How do you change the motion of a pendulum? (Scenes from Science)

by Ava:

First we watched to see how long our pendulum would swing back and forth in one minute.  It slowed down very quickly but it swung 23 times in a minute.

Second we tried starting the pendulum farther from the middle and we observed that it swung about the same amount.

Then we tried making the pendulum heavier by adding a weight into it.  We observed that it still swung the same number of times, but it swung longer.

Afterwards we shortened the string and realized that it swung 31 times in a minute.  Finally we put weights in the short pendulum and it swung the same time.  We concluded the shorter the string the faster it swings.

Who was Leonardo da Vinci?

Our book group read Da Wild, Da Crazy, Da Vinci by Jon Scieszka.  In the book, Leonardo is portrayed as a practical joker.  We did further research to find out what he was really like.  Here's Anna's report.

Meet Bob (Scenes from Science)

Meet Bob!

Bob hangs from a string in our classroom.  Bob is actually the scientific term for the object at the end of a pendulum.  We've been experimenting with our pendulum, trying to figure out how to change the speed at which Bob swings.  Stay tuned for some news from our science reporters.

Scenes from Science

by third grade reporter Madyson:

We wanted to find out if two objects with different wights would drop at the same time.  First we tried dropping a tennis ball and a cube and they both dropped at the same time.  After that we tried one cube vs. 9 cubes stuck together and they both dropped at the same time too.  Next we tried a big block and a small cube and they both dropped at the same time too.  I found out that all of them fell at the same time.

Mystery Forces

Which one of these suspects is responsible for causing the ball to roll down the ramp?

What do you know about the circulatory and respiratory systems?

A group of five third graders created a list of questions to test their classmates' understanding of the circulatory and respiratory systems.  Here are some responses to three of the questions:

Tell me in your own words what white blood cells do.

 Kiran:  The white blood cells fight infections and if you didn’t have them then when you get an infection and there would be nothing to fight against infections.

If you could choose to be a blood cell, which would you be?

 Sam:  I would be the white blood cell because I want to protect people’s bodies from getting infections and getting sick. 

What part of the blood are you most like?

 Anna:  I think I am most like a platelet because I am sort of clingy and I like to be important.  Important, like very helpful but not well known. 

Wampanoag Solstice Festival

Ideally we would have had a harvest festival when we harvested the corn last fall, but we hadn't learned about the Wampanoag yet.  So, we had a solstice festival instead.  We cooked corn that we had harvested and dried.  We made sobaheg, a meat stew with squash and corn meal.  We tried grinding corn and weaving.