Sense of Touch
Lab Animal News
All of my scientists look forward to observing our lab animals! It isn’t often that I catch all three frogs together. Yoda is usually hidden away during the day. As soon as I took this picture, he disappeared.
Jabba likes to go for a swim.
Uno, a Pekin duck, and Percy, a silver appleyard, live in the retention pond behind school. They were hatched in the lab and cannot fly. We had some visiting mallards last week. Our ducks were not very welcoming, and they didn’t stay long.
Squirt loves to sunbathe- just one “toe” in the water!
Our tadpole’s front legs appeared last week. On Sunday, he still had a long tail, but today it turned black and has almost disappeared. He is also using his new lungs to breathe.
Strange Sights
After we returned from our days off because of the hurricane, my youngest scientists discovered nearly perfect circles of “white dots” on the playground. They were very curious about what they might be and started thinking like scientists. Not certain, but I think it is lichen.
I saw these unusual mushrooms on the other side of the pond when I was feeding our ducks.
Our campus is like working in a nature center! We are very blessed to have such a beautiful place in which to learn and explore.
Engineering Second Grade Style
First grade engineers enjoyed this challenge, so I decided to give the same challenge to my second grade engineers. They were tasked to build a structure using Popsicle sticks, tongue depressors, 3 x 5 cards, and clothespins that could stand on its own. This isn’t easy to accomplish and I was impressed with the variety of designs! While some students used symmetry to help balance their structures, many other structures were asymmetrical. Every time our structures fell, we used what we learned to improve our designs.
This young engineer placed one clothespin horizontally at the foundation which enabled her to balance the rest of her structure. She also had a very steady hand!
Mold Experiment
Hurricanes
My older scientists and I have been learning about hurricanes. Click here to watch a video about hurricanes.
Jabba and Luke
Water and Oil
Exploring Thermal Energy
Third grade scientists continued investigating thermal energy and matter in lab. This was such a fast paced lab, I wasn’t able to capture many pictures. The following demonstration was an impressive way to explore heat energy and air pressure concepts. Click here to watch a video.
From our previous experiments, we learned that warm air or liquid rises and cool air or liquid falls. I placed hot water (red) on top of cold water (blue) and the colors remained separate. Then I reversed the procedure and the colors immediately mixed. Click here to learn more.