From the first day, we began the journey of learning about the wonders of Science that surround us. This blog will highlight some of the adventures we embark on during this school year, including the AfterSchool Science programs. This blog is intended only as an online informative newsletter. I hope you check in from time to time.
I've also provided a link to our Middle School SMORE Project- our collaborative ocean science study with classrooms in Barrow Alaska and Hinesville, Georgia. You can follow our fieldwork on that blog!
On this first post I'll talk about the work that our Intermediate students in Grade 5 are doing. We began the school year learning how to make accurate observations. This is an important skill at all grade levels and is a big part of our studies on how land is shaped by water. We study landforms and geological features by building models of stream tables.
No doubt some of you have heard about our investigations!
But, I'm not going to tell you everything we do...just enough so that you can ask your child some specific questions :)
Group 4 works together to create the stream table.
A huge part of learning in the Lab requires working together as a team or group, with each member contributing to the effort. These social skills are important to developing a sense of responsibility, and learning to help one another. Jobs are rotated with each new investigation so that everyone gets to do all of them.
Group 3 takes a close look at what's happening.
Grade 5 is also learning how scientists use models to explain concepts or ideas. We talk about the strengths and weakness (or limits) that models offer, and they're beginning to understand how our stream tables are scientific models of real-life processes!
Identifying features on the stream tables.
And of course, there's paperwork- recording our observations and data.
