Looking at variables

How many drops of water will a penny hold before they spill over?

That was our question today. Hopefully you had a chance to determine the answer. I also hope you had an opportunity to practice how to identify variables and controls during an investigation.

Tomorrow we will keep building on our skills by setting up a lab report.

No homework tonight. Please note that the quiz scheduled for tomorrow has been pushed back to next week.

Science skills

Oops! I forgot to post this before I left.

Observations and inferences are a huge part of a scientific investigation. We did some practice on differentiating between the two.

We also looked at how to write a good hypothesis. For homework countine working on the practice sheet that we started in class. Try your best to complete the problems. Remember that a good hypothesis should state the IV, the DV and a reason why you think the DV will respond.

The quiz scheduled for Friday has been moved. Pd1 Monday and Pds 2,4,5 Tuesday.

Fossil Hunt

Today we went on a fossil hunt. Students were asked to try and figure out what creature they "found" by working in groups and observing other groups ideas.

The goals of the activity were:

• to show the uncertainity of science
• how working together helps solve a problem
• to develop a hypothesis from an observation and test it

Homework: Complete questions for The Great Fossil Find.

Are you still stumped as to what the creature may be? Here's a hint: it liked to fly millions of years ago.

Draw a Scientist

That was our task in class today. The purpose was to look at stereotypes in science, where these ideas came from and debunk some of the ideas.

Homework! Get saftey contract signed and complete one of the two safety worksheets.

Safety first

We spent today reviewing lab procedures and things to do/not do in the lab. On Monday I will send home the lab contract to be signed.

Be sure to complete your scientific summer summaries over the weekend. They are due Monday!

Thinking about science

Class started off by finishing up the review of class procedures.

For our class assignment we shared what we did this summer. This led into how science plays a role in everything we do. Students started their scientific summer summaries in class. All summaries are due no later than Monday, September 13. If you need to see my example, check out the link in Class Info section.

First day done!

Well the start of the 2010-2011 school year was off to a good one. I enjoyed meeting my new students and look forward to the year ahead. Today was uneventful in that we really went over the basics for the class. Please review the class outline tonight with your parent and return the last page signed.  In class we started the Getting to Know You Survey. If it was not completed in class, please finish tonight for homework. I love reading the responses and it gives me a chance to learn a lot about you.