Saturday, March 5, 2011

Hello, to all!

I am sorry that it has been so long since I last was on here, but we have been taking the InView and Terra Nova test this week. With the test going on, the two morning periods have had to alternated, so I didn't get to spend as much time with them as I did the other classes. We finished up our study of rocks and minerals and reviewed matter, mass, and volume, then began physical/chemical changes. We have been using Smart board lessons to review and cover these topics. The students have been taking notes off the board and keeping them in their folders. Here are the notes on "Equal Volume Different Mass" that they took off the board. The classes are in different places, so some classes took these notes on Wednesday, some on Thursday, and some will on Monday. The learning goal is "Objects with Equal Volume CAN have different mass". There are five facts on matter has volume:

1. Volume is the amount of space that an object takes up.
2. Things with volume cannot share the same space at the same time.
3. When you measure the volume of liquid in a cylinder, you should look at the meniscus (this is the lowest point of the line on the cylinder).
4. A liquids volume is usually expressed in liters (L) or milliliters (mL).
5. 1 mL = 1 cm3

Gas = cannot really find the volume of a gas because it expands to fill the container. We usually measure the container and the pressure inside the container.

Matter has mass - put these into order from least mass to the greatest:

hamster
elephant
skyscraper
moon

The difference between mass and weight:

1. All matter experience gravity because all matter has mass.
2. The force of gravity is greater when two objects get closer together.
3. Weight = A brick weighs less in space than on Earth because the gravitational force pulling on the brick decreases as it gets farther away from the Earth.
4. Mass is not the same as weight. Mass is not dependent on gravity.

Students created a table with 9 rows and 4 columns. The headings of the 4 columns are materials, mass, volume, and density. Under the materials is listed AL, Brass, Copper, Steel, Wood, Acrylic, Nylon, and PVC. We filled out the table together as a class. The volume is the same for each material - 14.71. The mass for AL is 44g., Brass is 50g, Copper is 80g, Steel is 13g, Wood is 13g, Acrylic is 19, Nylon is 18g, and PVC is 22g. We discussed where steel and wood are the same and how that does not seem right. I got these numbers off the internet and I don't think that the steel one is for a one inch cube, so it is going to be off. I gave each group a calculator and they divided mass /volume to find the density. We were very close to the known densities, except for brass, copper, and steel.

After we completed this activity, we looked at physical and chemical changes and examples of those. Once that was done, we completed an activity on the four states of matter and examples of those and more examples of physical/chemical changes. The students wrote down the four states of matter, which are solids, liquids, gases, and plasma. Then, the class would decide on what a physical and chemical change is and how to know. Each class's definition looks a little different from the other. I will have to put those on here next week, because those are not all done, yet.

That about covers all that we have been doing. If you need anything, please let me know. Hope you have a great weekend!