Mechanical Energy Mouse Trap

Our class was taken over by mice today!!!

:)

Ok, they weren't REAL mice--we just played the game mouse trap! (If they were real mice, my students would have seen a WHOLE new side to Mrs. Newberry!)
To begin, I taught a lesson on mechanical energy. The students took notes from a PowerPoint presentation.

Mechanical energy: the total energy of an object due to its motion and position (Also known as the total of all the potential and kinetic energy in an object)

My students then demonstrated mechanical energy by playing the board game, "Mouse Trap". I bought one game, and then borrowed two more so that more students could play. They were in groups of about 6 or 7.

I took many pictures!

One of the cool things about this lesson was that it really showed me leadership qualities of students that I had never seen before. All I did was show them the instruction manual, and they had to figure out how to put it together and make the contraption work. They had to SYNERGIZE! This was a very fun day in Science class! Here are some videos of groups who successfully displayed mechanical energy through their contraption:

 

Potential... KINETIC!

During our unit on Forms of Energy, we learned about the difference between potential and kinetic energy.

Potential energy: stored energy
Kinetic energy: energy due to motion

First, we took some notes on potential and kinetic energy.

Next, we went out into the hallway and played "Potential, Kinetic". You might know it as, "Red Light, Green Light". :)

 

My students love anything that gets them up and moving! This was a great demonstration for the students of the difference between potential and kinetic energy. Hopefully these videos uploaded correctly. Enjoy!

Popcorn Lab

We have been discussing Forms of Energy the past few weeks. The students learned about the 3 different types of heat transfers: radiation, conduction, and convection.

Radiation: the transfer of heat using electromagnetic waves
Conduction: the transfer of heat through objects in contact
Convection: the transfer of heat through a moving liquid or gas

To demonstrate this, we did a lab with popcorn. First, we popped popcorn using radiation.

 

Pretty simple!



Next, we popped popcorn using conduction, and this one was pretty cool. Most of the students had never seen this done before:

It took FOREVER to pop, but when it did, it was pretty cool!

Then, my intention was to use a fellow teacher's air popper to demonstrate convection, but we weren't able to use it, so I just discussed how the process worked instead. :( Bummer!

 

The best part was that one class (the class with the highest average on the last test) got to eat their popcorn! :) That class especially had a blast during the popcorn lab.

 

Snow Day!

SO sorry I haven't updated in awhile! This lesson was taught before we got out for Christmas Break, and as you may know, those days can be just a little bit insane. Now I'm finally able to update our blog! No, we didn't have a day off of school---but we did make our own snow, so we called it a "snow day"! This experiment was SUPER easy, and it was a great demonstration of a chemical change that went along with the Christmas season.


Here are the materials:


-1 box of corn starch
-1-2 cans of shaving cream
-Glass bowl


Pour the whole box of corn starch in the bowl, and then add shaving cream. Mix with your hands until it can be molded into a ball. Easy, right? :)

 

We finished up this "snow day" by doing some fun formative assessment. :) Sounds like fun, right? Haha! I sprayed the students' desks with shaving cream and asked them questions about physical and chemical changes. They had to answer with a "P" or a "C" and write their answer choice in the shaving cream. It was LOTS of fun, and didn't get messy at all. (Note the sarcasm.)

Sorry this has taken me so long to post! Apparently Blogger was on the fritz on my desktop computer. :) Now there will hopefully be more frequent Science Shenanigans posts! :)