Lesson 1 - Monday, Sep 23
Today in science: In preparation for their first ‘official’ investigation, students were asked begin formatting their science notebooks by numbering pages, writing Finder’s Notes, creating a Personal Info page, and trimming-and-gluing two Table of Contents pages into the front of the notebook. As Monday is our shortest lesson of the week, these activities left little time to begin entering INV #1 information (which will an investigation into the nature of the gas produced by the bath bomb + water) into the science notebook.
Homework: Only students who were unable to finish formatting their science notebooks as described in the first paragraph above have homework tonight.
Lesson 2 - Tue, Sep 24 (B, C) & Wed, Sep 25 (H)
Today in science: We prepared our science notebooks for INV #1 – IDENTIFYING GAS, which meant adding the following sections into our notebooks: Research Question, Diagram (Set Up), Expectations, & Results. For those students who would like to see the work–including the detailed drawings–Dr. Merritt projected onto the smartboard, please visit our online Science Notebook (and then click on the INV #1 link in the Table of Contents).
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 3 - Wed, Sep 25 (B, C) & Thu, Sep 26 (H)
Today in science: B & C periods performed INV #1 today, which involved putting samples of a bath bomb into water, collecting and trapping the gas produced, and then performing different types of tests on the collected/trapped gas to determine its identify. We think we have successfully identified the gas! B & C periods also performed a last-minute extension of this experiment in which we put a beaker of water and pieces of a bath bomb onto an electric balance. We then recorded the mass of the beaker system for approximately 5-10 minutes as the bath bomb produced gas that was allowed to escape freely into the air around the beaker (our result was very interesting and enlightening!).
H period was fortunate to have Ms. Bloodworth present two different gas producing demonstrations designed to help them know when a particular gas is present. In the first demo, she combined magnesium metal (solid) with water (liquid) to create hydrogen gas, which she proved was present by igniting it with a flame–it created a mini-explosion! In the second demo, she combined manganese oxide crystals (solid) with a flame (energy) to create oxygen gas, which she proved was present by inserting a glowing splint into it–the flame reappeared! In a third bonus demo, she bubbled butane gas into soapy water and then showed that the butane gas is flammable (what students do not know is that this act created yet another gas, carbon dioxide).
Homework: For B & C periods, there is no science homework tonight. H period students, however, have been asked to prepare for a one-question quiz discussed by Dr. Merritt at the end of Lesson 3.
Lesson 4 - Thu, Sep 26 (B) & Fri, Sep 27 (C, H)
Today in science: B & C periods followed H period‘s Lesson 3 as described above. H period followed B & C period‘s Lesson 3 as described above, but they also had a short one-question quiz at the start of the lesson. The question asked was, “How can we make something new that wasn’t there before?,” to which Dr. M expected the answers discussed during the second half of Lesson 3.
Homework: For all periods, there is no science homework this weekend.
Announcements...
The DRIVING QUESTION of our current unit is: How can we make something new that was not there before?
#1 - Students can probably expect to see their Interim Effort grades in Veracross sometime before the end of school on Friday.
#2 - ...