We had a fabulous time in science today as we raced our Jell-O box cars! Students who did not bring a box car were given an alternate assignment to complete. This assignment will be due next Wednesday. Grades are already in the computer for the box cars, but students will also learn their grade on Monday! Have a great weekend! |
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Today we started a new unit on work, power, machines, and energy. We kicked this off by doing a group brainstorm and followed up with a set of essential questions we will explore over the next few weeks. We also took a few notes and did a few calculations involving work and power. Check out the notes and class video below!
Today we explored a cool phenomenon known as Bernoulli's Principle. Bernoulli said that when the speed of a fluid increases, it will lower the pressure in that area. This not only paved the way for flight, but also created some cool party tricks! Check out the video of Steve Spangler and some of our kids balancing a cheese puff in their airstream!
We followed this information up with a flight lab where we adjusted the wings of our planes to increase or decrease the drag and lift they experienced!
Today we started looking at buoyancy by building boats of aluminum foil. Students were challenged to build a boat that would hold more pennies than the other groups in their class. We had some really great designs, and students were able to predict the winning boats before we tried it. Check out the pictures! We will continue focusing on buoyancy tomorrow and Friday, and we will move on to fluids in motion next week!
Today we started fluids and pressure. Although this material will NOT be on the exam coming up on Monday, it will be on a future test! Check out the notes below if you missed them in class!
Students were given a little bit of time in class after they finished reading to begin a rough draft plan of the Jell-O box car that will be due Oct. 31st. We then moved on to a short lesson about interpreting distance time graphs. Finally, they received the rubric for their next notebook check which will occur on October 17th!
Today we finished up momentum and worked a few problems to help us learn how to calculate momentum. Then the kids glued the requirements for our first science project in their notebook on page 62. The Jell-O Box Car Project will be due on October 31st! Check out the requirements below if you missed them in class! I have also put some FAQ's towards the bottom as I have been answering questions today that are not on the sheet! Frequently asked questions about the jell-o box car project1. Can we use more than 4 wheels?
YES! But keep in mind that at least one set of wheels needs to be fixed and one set needs to move independently! 2. Can I stabilize my Jell-O box with K'NEX? Sure! But this will make your car heavier! 3. What are pre-fabricated wheels? Pre-fabricated wheels are any wheels you might get from a toy, lego set, or other set. Your wheels MUST be constructed from something that is NOT already a wheel! Think about the round things you can find in your house! 4. Can I use items other than what is listed? Absolutely! As long as the box you use fits the dimensions specified or is LARGER! 5. Can I use more than 1 balloon? NO! All vehicles need to use ONE standard size balloon. Today after analyzing data for the mousetrap car, we looked at ALL of the motion experiments we have done and created a "cheat sheet" to help us better understand how forces affect motion. This sheet is SUPER IMPORTANT, and I promise you will see this information on the test on the 20th! (It is the big sheet below!) Check out the other notes we took below if you missed them due to the pep rally!
Today we will complete our final experiment using the AMSTI kits for forces and motion. We will not move on to simple machines, power, and work until after the 9 weeks, but we will continue to learn new material up until our final. The science 9 weeks test will be Monday, October 20th! |
AuthorI am an 8th grade Science teacher in Leeds, Alabama. This is my fourth year teaching science. As a teacher, I would love nothing more than to teach my kids to question the world around them and to never stop learning. Archives
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