The science lab is currently featured on the BECON TV show Broward School Beat broadcast often until mid-April on Channel 19 cable and Channel 63 DirectTV/Dish/U-verse.  Several classes were filmed doing experiments and making movies back in December.  The schedule is available at becon.tv.

Welcome kindergartners and first graders to Science Lab special!

Kindergartners are exploring the effects of force using marble racetracks and roller coasters.  Practice building your roller coaster here: Roller Coaster Design

First graders are investigating sound waves and how they travel through air.

Second graders are the tree detectives – reading a trees history from a “tree cookie” and learning about leaf structure and function (photosynthesis and transpiration).  Try out these TREE activities at home: Tree Games

Third graders are continuing their speed investigation using gravity and friction with Hot Wheels raceways and radar detectors.

Fourth graders are wrapping up their sunscreen experiments and bringing home ultraviolet light detecting cards and beads to use in at-home experimentation.  Learn how to be a Sunwise Kid!

Next, fourth graders will be modeling seed adaptations and trying to create a seed that can travel by wind.  Watch a video about the “Seedy Side of Plants”

or watch The Private Life of Plants here:

Fifth graders did a superb job preparing for their science FCAT and are now studying racetrack physics using wind-up Darda cars, raceways and loops.

Some specific activities to accompany our laboratory activities:

2nd grade:

A Walk through the Forest

Virtual Microscope

3rd grade:

Simple Machines

Insulators and Conductors Review

Heat Energy Game

4th grade:  Visit the Earth and Space game –>

5th grade:  FINISH FCAT Explorer: Go to  www.fcatexplorer.com and finish Science Station and be entered to win a great prize!

Here are some that really go with our lessons:

5th grade: Got mass, volume and density all figured out?  Test your knowledge at www.fcatexplorer.com using the Sign-in name and password handed out in lab and go to SCIENCE STATION – ROBOSHOP section.

4th grade: Try out all the mineral activities at Mineralogy for Kids. Try out the games and practice your mineral identification skills.

2nd and 3rd graders: Get a CLUE — find out more about the scientists our tables are named after by looking at all the great CSI sites listed on the right side of the page.

Everyone has been having a blast digging the dirt with the earthworms. Earthworms are an important part of our environment – decomposing food waste and turning it into useful compost that can then provide nutrients to plants and grow more food. Have some online fun with Herman the Worm at this great website: http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/worms/. Also check out this great worm site: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/worms.htm.

and here is one for 2^nd – 5^th graders about the Earth, Sun and Moon:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/earth_sun_moon.shtml

Don’t forget to have a look at the Sun song videos in the previous post!

• ZOOM – go here to build a “Rube Goldberg” contraption (I think this is the one AJ!), play hockey, and even do some online kitchen chemistry. Combining simple machines into a complex contraption to perform a simple task is the hallmark of a Rube Goldberg invention. Have a look at the Honda Accord commercial called Cog. It took 606 takes to get it right!
• EdHeads – Simple machines to virtual surgery…all around great fun.

• Think about a pendulum and try some online experiments here: http://pbskids.org/zoom/games/pendulum/
• More Galileo experiments and a quiz here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/galileo/expe_flash_1.html
• Go to this website and you can play a game dropping objects and see that in a vacuum (like in space, no air to push objects) even a feather falls the same as a heavy ball: http://www.seed.slb.com/en/scictr/watch/skydiving/galileo_pisa.htm
• Also go here and see the video of the astronauts of Apollo 15 try this experiment on the moon. Did it work like the experiment in a vacuum? http://www1.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/feather.html

Think about it:

• What do these experiments have to do with rollercoasters?
• Where have you seen some pendulums (hint: sometimes called a “swinger”) at work?

Send me a comment and let me know what you think!