5th Grade: This week, the students will be focusing more on evaporation and recording data. We will examine our paper towel experiment, and then design an experiment to investigate how different locations in the room affect evaporation. Key questions:
- What happened to the scale with the paper towels? (The paper towel with out the lid dried, meaning the water evaporated. The paper towel with the lid did not dry because the water was contained, though there was some condensation on the inside of the cup. The scale tipped toward the side with the lid because it still contained water, whereas the water on the other paper towel had escaped into the atmosphere.)
- Where did your group place the cups with water? What predictions did you make? Which cups will have the highest evaporation rates?
4rh Grade: Students will begin to examine the mineral property of hardness by investigating which minerals can be scratched by certain tools. A mineral that can be scratched by a fingernail is "softer" and thus lower on the Mohs hardness scale, which goes from 1-10. (A diamond is a 10, talc is a 1.) Key questions:
- What mineral was the hardest and how did you know? (Quartz, because it could not be scratched by any of the tools)
- What mineral was the softest? (Gypsum, because it could be scratched by the nail, the paper clip and the fingernail, and you can see bits of it coming off in the form of a white powder.)
- Why do geologists test for hardness? (It helps them identify minerals better. Color is not enough to identify minerals most of the time.)
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