This week, students explored the chemistry of water, by looking at properties like: Adhesion, Cohesion, Surface tension, and Capillary action. During the Walking Water experiment, students developed their understanding of the scientific method by designing their own fair test to study the factors that affect water's ability for capillary action. Students manipulated variables such as: the temperature of water, the type of paper towel, the position of the beakers relative to each other, and the distance between the beakers. Students also studied surface tension and the cohesive property of water molecules through the Drops on a Penny demonstration. Students were amazed to find out that approximately 30 drops of water could fit on a penny before the water spills over!
Students are exploring the chemistry of mixtures through identifying the types of mixtures and ways to separate mixtures. Students can differentiate between homogeneous mixtures and heterogeneous mixtures. Using materials such as sieves, magnets, filter paper, and funnels, students explored different techniques that can be used to separate heterogeneous mixtures.
Beakerhead has come to Room 2120 and 2122! Our students are joining many others across Calgary in finding answers to the following inquiry:
"There must be a better way" Over the next two weeks, students will be using the Design Thinking Process to explore the process of invention. The work of Dominic Wilcox and "Little Inventors" has served as a hook to inspire our students to find problems and ideate solutions. We will be collaboratively designing a prototype that will be submitted to Beakerhead on December 1st. A throughline will be building listening skills using the RASA (Receive - Appreciate - Summarize- Ask questions), as collaboration can't be successful without strong listening. Stay tuned for updates on our design process. What is weather? What causes it? What tools can we use to measure and predict weather? Is there a job that encompasses all these things? For the past month and a half, students have been building their understanding about various weather concepts. On Wednesday, they had the opportunity to meet CTV News Meteorologist David Spence. Mr. Spence shared the many aspects of his job, the tools he uses to determine the weather and to share these predictions with his audience, and the extreme weather that Albertans experience. This was an exciting culminating task for our students - an excellent recap of what they have learned, why they have learned it, and what more they still want to learn! |
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May 2018
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