Science is cool!

Here's to posting more regularly than last year!

Today in Science: Today in my science classes I did something I did not think I could do. I made ice cream without the use of a freezer. I mixed salt with ice cubes to lower the freezing point of ice and then used the liquid cream as a heat source to warm it up. What I mean is that I took the heat out of the cream and put it into the ice/salt mixture. In the process I made the liquid cream freeze into ice cream and hooked my students into heat transfer.

I also highlighted that we would be making a solar oven over the next few weeks and use it to cook food. I think I will make cookie dough while they build their ovens and then allow them to cook the dough and eat the results. In case you are not aware I am teaching grade 7's and we are in the heat and thermal energy unit. I like this unit. My goal for this year was to push critical thinking and problem solving skills. I think my students are doing a wonderful job with it.

For the Grade 8's today we looked at how to move energy from one place to another. We did this by using a battery (AA), two wires, a light bulb and three elastics to start. The challenge was to make the lightbulb light up. I gave very little instruction but circulated looking for the bulb to glow. Some got it right off the bat and some took a little longer. I had them draw a diagram of the circuit and then I added another level to it. I gave them a piece of cardstock, two brass fasteners and a paper clip and asked them to make a switch to turn the lightbulb on and off. The goal with these students is to get them to build a stock car out of pop-cans and power it with a motor. The motor will run off a battery and a switch will turn it on and off. It is part of the optics unit but really I am using it as a testing ground for the grade 8 program I will run next year. This year I had one major building project for the 8's and next year I want to run a few of them.

I do not want to give away too much and that is all that happened today in Science.