Today I started reviewing some of the concepts we talked about yesterday and introduced a discrepant event with some lime water that will be used with tomorrow’s lab.  We also saw a student made video on changes of matter and talked about the possibility of their own video project in the future.

Today we started with a little review of the last few concepts so as to remind the kids what’s going on.   I assigned a flip book project that goes with the chart on types of changes in matter on page 24.  I attached a PDF of the Flip-book foldable with this post.  This week we’re getting into more complicated labs, and hopefully a Diet Coke and Mentos project for everyone on Friday if everything goes as planned.

We’re moving along swimmingly with the discrepant events and lab work.  The kids are doing more and more every single day with chemistry and they seem to be having fun doing it.  Some Flinkers were epic failures and some were very close to the mark, but they will have another shot to perfect their idea.  I had to move my 2nd period due tot he speakers today and so both classes are getting more time to work on the Flinker project.  The density lab reports are due soon and next week we will be getting into more complicated chemistry.

Today we worked on a density lab which is a sumamtive assessment due tomorrow. There are some data points that might need to be completed tomorrow and some questions that have to be written out and those are to be handed in after the data is compiled.  Tomorrow the Flinkers are due, but I’m changing that until Monday because of Veteran’s Day will force us to move classrooms in second period.

Today we were pretty busy with a discrepant event, a Powerpoint presentation on density, an exercise with formulas for volume, mass and density, as well as a little coke/diet coke can trick in a body of water.  Some cool stuff.  Pretty soon these kids will have magic tricks to show all their parents.  I assigned for homework a “Flinker,” which is an object they have to construct that neither floats nor sinks.  We will test them on Friday.  They have a hand out and directions, and they can work alone or with one other person.

Today we had another cool science trick for the kids to try out, and we went further into the book with chapter 1.  Now in the second section we’re into more “mathy” stuff, which these kids shouldn’t have too much of a problem with.  We’ll be doing some more labs soon and I’m introducing a very difficult project tomorrow for the kids to work on at home.  It should be fun!

Today I introduced our first discrepant event in chemistry.  It involved some matches and a nickel, which the kids seemed really intrigued about.  After that we did a few questions on the board about atoms, molecules, compounds and mixtures.  Our lab for the day was “separating a mixture” with powdered sugar, sand, iron filaments and corn kernels.  It worked out great, but those kids know how to make a mess.

Today I handed back the results from the CSA test and some kids were a little dismayed by their score.  I made them an offer (which they promptly took me up on) to make our lab form yesterday a summative grade to help boost their score.  So, after careful consideration I decided to give the classes 10 summative grade points for the chemical/physical change lab when it’s completed and handed in.  We didn’t have time to go over the guided reading today but I’ll get to that next week.  We also told some ghost stories in class and talked about paranormal activity and watched a video on how science goes through a peer review process from the Daily Show.  I love the Daily Show and it’s a rarity that I can show something that applies to science or my class.  Next week we’ll get into measuring matter and more lab activities.

New textbooks handed out today, and we started in with an introduction into matter.  we did a cool little lab in class and made some gooey glue.  There is a couple of questions to research for homework and hand in tomorrow, as well as the guided reading over the first section.

The kids did great on the CSA test today.  No major problems and everyone seemed pretty confident with it.  Tomorrow we switch out our textbooks for the chemistry book.