Junior Scientists!

I love Fridays.  We all do, but ONE of the MANY things I LOVE about Fridays is the Junior Scientist presentations.  Here are some from today:

Spooky Science

Oh, Halloween.  Such an exciting time of year.  The excitement makes teaching school FUN...and hard.  So, my wonderful team and I decided to have a "special" day on October 31st.  We each did a 30-minute activity for our four periods, so I decided to do something "spooky".  The goal of mine, however, was not to spend over $12 (pretty lofty for a science teacher).  I decided to use the "milk/food dye/soap experiment" and call is (drum roll, please) "Swirling Potions."  Here is the lab sheet I used: 

Swirling Potions

Name ______________________________________

Purpose: To see what happens when you add dish soap to your potion (milk and food coloring.)

Hypothesis:  If I add food coloring to milk and dip a Q-tip of dish soap into the potion, then __________________________________.

Procedure: 

1. Pour milk into a tray, so that it covers the tray. 
2. Add a drop of whichever colors of food dye you want to add.
3. Dip a Q-tip into the dish soap.
4. Lightly touch the q-tip of soap to the milk.
5. Repeat at least three times.

Data:  

Trial 1:

Trial 2:

Trial 3:

Conclusion:

Why does this happen?

Here are some of the results.  This is awesome, even for little kids! 

This works this way, because water has SURFACE TENSION, milk is mostly water, so touching it with soap breaks the surface tension.  Awesome!

Edible Layers! YUM!

I so badly wanted to come up the perfect, most fun assignment/activity for learning the layers of Earth, and I came up with...nada.  Yes, I could spend a LOT of money on clay or other building material and have the kids build a model.  And building something out of food is fun, but again, with about 100 students, it isn't realistic.  So, I decided this would be a GREAT extra credit assignment and would give us an excuse to eat.  Everyone loves to eat, right?  The requirements for the extra credit assignment were as follows:

• Must be edible and made entirely of food (no added glue, tape, etc.)
• Must show at least the three main layers of Earth
• Must be completed at home.

Students who completed the assignment would receive 10 points on their lowest grade!

Here are some of the results.

*Note:  I made a HUGE mistake with the above cupcakes.  When another teacher sent them over, I thought he said the name of a girl in my second block.  So, we talked about them and ATE THEM in second block.  Imagine my surprise when a girl in my fourth block asked for HER CUPCAKES!!!!  I am STILL trying to think of how in the WORLD to pay her back for GIVING HER CUPCAKES AWAY!  (I gave her two free snacks, extra extra credit, and a glue stick.  I will keep working on that one.)

On a side note, I did find a great foldable at http://mjksciteachingideas.com/pdf/EarthFoldable.pdf to go along with learning about layers.

Solubility

I have been lab crazy.  I just can't think of any way to better teach concepts like density and solubility than through labs (with lots of discussion, of course).  So, after the M & M labs, we tried to see if different substances had difference rates of solubility.  Students had flour, salt, and sugar.  (I tried to find MSG, but I did not have time to make it to an Asian market and none could be found at our grocery stores.)  Students measured water for each container and used equal amounts of each substance, stirring for 20 seconds to see which dissolved first.  They continued stirring in increments of 20 seconds until all three substances dissolved.

More Yummies

I'm off task again.  I wanted something sweet, so I used our ice cream lab (and my son) as an excuse to make some for dessert.  We didn't even have vanilla, but the vanilla soy milk made some YUMMY stuff!  Here is BigLittle when he started shaking his mixture.

Isn't he a cutie?  (I did the rest of the shaking, of course.)
Here he is eating his yummy ice cream (not a up-the-nose-shot)!  It only took about 3 minutes!

And...here is MY yummy ice cream!

(See my Ice Cream Lab post for the recipe/directions!  It's SO easy!)

Junior Scientists

I have been SO thrilled with the results of my Junior Scientist assignments! You can find the details of it here.

Two of the Scientists were absent today, but the other two did a fantastic job!

This beautiful young lady made a lava lamp (testing different amounts of Alka Seltzer in oil and water--SO COOL!).

This young scientist tested different amounts of vinegar in baking soda (amounts being constant), shook the bottles, and measured the "explosion" by the amount of damage done to the bottle.  No, this isn't the most scientific way to measure, but he completed the Scientific Method in the journal, and his enthusiasm for his experiment was priceless.  (Plus, these kids are always asking if we can "blow something up," and he did.)

I was a little cautious, so ALL kids wore goggles when we went outside to watch the presentation.

After "explosion #1", I decided we might move away from windows and buses...

Assessing the damage...

Here are the three bottles...

And here are some of the amazing scientists from weeks past.

I Scream! You scream! We all scream for...

They talked me into it.  The last time I did the "Ice Cream Lab," I regretted it by the end of first block.  Well, maybe the beginning.  This year, it wasn't so bad.

We have been learning about freezing point and how salt lowers the freezing point of water, at the same time making the ice colder.  Students connected this with making homemade ice cream, and I opened my BIG MOUTH and mentioned that they didn't need an ice cream maker.  "You can just make it in bags at home.  It's really easy, and it tastes SO GOOD!"  How can you say no after that?  I did assure them that this would be a lab, not just an "activity."

I gave them a lab sheet that looks like this:

Ice Cream LAB

Name _____________________________

Purpose:  To see if salt will lower the temperature of ice enough to freeze the milk solution into ice cream.

Hypothesis:  If I ____________________, then ________________________.

Procedure:

1. Pour 1 cup of milk into a ziploc bag.
2. Pour 2 tsp (or more to taste) in the same bag.
3. Pour a dropper of vanilla into the same bag.
4. Seal the bag after removing all of the air.
5. Write your name on a gallon size freezer bag.
6. Pour one scoop (about 2 cups) of ice into the large bag.
7. Pour two hands full of rock salt onto the ice into the large bag.
8. Place the small bag into the large bag, making sure it is covered with the ice and salt.
9. Wrap the bag in a towel.  
10. SHAKE!  SHAKE!  SHAKE! (Continue shaking for about 5 minutes, or until mixture is a solid.)
11. Cut the corner of the small bag and pour ice cream into a cup or bowl. 

Conclusion:

(Yes, the materials would have cost a small fortune so students very kindly brought in all of the supplies.)

Making ice cream requires a lot of shaking...

...and a lot of mixing.

Overall, it was great, the kids had fun, and I think they understood why we were making the ice cream.
I asked them at least 100 times.

(I also did this at home with my 5-yr-old.  He LOVED it and now thinks I make the "best ice cream in the world.")

M & M's!

Ah, so many lab choices with solubility.  So many things one can do...

I stumbled upon this GREAT website: http://www.inquiryinaction.org/classroomactivities/topic.php?topic=Solubility

DAY 1:  So, we started out by finding out if temperature makes a difference in the rate that an M & M's colored coating dissolves in water.  Students designed their tests, and most of them chose to test the SAME colored M & M (controlled variable) and the SAME amount of water (controlled variable).  They filled one container with hot water and one with cold.

Here is a picture of one group's containers:

It's not hard to see that very little of the colored coating is left in the hot water, and more is visible in the cold water.

This lab led to a discussion about what students already know about molecules and how they move when hot vs. cold.  Students quickly understood why the hot water would dissolve the M & M colored coating faster.

DAY 2:  Next, students had to see if a solution of sugar would make a difference in the rate that the colored coating of the M & M's dissolved.  The controlled variable were the color of the M & M's, amount of water, and the temperature of the water.

Put the M & M's in...

It doesn't take long to see the color on the bottom of the bowls.

You might not be able to tell in the picture, but the bottom of the "no sugar" bowl is covered lightly in green, the "1tsp sugar" bowls is green around the outside, and the "3 tsp sugar" bowl is green in a crescent shape.  Therefore, the "no sugar" M & M coating dissolved the fastest, and the "3 tsp sugar" bowl dissolved the slowest.  This happened, because the sugar solution is MORE DENSE than the water, so it is harder for the candy coating to "push" on the solution than the water.

More FUN in science!  Learn on, kids!

D=M/V

Sunday, while perusing the wonderful Pinterest, I stumbled upon this:
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/content/experiment/colorful-convection-currents .  Check out the video.  (It is blocked at my school.  Grrr.)

So, I decided to try this today with my students, since we are learning about Density.  You must have containers with equal size openings.  I luckily found some and filled two of them with cold water and two of them with hot water.  I then put blue food coloring in the cold water and yellow food coloring in the hot water.  (Forgive my pictures.  I did not have my camera today, so these are phone pictures.  My phone unfortunately does not take great pictures.)

My intention was to show the demonstration just as in the video, but we ended up just using the taller containers.  (This was quite exciting for my first block.)  I covered the cold water container with a note card and flipped it over.  If you do this quickly, none of the water will spill, and the card will suction to the container.  Then, I placed the cold (blue) water container on top of the hot and gently pulled the card out from under it.

Students remembered what they knew about cold and hot water and their density, and they made predictions about what would happen when the two mix.  (Most actually predicted that I would make a terrible mess and didn't work.  I proved them wrong!)

Students can easily see that the warmer water rises to the top, because it is less dense.

Next, students rapped (Yes, rapped.  I forced them.) the formula for density:

Density = Mass

                 Volume

I found this great handout with practice exercises:

http://home.comcast.net/~judkinsscience8/Files/Forces%20in%20Fluids/1_5_Density_wksh.pdf

Rap on!

Amazing Bubbles

This post could be considered off task.  It's not school-related, but it is science related.  The littles and I were playing outside in the BEAUTIFUL Fall weather on Sunday, and Tiny Little decided she wanted to blow bubbles.  She LOVES bubbles.  Actually, she loves the solution; licking it, drinking it, splashing in it.  Anyway, I decided this was a great time to try the Bubble Cups that one of my "Junior Scientists" (see first post) used in her experiment! 

Here are the instructions:
Cut hole in the bottom of a plastic cup.  I used red Solo cups.  Mix dish soap and water in a plate or bowl.  Stir. 
Place the large opening of the cup in the solution and pull out, so that you see a film covering the entire opening. 
Blow through the hole. 

We LOVED this, because even the littles can make bubbles!  We all know that bubble wands are very frustrating to little kids!

Here is Big Little blowing his bubble, trying not to crack up.  What a ham!

Here is Tiny Little's reaction to his bubble.

The Density Propensity

Today was DENSITY DAY.  No, it wasn't a holiday or really anything too exciting, but I L.O.V.E. teaching physical science ANYTHING, because of the endless possibilities of LABS.  I heart labs.  Kids heart labs, too.  So, I went to the very faithful grocery store and purchased lemons, limes, grapes, eggs, and hard boiled eggs w/out shells. (Did you know you can buy them in bags already de-shelled?  How awesome is that?!  Lazy, yes, but AWESOME.)  I had some pencil top erasers, so I used those, too.  I asked the kids to make a chart of "Float/Sink," and I told the items I had.  I wrote them down, and the kids placed them in their predicted columns of which items [listed above] that they thought would sink or float.  We discussed why they think items float or sink, and there was a pretty big consensus about light items floating and heavier items sinking.  This is when we began our test.  I started out with this container under the document camera:

This container was TOO shallow.  We couldn't tell if these items were floating or sinking.  Fail.  So, we moved to these:

Buckets are nice.  I have lots of them, so we had four large groups.  Students could at least record data according to which items sank or floated.  They were very surprised that the lemon was the only item to float.

I led students to the idea of density.  The cool thing is that we have been learning about atoms and elements, so the students understand the atomic mass in the Periodic Table.  They could look up the atomic mass of Hydrogen and Oxygen, the building blocks of water.

I then asked them to figure out a way to change the density of the water to get more of the items to float.  After some pretty creative ideas, I asked if anyone had heard of the Dead Sea.  At least one person in each class had and could tell something about the salt content.  After mapping the Dead Sea on our world map (where we map everything), the students began adding salt to their buckets of water to try to change the density of the water.

After about a cup and a half of salt, the hard boiled egg floated, followed by the raw egg.  Even with an entire container (about 3 cups) of salt, the eraser and grape did not float.

This surprised students and proved their theory about weight being the determining factor to be wrong.

Students found salt (sodium) on the periodic table, and realized the atomic mass is larger than that of water.  This explained why more items floated in the salt water, and why salt water is MORE DENSE than water.

Ah, science.

Scientists Around the World

We finished our "Scientists Around the World" assignment.  As mentioned earlier, students had to find a current scientist who was still living.  I am TRYING to encourage them to become scientists, so I wanted them to see that many scientists are not what they think.  I don't know if this worked, because I got a lot of, "He's old," and, "She looks funny," so my goal might have been far-fetched.  Anyway, they learned about many different types of scientists and what they do!  Also, I have a student whose parents are scientists (which I did not know), which is WAY cool!  Here is our working board, which as you can see is a little United States heavy.  We are working on that...And one student contributed a dollar from Trinidad, which I had to map.  If nothing else, we worked on some geography, which is always great!

Atoms and Molecules!

We have been learning about atoms, elements, and molecules, which involves many fun labs and activities, as well as fun assignments!  The latest assignment I gave the kids involves lots of choices.  I like choices myself, and with the Common Core and Essential Standards, students are supposed to be given more choices and responsibility for their own learning.  In this assignment, students were allowed to choose a song, rap, movie, skit, book, story, game, or worksheet that they would create.  They had to TEACH the following vocabulary:  elements, atoms, molecules, solid, liquid, gas (all three according to the movement of molecules), and matter.  Students could work together, but they had to produce their OWN individual work.  I originally gave them a day in class and a week at home (including a weekend, so movie-makers could collaborate at a house together to act and film), but I am majorly opposed (in fact, it makes me nauseous) to homework that is not necessary, so I ended up giving two days in class with a full week at home.  Here is some of the work in progress:

Some students made a board game...

And another made a game with cards.

Here is a story a student wrote...

and here is a Scientific War game another student created.

And just for something extra, we sang this song my awesome coworker shared with me.  The students get extra credit if their parents write a note saying they sang this song to them!  (The song is to the tune of "The Adams Family".  We sang this together.  They LOVED it!  Thanks, Jackie!)

New Beginnings

I am so excited about this new school year.  I try to do different things every year (I get bored easily), but this year, with the help of Pinterest, I thought about school more often than normal and have WAY too many new ideas. 
I started out by making new funky curtains for my classroom, since my blinds have never worked anyway, and I figured any way to bring even more color to the place is a GREAT thing!  I bought two shower curtains at Target, cut them in half to make four panels, sewed the cut edges, and sewed fabric to the bottom to make them longer for classroom windows.  Then, I got rods and set them in the existing hardware.  The picture is not the greatest but here they are!

I originally bought this same zebra print shower curtain at Target to cover up my "office", which for a science teacher, quickly becomes more of a closet.  The bear has already scared about three upcoming sixth graders.

I also found a great idea from thesciencedivablogspot.com for a Junior Scientist.  I will randomly choose a Junior Scientist for the week (on Fridays).  This student will receive a tote bag (I got printed ones on vistaprint), which will hold goggles, a journal, and a book of experiment ideas.  The student must choose an experiment (which doesn't have to come from the book) and have a week to conduct the experiment and present their information (which must be recorded appropriately in the journal).  On Friday, students will present in any way that they desire and will receive an extra grade that day!  I am so excited about starting this.  Students love experiments, and I know they will love choosing their own.

I am also trying to be more organized, so I have made even more bins for things like Weekly Assignment for when kids are absent and Graded Papers for filing.  I know most teachers already do this, and when I taught elementary school, I did more of this.  In middle school, however, I dropped the ball on stuff like this.  Here are some of my new crates:

Another idea I have is to have a "Scientists Around the World" board.  I have been trying to increase global awareness, as well as spark interest in science fields for kids, and this seems like a way to do both.  Students will find a current scientist anywhere in the world, print a picture, and write a paragraph about them on a notecard.  Notecards and pictures with be posted on a world map that will stay up throughout the year.  I will post pictures when this board is working.  My dream is for at least one student that I teach each year to be so inspired and excited about science that they strive to work in a field of science.