Investigation Sharing

Today we shared the results of our investigations. Each student told us their guiding question, their procedure, and the results of their investigations. These are to be written up in their lab notebooks. Next week we will begin our dry ice explorations, they will develop new experiments, and share these as well. This will lead up to our individual experiments that will culminate with a poster for Science Day. These will be due on Monday, March 4th. Science Day will be on Friday, March 8th. New Homework assigned today. Read "Matter and Energy," Answer questions 2, 4, 6 on the last page. Due Tuesday, Feb 5th.

Gobstoppers Part Two

Today we ran our investigations of gobstoppers. People tried out different ideas for the investigations that they designed. They tried different liquids as solvents: vinegar, alcohol, baking soda solution, hand sanitizer, soda, seltzer, and juice. Some of them tried different temperatures of water and some tried using paper chromatography to separate the colors in the food dyes. They took notes, made observations, took pictures, drew pictures, and timed the changes that took place. Tomorrow they will present their results.

Dissolving Gobstoppers

We did a short investigation today with Gobstopper candies and water. We put the candies in water and observed how they dissolved over time. We measured the water temperature and timed how long it took the candies to dissolve. We made careful observations and then used our vocabulary words to explain the results. Dissolving, Solute, Solvent, Density, Miscible, and Immiscible. Homework was collected. Tomorrow we will work on developing new questions to be answered by an investigation.

Atomic Structure

MLKjr Day was Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday we finished up our periodic tables and families/groups of elements. We started digging into the subatomic particles and their properties. Protons, neutrons, and electrons. Here are some notes with definitions: Periodic Table Notes. We got a new reading, "Atomic Structure," we highlighted key terms, added some more information and got new homework. Read the packet, answer 3 questions:3, 4, 5 on page 76, Due Monday, January 28th.

Density

Tuesday and Wednesday were block schedule days. 1st and 3rd periods met on Tues and 2nd period met on Weds. We did a penny density lab investigation. Pennies made before 1982 were 95% copper and 5% zinc. After 1982 they began making them with 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper as a way to save money. The newer pennies are less dense than the older pennies. We used the water displacement method to measure their volume and electronic balances to measure their mass. With this data we were able to calculate their densities. We compared our results and discussed precision versus accuracy and how many significant figures we would use. Thursday we started class with a short chemistry vocabulary review quiz, then started coloring in our periodic tables to show the different families of elements (Alkali metals, Alkaline Earth Metals, Halogens, etc.) Friday we had a shortened class schedule because of the snow and spent our time reviewing how to solve density problems. Density Practice.

Salt Volcanoes

At the end of last week we read over a chapter about Chemistry with lots of good vocabulary. They highlighted key terms and saved it in their notes. Here is a link to the reading: What is Matter?

We did a simple investigation with oil, water, food coloring and salt today. It got us to think about key terms like density, solubility, solutions, solvents, solutes, heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures, adhesion, and immiscibility. The emphasis was on observations and explanations. New homework. Read handout on properties of matter and answer questions.

New Homework: Read Chapter, Properties of Matter pages 53-60, and answer questions 1,4,6 page 56 and questions 1,3,6 page 60. Due Friday, January 18th.
Short Quiz on Vocabulary on Thursday, January 17th.

Chemisty

Making the transition back from the winter break. Yesterday and today we started our Chemistry unit. Tuesday we set up an observation that involved measuring how many drops of water we can fit onto a penny. Students had to write up their procedure, create a data table, collect their data, and attempt to explain our results. We went over some vocabulary to help strengthen our explanations. We introduced the words adhesion and cohesion. Water Chemistry notes.
Wednesday we did some chemistry in a bag, mixing water and vinegar with baking soda and calcium chloride (ice melt). We added some Phenol Red and took careful observations. I provided a lab recording sheet for them to use in their notebooks. Mystery bags.