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.)

In Science Class . . . Week of 9/27

5th Grade: In 5th grade science this week, we'll be wrapping up our evaporation experiments and graphing our results. Students will practice using syringes and graduated cylinders to measure water volume.  Key questions:

• How did you measure the volume of the water in the cups? (We used a syringe to put the water into a graduated cylinder.)
• Where in the classroom did water evaporate most quickly? (Depends on group, but likely by 007's terrarium, because the air temperature was higher due to the heater.)
• Where did it evaporate the slowest? (On the floor, in the cupboard, etc where air temperatures were lower)

4th Grade: This week, we'll be continuing our investigations into the properties of minerals. In particular, we will be looking at calcite, which reacts with acid to form CO2 gas (bubbles). We'll be testing which rocks contain calcite by putting them in vinegar. Key questions:

• What makes calcite special? (It reacts with acid to form gas bubbles)
• Which rocks contained calcite? How do you know? (Limestone and marble, because they bubbled. Sandstone had air bubbles come off of it because it is porous, but it didn't continue to bubble so it does not contain calcite.)

In Science Class . . . Week of 9/20

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.)

In Science Class . . . Week of 9/13

5th Grade: This week, we wrapped up our solar system section by reviewing key concepts on the planets (see previous post) and watching a video. We have moved on to discussing evaporation as part of our focus on earth processes. The students observed a demonstration that involved putting two wet paper towels on a scale, with one side being covered by a lid. Key questions

• Where do you see evaporation in daily life? (When things "dry up" like laundry, puddles on the sidewalk, hair after a shower, etc)
• What did you predict would happen with the scale and the wet paper towels? Would both paper towels dry?

4th Grade: This week, the students broke apart their fake rocks and separated based on "minerals." We then put the gray material in water to separate in further.  The second class of the week, students observed real mineral samples and recorded observations.

• What types of minerals did you find in the fake rocks? (Blue, red, white, and gray, the last of which we were able to separate further and appeared in layers in our vials filled with water.)
• What were some of the words you used to describe the mineral samples? (Rough, smooth, shiny, dull, transparent, green, white, etc)

Welcome to Science! Weeks of 8/31 and 9/6

Hello, everyone, and welcome to a new year of science at BAM! I am very excited to back at BAM, teaching a subject I love. On this blog, I'll update you on our lessons and topics and include questions you can ask your 4th and 5th grader to reinforce science concepts (and spark conversation)!  If you have questions about any of the following or anything related to science education at BAM, please contact me at caitlin_jenkins@berkeley.k12.ca.us.

Both 4th and 5th graders did a sensory/observation activity last week. I passed around brown paper bags with common household objects in them. Instead of looking in the bag, students had to use their sense of touch and smell to write descriptive words and make a guess as to what the object was. The learning goals were to work on our observation skills, scientific language and to introduce students to the scientific method. Questions to ask your student: What were the objects? How did you know? What words did you use to describe them?

5th Grade: This week, the 5th graders started their investigations in the solar system. Students worked with cards with each of the components of our solar system on them, including comets, planets, satellites, asteroids and the sun. On the back of each of these cards is important information about the object's mass, diameter, composition, distance from sun and temperatures. Today, we will work on sorting and ordering them by distance from the sun, size, temperature, etc.  Key questions to ask:

• What is the order of the planets? (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune).
• What is the difference between the inner and outer planets? (Inner planets are rocky and solid, while outer planets are made of gas.)
• What is the largest planet? (Jupiter) The smallest? (Mercury)
• What planets have very high surface temperatures? (Those closest to the sun, though Venus is hotter than Mercury because it has an atmosphere that helps it retain heat.)

4th Grade: This week, the 4th graders have been practicing their measurement and observation skills on "mock rocks." These are fake rocks that I baked in my oven! We will be working with real rocks and minerals later in the unit, but are using these mock rocks at this time so that we can easily see "minerals" and separate them (which we will do next week). This week, students measured the diameter, circumference, depth and mass. We discussed choosing the appropriate tool for each task and including the correct unit of measurement. Key questions to ask students:

• What did your rock look like? (Gray, with blue and red spots. Under the hand lens, you can see grains of something white and shiny.)
• How did you measure mass? (We used a balance with cups on either side and gram pieces.)
• What tool did you use to measure the diameter (how far across), circumference (around) and depth (thickness)? (We used a measuring tape that was a meter long.)
• What are other tools you can name that measure the world around us? (Yard sticks, rulers, thermometers, measuring cups for baking, scales, etc)