Egg Science
4/27/2019
We started off this week with the question "what is an egg?" Together we did a class dissection of eggs. Ms. Bookman helped us through our dissection and we learned that there were more parts to an egg than we thought! By the end of the activity our explores were able to identify the shell, the shell membrane, the albumen (egg white), the yolk, the protein chords (which hold the yolk in place), and the small white dot that is where an embryo would grow. I was impressed with how the explorers investigated and asked questions. Eggs are a wonderful topic to study. But they can also be tricky in that eggs are fragile and therefore hard for preschoolers to explore on their own. Doing an egg dissection lets students explore and learn and wonder and answer their own questions in a integrative way, being both student-led and teacher guided. After watching Ms. Bookman and myself model egg dissection and show all the parts, each student got a chance to crack their own egg. Some students carefully inspected each part with a single finger, others attempted to pull apart and separate all the egg parts, and others dived in with two hands wondering about the textures and what happens when it is all mixed together. We talked a lot this week about how we can be scientists. We learned that scientists make observations by combining what they see and know. We also learned that scientists use the scientific method to answer questions. We used these processes all week as we did egg experiments, tested egg strength, explored our new egg science center, attempted to model the process of making chrysalises, and did our egg dissections.
When we tested egg strength we used the morning question to generate a hypothesis for the question "Are you stronger than an egg?" Everyone guessed "yes" and had insightful reasons why: "we have muscles, eggs do not," "a baby chick can break an egg and I am stronger than a baby chick." To test our hypothesis each student took turns seeing how many textbooks they could hold. The data ranged from 3-7 books. We then stacked textbooks on top of 4 eggs. The eggs held up 7 books before they smashed! In the conclusion of this experiment the students decided that eggs needed to be strong to protect the baby growing inside and because the mama sits on the eggs. Our second experiment was to soak eggs in different mixtures to see what happened to the shell. There was excitement every day as things changed in the solutions. The result was one disappeared shell, one that changed colors, and one that stayed the same. This generated even more questions to investigate about why this happened. Oviparous!
4/19/2019
This week we learned a big word: oviparous - an animal that lays eggs. We also learned that animals who have live births are called mammals. We went on an egg hunt in our classroom and when we opened the eggs we had found there were different egg laying animals inside. We discovered that birds, insects, fish, turtles, frogs, reptiles, and snakes are all oviparous. We did more hands on learning with our egged animals by sorting them into groups based on where they lay their eggs, land or water, and then made a graph. Also, most exciting this week, we started incubating chicken eggs! We began egg journals and a countdown chart. We are all super excited to see and hold the baby chicks when they hatch. On Friday we attended PNA's Science Party. We got to meet biologists, chemists, and scientists. We studied fish and fish eggs, looked at bacteria under microscopes, mixed chemicals to create polymer reactions, made model telescopes, programed bee robots, and more. This event will be a wonderful transition into this next week when we will get to be scientists as we study what an egg is and do a few experiments.
Cleaning Up and Making Paper
4/12/2019
This week we wrapped up our Recycling Study by talking about how we can make less trash. We discussed reusing items, making old items into new things, donating items that we no longer need, and having items that are meant to be used over and over again. We talked about how some things we eat make no trash like carrots, tomatoes, and potatoes. Then we compared these items to things we eat that do make trash like yogurt, granola bars, and juice. On Tuesday we went on a "litter walk" around school cleaning up all the trash on the ground. In the mornings the students have been eager to tell me about trash they saw littered on the ground and how it should be cleaned up. Our litter clean up walk gave us a chance to pick up this trash and take part in making our community a better place. On our field trip last week, Mr. Randy at the recycling center spoke to us about the process that a paper recycling factory uses to turn old paper into new paper. This week we looked at books and a video to further investigate this process. We then mimicked that process in class to make their own recycled paper. We tore, mushed, and squished shredded paper with warm water to make paper pulp. The paper pulp sat for a few days to allow the paper fibers to become suspended in the water. We then used a screen to gently spread the paper pulp slurry evenly and drain off the water. Next we rolled and pushed the water out of what will be the new paper. We had enough pulp left that we decided to try and make one giant piece of paper. We will let our paper dry over the weekend before writing on it.
The Recycling Center
4/5/2019
This week we went out into the community and saw first hand how recycling is handled in Anchorage and we talked to experts about what makes Alaska's waste management system unique. On our field trip to the Anchorage Recycling Center, we saw where different materials get piled and sorted after being delivered by the recycling trucks or dropped off by individuals. We saw forklifts, dump trucks, and loaders working to transfer and condense these piles. We learned that all of Alaska's recyclables (except for glass) get baled and sent out on empty barges to recycling centers in Seattle. We watched the big baling machine create bales of cardboard. The Explores enjoyed looking at the bales of different materials: shiny aluminum cans, colorful plastic bottles, and dusty newspapers. Our guide, Mr. Randy, showed us where the mixed paper from the school dumpster (that we helped the 8th graders with) gets gathered. We watched a huge loader with a giant grabber claw scoop it up and load it into the baling machine, He then showed us bales of mixed paper that were ready to get shipped to the paper factory. It was wonderful to see the next step in this recycling process that started at PNA. To end the trip we sorted mixed recycling from our school and homes. We learned to read the signs on the bins and to look in our bags for the right materials. Field trips like this one, help our early kindergarteners understand in real ways their connection to the world around them. To be able to see and experience the huge piles of discarded trash, to see how much work goes into dealing with what we throw away, helps connect them to problems that face our community and to begin to think about solutions. |
Anna RamseyArchives
April 2021
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