Monday, February 23, 2009

Mystery Boards

Friday was not a horrible day, but it was a frustrating one. Somehow there were enough interruptions that we never seemed to accomplish most of what I intended to do. Today allowed us to catch up. And most of that catch up was in Science.

On Friday the students made “Mystery Boards.” These are pieces of cardboard with four fasteners in them. Students connected some of the fasteners with wires and then taped the mystery boards shut. I gave the groups diagrams so that each group would have different circuitry.

Today the students tested them out. They made a simple circuit with a light or a motor, a battery, and some wires. They left an open spot in the circuit, and they tried to figure out which combinations of fasteners on the mystery board would close the circuit and light the bulb or turn the motor. In this way, of course, they were figuring out what the wiring of the board was without actually opening up the board and checking it. They had a lot of fun as each group checked the boards of all the other groups.

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We also started exploring the difference between series and parallel circuits today. The students were challenged to make two light bulbs light. They discovered that they could do this easily, but that the light was very dim. I explained that this is typical of series circuits. We discussed what could make the bulbs brighter. The students immediately decided that another D-cell would help. So they made a second circuit adding a little more battery juice. They created schematic diagrams to help them compare these. We have some young electrical engineers in training!

The rest of the day was also great. We practiced Gold Dust or Bust. We went out to PE. And we started watching a really great PBS film on the gold rush. I prepared a series of multiple-choice questions for the students to answer as they watched the video. This is time consuming for me (well, the first time I do it), but it really helps the students to focus on a film as a learning tool instead of mere entertainment.

Homework:  (1) Do vocabulary crossword. This is review for the upcoming Open Court unit test. (2) Do the review questions, Science, page 28. Please copy the questions as well as answering in complete sentences. (3) Do the chapter reviews, Math, pages 354-355.

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