Bird Adaptations: Beaks

In grade 3 we are studying bird adaptations. We did an activity to show us the importance of having the right beak. Students had to use different tools to get "food" to take to their nests. 

This blunt beak was fine for picking up large pieces of food but not so good for getting food out of holes. 

This pointy beak was better suited to picking food out of holes.

But not so good for hard round pieces of food. 

This beak was great for nectar.

This beak didn't work so well for nectar.

Another satisfied nectar eating bird. 

The nectar beak was not good for filtering. 

The teaball beak was much better suited to filtering.

This is a fun activity and a very good way to illustrate what can happen to a population of birds when they can't get food because of their beak shape. 

Bone Bosses

I see that it has been nearly 2 months since my last post. To be fair we have had two vacations in that time. We have been busy in all the classes. Grade 4 learned about adaptations in skulls and skeletons. We are learning some of the bones in the human skeleton now. We will work into muscles next.

Comparing animal skulls according to teeth and position of hole for spinal cord. 

Skeleton Puzzle

Bone Bosses!!!! These 4 girls were the first to get all correct on their bone test. 

 

We love our thumbs!

Grade 4 is doing a unit called Out of Africa. In IPC lab we are doing some investigations about archeology and evolution. Last week we tested life with and without opposable thumbs. Students completed a number of tasks with their hands and then tried the same tasks with their thumbs taped to their hands. We also talked about other adaptations in our skeleton such as how the shape and tilt of our pelvis allows us to walk upright and use our hands for tasks. We will look at the shape of human skulls in our next lesson. 

Temperature and Particles

We continued in our They Made a Difference unit in grade 3 by talking about how Fahrenheit and Celsius made a difference in how we describe temperature. Students made their own thermometers that showed how particles take up more space as they warm up. Students also conducted an investigation about how a vitamin tablet dissolves faster in warmer water because the particles more around more. 

To make this a fair test we only changed the temperature of the water. We used the same type of beaker, the same amount of water and the same size tablet. 

We used thermometers to measure temperature and ipads to measure time in this experiment. 

As the water warmed up, it moved up the glass rod. 

Smelly Lesson

In grade 3 the current unit is They Made a Difference. In science lab we will be doing some investigations honoring certain scientists who have made a difference. We started with Linda Brown Buck and Richard Axel who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their work on smell receptors and the brain. You can read about that HERE.

For our lesson, we did discussed why is is important to be able to identify smells. We talked about how some smells remind us or a person or a place or a holiday. Students had 10 scents to identify. We made sure to smell carefully because some of the smells were a little strong (vinegar and garlic). The favorite smells seemed to be cocoa powder and cinnamon.

I get the film canisters from Odenlab. It is always fun to tell the kids about cameras with film and waiting weeks to complete a roll and get the photos back. 

Brrr! It is cold!!!

How cold it it? In grade 7 we are taking advantage of the difference between outside and inside temperature to explore heat transfer. This week we looked at the Fahrenheit and Celsius temperature scales. Students made these handy conversion graphs using google sheets.

In our next lesson we calibrated blank thermometers. Students used ice water as their zero and boiling water as their 100. Then they measured the distance between the two points and made marks for every 5 degrees. 

On the right is a student thermometer reading about 18C and a lab thermometer reading about 20C.

Another set of thermometers with pretty close readings. 

We will discuss particles and forms of heat transfer next. Here is a fun clip to watch. Try this at home.

Click to see the Veritasium Clip "Misconceptions about Temperature"

Separation of Mixtures by 6v

In grade 6 we finished our Elements, Compounds and Mixtures unit with some practical work of separating mixtures. Filtration and evaporation were familiar to students. They could easily explain how they would recover salt from saltwater using evaporation. It was a little trickier to describe how they would recover water from saltwater. These boys built a simple desalination plant. After a lot of problem solving, they were able to recover some fresh water. 

We also tried separating the colors of a pen using chromatography. Water worked well for most pens but we also tried some other solvents.