  • Data table
  • Annotated
  • Drawing
  • Flow chart
  • Word wall