Mystery Plant Petting Zoo

Today we began our unit about plants.  Students spent time observing different kinds of plants using the sense of touch, smell and sight.  Students recorded their work in their science journal.  We are very excited to get this unit kicked off in such a fun way.  A BIG THANK you to the following families for the donations that made it possible to purchase these awesome plants for our class: Nash family, Zou family, Hurtado family, Lambert family, Nolan family, Miller family, and Barry family.

What was your favorite plant? Leave us a comment below. :) 

Stars Perception Lab

This past week in science, students started studying about stars.  One of the very first concepts that we learned about is that stars APPEAR to be very small points of light, when in reality they are actually just very FAR away.  In order to better understand this idea, students went outside and did a little experiment.  Students worked in teams to measure the size of a science book at different distances across the basketball court.  Students found that the closer the book, the larger it seemed. The further the science book, the smaller it seemed.

When we plotted the information on a line plot, we noticed that the data shifted.  

How does this experiment relate to our study about stars? 

(Leave your answer in a comment below. Don't forget to include your name in your comment.) 

Gizmos are Awesome!

On Thursday, students were introduced to an awesome tool called a Gizmo.  A Gizmo is an online simulation that powers inquiry and understanding of math and science. Students worked in pairs to explore the Measuring Volume Gizmo.  They learned how to read the volume of water in a graduated cylinder.  The even explored the volume of irregular shaped objects such as a rock.  They found that the difference between the water with and without the rock, told them the volume of the rock.  Students loved exploring the Gizmo. Today we continued our exploration with a guided student sheet.

As students are ready, we will slowly unveil more and more Gizmos.  Today, we have unveiled three more Gizmos for students to use at home: Cargo Captain (Focus: Multi-Digit Subtraction), Number Line Frog Hop (Focus: Addition and Subtraction), and Cannonball Clowns (Number Line Estimation). Feel free to explore Gizmos at home. Each student has the username and password in the back of their planner. What's your favorite Gizmo so far? There are many more to come!

Measuring Matter

This week in science, we have been measuring different properties of matter.  We used balances to find the mass of several objects. We also practiced using thermometers to practice finding the temperature in Celsius and Fahrenheit.  Towards the end of the week, we will use graduated cylinders to find the volume of several different objects.

These young scientists are busy using gram cubes to find the mass of different objects. 

Young Scientists At Work

For the past few days, our young scientists have been working through the Scientific Method.  They have learned that the Scientific Method often includes the following steps: 1) Asking a Testable Question, 2) Forming a hypothesis, 3) Test with an experiment, 4) Record and analyze data, 5) Draw conclusions and Report results.

Today, our young scientists used the Scientific Method to answer the following testable question "How many drops of water fit on the face of a penny?" Students enjoyed experimenting and comparing results. Not all students got the same answer.  Students came up with the following list for WHY results may have differed: 1) The size of the drops might have been different, 2) A student may have miscounted, 3) The table might have been unbalanced, 4) A student might have pushed too hard on the eye dropper.

C.O.R.E. scientists, what was your favorite part of today's lab? Leave us a comment.