Discovery Lab

It has been an eventful and exciting month in discovery lab! The students in all classes are asking questions and problem solving. It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to share my love of science with your children!

Pre-K and Kindergarten have been building and observing worm habitats. After layering rock, sand and soil, students were able to "discover" the purpose of worms. They learned that worms each the soil to help fertilize the soil and dig tunnels in the soil to help mix the soil and allow air and water to filter into the soil for plants to grow. We then planted a lima bean in the worm habitat and students have been observing the growth of their plant. Last week, we collected leaves and sorted them based upon color. This week we are completing an experiment with the leaves to help discover the purpose of the color of leaves.

We've been working on engineering design. Few weeks ago, I handed each group of students a bucket of legos. I asked the kids to build a tower following specific directions and gave them 7 minutes to complete. After 7 minutes, the students realized that their towers (while all followed the directions) were very different. They discovered that sometimes there are many possible ways to solve a problem. Then we followed the same task, but this time they had to build a tower out of spaghetti noodles and play-do that would support the weight of a large marshmallow. Same discovery - many possible ways to design the tower.

This week, I challenged them to build the Mayflower. They had a "budget" of $20 to "buy materials." They had to use the materials they purchased to design and build a model Mayflower ship that would float and support 102 "penny pilgrims"

I was so impressed with their discussions, collaboration, plans and buildings. Stay tuned for finished products :)

We've been working on saturated solutions. Several weeks ago, students measured the mass of salt and sugar. They discovered that sugar had a larger mass because it had more matter in it. We then dissolved salt and sugar in water to determine which one had a higher solubility. Last week we build "Initial ornaments." We will pour a saturated salt solution over the ornaments and allow the salt crystals to form around the initials, making "crystalized ornaments"

At the beginning of the year, I taught the 4th graders to use the metric system to measure length. We then used length to build a construction paper bicycle. No we are ready to use measurement to conduct our first experiment of the school year. Students build ramps out of rulers and materials found around the classroom. We set up the experiment using the scientific method and are working toward answering the question "Will changing the release position of a marble rolling down a ramp affect the distance and index card moves?

Our focus is using independent and dependent variables to solve problems. We will manipulate other variables in this experiment and use data to complete challenges along the way. This will guide us into discussions and measurements of gravitational potential energy.

We are still working on our experiment with Lifeboats. We've lost a few class periods due to assemblies, pep rallies, etc. and will lose this week to parent conferences. However, they have completed their experiments. They collected data on their boats. They built graphs that show the relationship between the size of a boat and the number of passengers it hold. They then used that data to predict the number of passengers a friends boat supported. This will lead into their Lifeboat challenge (attached)

Your children will come home with this paper this week that explains the challenge they will complete IN CLASS!! I am sending the information home simply so that you are aware of what they are doing (I'm super proud of them) and if they tell you they want to bring materials to class, you have an idea of what they can bring.

Stay tuned for pictures of their designs :)