What's happening in Science?

 For the three years I have been teaching science, my students have been creating science journals to record their learning and activities. I tweak the journals every year as I reflect on positive changes to make and find different ideas to try out. They begin by starting a simple organization system of writing a Table of Contents then listing the number of units we will cover, write the name of the first one and what page it starts on. As we move forward, I model and instruct them on how to organize their journals with names of activities and lessons while encouraging them to make it their own. Below are a few examples of student work in their journals. Our first unit was on plants. We are currently in our second unit on the nutrition and the digestive system. 

Students made a 3-D paper leaf as they studied the layers of leaves. They also drew a diagram of the layers of a leaf and provided labels. 

In the activity written above, we designed an experiment to investigate the rate of photosynthesis. Throughout the year, I will have students practice creating experiments so they can think through all the steps that go into an experiment; thinking through what they are investigating, creating a hypothesis, materials they need, listing the independent and dependent variables, creating tables and graphs to document their information and more. 

The chart above had students cutting out the rectangles, matching them up, checking to make sure they were correct, then gluing them into their journals. 

The nail varnish impressions was a really fun activity! We painted some leaves with dots of clear nail varnish. When it dried, we peeled it off, prepared a slide and viewed it under the microscope. The drawing above is one student's representation of what he saw in the microscope.

This was a first!!! I want to keep this journal when the year is over and frame this!! One of my students wrote a copyright and dedication for his journal. Knowing the student, of course, makes his writing even more comical. :)

I love to encourage questions! Even if they don't all get answered. At the end of our unit, we took time to research our questions online. Each student created a Google doc with information about a question they chose. Some even added photos! We have started a list of questions as we are going through unit 2 and a student just asked me today, "when will we research our questions?"

Unit 2 has a lot of interesting experiments with testing foods for starch, sugars and protein. We first used iodine to test foods for starch which is what you see in the picture above and below. 

We tested the same foods (bacon, milk, spinach, bread and butternut squash) for sugars. Students put a little food in a test tube with some water and Benedict's solution then placed our tubes in a hot water bath. The changing colors indicate there is sugar present. 

Our test for protein was similar with adding biuret solution and without the hot water bath. About 5 minutes later, you can see color changes. Students had created tables in their journals to document the information. After our current unit, we have three more with biology then we move into chemistry. I have several kids who enjoy science this year so I am really looking forward to learning right alongside them!