Science

This week in Lower School Science, properties were being observed in almost every class.

 Kindergarten observed the physical properties of shells, using their senses to ascertain size, texture, and color.  They then sorted the shells by appearance and created pictograms and bar graphs to quantify their results.

First grade finished their study of nutrition by making their own butter in test tubes.  After observing the properties of cream, the boys “shaked, rattled, and rolled” the cream (which they learned was a colloid) became a solid.

 Second grade continued learning about the properties of water.  After finishing their experiments on surface tension, the boys observed cohesion of water droplets by moving the droplets with air.  The water droplet race was a big hit, and reinforced cohesion.

 Third grade observed the properties of rocks by weighing, measuring, and recording color and texture.  The boys will begin using field guides to identify rock specimens this week. 

Fourth grade used probability to analyze the amount of water coverage of the earth.  By tossing an inflatable globe back and fourth 100 times, and recording the number of times their pointer finger landed on land vs. water, they derived at estimates of the coverage.  They will finish this activity next week.

Next week:

K - Fish Observations/Dissection (discovering physical adaptations)

1 - Intro to Five Senses - Sense of Smell (”Mystery Smells” and “Peppermint Beetle” activities)

2 - Water Cohesion: Water Drop Experiments

3 - Begin Field Guide Rock Research

4 - Finish Globe Toss Activity (using probability to estimate the Earth’s water coverage), Water Facts Game, and Landforms Powerpoint and Bingo

Sami

This past week, we carefully examined our class’ two leopard geckos, Echo and Narcissus.  We discussed their natural habitat and specific features.  The boys then navigated through an online taxonomic chart to find out what phylum, class, order, family, genus and species the geckos belong to.  We defined binomial nomenclature and discussed the practical benefit of classification.  The boys went on an internet “Scavenger Hunt” to identify the kingdom through species of some common scavengers.

Next week we will begin to transition to our study of evolution.  We will discuss the stunning level of Earth’s biodiversity, and the boys will develop hypotheses to explain how they think the various species developed.    We will define evolution and look at a brief history of the development of the theory.  We will introduce  and begin to discuss other important terms like adaptation, natural selection, and common descent in order to develop vocabulary for use throughout the unit.

We finished up talking about and taking notes on the function of the different organelles.  Students then worked on their analogy project.  On Friday students worked on microscope skills by looking at the letter ‘e’ from newsprint and then looked at a cheek cell.  Next week students will review for a test and then we will begin the diffusion/osmosis unit.

This past week the boys focused in on our study of classification.  We discussed the contributions Aristotle and Carolus Linnaeus made to the development of a standard system of classification based on common traits and characteristics.  We examined the structure of Collegiate School as an example of an organized system.  The boys identified the various levels of organization within the school structure, from the individual student to the entire school.  We practiced classifying items by developing a system of classification for some media in our homes.  The boys developed some excellent classification systems organizing books,  video games, DVDs, and music.  We then drove home the concept by working with our lab groups to develop posters showing MLB classification systems the boys developed.

This week we will finish our MLB classification posters.  We will look at the various taxonomic groups and begin to identify where humans, whales, dolphins, and porpoises fit in the tree of life.  We will visit the New York Aquarium and participate in a “Whale Workshop” to provide examples to discuss during our study of taxonomy and to serve as motivation and introduction to the whale evolution unit.  The boys will take a “2Q” quick quiz early next week as we finish up the unit.

This week, we delved into our first topics after a week of successful teambuilding activities.

 In First Grade, we explored the food pyramid and what constitutes a varied and well-balanced meal.  Next week, we will create healthy meals using the SmartBoard and will test various foods for fat content using paper bags (which absorb fat).

In Second Grade, we examined the properties of water, begining with a taste test of various bottled waters, as well as distilled and tap.  We also explored surface tension by trying to float paper clips on water.  Next week, we will examine the molecular structure of water.

In Third Grade, we began studying the earth’s layers and created models of the earth using styrofoam balls.  We’ll finish the models this week, and then move on to the properties of rocks.

 In Fourth Grade, we brainstormed the uses of earth’s natural resources.  Next week, we will perform a “Pasta Mining” activity which simulates the harvesting of non-renewable and renewable resources.

Kindergarten had a great first week, getting to know each other and the rules of science class.  We shared summer science activities and made science keychains.  Next week, we’ll begin our study of the seashore by using our senses to identify various mystery sea items.

 The first Science Challenge of the year has been posted.  It asks the boys to examine the properties of a leaf, including length, width, area, shape, color, texture, etc….It also asks them to write a story about the leaf’s travels down from the tree to the ground.

Happy Fall!

Sami, Deb, and Beth

This week we tackled energy, ecosystems and ecology…the boys really liked it and hopefully, their quizzes will reflect their understanding. We watched Planet Earth’s “Into the Wilderness” on Wednesday’s double period, I highly recommend it. It did a great job discussing wild areas on the Earth and how we should manage them, what impacts management has and what role population/consumption plays in all of this. We then moved on to a more in-depth look at thermodynamics and energy/biomass/number pyramids in ecosystems.

Next week we will start evolution/natural selection/interspecies competition…should be fun. I just assigned a 4-5 page paper on a natural area of their choice. That is due in two weeks. They seem surprised there is so much work…love that.

Bob and I did our first lab experiment with the boys today and it went really well. They are learning about chemical and physical properties, chemical and physical changes of matter. They mixed Copper Chloride with water and then added a little aluminum foil….produced a gas, color change and percipitate—a very efficient lab indeed. The boys loved it and it was easy to do in one class period, no one had to rush.

We will go over it on Monday and then review for our first test on Wednesday (Chapters 1 and 2). We hope to begin States of Matter on Thursday.Chemical and Physical Changes Lab

We finished our discussions of State of Fear this week, using articles to basically demonstrate that Crichton’s “facts,” while technically mostly true, generally misrepresent the overall point of the scientists he quotes; this let us to a discussion of how scientific results are generally so complex that someone with an agenda can easily misrepresent them. We discussed how even without a specific political agenda, scientific facts are often oversimplified by the media for popular consumption, which leads to a misunderstanding of how science is done and how precise science generally is.

Chrichton’s book argues that since there is conflicting evidence and we don’t have all the data and our models aren’t perfectly predictive yet, then it’s irresponsible to act because we don’t know enough. We discussed the danger in mistaking a lack of precision (regarding complex phenomena such as climate change) doesn’t mean we don’t know anything, and we discussed the dilemma of having to make policy decisions with an incomplete data set.

We discussed the incongruity between a legalistic or popular interpretation of the word “theory” with the scientific meaning of the word, which leads to a poplular misunderstanding of the amount of “doubt” there is in the scientific community about global warming.

We also discussed one particular example of “bad facts” in State of Fear in which Crichton misrepresented (flat out got wrong) the testimony of Robert Hansen about the likelihood of climate change; while Crichton cited the original testimony in his footnote, his book presented as fact a skewed misinterpretation of the proceedings that had been previously promoted by a well-known climate change skeptic. This was an important example because it “revealed” Crichton to have relied on climate change skeptics for his data, rather than doing his own independent research, as he leads the reader to believe.

Finally, we spent some time talking about the basic science behind global warming and the greenhouse effect.

Next week: Their State of Fear papers are due, and I’ll be handing out An Inconvenient Truth on Monday. I’ll use our double period on Monday to show the film, and then we’ll begin our close reading and discussion of the book.

We finished Chapter 33 on population growth and regulation. Topics included population growth curves, survivorship curves, age-structure diagrams, competition, and predator-prey and symbiotic relationships. For age-structure diagrams I had my two classes do an activity where they had to analyze and compare some diagrams. Today was a review class for their first test on Monday covering chapters 1 and 33. As part of the review I gave my two sections an activity on following directions. Basically it was a long list of mathematical problems. The first direction stated read all of the directions first and the last direction stated that you did not need to do any of the problems. The students enjoyed it. I will be curious to see if it makes any difference on tests/quizzes. Last year many of my students had trouble following directions. Any other suggestions on how to deal with this?

Next week we finish off ecology by covering trophic levels and energy flow/chemicals cycle.  

We started taking notes on the textbook, which really means we started the week with some notes on how to take class notes. I lectured on Chapter 1 section 1, which introduces astronomy and discusses Earth’s rotation, orbit, and tilt on the axis. I asked the kids to write a descriptive paragraph about the seasons in their Science Writer’s Notebooks for practice writing detailed observations, and we discussed why the seasons occur. The boys love their SWNs, so I’ve given them some time to present their work to the class; in addition to the seasons assignment, they’ve written two free-topic SWN entries so far. We also spent time this week discussing lab safety.

Next week we’re doing a lab that models the seasons using styrofoam balls and flashlights, and we will move on to Chapter 1 Section 2 in the text.