Friday, January 16, 2009

Science Friday

Once a week, on NPR, late at night, there's a show called Science Friday. Well, we had our own Science Friday today in room 19. And it was pretty fun.

We are starting the Magnetism and Electricity unit of the FOSS program. Students did a variety of hands-on explorations today testing their hypotheses about what materials magnets will adhere to and which seem immune to magnetism. You can see them working in groups above. They were pretty surprised to learn that magnets do not attract to all metals, and they were very surprised when a magnet attached itself to one of the stones in their bag! We discussed iron, magnetic poles, and induced magnetism. We finished by reading a short but informative chapter in the book. It took a lot of time, but students came away with a real understanding of the concepts.

We did a few other things. We had a fund-raising assembly. We took a spelling test. We corrected homework. We practiced the gold rush play. And we went to PE. Considered the hypothesis confirmed: it was a very good day.

Homework: (1) Do the science study questions. (2) Do "Mean," Math pages 270-271.

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