10/30 Class

Today in class we continued presenting our midterm projects. Six groups presented their lesson plans today, including mine. The first group that went did a lesson plan called Water Magic. For this project they demonstrated the difference between solids, liquids, and gases. They used an ice cube (solid) for their experiment. They melted the ice cube to show it in its liquid state, and pointed out the steam, which showed it in its gas state. The next group that went was my group. We did a lesson plan on Simple Machines. We took apart a clock to show the class what simple machines were used to make the clock work. The next group used dry ice and placed different pieces of it in a metal cup, a plastic cup, and a styrofoam cup to see which was the best insulator. This group focused their lesson plan on learning about conductors and insulators. Next, a group presented on Matter and Mixtures. This group put different materials in cups and we were to identify different elements of the materials with a magnifying glass. They also talked about homogeneous mixtures. Then, the next group presented a lesson plan using magnets. They discussed that magnets are used in many things in our everyday lives, such as headphones, TV's, computers, and many more. They used magnets and several materials to show which were attracted to the magnet. The next group talked about motion of molecules in water. They put hot and cold water in cups, then food coloring, and we were to decide whether the hot or cold water dispersed the food coloring the fastest. The last group discussed the scientific method using frosting and food coloring. They wanted us to hypothesize what would happen when mixing red and blue food coloring into the white frosting, and the result was that the frosting turned purple. All of the groups that presented today did a great job and chose neat lesson plans. Everyone did a good job at explaining the safety issues with their projects. I think all of these projects would be very helpful and fun for students in the classroom.