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. 

Magnets

Grade 3 is completing a unit called Bright Sparks. In their classroom they learned a lot about circuits and conductors and insulators. In IPC lab we investigated static electricity and magnets. The magnet lesson was fun. We made predictions about what objects were attracted to a magnet and which objects weren't. We discussed the fact that all things attracted to a magnet are metal but that not all metal is attracted to a magnet. We looked at strong and weak magnets and opposing forces. A strong magnet could lift up the scissors because the magnet force was bigger than the force of gravity. Weaker magnets couldn't pick up the scissors because gravity "won". This reminded some students of building boats and buoyant force.

We finished the lesson by making the scissors into a temporary magnet and making an electromagnet. We talked a little about the relationship between electricity and magnets.

I showed the students my "magical tube of science". Come try if for yourself or watch this clip. Or watch the clip and then come try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqdOyxJZj0U

Here are some related learning goals.

2.35 Know about the principles of magnets and magnetic and non-magnetic materials

2.39 Know that forces differ in size

2.38 Know that forces have direction

End of term wrap-up

From the looks of this blog we haven't been doing much in the science lab. The truth is we have been very busy. End of term brings busy times for everyone. We are all in need of some rest and relaxation over the holidays. Here is a photo dump of some activities we have been doing.

Grade 7 students measured the pH of different liquids using different indicators. (Acids and Bases unit)

Our Bright Sparks from grade 3 have been investigating static electricity in the lab. Some groups made paper snakes and charmed the snakes with their recorders. (And some static electricity of course.)

This may look like a grade 6 student but it is really Willem Einthoven who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1924 for inventing an EKG machine. Wouldn't the real Einthoven be surprised to find out that a grade 6 student at SIS in 2015 can do an EKG in school using a simple data logging EKG probe. 

Another Nobel Laureate Takaaki Kajita, winner of the year's Nobel Prize in Physics.

 Paul Modrich and Frederick Sanger

Sir William Ramsay and John O'Keefe

International Elements

What is it that these 6th grade boys find so interesting on their chrome books? Would you believe me if I told you they were translating The Periodic Table? It is great working at an international school when you teach The Periodic Table. Why is the symbol for Sodium Na? Did you know it is called Natrium in Swedish? Tungsten sounds like a Swedish name but the symbol is W. It's called Wolfram in German. Silver's symbol Ag doesn't make much sense to an English speaker but a French person understands the symbol, silver is argent in French. I shared a blank google sheet with a few headings with 6v. In about 15 minutes they had created this!!!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ibrvL2mvfEhIcLluMmIvSKXMgh7HwGKFcKlVtEvFJiw/edit?usp=sharing

Here is the view from the other side of the screen.

Staying Warm

Grade 3 is finished with their unit about chocolate. We did an investigation this week where we compared the heat lost from different containers. This gave us a chance to practice using some simple equipment (thermometers, retort stands and timers.)

Next week we will graph our data and describe our results using the words insulator and conductor. The students will be using these words in the context of electricity in their Bright Sparks unit.

If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd Have Baked a Cake

Grade 4 finished their study of chemical and physical changes in food by baking a cake.  This cake is sometimes called a wacky cake or depression cake. The ingredients are probably things you have at home. No milk or eggs are required. It is a good way to see (and taste) the reaction of baking soda and vinegar. The bubbles formed in the reaction help the cake rise. The vinegar and baking soda undergo a chemical change so they lose their characteristic taste. 

It was good practice measuring. 

Here is the recipe so you can try it at home. 

Mix the following dry ingredients in a cake pan. 10 x 20 cm is a good size:

90g unbleached all-purpose flour

100g sugar

10 g unsweetened cocoa (Optional)

3g baking soda (bicarbonate)

1g salt

2.5g vanilla powder

Mix the following wet ingredients in small bowl.

2.5ml vinegar

35ml vegetable oil

120ml cold water

Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well. 

Bake at 175°C  for about 25 minutes: Until cake is springy and pulls away from the sides. 

If you want to use American measurements, google wacky cake. You will find the recipe. 

Bon appetit!

More Chocolate

This week it was 3c's turn to compare chocolates. In this lesson we discussed states of matter and melting. We tasted white, milk and dark chocolates. The students made a hypothesis about which one would melt first. One skill we practiced in this unit was safely using a small burner to melt the chocolate. 

Making Toxic Gas!!!!

We are continuing with chemical changes in grade 4. Almost everyone has mixed vinegar and baking soda at some time in their lives. We focused on that reaction this week. I told the students that we should hold our breath because we were making a toxic gas. Don't worry, we breathed easily after the reaction. We just made some Carbon dioxide. Next week we will talk more about that gas and how it really only is dangerous when it pushes all the oxygen away. We use it in fire extinguishers to deprive fires of oxygen. It was also blamed for this tragedy. Look for evidence of chemical changes in these pictures: bubbles, color changes etc.

How big are we?

In grade 6, one of our inquiry questions in our space unit is: What models are appropriate to show how the planets behave? I really enjoy considering the size of our solar system and doing some activities with kids to illustrate this. We are lucky to live in Sweden where a group of people have created a scale model of the solar system using Globen. It's fun to travel to some of the closer planets around Stockholm. 

We had a lovely fall day where we used planet models to get in the right order. We were able to talk about the strength and weakness of different models. These planets on sticks were fun to wave around but they were flat and not at all to scale. 

We went on a little walk where we made the sun the size of a basketball. Only the first four planets would fit in the confines of the church yard in that case. 

We watched a film about the scale of the solar system: 

We reflected on what was in between all the planets...space.

From Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

The Greatest Botanist on Mars or in Room 32 at Least

This weekend I saw The Martian. My whole family enjoyed it. My boys are 8 and 10 and they found it interesting and exciting. It comes with a PG-13 or från 11 rating for some language and one pretty graphic scene of a wound but the overall message and spirit of the film was family friendly in my opinion. It is about an astronaut who gets stuck on Mars. In one scene he decides to grow potatoes. In addition to claiming that he is the best botanist on Mars, he claims that, “Mars will come to fear my botany powers!”

We might be starting on a much smaller scale trying to germinate seeds in grade 5 but every botanist starts somewhere. Grade 5 students are germinating seeds in petri dishes. They have chosen their conditions for growing. Of course they have only changed one factor in order to make a fair test. 

Some of the varying conditions are: growing in soap, growing in tea or coffee, growing in different colors among others. Who knows, maybe one of these kids will be the best botanist on Mars  one day. 

Chemical Reactions grade 4

The grade 4 students were chemistry detectives this week. We are continuing to talk about chemical reactions. The students were given four white powders and 4 liquids. They had to mix each liquid with each powder and record and changes. Then they were given a "mystery powder" and they had to use the test to figure out what it was. We practiced a lot of skills including careful pouring and mixing, clear recording and problem solving. Our learning goal is: 2.29 Know about the changes that occur when materials are mixed.

Nobel Prize Announcements

We watched a live streaming of the announcement of the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physics in grade 6 today. The prize was awarded to a Japanese scientist, Takaaki Kajita and a Canadian, Arthur  B. McDonald. They discovered that neutrinos can transform and therefor have mass. You can read more about this on http://www.nobelprize.org/. They will be live streaming other prizes this week. The leaureates will come to Sweden on December 10 to receive their prizes

Chocolate

Grade 3 is testing and comparing chocolates. At the same time we are learning about properties of solids, liquids and gases. We will continue to look at melting and the temperatures at which different substances melt. As you can imagine the kids love these chocolate lessons. 

Seed Dispersal Investigation

Plants have developed may strategies for dispersing their seeds. Grade 7 students collected seeds on our walks in  Humlegården and in our own school yard. One dispersal method we tried to model was the "helicopter" strategy that lime and maple trees, among others, use. 

Students built their own models of seed dispersers. I am always surprised at the way these students come up with new ideas. Here is a seed carrier model using feathers. 

Other students made classic paper helicopters and changed the mass or wing size. It was important to only change one variable in order to have a fair test. 

Students dropped their models and timed how long they took to hit the ground. We used the assumption that the longer seeds are in the air, the greater chance they have to travel away from their parent plant. 

Moon Craters

Grade 6 is working on their first MYP science investigation. Our statement of inquiry for the Solar System is: Scientists observe patterns and use them to construct models that explain natural phenomena. Our assessments are somehow linked to this. The first investigation is to measure how a certain factor affects the size of moon craters. Of course we can't travel to the moon and wait around for a meteorite to come crashing down, so we build a model and observe the patterns we see. For this investigation our moon regolith was made from flour and a thin layer of cocoa powder. Students dropped different balls into the "regolith" and made different measurements. Some chose to change the size of the ball, some chose to change the height of the drop. For a dependent variable, some chose the length of the rays thrown from the crater, others chose to measure crater depth or diameter. Students recorded and analyzed their results using google sheets. It is a messy but fun and productive lab.

Measuring ejecta rays. 

A nice model crater.

Teamwork!

What happened when the "meteorite" came from an angle. 

Impact!

Messy lab!