In Science Class . . . Week of 10/10

This week in science, we have been looking at chemical reactions! During a chemical reaction, a mixture of chemicals changes to produce new substances. We did several chemical reactions on Thursday and observed changes. The evidence we saw of a chemical reaction included a color change, a temperature change and/or production of a gas (bubbles). (A common chemical reaction that produces a gas is mixing baking soda and vinegar. )

Key questions:

• What happens in a chemical reaction? (The atoms rearrange to form something new).
• What are common pieces of evidence for chemical reactions? (Change in color, change in temperature, bubbles)

Next week, we'll look at the molecular changes that occur in chemical reactions.

In Science Class . . . Week of 10/3

This week, we'll be continuing to learn about saturation. For each solid that is mixed with water, there is a point in which the water cannot hold any more of the solid. This point differs based on what the solid is. Last week, we saturated a salt solution. Today, we'll be working with Epsom salt. Both dissolve in water, but have different amounts before reaching saturation. On Thursday, we'll identify a mystery substance based on its saturation point.
Key questions:

• What is saturation? How did you know that your solution was saturated? (No more solid could dissolve no matter how hard we shook the bottle of water and the solid remained visible.)
• How did Epsom salt's saturation point differ from regular salt? (About 14 grams of salt saturate 50 ml of water, but 48 grams of Epsom salt are needed to saturate the same amount of water. Therefore, Epsom salt has a higher solubility than regular salt.)
• What was the mystery substance? How did you identify it?
  

In Science Class . . . . Week of 9/26

This week, we'll be studying phases of matter and saturation. The key experiment will be looking at how much salt can dissolve in 50 ml of water. When the solution is saturated, no more solid (salt) will dissolve and it will remain visible.
Key questions:

• What is a solution? (A mixture where the solid can dissolve in liquid, like salt in water.)
• How did you know your solution was saturated? (The salt couldn't dissolve any more and we could see it at the bottom of the bottle.)
• How did you find out how much salt was dissolved in the solution? (We filtered out the salt chunks and weighed the solution, and then subtracted 50 grams for the 50 ml of water.)
  

In Science Class . . .Week 9/19

This week, we'll be continuing with separating mixtures. Students will make a dry mixture of powder, salt and gravel and come up with a plan to separate them using the tools we've used. Next week, we'll start work on saturating solutions by seeing how much salt can dissolve in 50 ml of water.
Key questions:

• What was your plan for separating the dry mixture? (Most groups will add water, then used the screen to separate out the gravel, the filter to separate out the powder and then evaporation to separate the salt and water at the end.
• Did it work? What would you change in the future?

In Science Class . . . Week of 9/12

This week, the 4th and 5th graders are working on putting together mixtures and then separating them using filters, screens and evaporation. Last week we mixed gravel and water, powder and water, and salt and water. The screen and filter were able to separate the gravel mixture and the powder mixture, but the salt dissolved in the water and passed through both. We will use evaporation to get rid of the water, leaving behind salt crystals. On Thursday, we'll investigate how to determine the mass of salt in water without measuring the salt directly on a balance.
Key questions to ask your student:

• What is a mixture and what are some examples? (Any two or more substances put together. Examples are infinite! )
• What is a solution? (A special type of mixture where the solid dissolves, like salt in water.)
• What tools can we use to separate mixtures and solutions? (Screen, filters, evaporation)
• How did you find the mass of the salt on Thursday?

Welcome to 4th and 5th Grade Science!

Yes, friends, it's that time of year again! Welcome to my blog about all of our fabulous explorations in science class. On this blog, I'll post our weekly topics and some key questions you can ask your student to review material and extend thinking. I'll also try to add some links to science -related community events.

A welcome letter from me will go home with Thursday folders next week , but feel free to contact me if you have questions. I will also be at Back to School Night. My new BUSD email is caitlinjenkins@berkeley.net.

Here's what we've been up to in class:

In the first week of class, we did a fun activity that tested our sense of smell. I put common items in containers covered with a paper towel. Students smelled and reported what they thought was in the cup. The idea was to have some fun on the first day, and to also introduce some key parts of the scientific method - focus question, data collection, conclusion.

Since then, we've been working on getting our science notebooks set up. I have a grand vision for them this year - they now are more organized, have sentence starters to help kids and a work habits self reflection section.

Our first activity for our physical science unit was yesterday. Students conducted observations of some solids (gravel, powder, salt) and then mixed them with water to create a mixture. We then attempted to separate these three mixtures using a screen and a coffee filter. We had success with two of the mixtures, but weren't able to separate the salt and water. We'll work on this on Friday and next week!

Key questions to ask your 4th/5th grader:

• What smells were the hardest for you to identify?
• How did you separate the three mixtures?
• What are some other mixtures you know?
• How is your science group working? What grade did you give yourself on science work habits? (1-4, with 4 being excellent)

In Science Class . . . Weeks of 3/14 and 3/21

Over the past two weeks, the students have been further exploring the properties of magnets. We conducted an investigation that examined how increasing the space between magnets decreases the magnetic force. We also have been looking at the earth's magnetic field. We built our own compasses by hanging magnets on a string off of the table, and observed how they all oriented the same way (facing N-S toward the poles of the earth). We also looked at real compasses and discussed why they work, and how they detect the magnetic field of a magnet when it gets close. This week, we used compasses and iron objects to find the location of magnets in a box.

Over the next week, we'll be working on putting together demonstrations of fun experiments we've done in 4/5 science. During the week of 3/28, younger students in grades K-3 will be coming to visit the science room and see our demonstrations and activities.  We also will be doing some demonstrations at Math and Science Night on Wednesday, March 30, so mark your calendars!