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Friday, September 17, 2010

"Goodnight Elodea."

We found the other day that organisms, like goldfish, give off carbon dioxide. In an aquatic environment the carbon dioxide can mix with the water and result in carbonic acid. This is bad for the fish. We were unsure if plants gave off much carbon dioxide. We wondered if they react differently at night. Our tests were all done in a daytime environment. So, I placed some elodea in my closet for the weekend. If the plant gives off a lot of carbon dioxide it will change the blue water to yellow. What do you think will happen? Let me know what you think and leave a comment.

Haylee lets off some hot air.

Today we discovered that when carbon dioxide mixes with water it creates carbonic acid. Check out the video demo with our BTB indicator. The blue water will change to yellow as carbon dioxide reacts with it to create carbonic acid. We finally got to the bottom of why our fish were dying. After a few investigations we concluded that the fish were poisoning themselves. They create carbon dioxide as water is pumped through their gills. Yikes! Our aquariums needed a quick water change. Hopefully this helped. We'll see on Monday. Keep your fingers crossed.


Thursday, September 16, 2010

Where did the acid in the tanks come from?

Today we got our first taste of the Scientific Process.
  • Our class looked at using an indicator to get more information about something we're studying. In our case, we're studying aquatic environments. We used BTB to determine if acid was present in the aquariums we were observing.
  • This forced us to think about the variables that may have caused the acid to occur. We considered the fish food, water source, algae, bacteria, fish waste, fish and plants.
  • Then, I challenged you to consider which of these variables could have caused the acid. We narrowed it down to plants and fish. These could be called organisms.
  • So, each group conducted a controlled experiment. Everything was the same, or controlled, except for the type of organism in the water. The organism was the manipulated, or changed, variable.

The results are indicated in the photo. Remember that when the BTB remains blue, there's no acid. When it begins to turn green-to-yellow there's more acid in the container.

Science Journal Entry
-Take some time in your journal to write the question down and to answer it in your journal. Don't forget to number and date the page.

Which organism created the most acid? How do you think this organism created the acid in the water?


What was the question that motivated us to conduct a controlled experiment?

Just do it!

This morning students came to a consensus on where they stand in terms of a fitness issue. The Consensogram tool, by David Langford, was used to help measure their interest. Kids vote in 10 % intervals on a scale that goes from arange of 0-100%. They vote according to how they feel about a statement that I present. First, I asked kids how fitness might impact them as ind
ividuals. Elizabeth said, "It would give us more energy." Together we agreed that we'd be much healthier. Also, we made connections that it may help us to perform better in events like Cheetah Club, 5th Grade Olympics and even classroom activities. Below is a picture of the results of how much students agreed with the statement,

"To what extent would you be interested in starting a fitness routine as part of our regular classroom schedule?"


Tomorrow we will begin to brainstorm what we'd like to work to improve in terms of our fitness. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Hired!

Recently we finished our jobs board. The class took the information they came up with and created an organized list of jobs and specific roles. The kids jumped right in and started to help out. I'm really excited to see the kids come together to make a community that works so well, and they are responsible for designing it. Good work Room 35! Here are some pictures of the finished products.







Monday, September 13, 2010

Aquariums!!!

Science Reflection

Today was a great start to science! We covered lots of material in a short period of time. This trimester environments will be our general focus. To start, we will be observing 2 different aquatic environments. Right now each table group in our classroom is in charge of managing a fresh water aquarium. We will track factual information in an Aquarium Log at each table group. This includes feeding, measuring water temperature, checking the water level and watching fish behavior. It will be a big challenge for all students to keep our little goldfish healthy. There have already been some predictions that our tanks are going to get pretty dirty in a hurry.

We started work in our Science Journals by making observations. We discussed the difference between "fact and opinion." Below is an example that I created. I used a diagram to create more meaning for the parts of the environmental system. We learned that these are called environmental factors. Some examples we listed are the tank container, water, temperature of water, goldfish, etc...


Take some time now to watch the short video I took in class yesterday to respond in your Reflection Journal. Don't forget to update your Table of Contents, page # and date. This will give you time to remap your thinking and to make your connections stronger. ZZZZZ! Get the electricity flowing. Get smarter now!