My youngest scientists are studying the pond online. Our latest lesson was about turtles. Click here to watch an informative video that we watched on our recorded Zoom lesson. Click here to learn a fun finger-play about turtles. One of the at home options was to create a turtle.

Our lab turtle, Myrtle, is currently living in my basement.

Fourth grade online scientists had the option to construct a simple greenhouse after learning about the Greenhouse Effect. Click here to watch a movie they watched.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are sprouting!

And some planted seeds in larger greenhouses!

Online learning for my third grade scientists continued with a thermal energy unit. We began with a review of matter. Click here to watch one of the videos we watched. They had several homework choices, and many of them chose the matter experiments.

Let’s make butter and turn a liquid into a solid! So good and so easy! Click here to learn more. Click here to watch a scientist in action.

Blow up a balloon or rubber glove using science. Click here to learn more.

Second grade aerospace engineers had a Zoom lesson about airplanes. They learned about the four forces at work – gravity, lift, thrust, and drag, Click here to watch a movie about these forces. Their assignment was to fold an airplane using the Engineer Design Process – Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, and Improve. I encouraged them to try multiple designs, and to test them to discover which one flew the straightest and the furthest.

Online learning continued for first grade meteorologists with a lesson about clouds. Click here to watch a movie they watched. One of their optional assignments (after observing clouds) was to make the four main categories of clouds (cumulus, stratus, cirrus, and cumulus nimbus) with cotton.

Last week, they had a lesson about the water cycle and evaporation. How fast will the water evaporate? Let’s collect data and analyze it.

I purchased ladybug larvae and caterpillars (butterfly larvae) for my second grade scientists just before we began virtual learning. They were in the middle of their invertebrate unit, and we were going to observe the four stages of metamorphosis- egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Two of my biologists took the caterpillars home and documented the changes they observed. Then, they released the painted lady butterflies. Click here to watch the process. Click here to learn more about metamorphosis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just released the ladybugs after they completed metamorphosis. Click here to learn more about ladybug metamorphosis. So disappointed that my second grade students weren’t there!

With the shelter-in-place order issued by our governor, I decided it was best to bring all my lab animals and plants home. It took an entire day to clean, drain, transport them all to my house, and refill the tanks at home, but we made it! Many of them are in my daughter’s unoccupied room and bathroom. She lives in Chicago. The turtles and fish are in the basement.

Packing it all up!