In Science Class . . . Week of 9/19

5th Grade: This week, we'll be learning about saturation. For each solid that is mixed with water, there is a point in which the water cannot hold any more of the solid. This point differs based on what the solid is. On Wednesday, we'll be saturating a salt solution and then on Friday, we'll be working with Epsom salt. Both dissolve in water, but have different amounts before reaching saturation.
Key questions:

• What is saturation? How did you know that your solution was saturated? (No more solid could dissolve no matter how hard we shook the bottle of water.)
• How did Epsom salt's saturation point differ from regular salt? (About 14 grams of salt saturate 50 ml of water, but 48 grams of Epsom salt are needed to saturate the same amount of water. Therefore, Epsom salt has a higher solubility than regular salt.)

4th Grade: This week, we'll be examining the concept of poles and induced magnetism. Students will experiment with magnets to find out two key concepts:
1) Magnets either attract or repel based on how they are facing each other
2) A permanent magnet (like the one on your fridge) can make something iron a temporary magnet.

Key Questions:

• What type of objects did your magnet stick to? (Any object with with a lot of iron, including stainless steel objects)
• What happens when two magnets are pushed together? (If the opposite poles are facing each other, then the magnets will attract. If like poles are facing each other, such as north and north, or south and south, then the magnets will repel.)
• Can the force of magnetism act through other materials? (Yes, unless the material is really thick! Magnets stick to each other through paper and other thin materials, but many of the tables in the science room were too thick for the magnets to attract each other.)
• What happens when you stick a paper clip to an iron nail that is touching a magnet? (The iron nail becomes a temporary magnet and will act on the paper clip, making a fun chain of objects! FYI, magnets that stick to the fridge and are always magnets are called permanent magnets. )

Here is a diagram. We used "doughnut" magnets instead of bar magnets, but you get the idea! The iron nail and paper clips become temporary magnets.