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Today we did a lab to explore and review density in order to apply it to something called planetary differentiation. The lab has students measuring and then calculating the density of objects and predicting their behavior in water with a goal to try and determine the density of water. During the lab Abby H. had a question: Can I figure out the density of water? What a REALLY GREAT question! She explored and figured out a way to figure it out through measurements and calculations. Feel free to check in with Abby to hear her method and what her result was! Excellent scientific thinking!
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This SciFri is an interesting combination of technology, science, engineering and art. Enjoy! Below are also some videos about how the music machine was made and how it works. Enjoy! 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!
Today Moe was curious about a video he saw on YouTube where a balloon was picking up scraps of paper. He asked to try it and this is the result! Comment below with what you think is happening based on what we've talked about in class! Thanks for the cool idea, Moe! Todday's SciFri will help us understand just how insane atoms are! It's kind of wild to imagine how small they are and the fact that they are mostly empty space. In case you wanted to watch the whole episode of The Magic School Bus from the clip we saw today, here it is! Oh, nostalgia! :) But really, take some time to make connections about what we're learning and the examples done through the show. Think about balanced forces and what motion looks like with balanced forces. Think about unbalanced forces and how motion of objects with unbalanced forces might look differently from those with balanced forces. So this past week I put a plasma ball in the room for students to check out and play with but I figured that we might not really know a lot about plasma, despite the fact that it's the most prevalent type of matter in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE! Our SciFri video tells us a little more about plasma.
Did you know that we have a black hole at the center of our galaxy? Are you scared now??? Well, don't be! Our SciFri video goes over the black hole in the middle of the Milky Way galaxy and the science of why we don't really need to be worried!
We're beginning to look at motion and forces and today we were outside for a lab. We taking footage for an action movie....totally acted by sloths (so no speeding around!!). Here are some pictures of our classes outside, using scooters to set up different scenes so we can observe motion from different reference points and learn what relative motion is all about. Out SciFri video was about motion and forces today, as we start our first unit of content! Usain Bolt is known for his speed running...but can he beat the motion of something due to the acceleration due to gravity?
Sorry this is a little late but here is our SciFri video from last week. What do you think happens to a basketball when it's dropped from a really high height? What do you think might change if you give it a little backspin? I guarantee you wouldn't have expected this! Air and how it interacts with matter really plays a large role in the motion of objects. We'll explore some similar concepts with this in our first major unit about forces. Somehow in conversation today the question came up if something like the Hulk would ever be possible. After a little thought I considered what happens in the metamorphosis of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly and the changes that occur. Then, the question came up about how that happens and I had an answer but I really didn't know enough to answer in more detail. Here is a cool site with a short article about what happens inside as a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. They used 3-D scanning to get the images internally and created an animation to show what happens!
A few years ago I started watching SciFri videos in class, where I would share a cool science video on Fridays. This is the first SciFri video of the year! The question is, "Why is yawning contagious?" I dare you not to yawn when you watch it!  Welcome to 8th grade science! It's me, Ms. Sereika, your friendly neighborhood science teacher. We will be learning a ton this year, from science content, to ways of thinking about and doing science, to using technology, to working collaboratively, to researching, to handling challenges, and more! I hope you're ready for the year and I hope you had a great summer. We had lots of outdoor time, visits to the science museum, the geology museum at the University of Wyoming, library, and nature centers, hiking and playing.
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AuthorMs. Sereika is a teacher at North Olmsted Middle School teaching 8th grade science. Archives
December 2019
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