Lesson 1 - Monday, May 12
Today in science: A number of students missed science today due to the SGIS Track & Field event. Those students in attendance took steps to conclude INV#14 – Salt Solution by attempting to explain why/how the salt crystals “disappeared” when stirred into the water. To help students assess the accuracy of their explanations, Dr. M showed students some animations showing salt dissolving in water at the atomic/molecular level. These animations can be found in the Google Science Classroom.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 2 - Tuesday, May 13
Today in science: Students concluded INV#14 – Salt Solution by examining their evaporation (petri) dishes with the microscope. Students were asked to add both 20x and 40x drawings to their investigation and to write some conclusion statements about evaporation.
Students also began setting up their science notebooks for INV#15 – Sandstigation by entering it into their science notebooks. Most of the investigation, however, will be completed in Lessons 3 & 4.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 3 - Wed, May 14 (D) & Thu, May 15 (E)
Today in science: For much of today’s lesson, students were asked to complete the first part of INV#15 – Sandstigation by observing and recording the different colors of sand presented to them in their petri dish samples. We then used the colors of the individual sand grains to help us identify which minerals–and thus which elements–are contained within particular color grains.
Students had the last part of today’s lesson to begin working on a new textbook assignment, ES7: “Solutions,” pp. 74-75 (1-6). This assignment is due Friday. Students have been asked to complete this assignment in their science notebooks.
Homework: Students need to complete the assignment introduced in today’s science class, which is ES7: “Solutions,” pp. 74-75 (1-6). This assignment is due for both D & E periods on Friday.
Lesson 4 - Friday, May 16
Today in science: Dr. M collected the homework from those students able to turn it in whilst granting other students extra time to complete the assignment due to problems created by online textbook login process.
Students were asked to complete the second part of INV#15 – Sandstigation by attempting to make a sand solution and then filter their result through various types of filters (e.g., wire mesh, coffee filters, and two different sizes of disk-shaped scientific filter paper). Dr. M then did a demonstration of how to filter muddy water with a homemade filter built from a 1.5 L disassembled plastic bottle and various ‘filtering’ substances such as larger rocks, smaller rocks, glass marbles, and sand.
Homework: Only students still needing to complete the ES7: “Solutions,” pp. 74-75 (1-6) homework assignment have homework over the weekend.
Announcements...
The DRIVING QUESTION of our current unit is: How can we bring something back that was there before?
D period homework collection days: Wednesday & Friday.
E period homework collection days: Tuesday & Thursday.
Including this week, there are three full weeks of science lessons remaining in the school year!