Last week I had the pleasure of accompanying the 7th Age scientists to the Maryland Science Center! We had fun exploring the rooms inside the Science Center, ate a nice lunch outdoors (it was a beautiful afternoon), and even saw a 3-D Imax show!

This week the 7th Age scientists learned about oysters. We observed a special kind of oyster, the Easten Oyster. Eastern Oysters live in the Chesapeake Bay. We observed the inside and outside of the oyster with a hand lens, and even felt them with our fingers! Some describing words for the outside of an oyster included:
hard
bumpy
rough

Some describing words for the inside of an oyster included:
squishy
tan-colored
gooey
slimy

We measured our oysters to make sure they were a legal size. The legal size for an oyster is 3 inches. All of our oysters measured AT LEAST 3 inches in length- phew!

We also watched a video of oysters filter-feeding, and learned that oysters are the "lifeguards" of the bay! This is because they constantly rid the water of waste, ultimately cleaning it. One single oyster can filter 50 gallons of water per day! A long time ago when oysters were more prevalent, they could clean the Bay in just a week! Now the same task takes a year.

We enjoyed observing the oysters, and are looking forward to our crab dissection in a week!

Nice job, scientists!

This week the 7th Age scientists made two separate concoctions: oobleck and flubber.

Oobleck might sound familiar (hense the beloved Dr. Seuss book: Bartholomew and the Oobleck. Written in 1949, it follows the adventures of a young boy named Bartholomew, who must rescue his kingdom from a sticky substance called oobleck.)

We made oobleck at school using the following ingredients:

2 cups of corn starch
1 cup of water
food coloring (optional)

We found oobleck to be slimy and gooey, with a consistency similar to thick milk or runny yogurt! The boys had an especially fun time feeling oobleck with their fingers!

We discovered oobleck was a liquid.

Later on this week we will make flubber. Here are the ingredients for you to make it at home:

Container 1: (mix together)
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 cups white glue
food coloring (a few drops)

Container 2: (mix together)
1 1/3 cups warm water
2 teaspoons Borax

Directions: Pour Container 2 into Container 1. Gently lift and turn the liquid until only about a tablespoon of liquid is left. What do you observe? The flubber will be sticky for a moment or two. Let the excess liquid drip off, and the flubber will be ready. What does the flubber look like? Is it a solid, a liquid, or neither?

Click here to read about the solstice moon illusion...

What liquid flows the fastest? What liquid flows the slowest?

Today in science we observed the speeds of different liquids. We placed a small portion of honey, dish detergent, mustard, and ketchup on a piece of cardboard and then observed them with our eyes. We hypothesized the liquids we believed would flow the fastest and the slowest based on their consistency.

For example, we noticed that the dish detergent seemed rather watered-down and would therefore probably be quite speedy. The honey was much thicker and would probably flow slower as a result.

Look at our pictures for the results!

A special scientist visited the 7B scientists yesterday! It was a real treat! Dr. Kolodkin is a scientist at the department of neurobiology at Johns Hopkins University. We were greeted with a discussion about the brain- and were even given our own vile of fruit flies to observe throughout class! He brought in two microscopes. We looked at slides of the neurons inside of a fruit fly and a monkey brain- it was fascinating! Thank you, Dr. Kolodkin, for your special visit! We enjoyed this time with you!

The 7th Age is learning about mixtures in science. A mixture is two or more different things put together. To portray this, I showed the class a beaker containing a tennis ball and some marbles. What two solids are present in this mixture? Why of course- the tennis ball and marbles! I then poured water into the beaker. What happened? The girls observed that the tennis ball floated and the marbles sunk. This is because when you mix solids with water, some objects will float, and others will sink.





After a group discussion, each scientist worked in pairs of two or three to investigate what sinks and what floats in water. Some items we used for this experiment were:
a coin
a straw
a colored disc
a piece of styrofoam
a sponge
a bean
a paperclip
a blown up balloon

Here are additional photos of the girls hard at work! We had fun performing this experiment!

This week the 7th age scientists learned about shadows. We talked about when we see shadows, and how the shape of a shadow changes throughout the course of a day. In this experiment we used flashlights, modeling clay, and a straw. We shined the flashlight on the straw (the modeling clay was used as a support for the straw), and took turns tracing a shadow into our lab books.

You can try this experiment at home! You can use craft sticks or even utensils in place of the straw. How can you make a long shadow? How can you make a short shadow? Does the position of the flashlight affect how the shadow looks?

Click on this link for more on shadows!

http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/investigations/es0405/es0405page05.cfm

Today 7-B was visited by Dr. Donner, an endocrinologist who works with patients with diabetes. He told us about the tools he uses when he is at work, and even wore his lab coat. One of the best parts was when he allowed us to ask questions to the Calvert bear, in hopes we could diagnose her illness. It seemed she'd been eating too many blueberries and honey! We diagnosed her with a stomachache, and sent her home in hopes she'd eat different foods.

Thank you, Dr. Donner, for your wonderful visit!

Would you rather:

jump off of the Empire State Building (and land safely, I'm assuming)

or...

eat a Kit Kat Bar??

This is a question I heard a group of 7's asking each other today while walking the hallways...Ahh, the joys of youth! And you guessed correct- they chose the Kit Kat bar! I remember when eating candy seemed like a real treat! Now it's a gluttony (haha).

Speaking of 7's, my Science classes and I have had fun on GoogleEarth this week, learning about the continents, oceans, countries, and terrain of the world. In one such class we visited San Francisco and viewed recent satellite images, and were even able to see the architecture (buildings, schools, landscape) in 3D! It is the coolest thing EVER. We pretended we were in a rocketship landing on different parts of the world- and we even saw Calvert School.

I think this made the world seem a little smaller- and yes, I'll admit- I am definitely using GoogleEarth to scope out my next destination of choice before visiting!

Have a good one!

North Run Farm!

Today the 7th Agers, parents, and teachers went to North Run Farm! We had fun searching through the pumpkin patch for the perfect pumpkin to take home! Before entering the corn maze, we walked into the "corn room" which was a small area on the outskirts on the corn maze. We were surrounded by huge stalks of corn! We learned about different everyday items whose ingredients come from corn:

-ketchup (I didn't know this either! ketchup contains high fructose corn syrup)
-corn flakes and frosted flakes cereal
-some makeup, including blush
-fruit roll-ups
The list goes on! Post your answers on the blog and let's keep the list going...

An Engineer Visits 7-1!

Today 7-1 had a visit from a special scientist! Mr. Koste is a computer engineer who works on special inventions for the government. He brought in a fingerprint scanner and a camera we all had a chance to use! The fingerprint scanner copied our fingerprints and posted them as images on a laptop computer. We learned that everyone's fingerprints are different- even identical twins have different fingerprints! It was so cool to see our fingerprints enlarged on the computer screen!

We used the camera to take individual photos of us (and a group photo at the end of class). In real life the images produced from the camera and fingerprint scanner help to track down good guys and bad guys!

Thank you for visiting us, Mr. Koste! We had a blast learning about this special kind of science called engineering.

ENGINEERING: The profession of applying scientific principles to the design and construction of engines, cars, buildings, bridges, roads, and electrical machines.

A Smell and Taste Scientist Visits 7-1!

A smell and taste scientist visited with 7-1 today! The first experiment involved us closing our noses while eating sour skittles. Without our sense of smell, the candy tasted very different!
We also used our noses and a penny to scratch and sniff a smell book. The last scent was smoke- it was very strong!
Thank you to Dr. Munger for visiting with us! We look forward to many more scientists popping in for experiments this year:)

The Great Lima Bean Experiment

We have been busy in science!

After classifying items as either living or nonliving, we furthered our study of plants by doing an experiment with lima beans. We put 5 lima beans in a bag with a moist towel and some air. This bag was taped to a sunny classroom window. These lima beans had water, food (sunlight) and air- all properties a living thing must have in order to grow and change. The next bag of 5 lima beans was placed in a bag, but was then put in a dark closet. These beans did not receive water, food (sunlight) or air, and were therefore not given a chance to grow or change.

The scientists recorded their hypotheses in their journals- what would the beans look like in a week? Here are some initial photos.

Fish Fotos

Scientists are everywhere! 7th Age learned that one kind of scientist, called a biologist, studies plants and animals. Here is a cool link to a fish biologist who lives in Oregon. She loves taking underwater photographs of salmon and trout swimming upstream.

http://www.npr.org/multimedia/2008/09/river/index.html

The Sixth Sense, acc to 7th Age

What are the five senses?

I asked my 7's scientists this question today. Hands flew up ready to respond. Seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling- right?

Another student's hand shot in the air, giggling. "Mrs. Armstrong!" she yelled, "You forgot one sense!"

Hmm...

(After a quick brain recap) Nope, no senses missing here.

Then coyly laughing she responded, "Your sense of humor!" :)

Hand What?

Today in science we talked about a special tool called a handlens, which we will use throughout the year during various experiments. The girls learned a few basic facts about the handlens:

• The handlens we use in class has two lenses. The lenses help us to magnify an object. The lower lens has a higher magnification.


• We hold a handlens with (duh!) our hands. Please refrain from using the lens around your mouth so you do not spread germs!

We then used the handlens to observe animals in our room. These included a frog, two turtles, two gerbils, and a hamster. The girls recorded their observations in their journals. Here are two groups observing both a hamster and gerbil!

Who is a scientist?

I started this year in my 2nd grade science classes by posing this question: Who is a scientist? Each child had about 10 minutes to draw a sketch of how they pictured a scientist, right down to the clothing and special tools. As you can see, most children drew pictures of "scientists" in labcoats, mixing chemicals; and 9 times out of 10, the scientists drawn were male- Yikes! Yes, there are male chemists out there, but I hoped to dispel the theory that all scientists must wear a labcoat or be a boy.

Each child opened their journals on Day 2 and numbered 1-8 lengthwise. I showed a series of 8 photos of different people (please see below for an upload of the presentation). The students were asked to identify whether YES, (Y) the person(s) was a scientist, or NO (N), the person(s) was not a scientist.

I will set up the presentation shortly so you can take the "pop quiz", too!