Project Blog 9/10/16

Link

SUMMARY: This week I had to make a scientific method cartoon. Mine was titled "Fred the duck's (And Manny's) scientific method." The first square was where Manny, the main guy, had his favorite toy truck broken. He thought that this was a huge problem. The second square was where Manny was researching different types of glue that might possibly fix his truck. In the third square, Manny made a hypothesis. “So if the type of glue affects the fixture of my truck, then superglue will work better than a glue stick.” Manny then observed the damage to his truck to see how to fix it. Manny carefully smeared glue from a stick onto the wheel of his truck, and it breaks. Part one of the experiment was a failure. The second part, however, where Manny puts superglue onto the wheel, is a success. Manny is overjoyed and carefully analyzes his data in a table. Manny concludes that superglue works the best. And the last four squares are all about Fred the duck’s truck (which is more of a sailboat on wheels) breaks, gets fixed, and yeah. Then, Fred is pleased and shows his gratitude with a cream pie. I like doing the project because it included art and I included funnyness. Congratulations! You have read the whole paragraph! Fred the duck will now show his gratitude with a cream pie!

SPLAT!

    

  BACKWARD LOOKING: Does this work tell a story?

Yes. This work tells the story of poor Manny, and how he learned how to fix things. And how Fred the duck fixed his rolling sailboat. This work also tells a story on how I like to be funny in my work.

INWARD LOOKING: What does this piece tell you about yourself and how you learn?

I like to be creative and funny in my work. I’m just experimenting to see if being funnier gets me a better grade or not. I think that I did a good job being funny.

OUTWARD LOOKING: Did you do your work the way other people did theirs? In what ways did you do it differently? In what ways was your work or process similar?

I think that my work was different from my classmate's work because mine was funnier. But some kids didn’t include the experiment and some did.
FORWARD LOOKING: One thing I would like to improve upon is …

The fact that my drawings were rushed, because I was running out of time.

The highlighted words are key words. 

problem

researching

hypothesis

observed

experiment

analyzes

concludes

         

Preparation for experiments 9/3/16

Choc-Chip-Cookie.jpg

SUMMARY

This week I learned how to answer a question properly. If your teacher asked you, "Why is the sky blue?" you wouldn't answer, "Because." You could say, "The sky is blue because....." instead of  "Because."  We also did an experiment this week. Mine was "Does the amount of stevia in tea affect how much a cookie disintegrates?" Here is my experiment: 

*Testable Question: Does the amount of stevia in tea affect how much the cookie disintegrates?

Hypothesis: If the amount of stevia in tea affects how much the cookie disintegrates, then ¼ teaspoon will make it disintegrate the most.

Independent Variable: Amount of stevia in tea.

Dependent Variable: Amount of disintegrated cookie.

                   Materials

• Bowls
• Cookies
• Stevia
• Teaspoon
• Tea

Instructions

Pour 80 milliliters of tea into four bowls. Into one bowl put ¼ teaspoon of stevia. In two more, put in ⅛ and 1/16. In the last, put none. Set a timer for 45 seconds. Then, dip one chocolate chip cookie into each bowl. When the timer beeps, take out the cookies and hold them over the bowls for 15 seconds. Some will drop in the bowls, and that’s okay. Then, the person with the most fallen cookie in the bowl and the least cookie in their hands has completed the experiment first. If you still have cookie in your hands, put it somewhere that is preferably not the bowls.

*: All of the things that are highlighted are important to have in a fair test. 

S&EP: SP4: Analyzing and interpreting data

This was the data table that I made after doing the experiment and obtaining the data:

    This was my Data Table.

Stevia in the tea	Cookie left
None	None
¼ teaspoon	1 centimeter
⅛ teaspoon	1 ½ centimeters
1/16	2 centimeters

We put different amounts of stevia in the tea we dipped the cookies into. The tea with no stevia disintegrated the cookie the most. I created a data table that collected the data during the experiment.

Scientific Method 8/26/16

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This week we were reviewing the scientific method. The scientific method has  six parts. First, you ask a question. Such as, are double stuf oreos really  double stuffed? Then, you create a hypothesis. "I think that double stuf oreos are double stuffed." After you make that hypothesis, you will test your hypothesis. For mine, I might weigh the whole cookie, or just the stuffing, or seeing which is bigger. Then, you would analyze the data and develop a conclusion. I would say, "Double stuf oreos are double stuf!" if that was what I got. Then, you can share your results with the world. They might like to know. 


S&EP: SP6: Constructing Explanations

I constructed an explanation of the scientific method when I filled out my worksheet. My worksheet had links to websites where I could click and find the answer to a question.

Example:

Observation or Inference

What is the difference between an observation and an inference?

An observation is something that you see, hear, touch, taste, or feel. So if I saw that Joelle’s shirt was green, I would observe that Joelle’s shirt was green. And inference is an educated guess that might not always be correct. Like if I wasn’t looking and inferred that Lizzy’s shoelaces were blue, that would be an inference. But I might be wrong. Lizzy’s shoelaces might be purple. That’s an inference.

This is the article where I went to see the answers to the question, which are highlighted. 

       It is important to distinguish between observations and inferences. The colors and color changes, the temperature and temperature changes, the smells that you may come across in this lesson and throughout this course are directly observed and they can be classified as observations. When you do something with that observation, like draw a conclusion or offer an explanation or decide that a chemical reaction occurred, then you are making an inference. The inference may or may not be a correct one. Correctness is not what makes the difference between observation and inference.
An observation is the awareness of some condition; inference is the result of a mental process which attempts to explain or catalog or speculate about that observation. So far we have had several examples of observations (and measurements as well), but we have not really talked about inferences. A few examples might help to illustrate the point.

          

https://sites.google.com/a/oakgrovesd.net/science-websheet/observation-or-inference

In season

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This week I learned about in season food. This is what I learned.

Go to http://www.cuesa.org/eat-seasonally/charts to find seasonality Charts. You will research one fruit and one vegetable that is in season during a particular month here in California.   Use the same website to find recipes.

What does in season mean?______________In season means the food is good in that time ___________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________.

Month	One Fruit	One Veggie	URL to One recipe which uses either the fruit or veggie.
January	Dates	Brussels sprouts	link
February	Limes	Asparagus	Link
March	Guavas	Artichokes	Link
April	Lemons	Broccoli	Link
May	Cherries	Garlic	Link
June	Loganberries	Corn	Link
July	Apricots	Carrots	Link
August	Apples	Cauliflower	Link
September	Strawberries	Green Beans	Link
October	Peaches	Spinach	Link
November	Raspberries	Potato	Link
December	Kumquats	Pepper	Link

Watch the video:  http://safeshare.tv/v/y6-8EDwvklM

What are three reasons people should buy produce that is in season. Use the video to help you.

1. Food that is not is season does not taste as good as food that is in season
2. In season food does not leave as much of a carbon footprint
3. Food in season is cheaper

Why do people buy food that is not in season? ___________________________________Because they might like how the food tastes and they want it all year round insted of just buying lots of it in the seson that it is good in.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How does buying in season help everyone? ___Buying in seson helps the air and doesn’t leave as much as a carbon footprint… ______________________________________.

Where are some places you can buy in season food besides the supermarket? If you go to a place that is warmer or colder than CA than you can probably find it there.

S&EP: SP4: Analyzing data

This week I was learning about in season. I made a table to keep my data safe while I worked so nobody could copy or steal my data. I also needed it for this blog. So I kept my data safe in a table.

Food

Food

This week we were working on the food waste project. We were studying food systems, food culture, and, yeah, that's it. For food culture, we studied what we ate for dinner (A grilled cheese and fries), How we ate it (With my hands), where we ate it (Five Guys: burgers and fries restaurant), who we ate it with (My dad, my mom, my sister, and my brother), what we talked about (How disgusting the Oreo Creme milkshake was.), etc. I learned that Food culture represents how special the country it came from is, and that what makes a country's food special is because it is the only food they can get.

S&EP: SP4: Analyzing Data
This week I used tables and google docs to analyze the data that I got. We were studying food this week and I needed a place to have my data.

Testing

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This week we were testing. We were taking the CST (California State Test). I learned that you had to pay attention in class in order to ace the test. All of the questions were based on the test. If you like to pay attention, you probably passed. If you like to talk, not pay attention, not learn, etcetera, then you probably did not pass the test. They were all like IF YOU ARE HOLDING A MINERAL THAT CAN BE SCRATCHED BY A FINGERNAIL, WHICH MINERAL ARE YOU MOST LIKELY HOLDING? and the answers were GYPSUM, GRAPHITE, TOPAZ, and Quartz. They also gave you a mineral identification sheet. It helps to pay attention, because most of the questions were our do now questions. If you were paying attention to the do nows, you would know the answer to every single question. 



S&EP: We were testing and reviewing what we learned this week.

Review

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This week was all about review. We did zondle, kahoot, and quizizz. On zondle,  I learned more about the food chains and the human body. They gave me a question that was A CONSUMER... and then they had answers like, eats itself when it gets hungry, eats other organisms, and makes its own food. Then we would answer the question correctly. However, when I was doing zondle, I was not paying much attention to what answers I chose. I learned that even though it was fun, I had to pay attention to what answers I chose or they would be wrong and I would have to do them over again. Then, we did quizizz. I learned that time didn't matter. When you were taking a quizizz, it was probably ideal to take your time. I ended up getting first place one time! Then, we did kahoot. We did it alone at first, and then, we did teams. In kahoot, it was better to pay attention to the question on the board. If you were drawing, you would never see it, never answer it, and lose! 

S&EP

We were reviewing everything that we knew over the year. It was very fun. We were going on different websites and taking quizzes. It was fun!

Project Blog Circuit.

Link to image
This week I learned a lot about electricity. My partner was Izzy and we were sharing ideas, trying to build a blinding ray. So we figured out that some connections of wires did work and some didn't. So, we gave each other ideas and figured out a working switch. we eventually came up with an idea. We had a handle with the batteries concealed inside. Then we taped a plastic clear diamond over a non colored light. We then connected the wires and created a switch. You push on a paper clip and the light turns on. We used three batteries to make it strong.
Backward Looking: What process did you go through to produce this peice?
Well, we had an idea in our mind. We took it, and put it on paper in a schematic diagram. Then we connected the batteries and put them in a case of popsicle sticks. Then we connected the wires and switch.

Inward Looking: What did you find frustrating about the project?
What I found frusterating was that we had good ideas, and most of them didn't work. I had a good Idea, but it didn't work! I got kinda sad, but I found a better one.
Outward looking: What grade would you give it? Why?
I would give it an A- because it is kind of messy. I couldn't find my invention paper so Izzy gas only hers. I know I did it, I just can't find it. But the invention works!

Forward Looking: One thing I would like to improve upon is...
 I would like to improve on working together and listening to each other's ideas. We each had such good ideas that we thought they couldn't wait, so we were interrupting each other.