Be My … Switch?

It was another great Science Friday in room 19. And it did not rain during recess or lunch. My life is perfect.

We started the day in the library. Mrs. Koneff skipped reading our California Young Reader Medal because she is recovering from a cold that was even worse than the one I had (really still have, but it’s getting better). We went back to the classroom and took our spelling test. We corrected our homework assignments and they turned in their “Place to Love” papers. We will be typing these up with TuxPaint illustrations starting on Tuesday.

After recess we started on our Science Friday activities. I first put the students into groups of three or four and gave them a bag of materials. From the materials, I had them take out a small electric motor and a D-cell battery. I challenged them to make the motor run. That was easy. They all did that right away. So I made it a little tougher. I had them pull out a switch out of the bag and connect it to the motor. This required them to add another wire to the circuit. It took a little longer, but most of the groups figured it out. We paused for a bit here and talked about open and closed circuits. Then I really challenged them. I asked them to connect the switch and the battery to the motor and to an electric light. This required them to add two more wires to the circuit. They also learned to strip the insulation off the ends of the wires, too. (By the end of the year these children might actually be useful around the house.) While this was the hardest to do, the groups were so excited when they figure it out as you can see in the video below.

We returned to our seats and I introduced to them some of the symbols that engineers use when they draw circuits. The students drew schematic diagrams of their circuits while the teacher caught his breath. We then return to our groups. The students then reassembled their circuits, but this time they were told to take out a small bag of test objects. They had worked with these test objects earlier when we were doing magnetism. Now they were told to see which object could complete the circuit if the switch was open. They all predicted that the nail and the other steel or iron pieces would do this, but were a little surprised that the aluminum foil and the copper did, too. These objects had been duds during the magnetism experiments. They were less surprised that the rubber band and the poker chip and the styrofoam did not work. I explained that the objects that worked were conductors, and the objects which did not work were insulators.

We ended our day with a little Valentine’s Day sharing. They gave each other candy and cards. I gave them a test on fractions. Isn’t there anything which says “Be Mine” better than a math test?

Homework: Just finish the history papers if that was not done last night.