STEM Challenge #12: Floating boats

Hello!

3rd Grade pupils have a new STEM Challenge to show you:

"Design and build 2 different floating boats for capacity".

These were the materials provided:

Students, in small groups, had 30 minutes to build 2 different floating boats.

Once they had built the boats, they had to test their capacity, measured with cents.

It was incredible how they managed to build boats designed to hold as much capacity as possible:

A cool look at the sky! (4th Grade)

Hello everyone!

There are many amazing Apps that show us how the sky really looks like.

Fourth grade pupils tried one called Sky Map:

They could find different stars, constellations, planets and even galaxies!

It is very easy to use and you can spend hours and hours investigating the universe. We strongly recommend you to download this app or another (there are many more and most of them are free!).

Density experiments (5th Grade)

Hello, everyone!

In 5th Grade we learning about MATTER and its properties: mass, volume and density. 

After calculating the mass and the volume of some solids and liquids, we moved to density. 

"Density is the relationship between mass and volume".

Fist of all, we compared a rock and a piece of cork from similar sizes. We all agreed that they occupy the same space (they have the same volume) but the rock is heavier than the cork (it's got a bigger mass). So, we learnt that the rock was DENSER that the cork.

Then, we moved to liquids. 

1. First, we observed different liquids that have the same volume but weight different.

2. Then, we put the same quantity of water, honey and vegetable oil in 3 different beakers and we poured small objects inside, in order to observe if they floated or sank. Of course, we made predictions first!

"The denser a liquid is, the easier it is for an object to float on it". 

So, we could order the density of the liquids (from most to least):

1. Honey 

2. Water

3. Oil

3. We mixed them up and we saw that liquids with different densities don't mix.

4. Then, we tried to mix hot and cold water, to see if they have different densities (they do!):

5. And we did the same with salty or sweet water:

6. Finally, we poured all the liquids we saw at the beginning of the lesson into a container and we could check that...

"Liquids with different densities don't mix".

Now, it's your turn! Why don't you try it at home?

Thank you Maryam, Rihab, Andreea and Elena to share with us your experiment done at home!

Life and work in the International Space Station (4th Grade)

Hello children!

This is the International Space Station (ISS):

Astronauts from all over the world live in the ISS for a period of time. They study the Earth, the universe and they do experiments.

Sunita Williams

When Sunita Williams was Commander of the International Space Station, she recorded the following video. She made a tour inside the ISS and also she explained how life is there.

It's a highly recommended video, don't miss it!

Fukushima's pictures, after the nuclear disaster from 2011 (6th Grade)

Good morning,

6th Grade pupils are studying Energy. These days, we have been talking about non-renewable energy sources and we came across these pictures from the zone of Fukushima (Japan), which suffered a nuclear disaster some years ago; posted on The Telegraph.

As we can read on the digital version of the newspaper, Photographer and filmmaker Arkadiusz Podniesinki visited abandoned toxic towns and villages that once housed hundreds of thousands of people inside the 20km zone.

Click here to know more.

Non-renewable energy sources (6th Grade)

Hello 6th Grade!

Here you have the 2 videos about FOSSIL FUELS and NUCLEAR ENERGY watched in class this week:

FOSSIL FUELS (in English)

NUCLEAR ENERGY (in Catalan)

CLICK HERE

How many Moons does each planet have? (4th Grade)

STEM Challenge #11: Frosted forest

Good morning!

Let us introduce a new STEM Challenge, carried out by the students of 3rd Grade:

"Design and build a frosted tree"

Materials:

This Challenge has been adapted from Kerry Tracy and is specially focused on Maths.

Pupils should build a tree with icicles on its branches. These icicles are already given to them: they have a printed sheet full of triangles, which are divided into 3 groups (Equilàter, Isòsceles, Escalè; in Catalan). Moreover, each triangle has some points.

Pupils have to build a tree following these criteria and restrictions:

• Icicles cannot touch the ground or extend beyond the branch. 
• There can't be 2 triangles of the same type in one branch.

At the end, each group counted their points! ;)

Renewable and non-renewable energy sources (6th Grade)

Good morning children!

This week, I strongly recommend you to visit the following website. It is about renewable and non-renewable energy sources. You will be able to hear very clear explanations in Spanish.

CLICK HERE

Scientist of the month: Ada Lovelace

Hi everyone!

For 6th graders, a new month means a new scientist to discover :)

ADA LOVELACE

Ada Lovelace (originally Augusta Ada Byron) was born on the 10th December 1815 in London. She was a writer and a mathematician. 

She is considered the world's first computer programmer (although computers weren't invented until one hundred years later!!!). 

 In the Science class we have discovered some facts about her interesting life. 

Please, don't forget to watch this video about Ada:

Your Age on Other Worlds, by the Exploratorium (4th Grade)

Hello 4th Grade!

Today I want to share with you a very curious and interesting website, from the Exploratorium.

How old are you here, on the Earth? Did you know that if you lived in another planet, you would have a different age?

CLICK HERE

The Sun (4th Grade)

Good morning,

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured very detailed Sun pictures for 5 years. The result is this incredible video. Thanks to it, scientists could observe how the Sun works. Don't miss it:

11 Fascinating Fungi AroundThe World (5th Grade)

Hello boys and girls!!!

In 5th Grade, we are learning about the 5 kingdoms of living things. We found these fascinating pictures of Fungi around the world, from the website Twisted Sifter (which is cool!). Have a look!

1. BLUE MILK MUSHROOM (Lactarius indigo)

2. BITTER OYSTER (Panellus stipticus)

3. GOLDEN JELLY FUNGIS (Tremella mesenterica)

4. THE WRINKLED PEACH (Rhodotus palmatus)

5. VIOLET CORAL (Clavaria zollingeri)

6. ROUNDED EARTHSTAR (Geastrum saccatum)

7. ANEMONE STINKHORN (Aseroe rubra)

8. UMBER-BROWN PUFFBALL (Lycoperdon umbrinum)

9. PIXIE'S PARASOL (Mycena interrupta)

10. THE BLACK MOREL (Morchella conica)

11. FLY AGARIC (Amanita muscaria)

LINK HERE

The formation of the Solar System (4th Grade)

Hello 4th Grade!

Some of you asked in class about the formation of the Solar System. Maybe this video can help you understand ;)

How big is our universe? (4th Grade)

If you want to know the answer, watch these amazing videos:

The Known Universe, by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)

Star Size Comparison