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).