Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Today we did another hands-on activity in science that was definitely more successful.  More on it below......

We finished up yesterday's experiment by doing the seven-step sequence activity in which the students summarized the activity step-by-step.  The catch was that they were limited to seven steps so the importance of prioritizing information was upon them.  Of course, they did a great job (no surprises there) on it.

Today's experiment involved erosion and deposition.  Classes 1 and 2 used aluminum roasting pans with sand and small gravel.  The task:  one student will lift the pan while another pours the water.  Before that, they drew pictures of before/after.  This demonstrated erosion and deposition of sediment.

Since I only have so much sand, I couldn't use that for my 3rd class since all of it was wet.  So, for the last class I used a mixture of sugar and salt and it did have a similar effect.

In social studies, we discussed the three branches of government along with its system of checks and balances.

Tomorrow, we will finish up the hands-on by demonstrating weathering (chemical) with water in a syringe and sugar cubes.