Friday, May 28, 2010

Awesome Science Day


Today in class we had 5th graders joining middle school because it was shadow day. The 6th graders and 5th graders were in different groups together (made by teachers) in the scavenger hunt. In the scavenger hunt, for example, the 5th graders had to open our lockers, look on different assignments on moodle or make a comment to any scribe post written by a 6th grader. After the scavenger hunt, we got back to our normal class, science, and continued our lab, the paper airplane lab. In the airplane lab, we have to make any change to the paper airplane so that it can fly further. Our shadows (the 5th graders) got to make their own airplane too and got to test them. They also had to think of ways that the airplane would go further. For example the amounts of folds you make on your plane or adding the right amount of paperclips. The 6th graders didn’t really get to pay attension to our lab because we had to explain what we have done so far in science and we had to help them with the lab (some of them had no idea what to do). Today we had a fun day in science (like always), and all of our shdows enjoyed it too (I hope).

Get ready for tommorow 6th graders, another shadow day with the other half of the 5th grade class.





THE NEXT SCRIBE IS.................................TAMARA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi everyone who reads my post now! I hope that you will enjoy reading it!
Today our science class with Ms.D's words: "Hello everyone! You know what to do!". So everyone started working on our 'airplane lab'. We had to work on the following pages: 'number of wingtips', 'number of folds', and then we had to create our own purpose. So we had to test the airplanes (by throwing them), in the hallway.
The first thing we did was that we had to answer the IV (independent variables), and the DV (dependent variable). Then we had to write our hypothesis. After throwing the airplane from the 'start line', we had to take the meter sticks and measure the distance traveled. And after measuring, we had to record the distance traveled in our 'lab directions sheet' , that Ms. D gave us and you can find these sheets after going to our school website: www.aisz.hr.
THE NEXT SCRIBE POST IS.... NO ONE!
By TamarA



Tuesday, May 25, 2010


Hi to everybody,

Last class two main things happened:
ONE was that we continued our lab (as you can see here there are some pictures of the students during the activity, and a way to fold paper airplanes) our lab is about how changing the differenet parts of a paper airplane (IV) effect the final result which would be the length flown (also called the DV).
Most of us arrived to the second test which is the amount of folds on the airplane. F-or the first one, it was how many paper clips had been added on the airplane( first two, then four, and then six).
For each test we had to try it three times and then we made an average, to which, we made observations (it crashed in the wall, or it hit someone) so we could then draw a conclusion!
For the second one instead, we had to decide how many folds there would be and then the rest was the same.
IF one of you lost the sheet here is the link to moodle in case you need to print it out: http://zagreb.ceesa.net/course/view.php?id=107
The SECOND thing we did was we talked about the 5th grade class SHADOW DAY!!!
This is mostly for the 6th graders since it will be them who will have to show and introduce the 5th graders to MIDDLE SCHOOL!
We will have this shadow day twice, since their class was to big they will be split in two groups, one will go on Wednesday and one on Thursday. They will be assigned one or two 6th graders and our class will have to go around and have their normal classes with them, except that, after lunch the 5th grade will go back to their classroom and 6th grade will have their normal routine.
The 6th grade drama students won't be here during Wednesday lunch so their buddies will have to eat lunch with their other friends.
Some of the things 5th graders will do with 6th grade is they will have a SCAVENGER HUNT!! They will get some clues and will have to follow those to be able to have all the teachers sign a not to win the scavenger hunt!
Another thing that will be done is that the 5th grade will try opening the 6th grade lockers and will learn better about moodle. Hope you all enjoy shadow day!
That is mostly all about what happened on Monday's class......
THE NEXT SCRIBE IS JAKUB!!!! (Hope you enjoy)

Friday, May 21, 2010

THE LAB BEGINS


Hey guys,


Today we finally started the new lab. This being the biggest lab we have done is making everyone very tense. This lab is called the "Paper Airplane Final Lab". Today we just started the work. We all were put into groups of four. All the groups made a start line with masking tape and markers. Then we continued and all the teams made marks for ten meters. Then we went inside and wrote down the IV, DV, and the hypothesis. Then whoever was done with this went back outside for testing their plane for the first test. Only certain people made it to the testing. After that we were dismissed and went off to Social Studies.

Thursday, May 20, 2010




Throwing pictures:

<--That, Is Davide
Your Welcome Davide :)




Science Class May 19







In Class we did Independent Variables, and Dependent Variables, Controlled Variables, and Uncontrolled Variables. Iv's, Dv's, Cv's, And Uv's.

A Independent Variable: Is the change in an Experiment.
For Example: Changing Tail-Gate up or down, or the amount
A Dependent Variable: Is the things I Observe in an Experiment
For Example: Measurements at the end, or Conclusion
A Controlled Variable: Is What I keep the same in An experiment
For Example: ALWAYS the same Scientist, and or other things like same Ruler
A Uncontrolled Variable: Is errors, or unexpected things that could have gone wrong.
For Example: Like Weather or Human error's.

After we did that we Began our new lab with airplanes... You can find the packet for this lab at (zagreb.ceesa.net) Requires Login...
If you want to make an Airplane similar to the one we are using in class below are the instructions...
Directions for Making a Basic Paper Airplane

1. Start with an A4 piece of paper.
2. Fold the paper in half length-wise. (You should end up with a long narrow piece of paper.)
3. Open the paper again.
4. Take one corner and fold it towards the middle. (The folded triangle should be a right isosceles triangle).
5. Do the same thing with the other corner.
6. Fold the airplane in half along the fold you made in Step #2.
7. Take one edge that is parallel to the fold you made in Step #2 and fold it down so it meets this fold. (This makes the wings!)
8. Do the same thing on the other side.
9. Add two paperclips to the bottom of the airplane.

We made a few of these in Class and through them in the hallway..

Some of our throwing pictures are at the top..

**** Extra Credit Opportunity - due Friday, May 28th at 1600 - watch a Myth Busters episode of your choice - in an email to Ms. D. (dani.dipietro@aisz.hror ddipietro.aisz@gmail.com) you need to list the Purpose Question, your hypothesis, the IV, DV, 5 - cvs, 5- uvs, and whether its been Busted/Plausible/Confirmed and why!****

Next Scribe is.........Drum roll please................................................Indra!!








Wednesday, May 19, 2010







Variables


Hey readers!! Today in science class, we discussed VARIABLES and how to conduct aFAIR TEST!!! First of all, a fair test is a test that is re-tested three times to make sure that it is right, and in each of the times that you re-test it, you can only change one variable. Most of you readers, at this point, might be asking yourselves: "What the heck is a variable???" Well, a variable is anything that the scientist can change in order to conduct a fair test. There are many different types of variables:

Independent Variable (IV) which is anything the scientist testing the experiment can change,

Dependent Variable(DV) which is what the scientist measures and the actual result,

Controlled Variable (cv) which are all of the things a scientist needs to keep the same, and

Uncontrolled Variable (uv) which are all of the errors that the scientist can have made during the testing.

We watched again a Myth Busters episode were they made an experiment on trucks: do they go farther with the tailgate up or down? First, we needed to write a hypothesis on which truck we thought would go farther: the truck with the tailgate up or the truck with the tailgate down. We figured out that the truck with the tailgate up went farther, since the wind got blocked into the back of the truck, forming a "circle", so the wind coming from the top of the truck didn't fall on the truck, not provoking a drag. Instead, in the truck with the tailgate down, the was no "circle" in the back of the truck, which made the wind fall on the tailgate, provoking a big time drag. After the Myth Busters, we all answered some practice questions for a variables sheet.

Also, for the sixth grade readers, our only homework is (of course) the blog, and the lab!!!

Next scribe is...........DUNCAN!!!!!!

P.S. I couldn't find the exact video we watched in class, but here is the Myth Buster's second try for the same experiment, since the fans complained about their science not being accurate......enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3aqHbD-O9E

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Scientific Method


SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Hello everyone. I am sorry that I did not do my blogger on time.
The first thing we did in class was watch a video about the SCIENTIFIC METHOD. The video was from Brain Pop. Then we took the quiz and the quiz was about the SCIENTIFIC METHOD. We got 8 out of 10 . Now I want to explain more a bout the meaning of the SCIENTIFIC METHOD. The SCIENTIFIC METHOD is a way to ask and answer questions by making observations and doing experiments.


The second activity we did in class was about our shoes. We got a worksheet with some questions. The questions were like what is your feeling about your shoe, the color, the mass and shape and some more questions about our shoes. We had to finish the rest of the questions at home but some students did most of the questions in class.

For homework we had to : finish the shoe lab and not do the last quastion.


The site that could help you to learn more things a bout scientific method: http://www.youtube.com/ and http://www.sciencebuddies.com/

Variables

Today in science class we did numerous things. The first was that we looked over our shoe sheet ,we got our labs and quiz back.Then we talked about variables. Ms.D. gave us a sheet that was about variables. For HomeWork we have to read the other two and a half pages. You can find the sheet at the following link: http://zagreb.ceesa.net/mod/resource/view.php?id=3052
Doing a Fair Test: Variables for Beginners
It is important for an experiment to be a fair test. You conduct a fair test by making sure that you change one factor at a time while keeping all other conditions the same.
For example, let's imagine that we want to measure which is the fastest toy car to coast down a sloping ramp. If we gently release the first car, but give the second car a push start, did we do a fair test of which car was fastest? No! We gave the second car an unfair advantage by pushing it to start. That's not a fair test!
The only thing that should change between the two tests is the car; we should start them down the ramp in exactly the same way. Let's pretend we're doing an experiment to see if fertilizer makes a plant grow to be larger than a plant that doesn't receive fertilizer. We put seeds of the same kind in three pots with fertilizer and rich soil. But, we run out of soil so we put the seeds without fertilizer in three pots filled with sand. We put all six pots in the same location and water each one with the same amount of water every other day. The plants with soil and fertilizer grow to be much larger than the ones grown in sand without fertilizer. Is that a fair test of whether fertilizer makes a plant grow to be larger? No! We changed two things (type of soil and fertilizer) so we have no idea whether the plants with fertilizer grew to be larger because of the fertilizer or whether
the other plants were stunted by being grown in sand. It wasn't a fair test! All of the plants should have been in the same kind of soil,
Conducting a fair test is one of the most important ingredients of doing good, scientifically valuable experiments. To insure that your experiment is a fair test, you must change only one factor at a time while keeping all other conditions the same.
Scientists call the changing factors in an experiment variables.
Understanding variables
Malcolm used his grandmother's recipe to bake a loaf of bread
.

Bread:

Grandma’s favorite bread

1 ½ Cups warm Water

1 package dry yeast

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoon melted butter

3 I /2 cups flour



Mix all of the ingredients together., and knead :Cover
the dough, and let it rise for 2 hours. Put the dough in
a greased pan, and bake at 400" F for about 35 minutes.
Unfortunately, Malcolm's bread collapsed while it was cooking.
"Shucks!" he thought, "What could have gone wrong?" What
could Malcolm change the next time he makes the bread?
Two examples are given for you:
- He could add more salt,
- He could take the bread out of the oven sooner.


The next scribe is Davide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The eye!

On Wednesday 6th grade got to watch ms.d dissect a sheeps eye. While we were watching our teacher dissect, we saw the different parts of the eye, for example, we saw the lens, the vitreous, the optic nerve, and so on. It was interesting watching the eye being disected, the part that I saw, and it was very educational.      As you can see above this is a diagram of the eye.

Cornea - the clear, dome-shaped tissue covering the front of the eye.

Iris - the colored part of the eye - it controls the amount of light that enters the eye by changing the size of the pupil


Lens - a crystalline structure located just behind the iris - it focuses light onto the retina


Optic nerve - the nerve that transmits electrical impulses from the retina to the brain


Pupil - the opening in the center of the iris- it changes size as the amount of light changes (the more light, the smaller the hole) 

Retina - sensory tissue that lines the back of the eye. It contains millions of photoreceptors (rods and cones) that convert light rays into electrical impulses that are relayed to the brain via the optic nerve


Vitreous - a thick, transparent liquid that fills the center of the eye - it is mostly water and gives the eye its form and shape (also called the vitreous humor)

The eye is a definitively amazing organ and without it we would not be able to see, or to have a visible sense of direction.
I hope you liked my scribe!
6th grade, for homework we need to finish our lab, due on friday! Remember that tomorrow, Thursday, we are welcome to come in during lunch for a study session about the EMS, the light vocabulary, the parts of the eye and the differences between mirrors, prisms and lenses! Be sure to come in! 

Have a great day!

The next scribe is Ghazaleh.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Monday, Wednesdy and Friday Lab!

Hi 6th graders.
Monday, Wednesday and Friday we were working on a lab. We worked with mirrors, lenses and prisms.
There are three types of mirrors: flat mirrors, concave mirror and convex mirrors.
There are two types of lenses: convex and concave lenses.
There are many types of prisms: there is a rectangle, a half circle, a triangle, a concave lens shaped and a convex lens shaped.
We did experiments whit all of these objects. It was so cool. Whit a concave mirror and a convex mirror we could see our-self and other 6th graders up side down. With the prisms we would shine light at the prism and we sow a little rainbow and how the light bends.
This was the fun part. Now comes the horrible part! We have to do the 15 analyses and conclusions questions for next Friday.REMEMBER! You can always turn in a first draft before Wednesday.
Remember to study! We have a test on Friday! It is about the vocabulary, light behavior, EMS and the eye dissection. REMEMBER! There is a study section on Wednesday at lunch.
Hope you liked it! :) ! (:
The next scribe is.... Courtney!
Lara