In Science Class . . . Week of 12/12

4th Grade: Quizzes will be going home this week. The material was a struggle for some students, so if your student would like to retake the quiz, I am available before and after school and during lunch on Wednesday and Friday. (Unfortunately, I teach through morning recess so that's not an option). We went over the quiz, and correct answers are written down. If students are still confused, please have them come visit me and we can go over it!

We also will be continuing our explorations of wind energy and turbine design! See the previous post for more details. It's been a huge hit with the students, and many of them are working very well in pairs to design interesting and efficient turbine blades!

5th Grade: The students are finishing up their planet advertising campaigns. We've been imagining that there is now a booming space tourism industry and they were in charge of creating a brochure or poster to attract tourists to their planet. This has helped students understand how planets in our solar system are unique and similar, and has helped them envision what it would be like to have humans visit and stay on their planet. Many of the planets create challenges for life, including very hot or very cold temperatures, differences in or lack of atmosphere, radically different surface compositions and gravitational pull.

• What planet did you study?
• How is this planet similar to or different from Earth?
• What sort of "attractions" did you create for your tourists?