It is hardly imaginable that hints of spring are everywhere, and it is only mid-February. Out at the Science and Innovation Center, the middle school students are charged up and excited to finish the year strong!
Natasha, the CEO of Austin Jewish Egg-Academy, is egg-cited to share our organic eggs with the community.The chickens love our left over lettuce from the aquaponics system.NJHS members Shira and Liora water our newly planted vegetable garden.
8th Grade Science and Engineering
Last month, our eighth grade students wrapped up their study of physics with a unit on waves and sound. We have since dusted off our bunsen burners and immersed ourselves in the study of chemistry! This week we will wrap up our unit: Introduction to Matter and begin looking at atoms and the periodic table of elements.
Lue rocks the glasses and hat at the Austin Energy plant tour.The 8th grade listens as the Austin Energy plant manager describes how electricity is made.Students use a pendulum to study harmonic motion.Shira, Ester, and Abby use a wave pool to look at surface waves.Chemical changes are cool, but where are your safety goggles?????Courtney and Madison determine whether they are observing a chemical or physical change.Daphna and Shira add iodine to corn starch. Go women scientists!Noah and Nir determine that a phase change is simply a physical change.Daphna and Abby are learning about the gas laws.Ester and Shira put corn in a microwave to establish a relationship between temperature and volume of a gas.Nir and Noah weigh the pressure bottle after pumping and learn that gas has mass!Madison learns how ice lowers the freezing point when making ice cream.
7th Grade Science and Engineering
Last month, the seventh grade students continued their study of genetics by looking closely at DNA replication, transcription and translation. Moving forward this month, the students are grappling with how populations change, specifically evolution. This week we began looking at evolutionary adaptations in plants and will continue next week with a focused study of comparative anatomy in animals.
Ally conducts a blood typing lab to solve a crime.Whodunit?DNA delicious!Students show off their test tubes of extracted split pea DNA.Noah is a predator bird searching for toothpick worms.Liora is a bird searching for the peppered moth.Jess dons the cloudy glasses in an attempt to find the moths.Eddie examines the behavior of a planarian (flat worm.)Nathan finds a creative position for viewing the daphnia.
The seventh grade class has begun their final challenge in PLTW. They will put their design skills to work by designing, testing, and building a toy to be used in a therapeutic setting.
Students spent time at the ECP learning about toys that help kids develop fine motor and gross motor skills.
6th Grade Science and Engineering
The sixth grade students changed gears this month, delving into the theory of plate tectonics, continental drift, and the rock cycle. Next week we will move into the processes that shape the Earth’s exterior, weathering and erosion.
Natasha and Toby explore heat transfer.Joey discovers the relationship between the density and temperature of fluids.Negev and Dimitri use wooden blocks in water to examine continental crust and mountain building.Ilan and Isaac get a little messy using cookies and frosting to model plate boundaries.Yum! Plate tectonics!Sammy loves divergent plate boundaries!Ethan looks at the properties of minerals.Noah performs the scratch test.
This month in Flight and Space, the students have learned bout the forces of flight, Newton’s laws, and Bernoulli’s principle. They are now applying these principles to designing and building a glider.
The students enjoyed a visit from Australian educators who shared a bit of culture and boomerang aeronautics.
Australian educators share their expertise.Post boomerang practiceWhat is the difference between a boomerang and a stick?
