Science at Bangor & in the News
We made it through our last full week before spring break. I'm very proud of how admirably everyone has kept their focus as break approaches. We only have a few days left to go, so let's keep working hard through Thursday!
We started learning about acids and bases this week. Along with some interesting trivia, we started working on identifying acids and bases in reactions and solving problems to determine the concentration of ions in acidic solutions. We are going to continue working on these concepts through the end of the week. I am planning something fun for the end of the week-stay tuned-in so you don't miss out! This week I started in the middle school. Mr. Hoch has the Science 6 students working on presentations to review their fossil unit. He told me about the different projects the sixth graders did as part of the unit & I was sad that I missed out. Hopefully as we plan the next unit after break, we will have some equally fun & interesting projects going on.
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Geologists at the University of Utah found a new layer within Earth's mantle. This layer is stiffer than the mantle on either side of it. This finding is important to helping scientists understand how tectonic plates move and why volcanoes along the mid-ocean ridge are supplied by different magmas than volcanoes on islands like Hawaii.
Does this sound interesting? Check out the release from University of Utah. This week closed out the third marking period. It's hard to believe that we've completed 3/4 of the school year and only have 1 marking period left. On Friday I had to say good-bye to Science 9 :( For my last week of class, we spent time researching and testing things that affect the size of the geyser when Mentos are dropped into a bottle of pop. The students came up with some really creative ideas to test. Since we couldn't test them all, we selected one of the proposed ideas--that there is something in dark colored pop that makes the Mentos-pop geyser bigger. We went outside on Thursday to test this with 7 different types of pop: Diet Coke, regular Coke, Dr. Pepper, Root Beer, Sprite, Ginger Ale, & Orange Crush. Our results were consistent with this idea with Diet Coke & Root Beer having the tallest geysers and Orange Crush having the shortest. We had BHVTV film the experiment, so you can watch our geysers by clicking here. When I get pictures back from the yearbook staff, I will share those out through your Bangor email accounts. For the 4th marking period I'll be teaching Science 6 with Mr. Hoch down in the middle school during 1st hour. I will be in the high school the rest of the day, so come visit me sometime, Science 9! I really enjoyed spending the 3rd marking period with you all & will miss you!
In chemistry we reviewed kinetics, thermodynamics, and equilibrium throughout the week. We wrapped up the third marking period with a test over these ideas. I hope everyone is enjoying a chemistry-free weekend while I grade & plan what we will be doing during the 4th marking period. Chemistry students-I promise you that you will get to make Mentos-pop geysers too! We will be starting our investigation just before spring break. We've got a week & a half to go before break, there is light at the end of the tunnel! Last week was a bit chaotic for me. After being absent last Friday, I felt a little discombobulated on Monday. We all worked together to get through the beginning of the week craziness and starting getting back into the class routine. In Science 9 we started digging into the theory of plate tectonics. This was an exercise in visualization, so some students were very challenged. I have a hard time with turning words into mental pictures too, so hopefully the Oreo lab we did previously helped here. I think it's also hard to picture things on the geologic time scale. Humans are only around for 100 years or so, if we are lucky, but the Earth has been around for 6 billion years (600,000 times longer)! It can be difficult to imagine how the continents move because we can't actually see or feel the continents moving day-to-day or year-to-year.
Chemistry dove into the idea of equilibrium. Just as everyone was getting the hang of thermodynamics, I had to go throw a wrench in things (sorry!). By Wednesday it seemed like things started getting a little more clear, but we'll see where we are tomorrow. I hope to have the Kinetics, Thermodynamics, & Equilibrium unit wrapped up with a test on Thursday or Friday. I was sad to have missed Hunger Games Day on Thursday. I hope everyone enjoyed a break from the normal day! I spent my days on Thursday and Friday at the National Science Teachers Association annual conference in Chicago. I learned a lot while I was there & plan to put it to use, so get ready! Aside from learning from some excellent veteran science teachers, I was able to celebrate Pi Day with my fellow science geeks and I got to meet Bill Nye & have a book signed by him. We are moving into the last week of the third marking period, so let's buckle down & get to work! In honor of International Women's Day, I thought I would post a few links to some amazing women in science from the past and women who are currently at the cutting edge of their fields.
Maria Mitchell Henrietta Lacks Marie Curie Rosalind Franklin Jane Goodall Sally Ride Margaret McFall-Ngai Ada E. Yonath Jo Handelsman Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider Ada Lovelace I owe a big, "Thank you!" to my Science 9 class. You all adjusted admirably to the disruption of having Mr. Price's seniors in class for the two days while the juniors were taking their ACT & state tests. I am extremely grateful that you all still carried on as if we were having a normal day of class. I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things this week.
Juniors-I didn't get to see many of you after you completed your testing; I hope everything went as well as it could for you. Chemistry was certainly very boring by the third day without you! Another huge, "Thank you!" goes out to the seniors who still worked hard on chemistry even though we were out of our normal class routine. I hope the seniors can help get juniors moving again in class. We will finally be moving on from thermodynamics this week and start talking about equilibrium. This idea can seem a little funky at first, so hang in there with me! |
Ms. Lyons
Science is amazing, check it out! Archives
May 2016
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