7th Grade Science with Mr. Edwards

Test date changed

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:00:00 +0000

The test scheduled for tomorrow, Friday will be postponed to next Tuesday (11/17). As always, there will be notes and a study guide forthcoming perhaps as early as this evening.

Cool stuff going on in science class

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:45:00 +0000

I wanted to let people know the cool things we have been doing by integrating technology with curriculum; this is a credit to Tyngsborough and the other teachers I work with who have helped make this trend possible.

Last week we did a potential energy/kinetic energy lab where students used counterweights on a lever to launch a ping pong ball and golf ball. Students recorded distances the balls traveled and were able to get their laptop computers and put their data into a google docs spreadsheet that I shared through their accounts (all students are adding to the same spreadsheet at different computers; cool!). I was then able to take all my classes' data, calculate the average and graph the results. A sheet was then created a sheet with a graph and questions which was shared back to each student's account. While each student has a laptop in front of them, they create a copy of the teacher sheet and answer the questions (link below)

Great job by all my students! Welcome to the dawn of 21st century education!

Check out student data and questions

Now here is a physics project!

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:14:00 +0000

Just because...

We've been talking a lot about potential energy and kinetic energy. Watch the following video while trying to wrap your brain around all the energy transformations (potential to kinetic) that are occurring. Enjoy.

http://www.safeshare.tv/v/vrCb_fNmSTA

TEST

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:54:00 +0000

There will be a test next Friday (11/13) on:

Potential Energy
Kinetic Energy
Friction (to be discussed next week)

As always:

Extra help after school until 3pm next Thursday (11/12)
I will post notes next week
Students should be looking through their notes and studying for 15 minutes every night.

Physics simulations

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:38:00 +0000

These are some really cool simulations to a lot of different science concepts.

http://phet.colorado.edu/index.php

Study guide - electricity & circuits quiz

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:18:00 +0000

Below is a link to the study guide that students received in class today. Most answers can be found in my notes (see previous post) or in student notes.

Click here for study guide.

Electricity & Circuits notes

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:31:00 +0000

Here are notes that you can use to study with.

To Print:
(1) Click on the "open in a new window buton" which looks like a square.
(2) Click "actions" menu at the bottom.
(3) Click "print slides"
(4) For "Layout" choose "4 slides" (choose 2 if the print is too small)
(5) Print.

Electricity and Circuits Quiz

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:16:00 +0000

The quiz I announced earlier in the week will be on Friday. The topics will included everything we have been covering in class for electricity and circuits. I will try to post my notes and a study guide on this blog by later this evening; I will discuss the study guide with students tomorrow and it will be their responsibility to print them out (as always I can supply a copy of each if there is a computer and/or printer problem just let me know). As always, students may use their OWN 1 page of notes (see previous post regarding the purpose of doing this.

I will be after school tomorrow for extra help if needed. Please plan on a pickup between 2:30 and 2:45.

Tests and Quizzes

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:05:00 +0000

I have made this very clear in class to all my students, however, I want parents to be aware. Starting on the last quiz we had and from now on, student have been given the opportunity to write or type a full page of notes. The notes can be only 1 side of an 8.5x11 sheet of paper (standard paper).

Why do I allow this? I will share a short story with you. I struggled with calculus-based physics in college so I talked to my professor to get advice. Our discussion revealed that I was reading notes and books more than I was writing when I studied. My professor said to me "If someone cut off my arms, I could not learn." Needless to say, I started doing a lot more writing as I studied and it worked.

The bottom line: There is a magical connection between the physical process of writing, or typing, that reinforces concepts and gives us an enhanced ability to remember and ultimately learn.

So why do I allow student-created notes? Because I care and want my students to succeed.

Please ask your child if he/she is taking advantage of this priviledge.

Extra help for test

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:34:00 +0000

I needed to make a correction, the extra help on Monday is only until 2:30 pm. Sorry for the mistake.

Notes: Elements, Atoms, Molecules

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:11:00 +0000

Printing these notes
(1) Click on the "open in a new window buton" which looks like a square.
(2) Click "actions" menu at the bottom.
(3) Click "print slides"
(4) For "Layout" choose "4 slides" (choose 2 if the print is too small)
(5) Print.

TEST DATE CHANGED

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:02:00 +0000

Next week's school activities (Early release day, magazine drive, and Red October events) have forced me to change the date of next week's "elements, atoms, and molecules" test.

The TEST will now be next Tuesday (October 6th) and extra help will be next Monday (October 5th) until about 3:30.

How much empty space is in an atom?

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:30:00 +0000

I have asked students to contemplate the following statement: Atoms are made of mostly empty space, therefore, everything in our lives including our bodies are mostly made of empty space.

This is a website that is really fun because it gives you an idea of how much empty space is within an atom. The blue atom is one proton and if you scroll a distance of eleven miles (literally) to the right you will see how big an electron is on this scale (remember this is only the radius of an atom). You must have a scroll bar at the bottom of your web browser for the full effect.

Atoms are mostly empty space

If you aren't flabbergasted yet, check out this video

Periodic Table quiz

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:24:00 +0000

For tomorrow's periodic table quiz, make sure you know the how to:
(1) Identify the name and symbol of a given element,
(2) Be able to find the atomic number and know what it means,
(3) Be able to find the atomic mass and know what that means.

For those that don't have a copy of the periodic table, click the link below and print out a copy. You can even try adjusting your print settings to enlarge it a little and don't forget to print it as "landscape."

click here to view the Periodic Table

Grades

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:50:00 +0000

As you may already know, progress reports are going home this Friday (10/2). Tomorrow, students will be getting back their big density quizzes. As always, their current average in science is written on the bottom right-hand side so that there are no surprises. Students received their metric quizzes back a while ago and I have offered extra help after school and retakes. This Tuesday (9/29), after school, is the last chance to take advantage of that retake. Parents, please check up on your child's grades.

Questions about elements and atoms

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:07:00 +0000

After you are done with the quiz and have a laptop in front of you (obviously), please do the following:

1. Open 2 tabs in your Firefox browser.
2. Open the chem4kids link in one tab.
3. Open elements and atoms questions in another tab.
4. Answer questions in complete sentences in your notes.

Density notes

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:11:00 +0000

To print:
(1) click on the "full screen view" icon
(2) on the bottom, click "actions" then "print slides"
(3) on the upper right, choose layout (probably no more than 4 per page)

Extra help and retakes

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:11:00 +0000

As mentioned last week and every day since, there is a density quiz on Wednesday (9/23)

Tuesday September 22:

Extra help for density quiz only.
Retake for metric quiz. Plan for about 20 minutes.

Thursday, September 24:

Retake for metric quiz
Extra help for metric quiz (you can do the retake after if you want). Plan for 3:15 pick up if taking the quiz also, if not, 3pm.

Tuesday, September 29:

last chance to retake metric quiz (plan for 20 minutes)

"Submarine" challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:42:00 +0000

When discussing density, it is difficult not to be amazed at the engineering feat of being able to take tons of metal in a submarine and control the buoyancy (http://science.howstuffworks.com/submarine.htm). We discussed how submarines submerge and surface by changing their density and how they can achieve neutral buoyancy (neither sinking or floating).

I challenged students to creating a neutrally buoyant "submarine" using a plastic container and rocks. Some students came really close to the goal so we will be taking the mass of their containers dividing it by the container's volume to see if it is close to the density of the surrounding water.

Eggs and an Underwater Volcano

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:56:00 +0000

Why do two similar eggs do two different things?
One of them is in freshwater and the other is in saltwater; can you guess which is which?

Answer: Adding salt to water increases the water's mass, but not adding much to the water's volume since salt dissolves. As a result, the water becomes more dense than the egg and sinks. Therefore, the egg on the right is in saltwater and floats because the egg is less dense than the surrounding saltwater.

Underwater Volcano

A great demonstration that shows how temperature can affect the density of liquids (water in this case).

Density of 4 different liquids

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:41:00 +0000

This is a demonstration that I did with my students to discuss the concept of density.

Have $150 and need something to do?

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:25:00 +0000

Build a space camera! Check out this cool article.

http://mashable.com/2009/09/14/space-camera/

Metric quiz

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:11:00 +0000

As mentioned in class, there is a metric system quiz next Tuesday (9/15) on these topics:

metric system: what is it? Why is it more useful than the "English/Imperial" system? What are the 3 base units and what variable do they measure (e.g. volume)? What are the common prefixes?
Conversions: Be able to convert from one unit to another
Using a meterstick, triple beam balance, and a graduated cylinder to take measurements.

Instruments for measuring length, mass, and volume

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:00:00 +0000

As a follow up to our metric system introduction, students have been learning how to use the tools to measure the 3 variables of length, volume, and mass; using the metric system of course. Remember that volume is the amount of space an object holds or occupies. Mass is the measurement of the amount of matter (stuff) that an object is made of; mass is not the same as weight since weight is a measure of the force of gravity.

a meter stick is the standard measure of length divided into 100 larger segments (centimeters) and 1,000 smaller segments (millimeters)

A triple beam balance is used to measure the mass of an object. It works like a seesaw because the amount of known matter placed on one side of the fulcrum is balanced by the unknown object, thus the mass of the unkown becomes revealed. Balances like we use in class must be calibrated (set to zero) before use and there are 3 masses (1s, 10s, and 100s) on three different beams used as countermasses to the unknown object being measured. This is not a "scale." A scale measures the force of gravity and has a spring or springlike resistance that measures that force.

A graduated cylinder is used to measure the volume of liquids. The cylinder is separated into divisions (graduations) for accurate measurement. Liquids like water will form a curved "top" when placed inside. The curved top is a "meniscus" and is the result of the water being "sticky" and sticking to the side of the cylinder. The proper way to measure is to take a reading from the bottom of the meniscus while looking at the cyclinder at eye level.

Metric conversion practice problems

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Edwards) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:23:00 +0000

click on the following link to try the practice problems

10 metric conversion practice problems