2020/21 Lesson 3: The Skeletal System

 We learned about our amazing skeletal system! Did you know we have 206 bones in our body! Over half the bones in our body can be found in our hands and feet. Wow! Our bones support our body, help us move, store fats and minerals, and create blood cells. 

For our experiment we created an X-Ray on construction paper. We traced our hand, added in the bones and painted them with oil. If you hold it up to the light or a window, the x-ray will glow. 

Some of younger students created a skeleton with pasta!

2020/21-Lesson 2: Life Cycles

 Let's learn about life cycles! Every living thing goes through stages in it's life. As a living object grows and changes, these stages are called life cycles! We will learn about four life cycles in this lesson: the life cycle of a butterfly, the life cycle of a chicken, the life cycle of a plant, and the life cycle of a frog.

Life Cycle of a Butterfly: We created the life cycle of a butterfly with different pastas!

Life Cycle of a Chicken: We watched Henrietta lay an egg (while she sang and danced)!

The Life Cycle of a Plant: We planted a bean seed in a plastic bag to take home and watch it germinate!

Life Cycle of a Frog: I brought tadpoles and a small frog to observe!

Welcome Back! Glo-Germ Experiment!

 I am so excited to be back at school! To start off this year I will be traveling to each class and teaching the science lessons in each teacher's own classroom. We'll transform each room into the science lab as I visit. I have a science cart filled with fun items including my projector, laptop, and science experiment supplies! I have some surprises to bring as well!

For our first lesson we will review the rules of the science lab. After our review we will discuss the steps and recommendations of hand-washing during the pandemic. The CDC recommends we wash hands for at least 20 seconds. 

After practicing our hand washing, I will have some students test out their knowledge by applying Glo-Germ to their hands. Glo-Germ is a lotion, and when applied, appears clear until an ultraviolet light makes the lotion glow. The lotion represents germs. As the students wash their hands and wash off all the Glo-Germ, we'll shine the light again and see how they did. Hopefully they washed all the 'germs' away! 

After visiting the classes, we concluded that germs like to hide under our fingernails and around our wrists. Those were the spots that many students continued to have the Glo-Germ glow after they washed their hands. The students loved the Mark Rober video! Click on the image above to watch it.

  

Fun Science Experiments and Activities for Home!

Try some of these fun STEM activities!

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Create a Cotton Ball Launcher!

Click on the link for directions.

https://youtu.be/ZWJfIdZOpP4

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Create a Shrinking Plastic Science/Art Masterpiece!

Click on the link for directions.

https://youtu.be/H-qMLmiIEAw

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Learn about the Life Cycle of a Butterfly!

Read the book by Eric Carle or click on the Youtube link and listen to the story!

Youtube: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Make the life cycle of a butterfly with pasta!

Or create these Chromotography butterflies with coffee filters and markers!

Click on the link for directions!

https://youtu.be/zpf0vvkb4_8

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Make a Penny Turn Green!

Pour vinegar on pennies and watch them turn green. 

Click on the link for directions.

https://buggyandbuddy.com/science-for-kids-make-a-penny-turn-green/

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I hope you all have fun and stay safe!

2020 Lesson #11 (STEM) Lego Engineering

Lego Engineering with STEM!

Engineers use a process when building. We talked about the steps to designing and building.

Step 1: Define the problem. Ask questions!
Step 2: Imagine/Come up with an idea
Step 3: Plan
Step 4: Create
Step 5: Improve

A lot of times Engineers design something that will solve a problem, like a bridge. As they work through the steps their design is imagined, planned out, created, and then improved upon. Just think about the car industry. Each year new cars are designed that have been improved upon from the previous year! Engineers are always thinking of how to make their creation better.

We used the steps to Engineering to build Lego cars that were powered by air (balloons)!

2020 Lesson #10-Waves

Waves

We talked about four types of waves: Longitudinal, Transverse, Electromagnetic, and Mechanical. In physics, a wave is a disturbance that travels through space and matter transferring energy from one place to another. When studying waves it's important to remember that they transfer energy, not matter. 

Sound is a type of energy made by vibrations. When any object vibrates, it causes movement in the air particles. These particles bump into the particles close to them, which makes them vibrate too causing them to bump into more air particles. This movement, called sound waves, keeps going until they run out of energy.

We had fun watching a candy wave machine and a slinky demonstrate how the vibrations ripple through and bounce back. 

Then we played with the Vortex Cannon. We were all amazed with the Vortex Air Cannon. It was fun to see the cups get blown over from across the room. Vortex cannons create a 'vortex' or ring of air that blows out as the air on the inside of the cannon is moving faster than the outside air. 

 

We finished up the lesson by creating a mini vortex cannon to take home!

2020 Lesson Nine-The Brain

The Brain was fascinating to learn about! Our brains are the operating system for our body and are part of the central nervous system. Our brain weighs about 3 pounds and contains billions of neurons (cells that send messages to our body). There are several areas of our brain that control different functions on our body. It's important to protect our brain so that our body can function properly.


We looked at "Larry's" brain and saw the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex.

We discussed the 4 lobes of the brain, the cerebellum, and the brain stem. We also talked about the jobs of each area of the brain. 

We learned about Phineas Gage who had an accident while working with explosives. An iron rod went through his head and brain, causing him to have a completely different personality than he did before his accident! Now doctors and scientists know the different areas of the brain affect different parts of the body, including behavior and emotions. 

Then we played some games, looked at optical illusions, and solved riddles to get our brains thinking!