Hi, everyone! So sorry for the delay in blog posts - I have been on the overnight outdoor science field trips with both schools, as well as being swamped with grading and report cards. But here's the update:
5th Grade: 5th graders wrapped up their Living Systems Unit last week and took a quiz. Those graded quizes will be coming home with your student this week. We started our new unit, called "Mixtures and Solutions." Our first experiment had us making mixtures of a liquid (water) and various solids (gravel, powder, salt). A mixture is any combination of substances (either liquid, solid or gas) that can be separated. In class, we separated the water/gravel mixture using a mesh screen. The powder/water mixture could be separated using a coffee filter. Because the salt dissolved in the water, it is a special type of mixture called a solution. We will be looking at this further over the next couple weeks.
Also, the 5th graders will be planning stations for Family Science Night, happening on March 9 at 6:30. We'll be putting these together over the next few classes, and hopefully at least a few students from each group will be able to attend in the evening and show off their experiment. I am also in need of a few more adult volunteers to help pull this off, so please contact me as soon as possible at caitlin_jenkins@berkeley.k12.ca.us if you are able to help! Thanks!
4th Grade: The 4th graders took a brief quiz last week on environmental preference, food webs, and biotic and abiotic factors. These have been graded and will be going home this week with your student. Most students did quite well! We are wrapping up our Environments unit this week with a study of brine shrimp. We'll be investigating the range of tolerance of salt concentrations for our brine shrimp to hatch!
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