Force and Motion Science Unit

We recently finished up our science unit on Force and Motion.  We started our unit by learning that a force is needed to make an object move, change speed, or change direction.  We explored this concept through an interesting obstacle course.  The students had to push or pull a bowling ball with a broom through our course and keep it in the boundaries.  The students found that the direction they pushed or pulled with the broom was the direction the ball went.  The students found that it wasn't as easy as it looked!

Another concept that we explored was friction.  We questioned whether the type of surface on each ramp would affect how quickly or slowly a small car would go down a ramp.  We measured this by how far the car traveled from the ramp.  In our investigation, the plain wooden ramp had the least amount of friction and the rubber material on another ramp provided the most amount of friction. 

Matter Experiments

Our most recent science unit focused on matter.  We learned about the 3 states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas.  We started our unit with a mini-snowman and watched it go through the 3 states of matter.  We weren't surprised how quickly it turned from a solid to a liquid, but were surprised how quickly it went from a liquid to a gas!

 Our last 3 experiments focused on a property of matter: density.  This can be a hard concept to understand because it would seem that heavy things automatically sink and light things float, but we learned that is not the case because of density.  We defined density as the amount of atoms that are packed into a given volume. The more atoms packed in, the more dense.  We experimented with sink and float,  rainbow in a jar which was a layering of liquids from most dense to least dense, and using salt to affect the density of the liquids.  We had a lot of fun with these experiments!

Final Egg Drop!

After we dropped our egg drops in the classroom, the next round was in the library.  Our boxes were dropped from the top of the library shelves by Mrs. Howard!  We took them back to the classroom to see if our eggs survived.  Again, almost all survived.  Then the students reconstructed or redesigned to make it safer for the final drop. 

The students couldn't wait for this final drop, the cat walk in the gym.  The class was convinced that no egg would survive this fall.  That wasn't case though!  Almost all eggs survived!  We wrapped up this unit revisiting why we built these egg drops and went to these 3 different locations.  The biggest takeaway from this unit for the students was that teamwork is so important, and if something doesn't work the first time, try it again in a new way!

Egg Drop Round 1

We completed the first round of our egg drop yesterday.  This drop was from a desk.  It was so fun to see how excited the class was to watch each drop and to see if the egg survived.  After all the drops were completed, the students needed to reconstruct for the next drop.  If the egg didn't survive, the team needed to problem solve a new design for our next drop in the library.

Engineering an Egg Drop

The second project we've taken on in our engineering unit is creating an egg drop.  The students learned from our noodle and marshmallow towers that engineers use creative and new ideas to build things and take them apart.  We've also learned that we have to be problem solvers who keep trying a new idea if the first idea didn't work.  The value of teamwork is not only an engineering lesson we've realized, but a life lesson! 

With a partner, each group was given a shoe box filled with supplies: a toilet paper tube, a cup, 2 paper towels, 2 popsicle sticks, 2 pipe cleaners, 2 cotton balls, 2 straws, and a role of masking tape.  The goal is to create a way for an egg to be dropped safely from 3 different heights without breaking.  The teams could use as many or as little of the supplies they needed to accomplish this.

Day 1 of construction was done without the egg.  The teams needed to think through their design and problem solve a way to keep the egg safe.  On day 2, each team got an egg to add to what they had constructed up to that point.  They were given time to make changes if needed now that they had the egg to work around.

We've discussed what happens if the egg breaks after the first drop.  We'll do what engineers do!  Think through what went wrong and make a new design.  The students are having a lot of fun with this project!  We will begin dropping on Monday.



Day 1:

Day 2:

The Spaghetti Noodle Tower Challenge

We've started our engineering unit in the last few weeks.  We learned that engineers design and build things to solve problems.  They use creative and innovative ideas.  We've also learned that there are different types of engineers. Some may create new things, some take things apart to see how they work, and some study why things don't work.

Our first task we took on as engineers was to make a tower out of 30 spaghetti noodles, 30 marshmallows, and a foot of tape.  The goal was to build the tallest standing tower.  The class knew they would get 2 class periods to work on it.   The groups enthusiastically got right to work.

Groups soon found that this was more challenging than anticipated.  Spaghetti noodles snapped easily and marshmallows were gooey.  Each group had to build and rebuild and really put their problem solving brains to use.  How each group handles this can really impact the outcome.  Many groups ended that first day feeling as though this was an impossible task!

When we gathered again we talked first about the value of working together as a team.  The groups all said that when they were frustrated and didn't listen to each other, they didn't make progress on their towers.  We next addressed the structure of the tower.  Most groups started with a big, wobbly base.  We brainstormed ways to make the base stronger in order to be off to a better start.

Day 2 was a complete 180 from the previous work session.  The students embraced the concept of teamwork!  They were listening to each other and helping each other!  Structures were building up taller and taller! I was so proud to see how they had come together to accomplish this goal!

Today we measured our towers.  I emphasized that it doesn't matter in the end which tower is the tallest.  What matters is the value of the teamwork we learned from this project.

Little Scientists

Now that 3rd quarter is here we have started science!  Our first unit is about understanding the scientific method.  We discussed the steps of asking a question, forming a hypothesis, carrying out the experiment and making observations, and reporting the final results.

In our first experiment we asked the question, "How can we keep a banana fresher longer?"  We tried three different ways.  We wrapped plastic wrap around one of the stems, another was put in the fridge, and the third was put in a brown paper bag.  Each student made a hypothesis about which banana would remain the freshest, or if it would even make a difference.  We recorded our observations throughout the week.  We found not much difference between the banana with plastic wrap around the stem and the one in the bag.  Ultimately, we decided the banana in the bag was the freshest because the stem looked better.  The banana in the fridge become brown all over and the others were speckled with brown spots.  Once we peeled them, we found that all three of them were very similar.

In our second experiment we asked the question, "Can we grow gummy bears?"  We weighed and measured each gummy bear before putting them in water, sugar water, vinegar water, and lemon water.  Each student made a hypothesis, and we weighed and measured each bear again the next day.  We were amazed to find  just how much the bear in the vinegar water had grown.

Day 1 measuring:

Day 2 measuring and results:

 Within this first week the students are completely hooked on science!  They can't wait for the next unit!