In Science Class . . . Week of 10/3

5th Grade: This week in science, we will be looking at chemical reactions! During a chemical reaction, a mixture of chemicals changes to produce new substances. We will do several chemical reactions on Friday and observe changes. The evidence we will see of a chemical reaction includes a color change, a temperature change and/or production of a gas (bubbles). (A common chemical reaction that produces a gas is mixing baking soda and vinegar. ) Next week, we'll dive into atoms and molecules and the periodic table.

Key questions:

• What is an atom? (The smallest particle of matter)
• What is a molecule? (Two or more atoms bonded together)
• Why are there so many different substances on Earth when we only have about 90 naturally occurring elements? (The atoms can combine in infinite arrangements)
• What happens in a chemical reaction? (The atoms rearrange to form something new).
• What are common pieces of evidence for chemical reactions? (Change in color, change in temperature, bubbles)

4th Grade: This week the students detected magnetic fields using compasses, iron filings, and washers. We hid magnets in small boxes, and had other students try to find them using our tools. We also made our own compasses using straws, thread and a steel pin. By rubbing the magnet on the pin, we induced magnetism. Our pin then had poles and had it's north pole point north (as our Earth's north magnetic pole is actually a south magnetic pole.) Because of the field trip, Ms. Khare's class won't be able to make their own compasses. Sorry!

Key Questions:

• Why did your tools work to find the magnet? (All are iron, and can be used to detect magnetic fields)
• How did you make your compass?

In Science Class . . . Week of 9/26

5th Grade: This week, we read about how solids dissolve, and what is happening on a particle level. We also will identify a substance based on how much can dissolve in water (also known as its solubility).

• What happens when a solid dissolves? (The water molecules break up the solid molecules)
• How did we identify the mystery substance? (We saw how much could dissolve, and compared it to a list of known substances and there saturation points.)

4th Grade: This week, we did a fun activity that showed that the force between magnets decreases the further they get apart. We used balances to see how many washers the force of two magnets could hold. The number of washers required to break the force between the magnets decreased as the space between the magnets increased. We also graphed our results, which was a great way to integrate math concepts in a practical way!

• How many washers could the scale hold when the magnets where together? (Usually 15+)
• What happened to this number as we added plastic chips between the magnets ? (The number decreased with each chip, usually getting as low as 3 washers with 6 chips.)
  

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.

In Science Class . . . Week of 9/12

Yay! We are in the full swing of science class!

5th grade: This week, the 5th graders are working on putting together mixtures and then separating them using filters, screens and evaporation. Last week we mixed gravel and water, powder and water, and salt and water. The screen and filter were able to separate the gravel mixture and the powder mixture, but the salt dissolved in the water and passed through both. Over the weekend, we used evaporation to get rid of the water, leaving behind salt crystals. On Friday, we'll investigate how to determine the mass of salt in water without measuring the salt directly on a balance.
Key questions to ask your student:

• What is a mixture and what are some examples? (Any two or more substances put together. Examples are infinite! )
• What is a solution? (A special type of mixture where the solid dissolves, like salt in water.)
• What tools can we use to separate mixtures and solutions? (Screen, filters, evaporation)
• How did you find the mass of the salt on Friday?

4th grade: We are finally done setting up science notebooks and will have our first lesson on magnets this week. For starters, we made predictions about what objects would stick to a magnet, and then tested our prediction and recorded results. We also became iron detectors and walked around the classroom finding things made of iron and steel. Later in the week, we will investigate other magnetic properties (such as poles) and introduce the terms of "attract"and "repel."
Key questions to ask your student:

• What types of objects stuck to the magnet? (Objects made of iron or steel.)
• What objects in the room are made of iron or steel?
• What happens when you put two objects together? (Sometimes they attract and sometimes they repel - it depends on which way the poles are facing. Like poles attract and opposite poles repel. Poles are either called "north" or "south.")
• What surprised you most about our activities?
  

Welcome to 4th and 5th Grade Science!

Yes, friends, it's that time of year again! Welcome to my blog about all of our fabulous explorations in science class. On this blog, I'll post our weekly topics and some key questions you can ask your student to review material and extend thinking. I'll also try to add some links to science -related community events.

A welcome letter from me went home with Thursday folders today, but feel free to contact me if you have questions or would like another copy. My new BUSD email is caitlinjenkins@berkeley.net.

Here's what we've been up to in class:

5th Grade: In the first week of class, we did a fun activity that tested our sense of smell. I put common items in containers covered with a paper towel. Students smelled and reported what they thought was in the cup. The idea was to have some fun on the first day, and to also introduce some key parts of the scientific method - focus question, data collection, conclusion.

Since then, we've been working on getting our science notebooks set up. I have a grand vision for them this year - they now are more organized, have sentence starters to help kids and a work habits self reflection section.

Our first activity for our physical science unit was yesterday. Students conducted observations of some solids (gravel, powder, salt) and then mixed them with water to create a mixture. We then attempted to separate these three mixtures using a screen and a coffee filter. We had success with two of the mixtures, but weren't able to separate the salt and water. We'll work on this on Friday and next week!

Key questions to ask your 5th grader:

• What smells were the hardest for you to identify?
• How did you separate the three mixtures?
• What are some other mixtures you know?
• How is your science group working? What grade did you give yourself on science work habits? (1-4, with 4 being excellent)
  

4th Grade: The 4th graders also practiced science notebook skills with the activity described above on the first day. Much of this week is going to be spent on organization of notebooks, and next week we'll start our physical science unit on magnetism and electricity.

Key questions to ask your 4th grader:

• What smells were the hardest for you to identify?
• What do you think magnets stick to?
• How is your science group working? What grade did you give yourself on science work habits? (1-4, with 4 being excellent)

In Science Class . . . Week of 3/28

5th Grade: This week in science, we have been looking at chemical reactions! During a chemical reaction, a mixture of chemicals changes to produce new substances. We did several chemical reactions on Monday and observed changes.  The evidence we say of a chemical reaction included a color change, a temperature change and/or production of a gas (bubbles). (A common chemical reaction that produces a gas is mixing baking soda and vinegar. )  On Wednesday, we dived into atoms and molecules and looked briefly at the periodic table. Student should understand that, in a chemical reaction, the atoms of the reactants rearrange to form new molecules (and thus substances).

Key questions:

• What is an atom? (The smallest particle of matter)
• What is a molecule? (Two or more atoms bonded together)
• Why are there so many different substances on Earth when we only have about 90 naturally occurring elements? (The atoms can combine in infinite arrangements)
• What happens in a chemical reaction? (The atoms rearrange to form something new).
• What are common pieces of evidence for chemical reactions? (Change in color, change in temperature, bubbles)

4th Grade: This week the students detected magnetic fields using compasses, iron filings, and washers. We hid magnets in small boxes, and had other students try to find them using our tools. We also made our own compasses using straws, thread and a steel pin. By rubbing the magnet on the pin, we induced magnetism. Our pin then had poles and had it's north pole point north (as our Earth's north magnetic pole is actually a south magnetic pole.)

Key Questions:

• Why did your tools work to find the magnet? (All are iron, and can be used to detect magnetic fields)
• How did you make your compass?

Have a great vacation, everyone!

In Science Class . . . Week of 3/21

Fun Event: This Thursday, Berkeley Public Education Foundation will host a free Lawrence Hall of Science Night. It will be from 6-8:30 pm on Thursday, March 24. For more info, go to http://www.bpef-online.org

5th Grade: This week, we implementented our plans for separating a dry mixture of gravel, power and salt. Most groups realized that to separate the powder and salt, they needed to add water so the salt would dissolve and thus pass through a coffee filter (unlike the powder). Because it dissolves in water, salt and water together are an example of solution.

On Wednesday, students saturated two solutions - one of kosher salt and water, and one of Epsom salt and water. To saturate it means to dissolve as much salt in the water as possible. Students found that 50 ml of water could hold about 10-15 grams of salt, while the same amount of water could hold 40+ grams of Epsom salt. The idea behind this is that solubility is a property that distinguishes different chemicals.

On Friday, we'll be identifying a mystery substance based on it's solubility! In the week before spring break, we'll be looking at chemical reactions.


4th Grade: This week, the students performed an experiment to measure how magnetism decreases based on the distance between magnets. We also used a hanging magnet to detect the magnetic field of the earth! (All N poles of the magnets faced north, because our "North Pole" is actually a south magnetic pole and opposite poles attract!)