Pg. 61 - Electrical Energy Notes

Pg. 60 - Pathfinders Lab

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Students then completed the AIMS activity called Pathfinders.  They were given a sheet with 9 different circuits and they had to test each one and decide if it went in Lights R' Us or Sparky's Fix It Shop.   On the outside they had to describe how they would fix each of the circuits that were in Sparky's Fix It Shop to make them work.

 

Pg. 59 - Light Energy Notes

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Pg. 58 - Light Activities

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For the top part I had students look at their reflection in the concave and convex side of a spoon and describe what they saw. 

On the bottom we talked about the difference between transparent, translucent, and opaque. 
(I got this awesome idea from beakersandbumblebees.blogspot.com)

 

Pg. 57 - Heat Energy Notes

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Pg. 56 - Heat Energy Labs

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Today we did two different heat activities. 

First I had studetns predict which spoon would get the hottest when placed in a cup of hot water.  They also had to explain why one spoon

 

Pg. 54 & 55 - Sound Energy Lab

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Today we completed a Sound Lab.  Students worked with a partner to see which material would help sound travel the best through a plastic cup phone.  Two orange SOLO cups were connected with metal wire, fishing line and string.  Students talked to each other through the "phones" and then scored how well they could hear sound travel. 

 

Pg. 53 - Forms of Energy Notes

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Today we talked about how energy can be grouped into two catagories - Kinetic & Potential 

Students folded and read the "What is Energy" rubber band book from AIMS (we turned it into a comic strip instead)

Then they used this information to fill in the notes - also from AIMS

Pg. 52 - Forms of Energy Bridge Map

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The next day for warm-up students were required to come complete the following bridge map with the
relating factor: produces/gives off

 

Pg. 48 & 49 - Personal Reflection

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Students were asked to choose 4 different activities/pages from the first part of their notebook which showed the best work.  Then they were required to score their notebook on an A-F scale for what they thought their notebook deserved and why.  To finish up their reflection they had to tell me what study skills they had learned from this notebook and something that they would like to change.

Pg. 50 - Parent Reflection

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To include parents in the reflection process I ask that students take home their notebooks and go through it with a parent so that they can share what we have been doing in class.  I do not require that parent right anything but I sure do like it when they give me feedback.  I just ask that they sign the page acknowledging that they have seen the notebook.

Pg. 51 - Rubric

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Since we spend so much time working in this notebook I do take a grade on it at the end of each nine weeks.  The way that my rubric works is I copy the table of contents and students can earn 0-2 points per page
2 = page is complete and colored
1 = the majority of page is complete
0 = the page is missing the required material

I also give points for appearance, reflection, and parent reflection

 

Pg. 47 - Potential & Kinetic Energy

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Today we talked about the difference between potential and kinetic energy.  As a class we came up with some definitions to define each term.  Students then watched the potential and kinetic energy brainpop.com videos.  As part of their notes they were required to add an illustration to show the difference between potential and kinetic energy above their definition.

Pg. 46 - Sports Ball Lab

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The next day we completed the following Sports Ball Lab.

Purpose:
To determine which sports ball had the most kinetic energy

Hypothesis:
I think that ___________ ball will have the most kinetic energy because ____________.

Materials:
kickball, soccer ball, basketball, tennis ball, pencil, measuring tape, recording sheet

Procedure:
1. Choose a ball
2. Hold that ball 4ft above the ground.
3. Drop the ball & count how many times it bounces.
4. Record the data in the table
5. Repeat 2 more times with the same ball.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 with each of the other sports balls

Observations:
Data Table & Graph

Conclusion:
1. Was your hypothesis correct? (explain)
2. Why do you think your hypothesis was correct/incorrect?
3. Would you like to test another sports ball? Why?

 
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I have been browsing around on pinterest and have come across a lot of awesome pumpkin investigations....so I took what I liked from each one and made it my own. 

Today we completed a pumpkin investigation in the spirt of the fall season.  Students were asked to describe the physical properites of the inside and outside of the pumpkins.  They were aslo asked to estimate the number of seeds they woudl pull out.  We also took measurements of the circumference, weight and height of each pumpkin.  Finally they had to predict if their pumpkin would sink or float in water.

After the investigation we went back to the room to complete a poll over who did and didn't like the taste of pumpkin seeds (I gave them roasted and salted one from David, not from the pumpkin they were investigating).  Then they were required to create a flow map of the life cycle of a pumpkin after watching the following video.

 

Pg. 43 - Will, Bill, & Phil - Net Forces

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Will, Bill & Phil are brothers who own a furniture moving company.  Sometimes they work well together, and sometimes they do not.  When two of the brothers push on the same object, their combined force can either add together or subtract from each other.  The net force is the total strength of these forces.  Sometimes the object will move, and other times it will not.  Which direction it moves depends on how strong of a force the brothers use to push on the object.

Students were required to match each description and picture showing the brothers moving the bookcases with the correct type of force.

Pg. 42 - Newton's Laws

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First the students and I discussed Newton's three laws of motion and took a few notes over each.  We then watch the brainpop.com video for Newton's laws of motion to reinforce what we had just talked about.  In order to demonstrate Newton's 1st Law students were given a plastic cup, a coin, and an index card.  Their objective was to get the coin into the cup with out lifting or tilting the index card. 

 

Pg. 41 - Simple Machines Foldable

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Today we talked about the six simple machines that make work easier for us.  Using the sciencesaurus we read about inclined planes, wedges, and screws on the first day.  The second day we read about the lever, wheel & axel and pulley.  After the reading each day we also watch the corresponding brainpop.com video

Pg. 40 - Simple Machines Tree Map

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After reading about each simple machine and watching the video I provided the students with three examples of each simple machine. They were asked to add three more examples to there tree map.

On Friday of this week students were taken to the computer to complete the EdHeads.org activities The Simple Machine and The Odd Machine