Grade Five Alive!

Today was a an awesome day. We designed our own windmills!

All we needed to make a windmill is a carton, string, cup with a hole punch, material and popsicle sticks for the turbines (or blades), Styrofoam ball for the hub, for the turbines, and a wooden stick for the dowel. Put it all together and you have a windmill and it’s all yours! My partner and I used an octagon shape on our four, medium-sized turbines.

Next get a fan, plug it in, turn it on, and let the windmill go!

After we finished designing it our own way, we tested the windmill working to lift a cup of pennies. The most pennies lifted was almost 100! All of our designs were successful!

~Hannah

The Energy Carnival at our school was really amusing and educational. My favorite station was the coal mining because instead of using coal we used chocolate chip cookies. We had to pick the chocolate chips out of the cookies with a toothpick. And after that we would get to eat them.

Also there were solar beads that changed color by the solar energy coming from the sun. I have to say I really liked the ENERGY FAIR!!!

~ Diazsha ~

Last week the gym at our school transformed into the best carnival ever—a carnival of energy.

At one of the stations we used a special type of science equipment called the Air Gun. Once we lined up the bottles, we would pull back the handle and SHOOT! See how many pins we have knocked down with a burst of air or Kinetic energy!!!!!! Before shooting the air is stored as Potential energy.

Also, after we visited each station at the Energy Carnival, everyone received a solar bead that changes color by the solar energy from the sun.

~Sydney~

Sound is a form of energy we started studying in science class today. The type of movement that produces sound is a vibration. Do you how sound travels through air to your ear? It travels as a wave—a sound wave.

Here are some things we learned watching a Real World Science video. The wavelength is the distance between two crests on a wave. (The crest is the top part of the wave.) A rarefaction is the part of the longitudinal wave where the molecules are stretched apart. (A compression is where the molecules are pushed together.)

We used a slinky to to show longitudinal and transverse waves. Something else we made was the Hilarious Honker. Saran wrap was attached to the opening of a plastic cup with a rubber band, and a piece of string was attached to the bottom of the cup with a paper clip. If you would pluck a long portion of the string, it made a low sound. If you would pluck a short section, it made a higher pitched sound.

~Alex

Laine being hilariously honked.

Me watching a longitudinal wave.

Jaime demonstrating a transverse wave (it begins with an up-and-down motion).

Kenaz requested that I post this video about how electromagnets are used in making guitars.

guitar_pickups 

Here are the results of our Vote for Your Favorite Critter poll. Drum Roll, please…

Room 249:

“Terry Turtle” by Maddison

“Purple-a” by Tayleece

Room 246:

“Honeysuckle” by Jackie

“Starburst” by Jaime

Congratulations to all the participants in the Jitter Critter project. Everyone in both homerooms successfully assembled a complete circuit and brought to life a unique Jitter Critter.

We are so proud of everyone’s accomplishments and want to stress how difficult it was to vote for a “favorite.” The purpose of the voting was to showcase each individual critter as well as our classroom blog, and to explore a cool new online application for voting, Poll Authority.

Thanks to everyone who voted!

Here are some photos from two of last month’s projects: our electricity demonstration and the Jitter Critter adventure.

This is Mr. R, a teacher from the vocational technical high school explaining about the protons, neutrons and electrons that make up atoms.

Can you guess what kind of circuits we built? Reread Maddison’s post on February 6 to find out.

We also learned about electromagnets.

And, we had some fun with the Van de Graaff generator.

Beware—Jitter Critters taking over the school lobby…

What’s a Jitter Critter?

Johnathan wrote about this science project on January 15. A Jitter Critter is born by assembling a complete circuit (battery, insulated wires, and motor), attaching it to a CD with paperclip legs, and finally decorating it.

This project culminated when the critters were let loose in the school lobby last Friday afternoon. Wow, did they boogie — all 42 of them. Bumping and spinning and whirling in a cacophony of droning motors! Some critters boldly exposed their batteries and shiny, metal, hobby motors; others sported colorful, hard shells to conceal their inner mechanisms. Feathers, felt, fabric and a variety of other accessories were flaunted by these expressive creatures. Each one is as unusual and unique as its creator.

We realize it’s practically impossible to choose a favorite. But that’s just what we’re asking our friends and families to do! Click on the links below and cast your vote for the Most Unique Critters. Thanks for visiting!

Choose one critter in each of the four sections below:

Room 249 Group 1

Room 249 Group 2

Room 246 Group 1

Room 246 Group 2

(Apologies for the poor quality of the 246 photos. The choice was “fuzzy” or “small”—not quite sure why.)

UPDATE: The voting is closed. Awards will be presented Friday, February 13. Thanks for participating.

Mr. R and his class of 12 or so high school students came in to Ms. McP’s science class to help us learn a little more about circuits and electricity! The first thing he had us do was try and make a bell and a buzzer go off! Let me tell you it was very loud in the room!

After that we made a magnet using a battery, a paperclip, a nail, and a bare copper wire! We wound the copper wire around the nail and put both ends of the copper wire to both ends of the battery! Then we tried to pick up the paperclip, and it was a success! Although the nail and copper wire and battery got very hot! Don’t worry it was supposed to do that!

Afterward Mr. R talked about parallel and series circuits! A series circuit is a circuit that only has one path for the electrons to flow on, and the parallel circuit is a circuit that has more than one path for the electrons to flow on. Light bulbs on a series circuit are dimly lit while the light bulbs on a parallel circuit are brightly lit! If you were to remove a light bulb from a parallel circuit the other ones will stay lit because the electrons have chosen one of the other paths to flow along, although with a series circuit if you were to remove a light bulb all of them would go out because the electrons have no other path to flow along!

Then any students who wanted to could go up to something that was called a van de graaff generator and put your arm just about 2 inches from it and you would get a small electric shock, just as if you were to touch someone and get an electric shock. And then all of the girls and some boys would put both hands on the Van de Graaff generator and wait about 5 seconds and their hair would start to literally stick up straight!!!! It was sooo funny!

Then the last thing we did was hold each others fingertips of your pointer and index fingers and one of Mr. R’s students would touch the person next to him and everyone would get an electric shock because the electrons flowed from one body to the next!!!!!!! All you would hear was “oh ow” from one person to the next!!!! IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!!

~Maddison

You see something crawling around like a bug, but it’s not a bug. It has a CD for a body and it’s colored like camouflage. There is a AA battery and a motor in it. It’s crawling around the floor going in circles. It is called a jitter critter.

Here is how to make a jitter critter. You need a CD, a  motor that is 3 gigawatts or less, a AA battery and wires to make a complete circuit, and some jumbo paper clips stretched out to make legs.

~ Johnathan

The Jitter Critter Project that Johnathan describes above was assigned on January 5. Here is the information that was sent home to parents:

“Once we have completed the electricity section of the Matter and Forms of Energy unit, I’d like to do a project that applies the concepts taught. In order for all the students to construct their own Jitter Critter, I’m asking parents to provide a few items. I will provide a hobby motor, insulated wire, and duct or electrical tape. I’d like each child to contribute a AA battery and a CD, either blank or recycled. Construction will take part in 3 stages, the first two in school and the final stage at home. The finished project will then be returned to school for presentation and scoring. I will score the project according to the following criteria:

1. The student follows directions and completes tasks on time
2. The student is able to construct a complete circuit that operates a motor
3. The student demonstrates creativity and imagination in the decoration of his/her project.

First stage: Construct the framework of the project in school

Second stage: Students will assemble a complete circuit that powers a hobby motor and mount it using electrical tape to the CD platform in class.

Third stage: Students will take the assembled project home to add their own unique artistic decoration and then return the completed project on the due date. Glitter, wiggly eyes, pom poms, chenille stems, and assorted craft items may be used.”