This is the last week of the semester. We will be finishing Science sleuths early in the week and then moving onto the awesome micro rocket lab where we generate oxygen and hydrogen gas from various chemical reactions and determine which combination can make a rocket fly the farthest across the room. Awesome!!
step 1 — take your trash bag or dry cleanng bag and without unfolding it cut off the sealed end.
step 2 –cut off the sealed end (leave the bag folded)
step 3–open up bag and cut along seam to creat a giant rectangle
step 3b– cutting along seam
step 4– you now have giant rectangle
step 5– cut the giant rectangle in half
step 6 –use masking tape to tape down 4 corners
step 7 — place a dot in the middle of the square and draw an 80 cm line with dot being at the 40cm midpoint
step 7b– here is an 80cm line
step 8 — draw another 80cm line perpendicular to the line in step 7 using the same midpoint
step 9 — draw another 80 cm line cutting your those 4 lines in half–see picture
step 10–draw a fourth line cutting the other lines in half –see picture for the final result
step 11– tie a string around a sharpie –you are going to use this as a compass to draw a circle connecting the 8 points of your spokes.
step 11b — connecting all 8 spokes into a circle
step 11c — the final circle
step 12 — cut out the circle
step 12b — the final circle cut out
step 13 — get some masking tape
step 13b– take 2 inch piece of masking tape and fold it over one end of spoke so it sticks to both sides of the bag
step 13c– do this to all 8 spokes
step 14 — get a one hole punch and punch a hole in the middle of each piece of tape. The tape reinforces the hole.
step 14b– after the hole is punched
step 14c– all 8 holes
step 15 –get a spool of string and cut 8 120 cm pieces
step 15b
step 16– tie each piece to one of the holes
step 16b
step 16 c — all eight holes have a string tied to them
step 17–final product
We will start the year with a technological problem solving lab called bottle rockets or water rockets. Working in groups of 2 or 3 you will create a bottle rocket out of an empty 2L bottle which you bring from home on the first day of school. I will provide you with the trash bags for the parachute, tape, scissors, cardboard for the fins. Your partner will provide the bottle used for the nose cone. Some students do purchase “golf tubes”, long black tubes used to protect golf clubs in the bag, from Golfsmith, Dick’s Sporting Goods, etc for their nose cone. Below is the schedule which is subject to change based on the weather.
Wednesday, Aug 22–Introduction, construction
Thursday, Aug 23rd –Construction all period (complete parts at home)(construct data table)
Friday, Aug 24th — Launch Rocket 1,develop hypothesis for rocket 2 (build rocket 2 over the weekend)
Monday, Aug 27th- Finish Rocket 1 Launches or Launch Rocket 2
Tuesday, Aug 28th –Launch Rocket 2 (begin bottle rocket report) due Thursday, Aug 30th
Grading:
Part 1
Construction of data table — 5 pts
Rocket grade is based on time aloft in seconds — 20 points
A- > 15s
B 13-15 s
C 10-13
all times < 10s receive 10/20 points
Part 2
For part 2 you will analyze your 1st rocket and create an improved rocket by only adjusting 1 variable (i.e. size of parachute, number of shroud lines, fin size). You will then launch this rocket. If it does better you will be awarded 2 bonus points for improvement. If it does no better or worse your grade will be based on the above time requirements. Upon completion of part 2 you will write a 1 page bottle rocket report worth 10 points.
Hint 2
Carbonaceous Condrite, White dwarf, Sun, Mercury’s atmosphere, Human body, Supernova, Earth’s Atmosphere,
Stellar Life cycle rubric -10 pts
Hi and low –2 pts
Correct Pictures, order, labelled – 3pts
Correct Elements -4pts (most commonly missed Hi mass — RG up to Fe, Supernova elements heavier than Fe)
Cyclic -1 pt
We are starting a new science blog this week. You will be able to post questions to the blog and your classmates give hints as to how to answer your questions. In addition, the homework will be posted here.
“Bean a long time”
Hint 1:
Stellar Evolution–1,2,7
Solar System–4,5
Earthy–3,6
This week we will be starting Ch.3–Elements, Mixtures, and Compounds. The students will be begin this week by separating the zinc from the copper in a penny using the properties of mixtures. This is a very cool lab, please ask your students about it. Later in the week students will be devising a way to separate a complex mixture into its original parts.
We continue our study of Ch.1 –Macrochemistry with a focus on measuring and density this week. Somehow I was able to arrange for Indiana Jones to stop by for a visit to explain why a bag of sand with same volume as a gold idol doesn’t work. We finish the week with a lab on using density to sort recycleable plastics.
Dinner table conversation: Ask your student to explain why the bag of sand did not work as a replacement for the gold idol.
We have ended an electric unit on Electromagnetism and we are moving into our 6 week Geology cycle. During this unit we will spend 3 weeks studying geologic time, the Earth’s history, and how our planet has evolved. The focus of this unit will be on how we know so much about the Earth from the information we have today. This will include lessons on relative dating, radiometric dating (absolute dating), index fossils, and major geologic events and extinctions. This unit will end the week of April 12th and include a visit to the Field Museum’s Evolving Planet Exhibit and the temporary exhibit Mammoths and Mastodons on April 13th. The cost of this field trip will be $4.50.
Dinner table conversation: Ask your student how we know Illinois was was located on the equator.
This week we are focusing on lab skills this week. Students will be using what they have learned over the last 3 months to identify 11 unknown white powders. On Wednesday, they will take a lab test of identifying two of these unknowns. Thursday we move into Activity 5 on the chemistry of fingerprints.