We're just about starting week three of school and so far I am very pleased with the enthusiasm and curiosity of many of my students. Thanks for being prepared with your binders and thank you for participating during class and working cooperatively with your group members at your tables.
We started the year off with a Lemon of a Lesson, during which students had to describe and draw their individual lemons, so they could pick them out of a crowd of lemons. This exercise helped students hone observation skills, which are necessary in order to conduct accurate scientific investigations. It also required students to use their data (as evidence) that the lemon they picked out of the crowd was indeed their own--just as scientists have to prove their conclusions with scientific evidence.
Everyone was happy to see the return of Ninja and Rex to the classroom. The two turtles spent their summer in my kitchen. Sometimes I took them out into the yard to catch some sun. But I can tell they were aching for their bigger aquarium in the classroom, where they can swim around to their hearts' content. While my sons were sad to see Ninja and Rex leave the kitchen, my students were thrilled that they had come back to PS 230. For the record: Ninja is the small one and he is a painted turtle. Rex is the big guy and he is a red-eared slider. They are both pond turtles, which means they live in fresh water.
The fourth grade started their unit on Food Chains and Webs by studying the composition of three different soil types: potting soil, local soil (from Ms. Seitz's backyard) and peat soil. They learned that soil is composed of living and non-living things and were asked to determine whether each of the soils was more sand, silt or clay. They did this by studying the soil particles while dry and then wetting the soil and making soil snakes. If the soil wouldn't form a snake, it was mostly sand; if it made a snake that broke when bent, it was silt; and if it made a snake and stayed when bent, it was mostly clay.
Fifth-graders started their unit on Variables. A variable is anything that can be changed or manipulated in an experiment. Students were asked to hang washers one-by-one from a rubber band and then record how the length of the rubber band changed with the addition of each consecutive washer. The washers are what's called an independent variable, the variable changed by the scientist. The dependent variable is the rubber band, because it responds to the changes of the independent variable. All other variables remain constant and are called controlled variables.
