Monday, October 22, 2007

How Does Light Travel?

How light travels. These are the steps we went through and how we got our claim and evidence. Step 1 We got the paper with a hole in it. Step 2 We got the flashlight. Step 3 We got the golf ball with a string on it. Step 4 We got a black sheet of paper. Step 5 we shine the light at the sheet of paper. Step 6 we shine the flash light at the black sheet of paper. Step 7 we shined the flash light at the golf ball. This is what we came up with after we did all the steps. Light travels in a straight line until it hits something. The evidence to come up with the claim is when we shined the flash light at the note card with the hole in it, the light went through the hole but not the card. Then we shined the light at the golf ball which created a shadow. We learned that light travels in a straight line until it hits something, and then it either bounces back or goes through it. That is how light travels.
By Sara and Brody

Concave Lens

During this experiment we had a lot of fun. We used a lens, fire, whiteboard, and yard stick. We put the white board about a yard away from the flame. Then we put the lens in between the flame and the white board. That made a light on the white board. We moved the lens away from the fire and the light on the white board got bigger. When we moved the lens toward the white board it got smaller. Some times the light on the board was an up side down flame. That’s because the lens is concave. That also goes along with our eyes. When we see images they go through our eyes upside down and our brain tells it to be right-side up. Then we measured out which inch the flame appeared on the white board with the yard stick. Our claim said, the light got bigger on the white board when we moved the lens away from the fire inches at a time. Our evidence said, we started moving the lens away from the fire. As we moved it the light on the white board got bigger. It looked like the flame was up side down, and it got bigger. Once the light got bigger it got dimmer, and once it got smaller it got brighter. That is what we did and learned in this experiment.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

How Does Water Affect Light?

We went through five stages to reach the claim of this experiment. The first stage we went through, we looked at a newspaper covered with a slide and a droplet of water on it. To start, we looked at the slide with the droplet of water on it and it showed us that the water droplet on the slide made the words on the newspaper bigger, or magnified. The second stage that we went through was the pencil in the water. From that experiment we learned that the light that shines on the water makes the pencil look bent, or not straight. The third stage that we went through was a penny, a tin pan, and some water. The penny was on the edge of the tin pan and we got far enough away from it that we couldn’t see it anymore. Next, we poured water in the tin pan and we could see the penny. After that stage we learned that when light hits an object, in water, the light will refract. The fourth stage that we went through was with a jar of water and a piece of paper with an arrow on it. The arrow was on the other side of the jar of water when we looked through it. From looking through the jar, we saw that the arrow was going the opposite way and the lines weren’t straight. From that stage we learned that the water in the jar will make the arrow go the opposite way then the arrow is really going, and a lot bigger then it really is. The last stage we went through was with two toilet paper rolls and a pan of water. We learned that the two tubes will be lined up when you look through them when the pan of water is in between them, but when you look above they won’t be lined up. So we learned that light can make things in or beside water look different. We also learned that refraction tricks your eyes. Over all we learned better to do experiments than to read in our science books.
The End
By Hannah and Bridget!

How Does Light Reflect Off Different Objects?

In this experiment we were trying to find out how light reflects off different objects. The objects we used were a mirror and a bouncy ball. We bounced the bouncy ball off the mirror to see how light reflected of the mirror. We saw that if you threw the ball at an angle it would bounce at the same angle when it comes up. If you dropped the bouncy ball straight down it came straight back up.

Claim. When light comes down at an angle it bounces and continues in the same direction you threw it. Only if light hits a smooth surface. If light hits a rough surface it bounces in many different directions.

Evidence. When we bounced the ball off a smooth surface, the angle we threw the ball was the same angle as the angle after the bounce. When we bounced the ball off a rough surface it went in many different directions. Mrs. Hansen took a piece of crinkled up foil and shined a lazar light on the foil, it reflected in many different directions. So, no one could see it. She shined the lazar on a smooth piece of foil and it reflected off and came to the back of the room and everybody could see it. What surprised us the most was that the ball did the same thing as the light.

Morgan, Hattie, Jackie

Rainbows

By Akaela and Marlia
We’ve done plenty of experiments. One of them was to find out how we get rainbows out of light. Here’s what we did. Mrs. Hansen gave us a magnifying glass, and a prism. We went outside and used them. We held the prism, and turned it until we saw a rainbow. Then she gave us some more objects. She gave a lens and a flashlight. We used those objects in a dark room. We held the prism up to the flashlight and we saw the rainbow, then we tried the lens too. It made a rainbow too! One of the reasons why we’re seeing this rainbow is because light is made up of all the colors of the rainbow. Mrs. Hansen took some water and a mirror. It made a bigger and clearer rainbow. The reason why we’re seeing this rainbow is because, when light hits a clear object it slows down and bends. That’s what makes a rainbow. The colors in the rainbow are mixed together. The way we showed this is by making a color wheel. We put a string in the middle of it and twisted it up. Then we let go of the string in the middle. As we let go of the string we pulled out. The color wheel went in circles, and it looked all white. So the way we’re seeing the rainbow is because, when the light hits the clear object, the light slows down and bends showing the colors.

What Happens When Light Hits Objects?

When we did this experiment, we shined the light through all the different things, like tin foil, wax paper, construction paper, press and seal, glass, pink, yellow, and white tissue paper, plastic lid, and paper sack. The light went through some of them and that is called transparent. Then the light went through but was absorbed and didn’t continue and you could still see the light, which is called translucent. After that we shined the light at a different object and it didn’t go through, that is called opaque. Our claim from this is when you shine a light at something it will stop, go through, or reflect back. To find this we shined the light at different objects and it let different amounts of light go through. We learned that light only goes through some objects but not all objects; also they have different names like, opaque, translucent, and transparent.
Derek, Leah, and Kayla

What Happens to Light's Reflections When It Hits Different Objects?

For this experiment we were only given spoons to use. Our claim was that objects that curve inward you see your reflection is upside down. But in objects that curve outward you can see your reflection right side up that is if they make a reflection. Our evidence was when we looked into the inward part of the spoon we saw our reflection upside down. This shape is called concave. But when we looked on the outside part of the spoon we saw our reflection right side up but it was longer and bigger. This shape is called convex. We learned that difference between concave and convex.

By: Amanda, Kasi, Robby

Monday, October 1, 2007

SWH approach to science

This year we are studying science in the SWH approach. Science Writing Heuristic is an inquiry based science method, where students will learn about different areas of science through inquiry.
WHY? Teaching science has always been exciting to me, but I found trying to get through all the Standards and Benchmarks in a school year was very difficult. We have been teaching science in a spiral format where students would learn a little bit each year on the same topics. This never gave us a chance to get very deep, because we had to cover every area each year. This usually meant we did very little hands on, or if we did do experiments they were teacher directed. I would stand up front and tell them what was going to happen and why. Students would watch and say okay. Then they would spit back the information they memorized for a test and forget it.
SWH is not this way. In the SWH format, students create questions about a topic, and I will find different activities to help answer the question. We create Concept Maps, questions, and then make Claims and Evidence. When doing the experiments they are given the supplies, but not step by step directions. They work in small groups to discover ideas that might not all be the same, but they will have to prove what they come up with. The neat thing is they find out more this way then if I gave them what they were to discover. Students are directing their learning and really finding out why things happen, instead of being told why it happens.
After working with their supplies, they have to come up with a Claim of what happened. Then they add the evidence to prove their claim. Each group will present what they came up with and the class then asks questions if they feel they did not prove their claim. If their claims are not proven we use the experts to find out what is happening. We have several books about our topic and computers to find answers to back up what we discovered. When we are done we discuss the results and do some quick writes to explain the experiment.
We started the year with a difficult concept of Light. Our Big Idea is light is a form of energy. We have completed several experiments helping us learn about light. We will be posting in our Blog each experiment we do and what we discovered.

Stay Tuned.