Widening our circle: Beginning of last trimester

I can't believe that this is already the last trimester of the school year. All classes have been busy and engaged in their studies this Spring. I will summarize what the classes have been doing and include some descriptions on the photos below. As you will notice, I have considerably more pictures of the owls (K-1) but this is just a result of the nature of their study. The owls have been doing a lot of hands on explorations while the older classes have been engaging in a lot of discussions and other activities. Both classes (eagles and crows) have also watched science documentaries.

The standard that I am covering with the owls this trimester is K-1 physical science with a focus on energy. We started by discussing the sun and it's energy. The kids had the opportunity to explore reflection and absorption, and they got lots of practice reading thermometers.

Lorie Hammond, academic director, has developed a solar oven unit that has been used in schools throughout the country and we were very lucky to have her lead this activity for the owls this year. Lorie started her lesson by asking the kids if they have every noticed how hot cars can get when it is hot outside. She asked the kids if they knew why cars got so hot, and made a comparison with solar ovens. Lorie talked to the kids about heat absorption, insulation, and reflection. As part of this unit students had to draw something illustrating the concepts that they learned, and they also designed and tested two solar ovens. The first solar oven was very simple and Lorie showed everyone how it worked - we used two cups with tissue in between them to help insulate the heat. One of the cups was lined with black paper to increase heat absorption and aluminum foil was placed around the mouth of the cup increasing the amount of light reflected into the cups. The goal was to make apple sauce with this mini solar ovens - Lorie has successfully done this in numerous schools but we were unfortunate to have a very cloudy day when we tried.

The final assignment of this unit was to have the kids design and build larger solar ovens with cardboard boxes and other simple materials such as newspaper, colored paper, aluminum foil and plastic wrap.

Next week the owls will learn about photovoltaic cells. They will have a chance to play with small photovoltaic cells and motors and learn, firsthand, that solar energy can be converted to other useful forms of energy.

Owls using mirrors to reflect sunlight into thermometers

Can you feel which hand is being shaded by a friend?

Kids had to wear white and a black "paper gloves" and feel the difference in temperature between the two

Owls were asked to find the hottest and coolest place in their outdoor play area

Playing with UV beads. These beads change color when exposed to UV so kids were able to test what materials protect us from UV radiation.

Does sunscreen protect the bead against UV radiation?

Illustrating concepts introduced by Lorie Hammond.

Cutting apples to make apple sauce in mini solar ovens

Adding reflectors

Adding insulation and increasing absorption

Designing bigger models

The eagles (2-4) are learning basic biology with a focus on evolution. I am covering 2-4 life science standards. We started this unit with a discussions of what it means to be living. The kids had some previous knowledge about this but most didn't know the scientific definition of a living thing. The big project of the trimester is an Evolution game that I use to help kids understand and visualize some concepts that are crucial in the understanding of evolution - such as inheritance of trait, mutation and natural selection.

In the beginning of the game each student gets to "make" their animal by rolling a die in order to determine the specific set of characteristics that their individual will have. For example, your animal can be big or small, colorful or not etc depending on what number you roll. After each student int he class has their animal, they have to find a partner and "make babies". Students make babies by rolling dice for each trait - the largest numbers is representative of a dominant allele and whoever rolls the largest number for a particular trait will determine that particular trait in the offspring.

After the population reaches a certain size, I will introduce a mutation and/or a natural disaster to the game. The class will be responsible for determining what will happen (they have to provide reason for each argument) to their species over time.

Throughout the trimester teacher Pa and I have conversations with the class to discuss similarities and differences between the game and real life. I bring real life examples of the concepts that we discuss to share with the kids. The kids have recently learned about the peppered moth evolution during the Industrial revolution and about whale evolution. Next week I will show them a video about domestic dog evolution and we will discuss the difference between natural and artificial selection.

I hope you all had fun doing the inheritance of traits assignment. The kids were able to quickly see that real life genetics (inheritance of traits) isn't as simple as we represent on the game and homework.

Eagles keeping track of their population. Each student has an evolution game booklet where they keep track of the game.

making their individuals

This trimester the crows (5-6 graders) will learn physics (forces, Newton'w laws), apply the scientific method by designing and building a catapult and then collecting data and making adjustments to optimize the target of their catapult. This project also covers engineering standards. We started this unit by studying gravity and flight. How can big planes fly? What forces are involved? These are some of the questions addressed in our discussions. The kids learned about weight, lift, drag and thrust. They can draw these forces and explain their effect on flight.

The kids designed paper airplanes and are currently trying to figure out which design flies farther and which design stays longer in the air.

We were very lucky, and honored, to have Richard Joyce, mechanical and aerospace engineer visit our class last week. Richard talk to the kids about air resistance, lift, thrust and answered a lot of questions. He also talked to the kids about what engineers like him do on a daily basis. One of the students was determined to design a functional ball shaped airplane and Richard simulated a design session by pointing out flaws on the design and asking questions. The student persisted and had a very interesting idea at the end.This was a fun and informative session.

After finishing this physical science unit I will review photosynthesis and introduce the molecular level of photosynthesis by teaching them about the molecules that are involved in photosynthesis - carbon dioxide, water and sugar molecules.