monday, september 28, 2015

In science we began our new unit, Matter:  Properties and Change.  I didn't have a hands-on activity today so the warm-up had to be more intensive.  Below is what the students did.  As I have shown already, this class places a high emphasis on literacy which includes writing.

Afterwards, I had students volunteer to share their responses.  Once we finished with the discussion, I moved on to introduce our new unit.

Next, we turned to Bill Nye the Science Guy to get deeper into matter and what it means by showing a video from his TV series.  I actually used a DVD but here is the YouTube version.  The quality is not as good but you will still see what the students saw. 

After the video, we moved ahead to JA Biztown and discussed basic economics such as the different types of resources (human, natural, capital) and how businesses exist to provide goods and services.  In essence, the economy exists to meet one's needs and to share one's talents.

Lastly I was able to demonstrate heat conduction for my first block class by using a blow torch and a piece of fence post with a steel mesh square stuck inside.  The flame heats up the mesh and when it begins to cool off, the heat rises and vibrates causing it to make a sound like the light sabers in the Star Wars movies.