In Science Class . . .Week of 10/25

Happy Halloween!

5th Grade: This week, we'll be learning about the water cycle. The students have already studied condensation and evaporation, so these concepts should be familiar. We will be reviewing vocabulary and playing a game. There will be no class on Friday due the Halloween celebration. Key questions:

• What is the water cycle? (The global water-recycling system that includes water in all three states - gas, liquid, and solid)
• Where is most of the earth's water? (In the ocean as salt water. Only 1% of the earth's water is fresh and available to us to drink.)
• As a water molecule, where did you "go" in the water cycle game? (Answers were vary - may include ground water, glacier, animal, ocean, clouds, river, lake, etc)

4th Grade:
This week, we'll be reviewing the rock cycle (see previous weeks' blog) and learning about the process of weathering by shaking pieces of granite and breaking them down to sand. If we have time, we'll also explore chemical weathering by placing limestone in vinegar. Key questions:

• What is weathering? (The process by which larger rocks are cracked and broken down into smaller pieces).
• What happened to your granite when you shook the jar? (It broke into smaller pieces, so as small as sand.)
• Where can we see weathering in action around us? (Answers may vary - examples include cracked pavement, broken rocks, sand at the beach, etc)

In Science Class . . . Week of 10/18

Sorry for the delay! It was a super busy week, as I attended the CA Education Conference in Sacramento.

5th Grade: Last week, the 5th graders explored the properties of air pressure using syringes, tubing and clips. By pushing the air back and forth, we determined that air is made of matter and does take up space. The students also did a reading that explained how the pressure and density of air changes with elevation.
Key questions:

• What happened when you put a clip on the end of the tube and why? (The plunger to the syringe couldn't go in far because the air was trapped.
• Why did the plunger of one syringe go out when you pushed the other connecting syringe in? (The air pushed the plunger out when we pushed on the other end.)
• Is air pressure higher or lower on the top of a mountain? Why? (The air pressure is lower because the air molecules are spread out more. This is also why it's harder to breathe at elevation.)

4th Grade: Last week, the 4th graders continued their study of the property of minerals, exploring cleavage, luster and color of the streak. We also introduced the rock cycle and the three types of rock - sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic. Key questions:

• What are metamorphic rocks (Rocks formed from heat and pressure, ex marble)
• What are igneous rocks? (Rocks from the mantle of the earth, either cooling just below the surface of the earth or coming out of a volcano and cooling on the surface. Examples we've looked at include granite, obsidian.)
• What are sedimentary rocks? (Rocks formed from small bits and pieces of other rocks, like sandstone or limestone. Often formed at the bottom of bodies of water.)
• What role do erosion and weathering play? (The are the processes by which rocks break down into smaller bits, becoming sand or, if compressed, a sedimentary rock.)

In Science Class . . . Week of 10/11

5th Grade
This week, the students performed an experiment that compared how water and soil respond to the energy from the sun. We took cups of soil and water outside, and recorded temperatures of the materials in the sun every few minutes for 15 minutes, then moved them to the shade and recorded temperatures every few minutes there. This experiment will help students when we begin our study of weather and climate in a few weeks.  On Monday, the students will create line graphs of their data, and we'll discuss independent vs. dependent variables. Key questions:     

• What did you discover about how soil and water heat? (Soil heats up and cools down much more quickly, while water is a "heat sink," meaning that it takes an ton of energy to warm it up.)     * What was the dependent variable in the experiment? (Temperature, because it depends on the time the material was in the sun. )     
• What variables did we control? (Amount of materials used, time in the sun/shade, type of thermometer used, etc)

4th Grade
This week, the 4th graders looked more closely at the properties of minerals. We have already studied color and hardness in previous experiments. This week, we examined luster, cleavage and streak, and worked on using a mineral property chart to identify unknown minerals. Key questions:

• What is luster? (It is the sheen on the mineral - ether metallic or nonmetallic)
• What is cleavage? (Whether or not a mineral breaks with flat surfaces. Calcite is an example of a mineral with cleavage.)
• What is streak and why is it important to geologists? (The color of the mark the mineral makes when you scratch it on a tile. It is useful because some minerals can be different colors, but the streak on the tile is always the same color.)