14 April 2016 –
The grade 4 kids have been working on a unit of inquiry in which they dove head first into the world of science, specifically on matter. They discussed different types of matter (solid, liquid, gas) and how the states of matter can change.
The unit culminated in the students sharing their in-class science experiments at a Parent Tea this past Thursday afternoon.
I should back up a moment and tell you that during the days the students were busily working on their in-class science experiments poor Ava had a fever and had to stay at home. I'm not sure I can impress upon you the degree of weirdness associated with the fact that Ava had a fever. I truly and honestly cannot remember the last time she had a fever! What a truly stinky time to get sick!! Anyway, she was able to accomplish setting up her experiment of testing which would crystallize faster – sugar water or salt water. The experiment was intended to run only for a day but instead ran for the entire weekend (I think they calculated the running time to be around 90 hours). In a way it was a good thing as Ava's teacher (who was monitoring her experiment while she was away) observed no noticeable crystallization occurring at the end of the running time so she left it alone and allowed it to run over the weekend. That extra time made a noticeable result in Ava's experiment.
In the end, the super saturated salt water crystallized whereas the sugar water showed no signs of crystallization. (which is odd – I've made rock candy in the past using a very similar technique to the one Ava used)
Another thing I'd like to share with you is that over the past few weeks Ava either read about different science experiments in one of our books or she came up with her own experiments to try out. One of my favorite experiments we worked on together was determining how many latex balloons filled with helium it would take to float her toy (think the cute house in the movie "Up"). Using some basic math skills and knowing the lifting power of helium we made an estimate on the number of balloons it would take to lift a certain toy. Turns out- it took more balloons than originally anticipated. Ava took photos of the experiment and she shared her experiment with her classmates at school. I'm not going to lie – it was fun figuring out how many balloons it would take to float her toy and actually working on trying to get that toy to float with balloons. Helium is a lot of fun!
{ETA- In the back of my spastic mind I thought I'd already posted photos from the helium experiment – I DID! Ava conducted the experiment as part of her birthday wish. You can see the photos HERE.}
At Friday's weekly assembly Ava was one of the children honored with the school's Action Awards. Action Awards are given out to students who typically take their learning outside the classroom all on their own. Ava received an Action Award….
We're so proud of you….Eva???? Sigh. I guess it's too much to hope that the school we've been attending for more than four years knows how to spell our daughter's name. (It's ok, I actually find this hilarious). Just for the record- her name is a palindrome – we spell it A-V-A. Hence the goofy grin on Ava's face – she found it funny that the school misspelled her name.