Science 25-26

Friday, April 10th: It is done! The kids took their Earth's Systems unit test today. I started grading while kids were testing and they look pretty good. I will have the tests returned on Monday. Come back in a month or so when we explore our solar system.

Thursday, April 9th: TEST TOMORROW!!! We had a Kahoot! today and it is avialable to try at home. Click on one of the pictures below. If you cannot get in, try another picture. There is a limit of 40 attempts for each. Good luck!

Monday, April 6th: We went over the whole study guide in class. The kids should have a perfect piece to study from for the test on Friday. Yes, I moved it to Friday so the kids had more time to review the study guide and come in with any questions. Here is an example of a completed and corrected student STUDY GUIDE.

Monday, March 30th: It turns out we have school today, so we have work to do. The kids worked on completing their study guide for next week's test. When we all come back together next Monday, we will go over the study guide and make sure the kids have all the correct answers. I still think the test will be on Wednesday, but it might be moved to Friday. We will see how Monday goes.

Friday, March 27th: I gave copies of the study guide to any kids who would be out on Monday, so they can work on it while they are away... if they want to. We will go over it on Monday, April 6th, when we all return. The test will be on Wednesday, April 8th. Click on the study guide picture to get the blank study guide...

Friday, March 27th: We had a guest teacher today... Mr. Han, who is Mr. Barry's student teacher. He was being observed by his Montclair State University supervisor, who wanted to see him teach a science lesson. His lesson was about the Great Barrier Reef.

Thursday, March 26th: The heavy lifting is done. We completed our atmosphere model! This was the end of the Earth's Systems unit for science. Mr. Han will be a guest teacher tomorrow and teach a lesson about coral reefs. Next week, the kids will fill out a study guide using answers from their notebooks. We will go over this when we return from break and have our test later that week. After the review, I will have a better idea where the kids are and if we need a little more time before the test, but I am thinking it will be on Wednesday, April 1st.

Wednesday, March 25th: Atmosphere. More about the atmosphere. The kids continued working on their models and sharing their research. I feel like the kids are really getting into the information and connecting to it. One or two more questions to go... short day. I will post our finished work tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 24th: Atmosphere. It was all about the atmosphere today. The kids were grouped into pairs and given a question to research. Next, we got together and started building a model of the atmosphere. This is a two-day project, so the kids will finish it tomorrow.

Monday, March 23rd: We finished discussing the Water Cycle and focused on the distribution of water on Earth. Take away... we do not have very much water to work with! The kids got to see for themselves in our classroom model, but I love the second picture of Earth with all the water in three drops (the big one is ocean water, and the other two are freshwater).

Friday, March 20th: The kids finished presenting their water cycle research and completed their models. We also spent some time talking about what the vernal (spring) equinox is and why it happens.

Thursday, March 19th: The kids started presenting their water cycle research. The class took notes and filled in their models during the presentations. It turns out there are more steps than they thought!

Wednesday, March 18th: For the next few days, we will dive into the Water Cycle... Haha. Sure, the kids know evaporation, condensation, and precipitation... but there is more! The kids worked in pairs to become the experts for one part. We start presenting tomorrow.

Update... the sub let me know that the kids were well behaved and worked on their writing assignment. Not that I would expect anything less!!!

Tuesday, March 17th: I am out for the St. Patrick's Day Parade in NYC. I work at the mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in the morning, escort the Grand Marshal at the start of the parade, and then go back down to help with the formation. Yes, I was tired and frozen by the end of the day, but it is always a great experience.

The kids wrote a story using personification and the rock cycle. They generally enjoy writing these kinds of stories because they get to be creative.

Monday, March 16th: We finished our turbulent ride on the rock cycle. What at first seemed wildly confusing today came together to make sense. The kids had to escape from a mad scientist's lab using their knowledge of rocks and the rock cycle, along with their wits, to navigate from room to room until they were free! They had a lot of fun and reinforced the process we have been discussing.

Friday, March 13th: The kids learned more about rocks than they thought was possible. We began our study of the rock cycle by defining the terms and processes. They should be able to tell you the difference between intrusive and extrusive igneous rock. Fingers crossed. We were even able to tie the rock cycle to plate tectonics. More to follow on Monday.

Thursday, March 12th: I was out today, but the show must go on! The kids looked into their crystal balls and saw what the Earth would look like in 300 million years. They used what they learned about plate tectonics and their imagination to create models. That was the fun part... they had to then write an essay giving reasons for their assertion and evidence to back it up. Sprinkly in some new terms, they learned the last couple of days, a large helping of what they learned from Ms. Metzinger about writing essays, mix it together, and... We will have to wait until I return to see their work. Also, this is old school pencil and paper!

Wednesday, March 11th: All the classes finished learning about Plate Tectonics. We spent time using Google Earth to find the plate boundaries by looking for mountain ranges, ridges, trenches, and volcanoes. The kids have a new view of the Earth's surface. There was also a couple of new parody videos. Check them out by clicking on the "VIDEOS 25-26" tab

Tuesday, March 10th: It turns out Alfred Wegener was not a crazy, crazy man (your kid can explain this or check out the video under the "videos" tab). In 1910, he couldn't prove his hypothesis about Continental Drift in his lifetime. Geologists needed a better understanding of the broken crust and the reasons behind it. It all started coming together with the US Navy in the 1960's... Hopefully, your kid can fill in some of the blanks. This planet is truly amazing!

Monday, March 9th: Check off biomes. The kids completed their models, and we spent a good part of the class looking at them and explaining why different biomes exist where they do.

Friday, March 6th: We're getting there. We will need Monday's class to finish the Biome Model. Then, on to continental drift... or is it plate tectonics?

Thursday, March 5th: Biomes... it was all about Biomes today! We began making our World Biome Map based on the kids' research from yesterday. Each kid has a copy of the map below for their notebooks and will keep adding to it everyday.

Wednesday, March 4th: We put our knowledge of the Earth's System to the test today. The kids looked at the picture on the right to find examples of each sphere. The kids then shared their work with the class. The rest of the class time was spent on researching for our next model... Biomes. Each group of two or three kids got a biome to research. They will share what they learned tomorrow and create a complete biome model as a class. It should be fun!

We watched a touching video on biomes, which is below.

Tuesday, March 3rd: The classes finished their Earth's Spheres Models. Over the next couple of days, we will spend time going deeper into each sphere... should be fun! Here's our finished work...

Monday, March 2nd: Today, we actually got into our unit on the Earth's System... four main subsystems or spheres... hydrosphere (water), biosphere (life), geosphere (rock), and atmosphere (air). Today's goal: I can develop a model to describe Earth's four major systems. How did we do... not to bad. We got through the background and two systems. We will finish the other two tomorrow. The students have the same picture in their notebooks that I have on the board and are adding notes and finding examples. I will include a picture of our model tomorrow. I guide the students, but the information we write down comes from them. It is a fun whole class collaboration where everyone is involved.

Friday, February 27th: We began our new unit with an introduction to Earth's Spheres. We will focus on the biosphere, atmosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere and how they interact. It will be a fun unit that will connect the knowledge they already have while introducing greater depth to them. The kids will view the Earth in a whole new light and with appreciation.

Friday, January 16th: The kids showed what they knew about matter and energy in organisms and ecosystems. We talked about MLK and then got an introduction to our next social studies unit... The English Colonies.

I am unsure why this is not more well-known, but Martin Luther King Jr. came and spoke in Montclair. The picture below shows him walking to the Union Baptist Church on September 11, 1966. He spoke during the service at the church and later went to speak to over 3,000 people in the high school auditorium and gym. There is a plaque (pictured below) in the high school band room where he waited before going on stage. This link will take you to a short video of two people's memories of being part of his visit... click here.

Martin Luther King, Jr. walking into the United Baptist Church on Midland Avenue in Montclair.

Thursday, January 15th: Shorter classes today because of losing half the kids for advanced band and for the PALS Program (5th graders work with kids from the ABA program). With the time we did have, we got in a Kahoot! assessment of Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems and another on Symbiosis. Tomorrow we will have a written assessment to close out this unit.

Wednesday, January 14th: The kids had a writing assignment today the required them to explain the flow of energy as you move through the energy pyramid. In their writing, they had to use as many of the following science terms as possible: Autotrophs, Heterotrophs, Photosynthesis, Herbivore, Carnivore, and Omnivore.

Tuesday, January 13th: The kids finished their project and then gathered to share their work and favorite symbiotic relationship in their biome. The work was creative and, most importantly, accurate. They did a wonderful job!

Monday, January 12th: The kids reviewed last week's lessons and worked on completing their symbiotic project. Most finished or got pretty close. Tomorrow, we will have a few minutes to complete and add some pizzazz!

Friday, January 8th: We looked at relationships today. Not the ones that you have to talk about starting in middle school, but symbiotic relationships. We looked at different examples and even heard a couple of parodies. The kids finished the class discussing the upcoming research Symbiotic Relationships Project. Ask your kid to explain mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism.

Thursday, January 8th: Today was all about ecosystems. The kids learned that an ecosystem is all the living and non-living things that interact with one another in a given area. We watched videos of a desert and coral reef ecosystem and figured out what was biotic and abiotic.

Wednesday, January 7th: Ecosystems. Today was all about ecosystems. The kids learned that an ecosystem is all the living and non-living things that interact with one another in a given area. Tomorrow, they will watch videos of a desert and a coral reef ecosystem and figure out what is biotic and abiotic. Those are a few of the fancy science words we have been using. Another fun set of words was autotroph and heterotroph. The idea is that the kids will use the correct terminology rather than memorize definitions, allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of the material. They will also sound 10% smarter... haha.

Tuesday, January 6th: What a waste! We discovered that only 10% of energy is transferred from level to level in a food chain or web. We looked at both of those today. The kids also got a fuller picture of photosynthesis, including the how and why. We even worked on the chemical reaction...

Monday, January 5th: New year... new topic. We started our unit on Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems. I love this unit because it takes many subjects that the students have learned about over the years and connects them. It also connects the kids to everything around them. We started with the basics of energy and matter and how they flow through all living things. We talked a lot about killer whales if it comes up in conversation.

Tuesday, November 5th: Opportunity to show what you know day, or maybe you call it Test Day. It is finally here!!! The tests still need to be graded, but I will have them for the kids when they return on Monday. The quick overview showed that the kids who followed the labs, took notes, and participated did well. Some kids struggled a little, but there is a silver lining. They may realize that what they are doing in class needs to be fixed and will make changes in the future.

Monday, November 3rd: We had our NJSLA test of the test today, so that left a limited amount of class time. The good news is that the kids took the test in stride, and we have only one more day to test next Monday. In class, we went through the kids' notebooks to remind them of the experiments and where to find them. I am feeling pretty good about how the kids will do at this point...

Friday, October 31st: The kids loved our Kahoot! game, and it is a great way to review material. We will have our test next, Wednesday, 11/5. Upon further thought, I decided pushing the test to the following week was not in the kids best interest. Kids who are out will make up the test the following Tuesday. The kids were allowed to take their notebooks home. They don't need to study them or memorize definitions. They should look over the experiments. Most important... they need to bring the notebooks back to school.

Here is a the Kahoot! if you want to try it at home... Kahoot!

Thursday, October 30th: We answered our final Focus Question: How can we identify the products from the baking soda and calcium chloride reaction? The kids applied the practices and knowledge they learned over the last few weeks to answer the question. They know that calcium carbonate will not react/be soluble in water, but will react with vinegar. Today, the precipitate was dry, and we mixed it with vinegar; it reacted! Lots of bubbling, which the kids knew was carbon dioxide — a sign of a chemical reaction. We compared that to known calcium carbonate and vinegar which had the same reaction. The last part was the evaporation of the solution, during which NaCl crystals formed... squares with an "x".

Tomorrow we will start reviewing, and our test will be on Wednesday, 11/5. Don't worry about studying. The kids will use their notebooks for the test, and all the questions will come from the experiments/investigations. It will be OK.

Wednesday, October 29th: After going over the chemical equation below again with the kids, they said they knew what was in their Cup 1. But how? Because I told them there is salt, water, and calcium carbonate? I asked them to prove it to me. The class discussed ways to determine the substances. They used their new knowledge gained from the lessons over the last couple of weeks and came up with...
* Weigh 50mL of the solution. If it weighs more than 50g, it must be a solution. Is it a salt solution?
* Pour the solution into the evaporation dish. If salt crystals form in the shape of a square with an "X"... proves the salt solution.
* Use a paper filter to separate the precipitate from the liquid. Calcium carbonate is not soluble in water, but it is soluble in vinegar. If it dissolves... proving that it was calcium carbonate.

Tuesday, October 28th: The kids mixed two substances with 50mL of water today. The difference this time was what happened... a chemical reaction. The kids recorded what they observed from each of the three mixtures. It could be temperature change, gases formed, or precipitate settling out. Sometimes, it was all of them in one cup! The kids were left wondering about the precipitate in Cup 1. We saved that cup and will later figure out the new substance! Here is the chemical reaction equation for the cup with the precipitate...

Monday, October 27th: Chemical reactions will be our final area to cover. We had shortened classes today due to extra gym, but we still got some excellent work done and will be ready to hit the ground running with our lab work tomorrow. I showed the kids a chemical reaction equation. Equations are not something they will need to know at this point in their science careers, but some kids find them interesting, some don't care, and others want to know more and try other equations. Here is the chemical equation for photosynthesis...

Friday, October 25th: The kids have reached saturation with the study of saturations. We learned that soluble substances could be identified by the mass it takes to saturate 50mL of water. They finished the unit by identifying a mystery substance using this method. They were given a solubility table and saturated 50mL of water. The 67g of mystery substance saturates 50mL of water, so of course, it must be citric acid. Next week, we will investigate chemical reactions, which will close out science.

We will have our test on 11/3 or 11/5. To be fair, there are only two days of school that week, so it will be Monday or Wednesday. We will review prior to the test, and the kids will use their notebooks during the test. The answers to all the questions should be in their notebooks. Fingers crossed!

Thursday, October 24th: We know it takes about 15g of NaCl to saturate 50mL of water. Is that true for all soluble substances? Epsom salt or magnesium sulfate heptahydrate was today's solute. The groups add one scoop of Epsom salt at a time to 50mL. They were not surprised that it dissolved in the water. They were astonished by how much was needed to saturate the solution. The picture to the right shows the saturated solution. You can see the solute that could not dissolve in the solvent and fell to the bottom. It took more than three times as much solute today. So, the answer is... no, it takes different amount of solutes to saturate 50mL of water.

Wednesday, October 23: Is there a limit to the amount of salt that will dissolve in 50 mL of water? The concept of saturation was what we explored today. The kids applied knowledge from prior labs to help them arrive at an answer by using funnels, filters, digital scales, logic, math, and a whole lot of shaking. Tomorrow, we will find out if other salts saturate 50mL of water at the same rate.

Tuesday, October 21st: We completed the investigation titled "Liquid Layers." The kids were given four different concentrations of salt solutions. They know that density is based on the mass per unit volume, which means that the greater the concentration, the greater the density. They had to stack the liquids in the correct order, or the column would mix. It took a bit of effort and logic, but they managed to get there.

Can you see the different density layers? Blue is the most dense, so it is on the bottom. That is followed by yellow and green. Finally, the least dense is the red sitting on top.

Their Focus Question was "What is the relationship between salt-solution concentration and density?" Their experiment could answer the question of density. They made the connection that concentration must go hand in hand with density. How can we prove this? The kids came up with the idea of getting 50 mL of each solution and finding the mass. Bingo! The solution with the greatest mass was the one with the greatest density. That is the picture of the graduated cylinders filled with the different solutions.

Friday, October 17th: We finished the week with mystery solutions. The kids had to work out their procedures to find the most and least concentrated of the three solutions. This time, they couldn't taste or smell a difference or see a color difference that would help. They had to get the answer from what they learned over the last week's experiments. They used balances to get their results and then checked their work on the scales. They did it perfectly!

Thursday, October 16th: There was some confusion with the idea how to determine concentrations, so I hit "pause" on the weekly lesson plans and we repeated the lab from yesterday. We also tried a few new ways to help the kids better understand the concept. Fingers crossed.... I think they are in a better place now.

Wednesday, October 15th: How can you determine which salt solution is more concentrated? The kids thought about yesterday's lesson, but realized that a salt solution has no smell, is clear, and we can not taste it. What to do? After much hands-on work, the kids understood that we could determine the more concentrated salt solution by comparing the mass of equal volumes. The heavier one is the more concentrated.

Tuesday, October 14th: Concentration. Not the game, but the ratio of solvent to solute in a solution. Your kid can tell you what those words mean. Ok, we did have Kool-Aid today, but it was for science. The Kool-Aid or solute was used in different ratios to the water or solvent. We created both diluted and concentrated solutions. The solutions helped them understand the concept, and since it involved Kool-Aid, they enjoyed the experiment. Today was the exception to the rule for tasting in labs. They did not have to drink the Kool-Aid or taste it if they did not want to. If they did, I am sure they would not go wild with sugar, because they had maybe an ounce.

Different concentrations of Kool-Aid

Friday, October 10th: Your kids might have complained about our class yesterday and maybe even said... I am the worst teacher ever! They are not wrong. I am not a terrible teacher, but in order for them to understand the concept of a Black Box... I can not show them what is inside. I made a deal that they could ask me for one thing or one question, but it couldn't be to open the box. They asked if I could show them what was inside. That I could do. They saw the possible pieces inside their boxes and revised their models. They were able to produce a better model with the new information, but I still won't show them the setup inside their boxes.

We closed out class with another black box... this time it was a cardboard box. I showed them my invention... a drought stopper. I pour in 100mL of water and out comes 500mL. What!?!?! They had to come up with ideas on how it works. Hint... it uses a siphon.

Thursday, October 9th: This was the most frustrating day the students ever had at Bradford. Why? We learned about Black Boxes, which are explanations of objects, events, or systems that cannot be observed directly. This lesson aims to help kids understand that there are phenomena that can be explained but not directly observed, such as the atom, the Earth's core, and the Big Bang. OK, that doesn't sound so frustrating. The kids got a literal/figurative black box with something inside it. They had to determine what it looked like and create a conceptual model. They worked very hard and did a pretty good job, but they couldn't open the boxes, and we won't either. For some reason, this drives kids crazy. We will complete that lesson tomorrow and continue working on models to help explain matter.

Wednesday, October 8th: Separating a dry mix was today's problem. The kids used everything they had done in their experiments so far and had to devise a way to completely separate a cup of salt, powder, and gravel. They started by agreeing on a procedure and recording that in their notebook. I checked to see if they had a procedure, not if it would work. Failure is okay in our labs. Quitting is not. The kids couldn't get a new cup of salt, powder, and gravel. They had to figure out how to make it work with what they had... and they did!

Tuesday, October 7th: Thanks to my dehydrator at home, our salt solutions evaporated overnight, leaving us with just the salt (NaCl) crystals. The kids had time to look at the crystals with hand lenses and then draw what they saw in their notebooks. Years ago, I inherited a stereomicroscope that is perfect for getting a much closer look at the crystals. They actually form pyramids. We may have gotten a little sidetracked while looking at the Great Pyramids of Giza, but it really helped them understand why the crystals appear as they do.

Today, we also started spending time working on IXL at the beginning of the period. This is the time for the kids to get more ELA practice and for me to work with kids who need support in a specific area of ELA.

Monday, October 6th: How do you separate a salt solution? I told the kids that salt disappears when mixed with water, which must be true because I can't see the salt in the solution. Magic! The kids told me I was wrong, but I wouldn't believe them unless they could scientifically prove their theory... The salt is still there, just dissolved in the water. Each group developed procedures to demonstrate that the salt was still present in the solution by measuring the mass of the water and salt, and then comparing it to the mass of the saltwater solution. Boom! The weights were equal or at least pretty close. They also came up with evaporation, which is happening as we speak, and I hope for much progress tonight. I am working with the students on using the correct terminology (solute, solvent, solution, mixture, dissolve). Tomorrow, we will discuss how the lesson demonstrates the idea of the conservation of matter.

Friday, October 3rd: The kids finished their first investigation of matter by making and separating mixtures. They had to make observations of the substances, which were Kosher salt, diatomaceous earth, and gravel. The different materials were mixed with water (a mixture), and the kids had to separate them back out. It was interesting to observe their thought processes on what wouldn't work and why, as well as what would work and why. The tricky part was separating the salt that had dissolved (not disappeared) in the water.

Wednesday, October 1st - We spent time going over the Land and Early People test. The kids performed very well and ultimately gained a solid understanding of the material.

We then stepped into science. Today, we reviewed safety rules and instructions and set up their notebooks. The rest of class was spent talking about matter. Matter will be our topic for the next month. We spent time being introduced to the concept that matter is never created or destroyed, but only transforms. This is a difficult concept for the kids, but that's okay. That is why we will conduct different experiments almost every day to help them better understand something that they cannot see. I sensed genuine excitement from the kids about the material.