Some new stuff and some old stuff

This week was full of chemical and physical changes. To help us understand more what physical and chemical change is we did a lab a to help us. During this lab we did a series of experiments and we had to determine if they were chemical changes or physical changes. My favorite experiment we did in this lab was the milk and red bull experiment. I liked this experiment because the chemical reaction resulted in a precipitate. In this case a precipitate would be a solid that comes out of a chemical reaction. The milk curdled in the experiment because of the acid in the red bull.

This week I also learned about and took notes on the different types of energy. Do you know the difference between kinetic energy and potential energy? Kinetic energy is the energy of motion but potential energy is stored energy.

This week we also had  a quiz. This was technically our first real quiz because our last quiz was just generic science stuff. I thought this was quiz was pretty easy but I had some trouble with the vocab. I can definitely improve on my studying by thoroughly studying the vocab.

This week we reviewed chemical and physical changes and learned about the different types of energy. I thought this week was fun even though we had a quiz. Since we were doing so many experiments I thought this link was relevant.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfqmzHXmTMY

just for laughs

red bull and milk station

Kanuga Week

Interesting week this was! Instead of having a regular Monday we had to get on a bus at 4:30 IN THE MORNING to get to Kanuga. After that we rode for six hours to get to Kanuga. The bus ride to and back from Kanuga was probably the worst part of the trip because it was so long. When we finally got to Kanuga we ate lunch. Just like any camp food there is always something everyone eats all of. In this case it was the tater tots. After lunch we took a hike. Walking up hill for two hours isn't exactly fun for some people. On the hike I had a visitor crawl in-between my feet. A SNAKE!!! It was a small harmless snake but a snake is still a snake. My favorite part of the hike is when we all got to lay down on a rock for ten minutes. Later that night we went to learn about the animals  of the Appalachian wilderness. My favorite animal the guy showed us was the ground hog. After he showed us the animal we got to touch some of them. I touched a snake for the first time and I also touched the ground hog.


On Tuesday we all had to get up early so we could go white water rafting. I had never been rafting before so it was a real challenge. We had Ben and Kenaniah  in our group so we all had to listen to howling and banging all the way down the river. My favorite part about rafting was that we got to jump of a cliff into the water. Even Mrs. Upton jumped. Halfway down the river we stopped so we could take the rafters pictures. Our instructor Tim tied us on the rocks and another raft hit us and knocked Mary out of the boat. Mary didn't fall that far away from the boat so we easily pulled her back in. Tuesday night we had our campfire inside because the campfire area was wet from the rain. We had to create a commercial  for a random object.Our group did Pokemon balls for unicorns. After that we tricked a whole bunch of people to think that they were auditioning for a new movie but really they were just acting and the things that they were doing was all taking place on a toilet. After that we played a game where we had to come up with as many songs as we could with the word baby in it. Our team loss because we couldn't think of any more songs. Then Mr. Simon sang and we had ice cream sandwiches instead of s'mores.


On Wednesday our group went to the climbing wall. The climbing wall was fun and I cant believe I made it up to the top. I was so tired afterwards I just fell asleep on the bus. I had a great time at Kanuga and look forward to next year. We returned to Wilmington around 8pm on Wednesday night. I was exhausted!


On Thursday we worked on our blogs and thankfully Friday was a teacher workday and I was able to sleep in. Thank goodness for a long weekend! I learned that when white water rafting, if you fall out of the boat to keep your nose and toes out of the water. I can definitely improve on being in better physical shape next year so I don't pass out from hiking!


 Advice I wish I had on the bus http://www.wikihow.com/Enjoy-Yourself-on-a-Long-Bus-Ride

mountain ecology

white water rafting

Cram Week

This week has been super fun even though we had a test, which really wasn't that bad, it was just really long. Aside from our regular schedule, all the teachers had to cram every possible test and quiz in this week because  we are going to Kanuga next week and have a teacher workday on Friday!


On Monday to review scientific notation, Mrs.G put review cards all over the room for us to convert. She hid them really well to the point where I couldn't find them. This activity helped me better understand scientific notation which helped me a lot on the quiz. On Tuesday we played grudge ball to help review. After the game everyone held a grudge against each other (hence the name). Grudge ball helped me review the vocab. It helped me learn how to use the conversion formulas.


Oh the dreaded test on Wednesday!! Actually the test wasn't that bad, it was just really long and had many time consuming conversions with dimensional analysis. We had to convert a billion seconds into years for crying out loud! On Thursday, as with every test or quiz we reviewed it. After that we started on a new lab on Friday. This lab is going to help us understand physical change and chemical change through a series of small experiments with vinegar and baking soda, and potato and iodine.


I need to improve on checking the what you need to bring to class wall before I get to class because most of the time I'm just guessing what I need for class. I had a great week this week and can't wait until Kanuga. I was so excited that I thought you should at least get a taste of Kanuga at ......


http://www.kanuga.org/camps-and-outdoor-education/camp-kanuga/

Vinegar and baking soda experiment  

Potato and iodine experiment

Dimensional analysis practice

The Week of Fudge

This week if you couldn't tell already by the title ,we made fudge/mushy dark chocolate. Also, we finished our lab aprons. The week went so quickly because we didn't have to go to school on Monday because it was Labor Day.

To start off the week we learned all about dimensional analysis. I think by the end of the week everyone was sick of it. I learned how to convert units of measurement, such as gallons to teaspoons which took forever it seemed. Learning to do these conversions will definitely help me when I am baking and cooking.

On Wednesday we started our fudge lab, but we just did conversions, we did not make any fudge. To make the fudge, Mrs. Giacomelli gave us the joyous task of converting all our ingredients into different units. On Thursday we actually made our fudge. Since the hard part of converting the ingredients was already over, making the fudge was pretty easy. We didn't even need the fire extinguisher! The fudge tasted like mushy dark chocolate icing.

This week Mrs.Giacomelli  told us a story but not just any story, a story about significant figures and how the zeros couldn't get into a club. This story helped me understand a little bit more of how significant figures work. I learned that if a zero is ''sandwiched'' in between two non zero numbers it is considered significant. This was a really neat way of remembering this! This week I think I can definitely improve on triple checking my labs to make sure that I have all the questions right. This week was filled with fudge and significant figures.

Attached is a link to how we should have made our fudge.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/old-time-chocolate-fudge-recipe.html

''fudge''

making the ''fudge''

my lab apron

Volume and Density

This week was a week full of metric units in science,  in fact in Mrs.G's classroom, inches and feet are outlawed. This week involved dunking willing humans(Ellie, Kyler, and Jane) into water to find their volume.

To start out the week we learned precision and accuracy by throwing a tennis ball at some one with an apple on their head with a target behind them. I learned that an example of accuracy would be throwing a dart in the center of the target. Precision would be if you threw six darts in the same spot. Mrs.G showed us this is a much more fun and exciting way like everything else this week.

We started on our volume and density lab to help us understand a bit more how to calculate volume and density in regular and irregular shaped objects like humans. I was absent on Wednesday so I apparently missed a baby squirrel named Hootie which I was super bummed to have missed because everyone said it was super cute and small. The one thing I'm so glad I didn't miss is Ellie being dunked. By dunking her in water we learned her volume from how much water she displaced. This helped me learn in the future if I ever wanted to dunk someone for fun I could say it was for science and I wanted to figure out their volume.

On Thursday even before dunking Ellie we layered different liquids depending on how dense they were. Some liquids were honey, soap, oil, and water. I learned that when all put together the liquids would separate because of the difference in density.On Friday we had our quiz. I think I can improve on using all my studying resources like the assessment in the textbook. I think I did pretty well on the quiz  but there is always room for improvement. Overall I think this week was really fun and can't wait to see what next week has in store.
The link below shows measuring volume by displacement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THYjqM2t4ts

Ellie about to get dunked

Layered liquids

Hootie the baby squirell

Us learning the difference between precision and accuracy  

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