Kindergarten students are learning all about MATTER in their classrooms, so in the STEM Lab we are experimenting with properties of matter. The students have had an opportunity to see what will sink and float in water. We talked about this property of matter called buoyancy. This was really fun and surprising...did you know some rocks can float? Float A Boat was a STEM activity that extended on what we were learning about buoyancy. Each group of students were given a piece of aluminum foil to make into a boat. The goal was to make a boat that would hold the most golf balls before sinking. The record for Kindergarten was a boat that held 28 golf balls!!! SINK AND FLOAT EXPERIMENT
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We have had a busy start to the school year in the STEM Lab. I have loved getting to know all of the kids and teaching them Science and STEM. We have had so many amazing activities. Enjoy the pictures from the first semester of school and look forward to everything coming in January 2018! Kindergarten activities in the STEM Lab: *Back to school introduction with toilet paper roll towers *Investigation stations *Using our senses to learn about science *Animal science centers *Creating animal habitats STEM activity *Motion stations *The science of Day and Night *10 Apples Up On Top STEM Activity *Grinchy STEM Today in the STEM Lab, Kindergarten students learned all about the parts of a sunflower. We talked about the lifecycle of a sunflower also. Each student had the opportunity to investigate a sunflower seed. We used our questions about whether something is living or nonliving and determined that seeds are not living. Seeds become a living thing when we add: WATER, SUNLIGHT, AIR AND SOIL. Students planted seeds and will be bringing home the seedlings when they come back to the STEM Lab. Today's lesson in the STEM Lab was all about LIVING AND NONLIVING. We looked at pictures of plants, animals, and many other things. The students learned about the questions to ask themselves when deciding if something is living or nonliving. This is a great subject to talk about at home and practice when outside on these amazing spring days. Kindergarten students finished up learning about matter in the STEM Lab with two fun experiments. The first was called Dancing Popcorn. Students had an opportunity to practice making predictions about the outcome of the experiment. We discovered that un popped popcorn kernels sink in a cup of water and baking soda. Add a little vinegar and the kernels start to dance! This is a simple chemical reaction that occurs when the baking soda and vinegar mix. Lots of fun for the kids to watch. Students also tested to see if eggs would float in water. We found that a raw eggs sinks in a glass of water. If you add salt, A LOT OF SALT, to the water it will change the density of the water and now the egg floats. Test this out at home! Today we continued learning about buoyancy by building boats out of aluminum foil. The goal was to build a boat that would hold as many golf balls as possible before sinking. Students were given a piece of foil to mold, fold and make into a boat. Every boat looked different and they definitely did not all hold up well to being filled with golf balls. The record setting boat was built by students in Ms. Podawiltz/Mrs. Hagler's class. Their boat held 30 golf balls before sinking. Mrs. Brooks Mrs. Washington Mrs. Aumann Ms. Podawiltz/Mrs. Hagler Kindergarten students are learning all about MATTER in Science. Today, in the STEM Lab, we explored a property of matter....BOUYANCY! Our exploration started by seeing if different items would SINK or FLOAT in water. We talked about what made one ball sink (golf ball) and the other float (ping pong ball). Students then used their knowledge to begin brainstorming ideas about how to build a boat from a piece of aluminum foil. They came up with ideas and shared those ideas with their partner. They will build their boats next time they visit the STEM Lab. The goal is to fit as many bears in the boat as possible without the boat sinking. Kindergarten students are putting STEM into action with this activity! MRS. BROOKS MRS. WASHINGTON MRS. AUMANN MS. PODAWILTZ & MRS. HAGLER Kindergarten students are learning all about MATTER. Today we talked about "WHAT IS MATTER?" Students learned that matter is everything, anything that has mass and takes up space. We had baggies of ice (solid), melted it in our hands (liquid), then we added some fizzy tablets to the water and watched the bags expand with gas. Students also made art with matter. They were given frozen ice cubes of paint (solid), they melted into paint (liquid) and the paint dries as the water evaporates into the air (gas). We had so much (messy) fun exploring matter! |
AuthorMrs. Guckert is the STEM Lab Teacher at Rocky Mount Elemetary. This is her 5th year teaching at Rocky Mount. The STEM Lab is fully funded by the Rocky Mount Elementary School Foundation. This program would not be possible without the generous donations to the Foundation from the Rocky Mount community. Archives
March 2018
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