Tag Archives: experiment

Clean Hands!

Posted on by
Reply

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
Look how clean my two hands are!
Wash the back and then the front,
Between the fingers rub-a-dub.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
Look how clean my two hands are!

Today we had a CLEAN HANDS presentation… that was also a SCIENCE EXPERIMENT!

First of all we got to sprinkle red sparkles all over our hands. The sparkles were simulated GERMS (but actually, they were very pretty germs!) Then we began the experiment. We tested three ways of cleaning our hands.

The first way was by just wiping our hands with a paper towel. Oh dear! That didn’t get rid of very many germs at all!

The second way was to wash our hands in cold water and then dry with a paper towel. That was a little bit better, but still not very good.

The last part of the experiment was to wash our hands with SOAP and WARM WATER and then dry with a paper towel. Yeah! That was the best way to get rid of those sparkly germs!

We also learned that you need to be sure to wash for as long as it takes to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle little star” or “Happy Birthday”. Then you need to turn off the tap with your paper towel (otherwise those germs you left on the tap will go right back on your hands!) Mrs. Boekhout was a little concerned about having the water run for so long. (After all, we aren’t supposed to let the water run while we brush our teeth, right?) One idea is to not run the water too hard. Another idea is to just wet your hands and turn off the tap. Wash while you sing and then turn the tap on again and give another little wash before you rinse. Then use the paper towel to turn off the tap,

It might sound complicated, but we want to GET RID OF GERMS but still NOT WASTE WATER!

Clean Hands on PhotoPeach

HighTech Science and “Earthworks”

Posted on by
1

It’s dark, it’s mucky, it’s under your fingernails!… Do you go “Yuck”? Do you head for the soap and water? NO WAY! You slip on your white lab coat, take out a magnifying glass, and stroke your chin saying, “Verrrrry interesting!”

You’re a scientist called a Geologist!

Today we got the chance to transform our classroom into “Particle Pete’s Science Lab”! As Scientists we knew we had to notice EVERYTHING, using all of our senses. (Oh… except for the sense of taste, that could be dangerous!) We learned how to “waft” a scent towards our noses and how to do the Scientist Safety Signal with our fingers in the air. Good scientists have good questions, curiosity, and imagination… but they need to LISTEN when the Head Scientist is talking!

We learned that the 4 ingredients of life are sun, water, air, and soil. Did you know that the sun is 4.6 BILLION years old and is about 149 MILLION kilometers away? Our first experiment showed how Solar Energy can be transformed into Mechanical Energy. It was such a rainy day that we needed to use a light, but we still were able to get the little windmill to turn. Then we did our own Water Cycle experiment. We made our little “clouds” soak up the water into the sky and then “rain down” again! The AirZooka was a BLAST (of AIR, that is!) High and low pressures make the air move to different places. That’s how we get wind!

Then we had to use our best observation skills to check out the different parts of soil: rocks, sand, silt, and humus. Did you know that it takes the Earth 500 years just to make 1 inch (3 cm.) of soil? We put them all together into a mini-mountain and used pipettes to “drop the rain” onto them. It didn’t take much for us to see the power of erosion by water! We also checked out the “holding capacity” of the different materials. Rocks let the water run through – that would make the ground too dry for plants to grow well. Clay wouldn’t let water through at all – that would drown plants! It’s important for good soil to have all the different components… especially the rich, nutritious humus.

Finally we had to chance to check out some of the Earth’s most important “soil creatures”… earthworms! They are a lot bigger than our classroom red wiggler compost worms, and they aren’t nearly as shy!

“Particle Pete” gave us a great Science Workshop and he was a fun guy too (he even taught us a Water Cycle song!)
Thanks to “High Tech Science” for a great learning experience!

 

 

 

 

Here’s a fun idea… Hightouch Hightech Science is running SUMMER SCIENCE CAMPS!   You can also book a Scientist to come to a Birthday Party!

http://www.ScienceMadeFunBC.net

Tomatosphere

Posted on by
Reply

logo-tomatosphereWe have been growing tomato seeds in the classroom… but not just “any” tomato seeds… half of these seeds have REALLY been in SPACE on the International Space Station!  Isn’t that incredible!!!

We have been watching them grow and sketching them.  We are collecting data to see which half of the seeds grows best.  This is called a “blind test” because we don’t know which seeds (package “B” or package “T”) are the Space seeds and which are the Control seeds (ones that just stayed on Earth).  When we are finished, we will send out data in and they will tell us the answer to the mystery!

I wonder if anyone in OUR class will go to Space one day?
You can read more about it at: