Exploring Our Fluid Earth

e.g. I am wondering how to...

We did this activity today. I was a bit concerned as we had very limited time but am glad to say that they got it done and saw it work!!! YAY!!! We saw a video that showed the splint test and explained combustion of the gas. We did not do the splint test in class but they did see the gas bubbles and were able to grasp that there was more hydrogen than oxygen.

This was a great activity! We had minimal limited time and they just "got it" as the day ended! They had fun and enjoyed actually seeing it work.

e.g. I am wondering how to...

My students were extremely engaged and learned the difference between adhesion and cohesion. They were amazed throughout this lesson. They couldn't believe that they could fit so many drops of water on the penny. They were also shocked that they could put a binder clip through the water on top of the penny and the water didn't spill over. My students enjoyed this lesson and had fun learning. Thanks. :)

e.g. I am wondering how to...

Anyone else have trouble with engagement with the adhesion/cohesion activity? The hands-on stuff was all good, but when it came to the actual concepts, talk about molecules/atoms/bonds, the students just wanted to tune out.

My question then, is how did anyone else conduct the discussion about the abstract chemistry stuff listed above?

Conducting this activity with my new focus group was going to be a challenge and a good indicator of how well my students are able to follow instruction. My focus group is a group of 6, 7, and 8th graders that stay after school for tutoring and activities. One of their activities is our TSI lessons. Being only our second official activity together, I felt the students did fairly well. The students that tend to struggle the most are the ones who do not read the instructions and pay attention to details.

i know what the "raindrops" rating on this site mean/represent... i just can't figure out where/how to access the "drops" to actually give a rating for the activity...

I am uncertain what it is I am suppossed to talk about here so I'm just gonna go with the idea I was having right after we did the lab. For my chemistry students they were rather disapointed that we were unable to do the splint tests with the apparatus we used. We tried it but there was no reaction at all. I really wanted to set up the Hoffman apparatus, but it is apparently broken. I will order another soon but I don't think we can support it given the finances these days. We'll see.

This lesson fit nicely with the 7th grade science standards concerning the Scientific Method.

I find myself strangely attached or "connected" to fish and the ocean. :)
I just can't get them out of my head. LOL

My students had a blast with this one!

Woo hoo!!! :)

The other day I asked my class of 5th graders if they could describe an atom or a molecule. Only 1 student of my 17 had a vague understanding. I decided to give a mini-lesson on these concepts before introducing the Properties of Water lesson plan. So far it has paid off. They are able to talk about the water molecule as we conduct the various experiments (I have had to divide the entire lesson in to several days due to time constraints). They are enjoying all of it and I think it is partially due to our mini-lesson upfront.

e.g. I am wondering how to...

I started the Activity by reviewing some basic information about water atoms and molecules with my 5/6th graders. We divided the class of 12 into teams of Hydrogen (8) and Oxygen (4) atoms by wearing blue and red arm bands. Then we went outside to the playground and I had the Hydrogen (blue) line up on one side of the court and the Oxygen (red) line up on the other side of the court. I placed 4 hula-hoops on the ground around the play area inbetween the teams and let them use sidewalk chalk to write "molecule".

My 6th graders loved this activity. They were so engaged and had so much fun carefully observing the behavior of the water. I think this is a great lab to teach the demeanors of scientists as they really have to observe and critically think about what they are seeing. I will definately do this lab again.

I will be implementing this activity tomorrow. I am looking forward to it. I know my students will enjoy it and will make many scientific connections with it. I modified the activity a little bit by making a section for the students to draw their own diagram of the experiment. The students will also answer the question, how does this activity relate back to the ocean and why is that important. The idea is to get students thinking about making connections to the ocean and the world around us.

Attached is my lesson on the phases of inquiry. It includes an additional logic puzzle activity to use for students to plan and map their phases of inquiry.