Friday, September 18, 2009

Survived our first quiz

Well, all of my students have managed to make it through their first science quiz for the year. If you were absent today please be prepared to take the quiz on Monday during class (or another time of your preference).

Textbooks were issued and sent home today. Please keep them at home and use them for assignments or reference.

Assignments due now (most have turned the work in):
  • Drops on a Penny lab
  • Saving Fred lab
Enjoy the sunshine this weekend...Go Eagles!

Space Station will pass by tonight

Assuming that the night sky is visible, you will be able to locate the International Space Station above Burlington Twp tonight! You will have to look quick though, it's passing will take only a couple of minutes.

Location details:
  • Go out around 8:35pm (passing will occur from 8:38-8:41)
  • Locate the Big Dipper (it is low in the sky). You may also notice some bright stars (those will be 3 of the planets visible now). The Space Station will be traveling below the basket of the Big Dipper and above the planets.
  • Keep in mind that the Space Station orbits, so it will be moving. If you see something moving between the points I told you, you may have seen the Space Station!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Investigating sea ice

Operation ICEBridge

Great news!

We have the oppoprtunity to become part of a mission that will be studying sea ice in Antartica. Researchers from NASA and The University of North Dakota are involved. We will be able to track and comminucate with the scientists onboard the DC-8 flight. The purpose of their mission is to collect information on the sea ice to fill in a data gap since the last mission five years ago.

More details to follow...

We saved Fred!

Today in class we had to work together to solve a problem. There were no steps to follow only 3 rules (no harming, no touching and no falling). After some moans and groans, everyone was successful in putting Fred in his life preserver.

Hopefully, you learned some important things. One being that if you fail, just try again!

Work on finishing the problems from the lab.

I had a lot of questions about #2 so here is some help:
  • If I wanted to do the same thing you did to get the same exact results, how might the steps of the scientific method be helpful in achieving this?
Don't forget you have your notebook quiz tomorrow!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Wednesday Happenings

To get ready for our upcoming unit on earthquakes we took a short pre-assessment to see what the class knows already. Do not sweat if you did not know some answers...I do not expect you to (yet)!

Our investigation today led us to determine how many drops of water can fit on top of a penny. We even found out if soap would cause different results. Tomorrow we will share our results with the class.

Through this activity we raised some good questions: does the side of the penny used matter, what about the height the water is dropped from, etc. These are excellent ideas...feel free to use your ideas to set up an investigation for your MOS **Hint**

~ Finish your lab questions for homework.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Tuesday Happenings

Today we focused on writing a good scientific conclusion. We practiced using the data from our pendulum lab. At the end of class we learned the difference between making an observation and an inference by looking at animal tracks.

Tonight is Back to School Night. I look forward to meeting all the parents this evening. If you are unable to make it, feel free to send an email or call to introduce yourself!

Reminder ~ Your notebook quiz has been moved to Friday, September 18.

Monday, September 14, 2009

My Own Science

Besides the normal work we do in class, you will also be responsible to do some learning on your own outside the classroom throughout the year.

Today we went over the requirements in class. Here is a recap:
  • Ongoing science investigations done at home
  • Counted as a quiz grade
  • 6 activities each marking period
  • 30 minutes a piece
Refer to the Table of Contents for a list of acceptable activities and how to record your work.

Your first 3 activities will be due by October 2, 2009!