It can be

• a simple experiment (like one from the Celebrating Chemistry newspaper you brought home)
• a long term investigation (like a seed-plant growth chart),
• an observation of nature (sort and classify found items like sea shells),
• a bird watching journal,
• a new invention that you diagram, label, build and test out.

What ever you do – be sure to write about it and draw it (or photograph it) and bring it to me in August for a cool science surprise prize.  You can even email me or comment through this site if you want advice while you are experimenting!  This is a great way for 3rd and 4th graders to use all those blank pages in those Science Journals they are bringing home this week.

Have fun exploring and stay safe!

Tune in here later in the summer for hints about Science Lab in 2009-2010 . . .

First of all, we missed an important holiday when we were on break.  I hope you all enjoyed and celebrated the Winter Solstice. The amount of daylight will be getting longer now until we get to the Summer Solstice in June.   For those of you that read this post and tell me “Happy Winter Solstice” will get bonus “Super Scientist Tickets” for the next raffle (2nd quarter raffle is on January 15th)!

Second graders can look forward to finishing up fingerprinting and microscope skills.  We will then get down and dirty and explore soil and seeds using our microscopes.  Try a virtual microsope!

Third graders will be finishing up energy transfer and solving the mystery of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  They will then explore simple machines for making work easier – something we can all use.  Have fun with machines at edheads.com!

Fourth graders will be taking a virtual field trip to the far reaches of the universe as we explore Earth’s place in space!  Take a preview of our journey!

Fifth graders have brought home (or will very shortly) copies of their EXCELLENT Academy Award worthy Natural Disaster videos on DVD.  I really enjoyed watching all of them and learned something about you and the science behind the disasters.  Our next projects will be shorter but just as much fun.  We will be transforming energy many ways.  Visit FPL to learn about Green Energy solutions for our future!

That’s all for now — Keep Wondering and Exploring…. next post will be about places that are great family science field trips in our local environment — send me suggestions by clicking “comments”.