Making a battery

We have all used a battery but have you ever stopped to think about what makes a battery? During today's inquiry we assembled and tested a battery. Don't worry if your light bulb did not light. As long as you saw some "stuff" on the zinc, it worked. We will discuss what that "stuff" is tomorrow and how it all works.

For homework be sure the following is completed:

• Draw a diagram of your battery and label each part.
• Answer reflection questions A-E on pg 15.
• Read pgs 16-17 and answer questions 1-3 on page 17.

Thinking about energy, machines and motion

We started our unit off by visiting 8 various stations. Each station focused on a concept that we will further address as we dive into our unit. You should have completed your student sheet in class. If not, please complete tonight and be prepared to discuss in class.

Technology update

Parents please take note of the following:

~ Grades are now inputed through the Parent Portal. I update the grades on a weekly basis (usually Friday). Please email me if you have any questions. Not registered? Contact the main office to sign up.

~ Staff webpages are functioning. Please email me if you are unable to access the current class info.

Growing animals

To prepare us for our upcoming unit we have been practicing how to write a lab report. For our investigation we decided to grow sponge animals and see if temperature, type of water or stirring the water made any impact. Friday we wrote out procedures and today we experimented. Be sure to follow the guidelines/rubric I gave you when you are writing up your final copy. All good copies are due by Wednesday, September 22. Good copies may be typed, written in blue/black ink or pencil.

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.