Environmental News

In honor of earth month, this week's task is to visit National Geographic's website here. Visit several of the news links and leave a comment about something you learned! My favorites were the "Hard to See Sea Creatures" and "Hidden National Park Gems." What were yours? Have a great week!
Mrs. Garrett

Careers in Science

We recently finished our eight week science program with The Discovery Center, and I would like for all of you to start thinking about how science is important to so many jobs. The Discovery Center has a link here that provides plenty of information about careers in science.

Your assignment this week is to research careers in science and choose one science career that you think is interesting. Write a comment that explains what the career is and why you think it is interesting. Be sure to write in complete sentences.

You have until Friday to leave your comment!

Mrs. Garrett

Simple Machines

Check out the following activities that go with this week's Discovery Center visit and post which two links you visited along with something you learned.

Invention Playhouse: Tinker Ball - In this interactive, you will use an assortment of objects and simple machines to create a path for a ball to move around the screen and reach its goal. You'll learn about pushing materials to their limits and problem solving Simple Machines: A WebQuest - In this WebQuest, you will explore the different kinds of simple machines, locate examples of each simple machine in the real world, demonstrate basic relationships between force and motion, use vocabulary words related to this topic to answer and ask questions, identify inventors that have used simple machines to contribute to our society, calculate work and power, and use simple machines to solve a problem. Edheads Simple Machines – Look around the house and barn to find simple machines. Identify what these items are used for and how they work to achieve the high score! COSI Simple Machines - Learn about simple machines and the forces that make them work by exploring this online activity. Have a great weekend! Mrs. Garrett

Energy

This week's Discovery Center presentation taught us about energy. They have given us five different web activities to try and I would like for you to try at least three of them, and tell me what you learned and what you tried.

Energy Webquest - You hear on the news that there has been a power shortage in your state. The Governor is asking citizens to find better sources of energy. Only those citizens knowledgeable enough about energy to pass his Energy Quiz will be selected to present their reports to him.

Energy Games – Try out the “Watt’s That?” quiz game, or have a go at wordfinds, crossword puzzles, connect the dots, and other great games that are all about energy.

Questacon Virtual Roller Coaster - Try your hand at building your own roller coaster. Watch out though, or you might be in for a crash landing!

Funderstanding Roller Coaster - You can control hill height, sped, loop size, and even gravity in this fun interactive.

Physics Life - explore the physics around you by exploring the Physics Life City.

You have until December 18th to finish this blog assignment.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Garrett

Ecology

For the next eight weeks, The Discovery Center will be returning to teach lessons on many different areas of science. This Tuesday, The Discovery Center visited our classroom and we learned about ecology. We learned that ecology is the study of nature, plants and animals.

Click here to go to The Discovery Center's website related to this week's topic. There are five different links and different types of activities you can try related to ecology and their links and descriptions are below.

Global Warming and Earth Processes - This site provides movies that explain global warming, the water cycle, and the carbon cycle. After you watch each movie, you can take a quiz to test your knowledge of global warming and earth processes. This site is ideal for grades 3-8.

Animal Adaptations - All animals live in habitats. Habitats provide food, water, and shelter which animals need to survive, but there is more to survival than just the habitat. Animals also depend on their physical features to help them obtain food, keep safe, build homes, withstand weather, and attract mates. On this site, learn about how an animal's physical features, called physical adaptations, develop over many generations to help the animal survive in its habitat.

Animal Defense - Many animals have developed remarkable defenses to keep from being eaten.For example, some animals use chemicals which they spray from various parts of their bodies to deter predators. A few animals rely on trickery and copy the defenses of other animals to protect themselves. In this activity, you can sample various Internet sites and complete the activities for each one to learn more about the adaptations that animals have made to protect themselves.

Chain Reaction - This interactive site teaches you about the food chain and allows you to try your hand and creating your own food chain.

Biomes of the World – Visit each biome and learn about the plants and animals that inhabit each biome. Students can also learn about Freshwater Ecosystems and Marine Ecosystems.

Your assignment is to visit at least two of these websites and explore. Leave a comment below with information that you learned or what you thought was the most interesting link from these choices. Please answer in complete sentences and be sure to include your name in your comment. This needs to be completed by Friday, November 20th.

Happy exploring!

Mrs. Garrett

George Washington Carver

This Thursday we are visiting George Washington Carver's home in Diamond, Missouri.

Please watch the following video about George.

George Washington Carver had so many accomplishments that not all are even mentioned in this video. Below, please list at least one of George Washington Carver's accomplishments. Answer in a complete sentence, and you may not list anything that someone else has mentioned in a previous comment. Your facts may come from the video, class discussions, or your own research.

Please leave your comment by Friday, October 16th.

- Mrs. Garrett

Circuits and Electronics

In science, we have learned the circuits control the flow of electric charge. For this week's assignment, you are going to build a virtual circuit!

Go to this link at ClassZone.com. Scroll down to "Circuits" and see if you can complete the circuit and light the bulb.

What parts are necessary to light the bulb?

What happened when you opened the switch?

What happened when you closed the switch?

Can you build a circuit without the battery? Why or why not?

How is this similar or different from the snap circuits in our class?

Answer at least one of those questions as a comment below by next Friday, September 18th.