I forgot to post a SciFri last week so this week we had two SciTues videos!

This second video is brought to you by Collin Mergel. Thanks, Collin.

I hope you all enjoyed the field trip at Polaris today. There were some cool programs that cover so many different topics....but I hope you recognized all the science found in most of them! ;)

Here are a few pictures from Torrey R. that she took at the station about one of their satellite programs. This program is a biomedical course that is offered directly in our high school and is open to freshmen. It's an electives course and we'll talk about it a little more as we approach high school course scheduling more. Thanks for the photos, Torrey!

Congrats to Nadeen, Miranda, and Evan's group in 4th period to get their electric motor functioning!

In period 5/6, Henna, Diana, Gillian H., and Trevor were able to create working electric motors. In period 10 Caleb, Angelica, and Anna got it. In period 11, Owen got it on his own, and Dana, Kaitlyn M., and Kasem and Omar and Abbey were able to make a working motor.

Below is the motor created by the 4th period team mentioned above.

I'm a little behind in posting SciFri videos - enjoy!

Today Owen had some great ideas he wanted to try out, saying, "I think most of science is asking questions." He's totally right and it's great how he's asking questions to extend what we're talking about in class. We've been learning about forces from a distance and applying them to electromagnets currently. 

First, Owen decided to try using the hand crank generator to create his electromagnet instead of the batteries that we've been using, getting a little help from Kasem and Omar.

Then he decided to look at the pencil sharpener that was broken apart. He first tried plugging in the pencil sharpener and seeing if the coil attracted paper clips but found it was weak. Then, he tried putting a pencil in, and WOW! The electromagnet was VERY strong. 

Great job, Owen! Really wonderful scientific thinking and experimenting!