Energy and the Water Cycle Project

This week I assigned a project to my students on potential and kinetic energy.  The project came from a set of questions they were answering after they read a short 2 pages on mechanical energy.  I decided to elaborate on the questions and turn it in to a project.  I am hoping that the students do a good job with the project! I tried to provide the students a few ways of presenting their project.  They can do it as a story, or complete it in a more straight forward paragraph.  Each will be accompanied by a picture they create.  They may create their project by hand or by using a computer.  Here is a brief description of the project. 

Students will be using the concepts of potential and kinetic energy to describe the path a water droplet travels through the water cycle.  Students will need to describe the path of the drop of water from the time it falls from the sky as a raindrop until it reaches the ocean.  In their description, students need to include a swift mountain stream, a still lake, a slow-moving river, and a waterfall.  Students will need to incorporate how the potential energy and kinetic energy of the drop changes along the path.  Make sure to include ALL parts.  Each student has 2 options as to how they would like to present their water droplet's journey. 

Option 1: Using a plain piece of white paper, illustrate the entire journey of the water droplet.  On a separate piece of paper, neatly write or type your water droplet's story; be sure to include all the requirements of the journey and what is happening to the potential and kinetic energy at each point along the journey. 

Option 2: Using a plain piece of white paper, illustrate the journey of the water droplet as a comic strip story.  Include each separate "destination" as its own box on the comic.  In each box, creatively include a description of the journey and what is happening to the potential and kinetic energy. If you would like to do this digitally, let me know and I will give you access to BitStrips.

   

TpT Back to School Sale...

Teachers Pay Teachers is throwing a back to school sale.  Don't miss this chance to get products from all your favorite sellers at discounted prices.  This is a great chance to get all those products you have put on your "wish list" all summer :-)

Click HERE to visit my store. 

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Scores are in...

Test scores have come back, and I have to say that I am VERY pleased at how my students scores turned out.  I still have a lot of sorting and reflecting to do with scores, but still very happy overall.

Tomorrow is Test Day...

Tomorrow my students are taking the state math test.  They have worked hard all year and I am very proud of them!!!  There is nothing more any of us can do, and I do not look back on a single part of this year wishing or thinking I should have/could have done more.  I simply hope that they all are calm, and focused tomorrow.

Kids and Technology

I was so proud of some of my kids today!!!  We are doing this project for a science grant.  The kids have to do a ton of independent work, thinking, and are using technology like crazy.  The kids are working in small groups and each student has a specific job (team lead, data analyst, and communications officer).  So far they have had to research a company (3M) and create a slide show using haiku deck.  Haiku deck is quick easy way for kids to make a presentation.  (It is sort of like a Prezi...)

Today, the kids started to complete their experiment for the company.  The kids used their personal phones and ipods etc. to take pictures of the experiment during the day.  They are using Google drive to share their pictures and data with their group and the class.

My proud moment today...

As students finished the lab today a few of them brought me their devices to show me something.  Some of the groups had taken all their lab photos and used flipagram to make quick videos.  Some of the students even added music.  I never suggested to do anything like this, they just knew the technology existed and decided it would be fun to try.  What a cool moment for me as a teacher.  I was so happy to see them enjoying themselves and being creative with technology.  Some of the videos were really neat.  I just can't express how happy I was!

We are in test mood all over the building and the stress can be overwhelming, but moments like today make everything worth it.  It seems like a small thing to be proud of but it was awesome!

Rolling Through the Rock Cycle

Last week, we wrapped up our unit on rocks and minerals.  I played the rock cycle game with my students and they LOVED it.  The game got them up and moving around and they got a kick out their individual paths.  Some of the kids got stuck in one spot for multiple turns.  They did awesome and realized just how long it could take for parts of the rock cycle to happen.  I was very pleased with how well they did with the activity and unstructured nature of it all.

After the game, students used a comic strip website (pixton.com) to make comics depicting their individual journey through the rock cycle.  Students could be as creative or straight forward with their journey as they wanted.  The kids really enjoyed the comic strips as well.  Most of them had never used the program before and it took some getting use to, but they are kids and catch on pretty quick when it comes to technology.  ;-)

I have uploaded the PDF of my Rock Cycle Game to TeachersPayTeachers .  Check it out HERE.

Hunger Games - Final Round...

Our Hunger Games Competition has gone so well.  The girls won all three of the rounds so far.  Our forth and final round leading up to testing is not going to be girls vs. boys.  Instead, each student is going to be competing for themselves.  I have set a goal for each of my students.  If they are not are not currently on grade level than their goal is to get to grade level (no matter how many grade levels that is).  Students that are on grade level or above have a goal of increasing another grade level.  Their prize... once each student individual student reaches their goal they are exempt from homework for the rest of the year.  I hope that this final round is as successful as the rest have been.

Bulletin board used to track tributes