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.