Cloud in a Bottle
3G students observed a simulation of a cloud's formation within a plastic bottle. Here's a link to a similar experiment. Ask your student about how we did ours.
3G students observed a simulation of a cloud's formation within a plastic bottle. Here's a link to a similar experiment. Ask your student about how we did ours.
4th Grade students experimented with oobleck. As a critical thinking question, they were asked, "What would happen to NYC if oobleck began falling from the sky?"
Here are some of the responses:
"You could no longer play sports like golf or baseball because players and balls would sink into the oobleck."
"Freeze-tag will become a matter of life and death. If the person who is "it" tags you, you are going to have to stay in the same spot for a variable amount of time and in that time, you will sink."
"New York would be called Oobleck City."
"People would have to travel around on pogo sticks so that they wouldn't sink."
"Journal Entry February 7, 5091...Oobleck started falling from the sky. We have no problem getting around; we have jet-powered bubbles. I wonder how people in the 21st century would have handled this problem. Well, they could have ridden bikes. Bikes are things with wheels. They moved fast enough on oobleck that they wouldn't sink."
"Everyone would run in place when waiting for a bus, so that they didn't sink."
"Building small, water-proof domes in different locations all over Central Park, would help animals who lost their habitats, get new ones."
**Check out this clip from Myth Busters**
Third grade students check the results of their small group evaporation experiments. Below is a list of the different evaporation experiments that were generated by the students.
Experiments:
1. At which temperature does water evaporate fastest?
2. Where in the room will water evaporate the fastest?
3. How will a change in water temperature effect the results of our previous experiment?
4. Can we get the water in three different sized containers to evaporate down to the same level in the same period of time?
Ask your student about his or her hypothesis and results.
This week 2D and 2G played Sound Pictionary. Each student was given a sound word that they illustrated on the SmartBoard. Some of the words were vibrate, molecule, and tuning fork. Ask your student what sound word he or she worked on.
Today 6D shared a few more classification games. Laurence and Cameron developed a fun board game in which teams of students answered science questions to earn the classification of the sunflower and the channel catfish. Caroline, Charlotte and Lauryn developed an interactive game about branching diagrams, in which teams of students had to search for similar characteristics among animals. Finally, Kirsten, David and Maria created a game in which students had to classify Harry Potter creatures using a dichotomous key.
Try your hand at Harry Potter classification. Look at the image of the creature. Read the information about the creature. Then use the dichotomous key, to find the Kingdom and Phylum of the Harry Potter creature.
Creature #1...
Common Name: Mandrake Scientific Name: Babius yelli
Information: The Mandrake appears as a small, ugly baby with a plant on its head. Its scream is lethal and a potion can be made out of Mandrakes to revive the petrified.
What kingdom and phylum does the Mandrake belong to???
Creature #2...
Common Name: Niffler Scientific Name: Shinies nifflgigus
Information: The Niffler is fluffy, black and likes anything shiny. The Niffler is gentle and affectionate, but can be very destructive to belongings. It should never be kept in a house. Nifflers are harmless.
What kingdom and phylum does the Niffler belong to?
Several students in 6D created classification games for extra credit. Through Matthew's trivia game, we classified the Sulpher-Crested Cockatoo. There will be more games to come on Wednesday. I will try to post samples of the games, if possible...stay tuned!
Below is a photo of the sea anemone, Anthosactis pearseae, that the students read, then rapped about!
In addition, after reading an article entitled, "Appearance Not Always Enough to Identify Species," an article about using DNA rather than physical appearance to classify organisms, a Nick treated us to an informative extra credit report on phenotype versus genotype. Here is the link to the article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101116072754.htm
Lyrics:
Sound travels through your ear,
Please listen, have no fear...
First your pinna-the part that's like a finna!
Then your ear canal-it's full of gas my pal.
Next comes drum-ra ta ta ta tum!
Then those 3 bones-they don't make no tones.
The cochlea has hair-sounds they do share!
Hey-you just got served by the hearing nerve.
The brain comes last-we learned it in science class!
**On a final note...the 3 bones that are mentioned in the song, are the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup. These are the 3 smallest bones in the human body!
Here are the lyrics so you can sing along:
-Sound travels better through solid than gas.
-It always has a message to pass.
-sound bounces, sound bounces, sound bounces
-You need to use your ears more than eyes.
-Listen well and you'll be wise.
-sound bounces, sound bounces, sound bounces
-Sound makes molecules vibrate and shake.
-For a sound wave it's a mini earthquake.
-sound bounces, sound bounces, sound bounces
-Goes through the canal, then hits the drum.
-Listen closely and you'll hear people hum.
-sound bounces, sound bounces, sound bounces
-Your eardrum protects your inner ear.
-To the wax dirt will adhere.
-sound bounces, sound bounces, sound bounces
-Three little bones, then hits the brain.
-Too much noise drives me insane!
-sound bounces, sound bounces, sound bounces