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. 

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