5th - Physical & Chemical Change

We finished up before the spring break with a lab on physical and chemical change. The students effected physical change on a variety of substances (metal, paper, yarn & clay). They described the change and how it met the criteria for physical change to their group.

Physical changes are noted for not changing the molecular make-up of a substance. For example, freezing water is an example of a physical change

Ask you student which item they made a change to and why is qualified as a physical change.

The class outlined things that represent that chemical change took place. They took the temperature of 50 mL of water and then placed three "Alka-Seltzer" tablets in the water.

Ask your student what two signs indicated that a chemical change had taken place. (creation of gas observed as bubbles, change in temperature - it dropped).

Upon our return our final two labs of the year will take us back to science standards learned in grade four as the students prepare for a cumulative 2 year assessment of fourth & fifth grade science in their CST.

3rd - Building the Solar System

Mother Nature laid it on for us today as the 3rd grade ventured outside to build the solar system. We certainly know how to have a good time in the 3rd grade.

After modeling the orbits of the inner planets, we trekked to the field divided into 9 groups. Each group was responsible for sharing information about the sun or one of the eight planets.

We imagined a solar system where the sun was 1 inch in diameter and scaled the distance between the planets accordingly. Things started off easily with the first few planets being just a meter or so from each other.

However, once Mars was placed, things got a little busier. In placing Jupiter, we were able to see the space occupied by the asteroid belt.

Ask your student one hypothesis for the existence of the asteroid belt. {Scientists hypothesize that perhaps it is the remains of a planet that broke up}

The distances between planets grew larger and larger. In the end, our solar system ran from the back fence along Firefly to almost to the upper grade eating area.

Ask your child which planet or start they represented and one fact that they remember about their celestial body.

5th - Mixtures & Solutions

Our chemistry unit continues as the students applied their reading to a lab situation.

We investigated the make-up of various mixtures including some solutions.

Ask you student what are the main features of mixtures (not chemically combined, can be separated into its original parts).

The final test was for each table to devise a method to separate a mixture of iron filings, sand, and salt.

Ask your student how their table accomplished the task.

Next up we will look at chemical & physical change.

1st - Frogs (and toad and newt and salamader and caecillian)

It was an All-Amphibian Friday as the first grade had their first opportunity to use our microviewers.

Ask your first grader what is special about the amphibian family. (They undergo metamorphosis and spend their juvenile period in the water and their adult life on land).

The viewers allowed us a close up view of all the stages of frog development. We noticed stages such as egg, embryo, tadpole, froglet and frog.

The students drew the egg, tadpole and frog stages.

We built a giant "word wall" about amphibians and frogs and then the students selected two ideas to write about following our discussion.

Ribbit!

3rd - Our Changing Moon

I was dissatisfied with a lab I tried from our new textbook last year. The point of the lesson was to show the students the phases of the moon and why the moon changes its appearance in the night sky.

The problem with the proposed lab is that it did nothing more than what was seen in the sky...it didn't show the "WHY".

So I tried something different this year and turned our entire classroom into a moon viewing gallery. We hung a "moon" (very large styrofoam ball) in the center of the class.

The windows were covered and we turned out the lights. I turned on the sun (light at one side of the classroom) and we paraded around the room.

I'm not sure who was more excited, me or the kids. It was pretty cool watching the visible portion of the moon change as our positions changed.

Watch the moon over a period of days with your child. Compare what you see to what the calendar says about the moon's phase.

Very small (atoms & molecules) and very large (planets & stars) are pretty abstract concepts. Revisit the moon's phases regularly with your child to help them internalize the concept.

Are you a little foggy on the concept yourself? Check out the links on the right for a refresher on why the moon changes phase.

Happy Moon Gazing!

5th - Riddles of the Periodic Table

Confession time...I love musicals. And who does them better than Gilbert & Sullivan. Combine the music of "I am the very model of a modern major general" with the period table and you've got a makings of a hit.

Check out the links on the right for the introduction to this lesson.

The fifth graders then tackled some riddles to find their way around the periodic table and familiarize themselves with the information therein.

Ask your student what two particles are in an atom's nucleus (protons & neutrons).

There was lots of "on-task" chatter (my favorite kind) and the students discovered the chemical symbols for various items, elements named for famous scientists, etc.

They asked excellent questions and it was one of those days when I wished I had the luxury of spending a day just answering questions and talking about interesting stuff.

Ask them if they remember the symbol for Silver (Ag - "Almost Gold).

1st- Home Sweet Habitat

Our investigation into habitats is newly developed for this year.

We started our discussion considering our own habitat.

Ask your student things make up their habitat. (Home, school, streets, stores, parks, etc).

The first graders had the opportunity to pick an animal home from samples on their tables and draw the animal that would live in that home along with the habitat.

Ask your student which home they thought was most interesting.

The children did a wonderful job with their next task. In small groups, they were given a collection of animal photographs. They had to decide which animals would share a habitat. One student from each group presented the team's idea to the class.

Next up...FROGS!!

3rd - Reasons For the Seasons

It's fun to combine a little treat with a some learning and that's what we did with our "earthmallows".

The third grade used marshmallows to represent the earth. We drew the Equator, the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn using food coloring.

Then we used our earthmallows to show how the earth's 23 1/2 degree tile is the "reason for the seasons".

When the north pole is tilted towards the sun, it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Conversely, when the north pole is tilted away from the sun, it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

Ask you student what the season in San Jose is when the North Pole is pointed away from the sun.

If there wasn't a tilt, we would have much less variability in our weather.

5th - Building Atoms

Yes, you read correctly, we made atoms in class. To be precise, we constructed models of atoms: hydrogen, helium, lithium and beryllium.

The students are embarking on a chemistry unit where we scaffold onto their base knowledge of matter and delve into the building blocks of our world, atoms.

In this first lab, we learned how to interpret the individual boxes in a periodic table. We learned that each element has a one or two letter symbol and that the atomic number and mass tell us how many protons, neutrons and electrons compose each atom.

We are familiar with electrons from our study of electricity but protons are new to most of us and many of us thought that Neutron was just Jimmy's last name. :)

Ask your students which two particles combine to form the nucleus of an atom.

Hopefully your child brought home their atom model. If not, have a dig through their backpack.

Ask them what the beads represent.

Next up is a riddle-filled walk through the Periodic Table. Stay tuned!

3rd Grade - Food Chains

Mother Nature put on a glorious day for an outdoor 3rd grade lab last week. We took our lesson outside to model and learn about food chains.

Ask you student what the source of energy is for almost all living things on earth (the sun).

The students were divided into three groups: grasshoppers, hawks & lizards.

Plain popcorn was placed in feed stations around our "habitat". Grasshoppers could eat popcorn. Lizards could eat grasshoppers. Hawks could eat lizards.

If you were "eaten" (tagged), you had to hand over your collected food to your predator and go the graveyard.

The first iteration of our game had an equal number of grasshoppers, lizards and hawks. The supply of lizards was quickly exhausted and our food chain was broken. Few animals had a full enough "stomach" (sandwich bag) to be considered still alive.

The students suggested that we modify the balance of animals and reduce the number of Hawks. So we fortified the ranks of the grasshoppers and tried again. This time our little ecosystem lasted much longer before part of the food chain broke.

We attempted one more modification based on student feedback. We increased the size of the habitat and added some more foodstuff for the grasshoppers. Once again this resulted in better playing conditions.

Ask you student to explain what happens when humans or other factors reduce the size of an animal habitat.

Can you child explain what a good balance of animals would be for a simple food chain?

The kids were well behaved in our outdoor classroom and apart from a little too much sun on my face, it was a very fun day.

5th - Clay Planets

Every fifth grade student deserves a pat on the back for their tremendous engagement and effort in this week's science lab lesson. I set them loose on a group task and they showed themselves quite equal to the challenge. Their classroom teachers and I were all very impressed.

In third grade, we shrink the sun down to the size of a ping pong ball and map out the distance between the planets. The solar system runs from the back fence of the school almost to the eating area. I do the calculations for the students and they handle measuring between planets and presenting facts about each planet.

This 5th grade lesson was along the same theme but more involved for the students. Each group measured 100 grams of clay to represent the mass the sun, 8 planets and our moon. As a table, they decided the relative mass of each planet and formed a sphere to represent it. They recorded the mass and provided their data on the earth, moon and sun for comparison with the rest of the class.

Of the 32 groups, there wasn't a duplication in results but that isn't to say there wasn't a TON of good thinking. Students actively discussed the relative size of Mercury to the sun and Jupiter to the earth. They debated, compromised, tried, adjusted and found consensus amongst their group. In terms of results, I wasn't looking for the perfect answer. Moreover, I wanted to see rationale thinking supported by existing knowledge. Simply put, is your moon much smaller than your earth? Is your sun much larger than your moon?

At the end of our lesson came the "Aha" moment. Ask you student, if the solar system were represented by 100 grams, about how much would make up each celestial body (sun, planets, moon, etc).

I hope they continue to do themselves proud and can tell you the surprising answer.

Science Rules!

1st - Crazy for Crystals

We reused and recyled today in the lab...our knowledge that is. The kids built on prior knowledge of matter to investigate crystals.

We have increased the number of first grade labs over the past two years and I certainly am reaping the rewards of that decision every time the kids make the walk down to E-14.

We spent an hour today "oohing" and "aahing" over geodes, calcite, salt, sugar and even graphite during our investigation of crystals. We compared the size, shape and color of four different types of crystals.

Ask your student if all the crystals were the same size and what they noticed about their shapes.

As our grand finally, we mixed up saturated solutions of salt and will be "growing" crystals in the classroom over the coming days.

Messy, but lots of fun!!

3rd - Adaptations (& the Scientific Method)

The third grade a little "buggy' on Wednesday as we investigated how creatures have evolved highly specialized features to get food. Shortly the third graders will begin their "animal reports" and in preparation for that, we considered how insects have a variety of mouth parts to collect food.

Ask you student how a butterfly and a mosquito are similar and different.

We overlayed a fun experiment onto our investigation to review the scientific method in preparation for the up-coming science-o-rama! event in February. I hope all our third graders will take the challenge and do an experiment of their own and report back to the school.

Ask you student what the name for a "thinking guess" is in science.

Weather permitting, we will be outdoors, looking at food chains on the 25th of February.

If anyone would like to lend a hand making popcorn the old fashioned way (pot & oil or airpopper) in preparation for this lab, please let me know.

Science Rocks! (and rolls).

1st - Weather Watch

The first grade had lots to discuss following the spectacular weather we saw last week. The students have a good grasp of solids, liquids & gases from earlier in the year. We applied that knowledge to understanding weather and the water cycle.

Ask you child if a cloud is made of gas. Why not?

We made a cloud in a jar and saw evaporation and condensation at work.

Does your student remember the different kinds of precipitation? (rain, snow, hail & sleet)

We got to see hail last week, probably the first time for many of our kids.

Can your child explain what happened to all the puddles that were on the blacktop last week?

Next lesson finds us back into solids as we explore crystals.

Science Rules!

1st - Light, Light

I just love days like today. Despite the torrential rain, the clouds and hail, all is well in the science lab.

It's hard to have favorite labs, just like one doesn't have favorite children but I love our first grade light lab.

First graders bring a joy and wonder to life that just isn't found everywhere.

Ask your child to introduce you to Mr. Roy G. Biv.

Looking for some rainy day fun?

Turn out the lights, grab a flashlight and mirrors (yes, that's plural) and let your first grader lead the way.

The kids have spectroscopes to bring home and I will be sending pictures to the classroom of all them looking "stellar" in the our "reflection room".

Science Rocks! (and so do first graders)

All Grades science-o-rama!

Time for Scientists to Shine....

Next week, Amy Sechrist and her team of volunteers will roll out the plans for the All Grades science-o-rama!

With the support of the Synopsys Outreach Foundation, Los Alamitos has held a science fair for over 20 years. Each year, we've seen a higher percentage of our students participate in the voluntary activity.

I hope you will do two things in your household:

1) Encourage your child to select an experiment and join in the fun.
2) Offer your assistance to Mrs. Sechrist in whatever way you can.

Science-o-rama offers you child the opportunity to investigate a science topic that is of interest of them. They will develop a question and conduct an experiment.

The highlight of the event will be February 23rd when all our young scientists bring in their displays boards and the entire school enjoys a viewing the work. In the evening, we will open up to school to families and our students will briefly explain their work to an intersted adult.

Science-o-rama! enjoys a rich tradition at Los Alamitos. Please plan to join us.

For more information, check out the science page at Los Alamitos.