Lesson 1 - Monday, Oct 23
Focus Question: How can a new substance be made that wasn’t there before?
What We Did…
C period students performed the final investigations of their homemade bath bombs, in which they had altered the original Recipe C by adding, removing, or substituting only one ingredient. Students were expected to record their investigation observations in their science notebooks.
Last Friday, D period students asked if they could try demonstrating the (three) States of Matter drawings in Monday’s (today’s) lesson, so that’s what they did at the start of their lesson.
What We Figured Out…
Due to an interesting side investigation performed by Maria & Mimi in C period, who had some extra homemade bath bombs at their disposal, we figured out that the temperature of the water appears to play a very important role in 1) the amount/rate of bubbling activity, and 2) the length of time it take a bath bomb to (fully) dissolve.
During D period’s States of Matter performance, it became clear that many students do not yet understand the different between atoms, elements, molecules, and compounds. Clearly these are Science Ideas on which many D period students still need practice/work.
How We Represented It…
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Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 2 - Tuesday, Oct 24
Focus Question: How can a new substance be made that wasn’t there before?
What We Did…
In C period, Dr. Merritt reminded students of the need to continue working on their Science Ideas (i.e., States of Matter drawings) and Science Skills (i.e., Identifying Variable and Writing Research Questions) outside of class. He also made sure they know of the need to demonstrate these skills and ideas prior to 13 November, which is the deadline for the fall midterm grades.
In D period, some students needed more time to finish the States of Matter performance they first began on Monday. Other students asked to do their Skills performance and identify variables and write a research question. Students not interested in doing this skills performance during this lesson were asked to prepare for a performance in the near future.
What We Figured Out…
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How We Represented It…
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Homework: There is no science homework tonight, but many students have said they are planning to work on improving some of their Science Skills and/or Science Ideas in preparation for a performance of these skills/ideas later this week.
Lesson 3 - Wednesday, Oct 25
Focus Question: How can a new substance be made that wasn’t there before?
What We Did…
C period students brainstormed four different investigations they said they were interested in performing. They were then asked to prioritize these four investigations according to which one(s) would help us make the greatest progress toward answering our Driving Question.
INV A (#3, #3) – What happens when we put bath bombs made with different ingredients–and which have been in room temperature water for 2 days–into hot tap water? Have the ingredients that cause the bubbling (power) been used up at this point?
INV B (#1, #1, #1) – What happens when we combine (dry) baking soda and (dry) citric acid in a beaker and then add water? Do we make bubbles?
INV C – Are some of the ingredients that we added to Recipe now preventing the bath bomb from bubbling, but also from dissolving? Can we answer this question from our most recent investigations? What did we figure out with these tests/trials? Can we use this new learning to create the most amazing bath bomb… ever?
INV D – Can we collect the gas created in INV B and figure out what type of gas it is? Hmm.
D period began the lesson by watching Isa combine citric acid and water (which created no bubbles) and then add baking soda to this mixture (which created bubbles instantly!). Students then had the remaining time to work on a draft of their answer to the Driving Question by using a bath bomb and water as their example of something that can be combined to create something new.
What We Figured Out…
C period now thinks that when combining water (H2O) with baking soda (NaHCO₃) and citric acid (C6H8O7), this means that the only types of atoms that we have to create any new substances include just four: hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), carbon (C), and sodium (Na). They also think that whatever gas is created by the chemical reaction must contain one or more of these four atoms.
How We Represented It…
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Homework: Dr. M would like students’ to bring a completed bath bomb-focused draft of their answer to the Driving Question with them to Friday’s science class.
Lesson 4 - Friday, Oct 27
Focus Question: How can a new substance be made that wasn’t there before?
What We Did…
C period followed a very unique path during today’s lesson, but in the end they decided the next investigation they’d like to do is to capture the gas produced by the baking soda + water + citric acid reaction. We got an idea of how to do this by watching a short YouTube video of another chemical reaction in which someone put a small chunk–aka. a small sample–of pure sodium (atoms) into water. This reaction produced bubbles (gas), movement, dissolving/melting, and heat, but the person doing the demonstration collected the gas by holding a test tube just above the surface of the water to collect the gas. When they put this gas near a candle flame it created an explosion large enough to extinguish the candle flame.
Two teams of D period students decided to use a separation technique to isolate the mystery substance (which we think is sodium citrate) from the water left from the chemical reaction we did on Wednesday with water, citric acid, and baking soda. Other students spent today’s lesson continuing their work on a draft of their answer to the Driving Question.
What We Figured Out…
The groups working on the separation technique were both successful and ended up with a white powder–as expected–remaining in their evaporation dishes after heating the original solution. They did not have time, however, to subject the new powder to the sodium citrate ‘properties’ tests we identified through research in a previous class (e.g., dissolving in water, dissolving in alcohol, detecting a sour taste, etc.).
How We Represented It…
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Homework: As per the TASIS MS Homework policy, there is no science homework due on Monday (also, since there are no Tues-Fri science classes next week due the MS Academic Travel program, there is no science homework due at all next week.
Announcements...
The DRIVING QUESTION of our current unit is: How can we make something new that was not there before?
#1 - Students have been asked to demonstrate the following Science Ideas (SIs) before the midterm reports on 13 November: States of matter (solid, liquid, gas).
#2 - Students have been asked to demonstrate the following Science Skills (SSs) before the midterm reports on 13 November: Identifying variables (independent, dependent, controlling/constants) and Writing research questions.