What causes a reaction?? energy of course. 8th graders want to discover what happens when a mass swings like a tether ball, a ball bounces or the domino effect??? 8th graders understand forces
There are 4 main forces that act on an object:
— Michio Kaku, physicist
1. Gravity
2. Friction
3. Applied
4. Normal
In 7th grade, we are in the beginning of studying matter, intro to chemistry and compounds, we did a very challenging lab where we pulled out the iron in the breakfast cereal of Cheerios, in the aspect of the lab, students used new challenging academic language, got their intro to the Periodic table and got some fun kinetic activity that served as a shaking off the stress of the 7th week of school. (we had to shake the cereal with water to break down the elements for 15 min and they loved it!!! They loved being challenged in finding the elements off of the label of real breakfast and matching them on the periodic table.
Iron helps transport blood, supports your nervous system, alleviates fatigue, prevents anemia, may enhance sports performance and so much more.
Nutrition council on health
One exchange after see the iron that is attracted to strong magnets.
-7th graders in room 115
Student one: Why are we eating metal? GROSS!
Student two: We need that stuff in our blood — what was the word? Hemoglobin??
Student one: I still like pop tarts better.
Me: lots of food are rich in iron which is something we need for our bodies. More teacher talk…..
Class Discussion of foods that are rich in iron. (Meats, leafy veg, dried fruits, beans, etc etc)
Student one: OK- I can’t give up carne asada.
Wow- just wow. TODAY the first images from the James Webb telescope were revealed. Talk about the wonder of science. Check out my childhood crush, Carl Sagan narrating this trailer from beyond the grave to explain the most powerful telescope, a real life time machine that will show us the most crisp images of galaxies not even dreamed of in Star Trek. The origami telescope which folds up to open its cameras was launched into space serving as the Christmas star for the universe. (The telescope was launched Dec 25, 2021). Nasa uses infrared cameras that can penetrate the wavelengths of light and see through the gases of these galaxies that have traveled 300 million light years away.
“That was always out there,”
Jane Rigby, NASA NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center OPERATIONAL MANAGER
Image Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NIRCam“It’s our world”
Neil degrasse tyson
Wanted to share a fun way – video game style to learn about atoms brought to you by TestTubeGames
Introducing Bond Breaker 2.0
Please click the link to find out the following; as mentioned by their home page:
“The most remarkable discovery in all of astronomy is that the stars are made of atoms of the same kind as those on the earth.”
Richard FeyNman
From the friends at LaffGaff bring you some puns about atoms, the stuff that matters. 🙂
What’s an atom with a bad sense of humor?
Not a laughing matter.
Why can’t you trust atoms?
Because they make up everything.
Global warming seems to be a thing, am I right? Well if you ask the majority of scientists they say YES! When carbon dioxide (CO2) absorbs by seawater, it changes it. The ocean absorbs most of the CO2 on the planet keeping most of it out of the atmosphere but it comes at a price. A chemical reactions of this CO 2 entering the ocean occurs that reduce seawater pH, carbonate ion concentration and can create a lot of havoc like weakening the shells of certain shellfish and warming our oceans by 30%.
Sixth graders at WGAM got to know what pH is and how to measure it before they take samples from our own backyard, the Pacific Ocean located a block away from our school. In chemistry, pH is the negative log of the activity of the hydrogen ion in an aqueous solution. Solutions with a pH less than 7 are said to be acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic or alkaline. Pure water has a pH of 7.
Getting caught on blogging on Thanksgiving break.. have been a little busy so I am posting some of the highlights of my life long learning and getting paid to do it. 🙂
Last month, my sixth grade students students learned about the six simple machines. On a walking field trip just around the school yard and the neighborhood, it became crystal clear that everyday objects were powered by the simple machines.
The lever became a point of discussion as we saw them everywhere so we decided to build one of the most famous of all medieval catapults but with a middle school twist. Students learn about catapults, including the science and math concepts behind them, as they prepare for the associated activity in which they design, build and test their own catapults. They learn about force, accuracy, precision and angles. Using only a few household items and limited building time, a competition ensued on who could hurl a giant marshmallow the furthest.
In this “LESSON” students analyze data to determine if a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a push or a pull.
Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object but most importantly
They had fun and they got to eat marshmallows.
Breathe out and you are are contributing to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Your breath is acidic and we have a test to prove it. Levels of CO2 have contributed to the destruction of wildlife but the right amount is actually part of a balance in your blood and needed for cellular respiration and photosynthesis. Thankfully we are not the main reason for global warming, we have our friends the trees to thank for providing oxygen for us to breathe swapping out that pesky
CO2. The beauty of the human body is that the blood and circulatory system work to keep everything in balance but certain chronic illnesses can affect that balance.. Carbon dioxide can change the Ph of water to form a weak acid called carbonic acid (CO2 + H2O –> H2CO3).
Students at YOKA tested their breath by having a race to change the color by blowing into water with the PH indicator inside. The students also learned that you really need your mouth to breathe more than you would think so blowing a straw for 4 minutes is really hard work. Congrats to Ivy !
Today Physical Science students made their own version of the atom learning what the subatomic particles of the atom are and how they work together to make each element what they are.
Yesterday, UCLA held it’s annual science fair that highlighted the wonders of the universe. Undergraduate science students showcased science and gave us all a taste of physics, chemistry, astronomy, engineering just to name a few. If every student could just play with the principles of science, then I think we could inspire a whole generation to solve the issues of our day including climate change, further space exploration, technological and healthcare advances. I know my 12 year old was inspired, thank you Bruins!
Today we will had a demo in physical science about buoyancy and how to calculate mass. To help us remember the formula at YOKA, we talk about Density as the Equation of Love, D= M/V >>> see photo
By definition, density is mass divided by volume, and density tells how heavy an object is. Find out how to measure mass and volume, so that density can be calculated with help from a science teacher in this video on calculating density. Click here to see a 3 minute video on bow : Calculating Density
We also made prediction about what we thought would sink or float. A series of objects were put in water and you guessed it, we found out who was right and who just sunk. The demo was pretty surprising to a few and then we jumped into serious calculations that are at the high school level to prepare students for high school level classes.
Ms. Geshke's Science Hub 
