Adopt an Element

We spent all of last week learning about the Periodic Table. We learned about the trends of the periodic table, how it is arranged, and what a genius Dmitri Mendeleev must have been to recognize the patterns of the elements back in the 1700's!  Once we had familiarized ourselves with the Periodic Table, each student was able to pick their own element to "adopt".  So many of my students chose very interesting elements!  They were required to find out the basics of their elements, of course, but then they had to research common uses, interesting information, photos of their element in its natural state, and a video about their element.  One of my students even found a video of Xenon (a radioactive gas) being used in a pin ball machine! 
We took all of our data and created a Flowboard on the ipad.  Flowboard is like an interactive Pinterest!  Not only can you post text and pictures, but videos too.  It is a really great way for them to get all of their information in one place.  Below are some student samples that were really out of this world!  Enjoy!

Neon created by Maya Bordas

 Einsteinium created by Madeline Silvestro

 Copper created by Joohi Maknojia
Krypton created by Baker Ward

Silver created by Natasha Trayers

 Radium created by Adele Corder

 Silver created by Perry Rickard

Scientific Inquiry, of course!

I have no doubt that every elementary and middle school student starts out either learning or reviewing Scientific Inquiry at the beginning of the school year.  I remember years ago when it was called "The Scientific Method" and it was a very rigid way of conducting a lab experiment.  Nowadays, it's all about being cyclical and the ability to start anywhere you want in the process just by questioning, observing, and inferring.

We started out with our Toothpick Lab, which was so fun because there was hardly any clean up (yay, me!) and the "wow" was fully in effect.  We bent a few toothpicks, arranged them in a star formation, added droplets of water to the center, and watched the toothpick expand before our very eyes!  This lab was a great way for the students to come up with an appropriate hypothesis and a well-written conclusion without it being too "sciency" yet.  Teachers love a good lab report and we felt we needed to review this important aspect of science.

We also incorporated metric measurements and conversions into our Scientific Inquiry unit.  Most of our students remember "King Henry Died Drinking Chocolate Milk" but were less familiar with converting units.  We set up a Metric Measurement Lab which not only gave them practice of measuring out meters, liters, and grams, but then taking it one step further and converting units.

Below are some pictures of my students participating in our Metric Measurement Lab...

First Blog Post!

Hello all you science peeps!  Welcome to 8th grade Science at Hill Country Middle School in Austin, Texas.  We have been back in class for almost a month and I'm amazed at all the stuff we have done so far.  My blog "goal" is to showcase all of my amazing students as we explore the wonderful world of science.

Science really does rule the world!  Stay tuned and enjoy  :)