Lesson 1 - Monday, Nov 11
Today in science: We finalized our Initial Consensus Model v1.0 today! Students began this important exercise in Lesson 4 of Week with Mr. Barry. Today we did the amazing work of combining all of the ideas of the 3-4 small groups into one consensus model for the entire class. We will use this model through our Electrical Circuits unit and we will revise it after every investigation, assignment, and discussion.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 2 - Tuesday, Nov 12
Today in science: We started building a model of specific parts of our Initial Consensus Model (v1.0) with real circuit parts (e.g., connecting wires, bulbs, batteries, switches). We then used these same circuit components to create new circuits in which the bulb illuminated in a way that we would want it to if it were in our own house. To keep a good record of all of the circuits we created with our circuit components, we created an entry in our science notebooks called INV#2 – BUILDING TEST CIRCUITS.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 3 - Wed, Nov 13 (D) & Thu, Nov 14 (E)
Today in science: We continued INV#2 – BUILDING TEST CIRCUITS, in which we continued building simple bulb circuits and trying to make switches work with light bulbs in a way that would be reasonable to have in the house of our model. A big breakthrough occurred in E period when two students proposed two different models for thinking about how the energy/electricity might travel within our different circuits. They suggested we could think about the electricity in terms of 1) water and dams, and 2 cars and swing bridges. These useful models will help guide our circuit building–but also our analyses and explanations of our successful and unsuccessful circuits–on Friday.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 4 - Friday, Nov 15
Today in science: We continued INV#2 – BUILDING TEST CIRCUITS, in which we continued building simple bulb circuits and trying to make switches work with light bulbs in a way that would be reasonable to have in the house of our model. To help us try and measure the speed of the electricity moving through the wires and components, Dr. M gave students a special detector (it’s called a ammeter!) to see if we could detect differences in the speed of the electricity moving through the wires in different parts of our bulb circuits.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Announcements...
The DRIVING QUESTION of our current unit is: What is the best design for a light bulb circuit to be used in the two, shared-wall music lesson rooms?
D period homework collection days: Wednesday & Friday. E period homework collection days: Tuesday & Thursday.
Including this week, there are 8 weeks of school to complete before the end of the Fall Semester.