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Classroom science journal from the 2007-2008 School Year Mr. Grambo
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| Thursday, June 26, 2008 -
This is our last day for the year. Have a wonderful vacation and a
great journey in the seventh grade. I will practice my guitar during the
summer. Take care you are all terrific scientists. Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - We are winding down and still discussing HIV and Aids. Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - All textbooks have been collected. No one owes a book. This is terrific. There are so many questions about HIV and Aids. Mr. Akalski came in to answer some questions when 6-235 was in the classroom. Monday, June 23, 2008 - We are continuing with our discussion on AIDS and HIV. We are still collecting our science textbooks. The 8th graders had their awards assembly in the afternoon. Friday, June 20, 2008 - Summer begins at 7:59 PM tonight. Try to stand an egg on its fatter end. All work has been collected and all Tree and Leaf projects have been graded. Next week is our last few days of school. Thursday, June 19, 2008 - We received a reading that helped to explain where AIDS and HIV started. It appears that the first known cases were in Africa. Mr. Grambo took the eighth graders on their Senior Trip to Holiday Hill in Connecticut. Wednesday, June 18, 2008 - All classes had to return their orange, New York Science Grade 6 Textbook. The seventh grade Carnival was held in the Gym and schoolyard today. Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - Some classes finished up the assignment from Monday, while others continued with the discussion on AIDS. Monday, June 16, 2008 - Today we worked a reading about Aids and HIV. We wanted to be able to explain what both of these things are. We adapted this information from http://www.avert.org/origins.htm Friday, June 13, 2008 - We graded our Sally books for pages 76, 77, 78, 79, 82 and 83. We also looked on page 72 for more daily summaries. We began a discussion on AIDS. Our last dance was today. It was in the cafeteria from 3:30 to 6:00 PM Thursday, June 12, 2008 - We learned about how things are grouped and classified. We have already taken all things in the world have broken them into two groups, biotic and abiotic. It was now time to become more specific. Our next step was to make groupings into plants and animals. We go from Kingdom through the taxonomy chart towards finding our the specific species of plant or animal we have. Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - Many classes were on trips today. Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - We worked in the drawing booklet on the pages about making observations. We had to look at a picture for two minutes. Once taken away, we had to write information we could remember from the picture. For homework, we had to write ten things about our bus from our memory. The third floor classes were on a trip today. The temperature today was near 100F Monday, June 9, 2008 - We continued to work in the drawing booklet on page 47 of Sally. Today we learned about three view drawings of an object. These Birds Eye views, Front View and Side View drawings are made by architects, engineers and scientists. They give great detail about the objects they are viewing or going to build. Friday, June 6, 2008 - We want everyone to understand Biotic and Abiotic. There are rules for being alive. Everything that is alive must have all six of these characteristics. Four or five from the list will not cut it. On page 47 of our Sally Notebook is a Science Sketchbook. We drew natural items and fake plastic items onto the pages of this sketchbook. Our goal was to observe the items and to see if we could determine what is the difference between real and fake. We also looked at the pages we glued into Sally from the beginning of the week. We checked pages 70 through 73 for writeups and answers to reading questions. Thursday, June 5, 2008 - There was no school today. It is Brooklyn Queens day. Mr. Olamit went to a workshop in Manhattan. The other Science teachers went to a workshop out at Gateway. Wednesday, June 4, 2008 - We got back our ISO Books our next step is to finish them up by Friday. We spent some time gluing sheets into Sally and fixing up our notebooks. Tuesday, June 3, 2008 - We received our worksheets for our study of the environment. These sheets are to be glued in our Sally notebooks on pages 70-85. Pages 70, 71 and 73 must be completed by Friday. Monday, June 2, 2008 - Our ISO books were collected today. Mr. Olamit and Mr. Grambo went through them to make sure they were up to date. Our job is to make sure our books are complete by friday. We had a half day on Monday. Friday, May 30, 2008 - We finished up our ISO 14000 project and finished up our Tree and Leaf project. 6-235 did not have science today because of the Acuity Math Exam. All the science projects are due next week on Monday/Tuesday. Thursday, May 29, 2008 - Mr. Olamit was not in school today. He was off Graduating from College; Congratulations. In class we worked in our ISO Book and did a reading from the Comic Book we glued to page 28. Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - Mr. Grambo was on the Camping Trip until 2:00 PM. In the morning the campers packed up their bags, ate breakfast and participated in an activity about composting. They looked at composted soil and discovered many microorganisms that help turn vegetable scraps into soil. Mr.Grambo left a reading on water and what it is. This reading had the children drawing a water molecule. Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - Mr. Grambo went with Mr. Yaskulski on a Camping Trip to Floyd Bennett Field at Gateway National Recreation Area. They left school at 9:30 At. This is real camping with tents and cooking food. We did some fantastic activities at the beach involving how much salt is in the water, how acid/base the water is and how much Oxygen is dissolved in the water. Everything was great until the 70 mile per hour winds hit on Wed morning at 3:30 AM. The wind ripped one of the tents off the platform. The girls in the tent were scared. We monitored the wind and moved those girls to a safer tent. Mr. Grambo left a reading on Recycling from the ISO book. Mr. Olamit worked with 6-326 and 6-419. Monday, May 26, 2008 - Today is Memorial Day. There is no school today. Friday, May 23, 2008 - We are starting a recycling program in our school. Trash cans were ordered, stickers were given out. The Student Organization helped to pay for everything. We received a Comic Book from the NYC Dept of Sanitation entitled Trashmasters. We glued this comic book onto page 28 of our ISO Textbook. We will use the Comic Book for a reading next week. Thursday, May 22, 2008 - The second and third floor went to see a movie today. The fourth floor continued working on their tally sheets and were given time to work on the Tree and Leaf Project in their Sally Notebook. Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - We worked today on our bathroom water consumption Tally Sheet. We talked about hour our water gets cleaned and purified and the energy that goes into making clean water for us. We continued with a discussion of water ways to waste water and ways to conserve water. Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - We continued adding up our Electric Consumption Tally Sheets. Monday, May 19, 2008 - We brought in the Electric Tally Sheets that we had taped all over our house. We began to add up out daily electric use and transferred the daily use information onto the chart in our kids ISO 14000 textbook page 12.
Friday, May 16, 2008 -
We worked in our Sally Notebooks on our Tree and Leaf Project. Tree
branches were set up for bark rubbings and ring (age) counting. Leaf
Identification manuals were also supplied for help with naming the
leaves. Thursday, May
15, 2008 - We debriefed the movie and went over the questions the
students wrote answers to while watching the movie An Inconvenient
Truth. Global warming is a big issue and we want everyone to know that
they can help and that there are things every person on Earth can do Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - We worked today on Global Warming
and viewed the movie An Inconvenient Truth in the Auditorium with the
entire sixth grade during periods 6-8. In this movie by former Vice
President Al Gore, we see how a build up of Carbon Dioxide in our
atmosphere is causing the Earth to get warmer. This additional heat will
cause the ice caps to melt and eventually make a substantial rise on the
sea level. We placed additional copies of the movie in the school
Library. Students worked in their ISO 14000 notebooks on a movie
worksheet while viewing the movie. Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - We talked about our water tally sheet
for bathroom water usage. This sheet has us indicating when we flush
toilets and use the sink or shower. Monday, May 12, 2008 - We finished our unit on Weather and checked each others notebooks to see that last weeks work had been done. We received our ISO 14000 notebooks and we found our about our electric use tally sheets. We tape these sheets near electric consumption items in our homes. As we use them (like turn a light on or off) we indicate it on these tally sheets which will be totaled next Monday. We will keep track of our energy usage for two weeks. http://www.armstrong227q.com/Science/ISO14000/pdf_0708/ELECTRIC_CONSUMPTION_tallysheets.pdf Friday, May 9, 2008 - Mr. Grambo was working with the Plant Sale. Today's assignment was on the difference between weather and climate ( page 168 of Bob) Thursday, May 8, 2008 - Mr. Grambo was working with the Plant Sale. We worked on a reading about Wind (page 166 of Bob - creatively glue over an existing sheet.) Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - We played the Water Cycle Game out in the Hallway today. We were water molecules moving from situation to situation. Water goes in and out of the atmosphere a great deal. Water gets stuck in the Glacial ice and the ocean a lot. Tuesday, May 6, 2008 - We continued with the experiment on Air Pressure and the experiment showing how water gets into our air. Monday, May 5, 2008 - We set up our notebooks for Weather Watch Investigations 7, 8 and 9. We did two experiments today. We made a Barometer - Air Pressure and we found out how Water Gets Into The Air - Evaporation, Perspiration and Transpiration Friday, May 2, 2008 -Today we learned to estimate Cloud Cover. We used two sheets of paper. One blue and one white. The blue stands for the sky. The white was the clouds. If you place the white paper over the blue, the blue will be completely or 100% covered by the white sheet. Since the white sheet stands for clouds, the sky is 100% covered by clouds. Breaking the white sheet into a smaller piece (1/2 the sheet, or 1/4 the sheet) and then ripping up the portion of white paper. By attaching the scraps with glue to the blue sky sheet, the children have made Cloud cover estimate practice pages. The children can have others guess their percentages. Next week is our Mother's Day Plant Sale (Thursday, May 8 and Friday, May 9) Thursday, May 1, 2008 - We went to Veterans Plaza to make entry 5 on our Sally Journal. There has bee a great deal of plant growth this week. Many students attached some plant material to these pages in their journal and identified the plants. Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - We worked today at Identifying the main types of clouds. We used our book of tables and charts (all of which are available on our Weather Watch web site). We also used the Internet to help us with our search. Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - Most classes worked on setting up the Tree and Leaf project. 6-323 went on to identifying clouds in their Bob notebook. Monday, April 28, 2008 - We reviewed what we learned about making a cloud in a bottle. We then put together our Tree and Leaf Project section in our Sally Notebooks. This will be from page 32-47. This project will be done during the month of May. We then talked about the ISO 14000 house inventory sheet we did over the vacation. This is glued in Sally on page 68. From April 19, 2008 to April 27, 2008 we will not be in school. We are on Spring Break. Friday, April 18, 2008 - Mr. Grambo went with the eighth grade to Chelsea Piers. An assignment on Roller Coasters was left. At one point, this assignment was already given, however, only about two people in each class actually handed it in, so the assignment was reissued. Mr. Olamit worked on clouds with 6-326 and 6-419. Thursday, April 17, 2008 - We made sure we finished the Humidity experiment in Bob on pages 150 - 151. We also looked at the write up we had for our Dew Point experiment on page 148 of Bob. After we went on to making a cloud in a soda bottle. You need smoke to seed the cloud and water in the container for the cloud to form. Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - We used the humidity charts to calculate the humidity. We needed a wet and dry thermometer, a calculator and the humidity chart. Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - Many classes were on trips today, or were seeing the African American History Program. The class that was left, had few children due to participation in the show. The rest of the class worked on fixing up their bob notebook. Today the African American History Show began - House 2 went to the show periods 7 and 8. Monday, April 14, 2008 - We started our experimentation on Humidity. We had two thermometers. We wrapped the bulb of one thermometer with wet paper towel. We used these two thermometers along with the humidity chard to tell about the amount of moisture in the air. Friday, April 11, 2008 - We made a Cloud Finder foldable today. We cut circular tables from card stock, stacked them and held them together with a paper fastener. The foldable turns telling about types of clouds. The school dance is tonight from 5: 30 PM to 8: 30 PM. Thursday, April 10, 2008 - We worked on fixing the incorrect answers from our test. We had textbooks and dictionaries on our desk. We could also go on-line to find answers. To fix the test you have to explain why one answer is correct and explain why the other answers are incorrect. Tomorrow is our Spring Dance from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Wednesday, April 9, 2008 - We worked on our Dew Point experiment today. Our job was to find the temperature and time (point) where the water fell out of the air and onto the outside of the metal can making it all wet and foggy. The air can hold water between the spaces it has. As the air gets cold the molecules condense or get closer together and begin to slow down. The space between the molecules decreases. As this space decreases, the water is squeezed out and forms this dew. Tuesday, April 8, 2008 - The classes that did not receive the second part of the quiz on Monday, will take it today. This was a two question test. The first section had an experiment about a plant written our. Students had to explain the types of variables in the experiment. In the second section, students had to explain convection, conduction and radiation. Monday, April 7, 2008 - Mr. Olamit and Mr. Grambo will return from Space Camp at about 6:00 PM. The second half of the quiz was given today to three of our classes. Friday, April 4, 2008 - Mr. Grambo and Mr. Olamit took 42 children to Space Camp today (in Laval, Canada). Mr. Williams gave the quiz to all our classes. The quiz was on Heat Transfer. Thursday, April 3, 2008 - We worked on the carrying capacity portion of Investigation 6. We started our Dew Point experiment, but it was not working well. It was difficult to see the water condensing on the metal cans in the ice. Wednesday, April 2, 2008 - We finished our convection experiment today and began to talk about carrying capacity. We are on our way to Investigation 7. There will be a 20 question Open Book quiz on friday and a 2 question essay test on monday Tuesday, April 1, 2008 - Now we wanted to see if we could layer hot air on top of cold air. For this we used a Convection Box. A candle flame inside the box made the air above the candle warm. This air gained energy from the candle. The molecules of air moved away from each other causing the hot air to have less mass and become less dense. Cooler air was pulled in through another opening in the convection box. This circulated the air inside the box. Monday, March 31, 2008 - we started an experiment where we wanted to see if we could made layers of hot and cold using the same substance. We tried to put boiling water dyed red on top of freezing water dyed blue. At first we poured badly and the waters mixed giving us a purple color. We became better at it though. By the third trial we were able to get the layers. Friday, March 28, 2008 - We went back to our work on density. Today we changed the density of water. First we sank an egg in a tank of water. After adding salt to the tank, we were ably to get the egg to float. So the egg sinks in fresh water and floats in salt water. We then had to make a tower with four strengths of salt water that were died. The strengths changed their densities. Oh, by the way, the colors were: from the bottom - Blue, Yellow, Green and finally floating on top was red. Thursday, March 27, 2008 - Today was our last day spent on coasters. They were all over the room. There were truss holding up the tracks while everyone tested and retested everything. I have never seen everyone sooooo involved. It looked like everyone was having a wonderful time. Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - We continued with Roller Coasters. Today one class made a coaster with 9 hills. another made a coaster with three loops. The size and placement of the loops is important. Tuesday, March 25, 2008 - The classes that did not have science on Monday started the work on roller coasters. We used pipe insulation as our track and ran marbles as our cars. Monday, March 24, 2008 - Today we worked on an experiment involving Roller Coasters that we did not have a chance to do when we learned about inclined planes. A roller coaster is a gravity train. It runs on potential and kinetic energy. Friday, March 21, 2008 - There was no school today - It was Good Friday Thursday, March 20, 2008 - We finished our density experiment. During the day, Mr. Y and Mr. Grambo took down the Science Fair. Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - We worked on our density experiment today Tuesday, March 18, 2008 - Mr. Blum and Mr. Grambo were at a FOSS workshop today. Their topic was Populations and Ecosystems. From Mr. Olamit : 6-419 got through about half of the density experiment (pg 138 in Bob). We went through the baby oil shaking and the density definition on the chart, too. The experimenting was going smoothly; they just ran out of time. We also passed back all of their work. Monday, March 17, 2008 - We started on Density today. Density is a comparison of the mass of an object to it's volume. We found the mass of sealed containers with a triple beam balance. We used water displacement to fid our objects volume. The rest is just MATH. Friday, March 14, 2008 - We went to Veteran's Plaza for half the period. The other have of the period we spent at the science fair. At Veterans Plaza we collected weather data and samples of plants. We found that the Red Maple trees were ready to bloom. The rose bushes were sprouting leaves and it appeared that Spring had arrived early. As we entered the Science fair, we were given a sheet onto which we had to write information from the fair. Thursday, March 13, 2008 - We set up the science fair today. Over 100 projects made it into this years fair. You can view the list of entries at www.armstrong227q.com/sciencefair . At night parents came in to view the fair after the PTA meeting ended. The room was packed with people. Everyone had a wonderful time. Tuesday, March 4, 2008 to Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - We are viewing the Science Fair projects. Each day another team presents their display and gives their oral presentation (their speech). At the end of the period, all members of that team must hand in their Jake notebook. Monday, March 3, 2008 - We started to view Science Fair projects today. Students from Team 6 began to present. Students had to hand in their Jake notebook for grading with their project. Friday - February 29, 2009 - Today Mr. Grambo presented a
Science Fair Project to the class. He gave a speech and then asked
everyone to grade the project. We also received the project schedule.
After this we played Weather BINGO. Wednesday - February 27, 2008 - We spent some time today handing in missing work and fixing up our notebooks. Tuesday - February 26, 2008 - Mr. grambo was at a meeting today with Mr. Blum. A reading on Convection was left for everyone to do. Monday - February 25, 2008 - We took the data we collected from our radiation experiment and made a graph of this collected data. Since we used four mediums (Sand, soil, water and air), four colors appeared on this line graph. February 16, 2008 - February 24, 2008 - Mid winter recess. School is closed Friday - February 15, 2008 - We worked on our radiation experiment and made a foldable on the Electromagnetic Spectrum. We colored in the visible light as it breaks into the seven colors of the spectrum Thursday - February14, 2008 - Today we experimented to see how heat travels through the air. This experiment is on Radiation. We set up four mediums (soil, sand, water and air) and exposed them to a heat lamp. After taking readings every 2 minutes. After 6 minutes, the heat source was turned off and we continued to take readings to see how objects cool off or retain heat. Wednesday - February 13, 2008 - We experimented to see if heat could travel through solid objects like metals. We attached the heat strips to the top of metal plates (aluminum and iron). When the bottom on the plates were placed in hot water, the heat strips began to turn color. This could only happen if heat from the water traveled up the metal strip and to the Heat tape. We also saw a demonstration with a ball and ring as well as one with a bi-metallic bar. Tuesday - February 12, 2008 - Most classes finished the experiment on the transfer of heat from a test tube of hot water to water in a surrounding water bath (as indicated on page 133 of Bob). 6-235 did not see us today because we were at a meeting with Ms. David. We are going to do a project in the spring where we try to see if we waste energy. Monday - February 11, 2008 - We started our experimentation on Heat Transfer. Today we put hot water into a large test tube. This tube was placed into a container of water. Will the heat from the test tube transfer to the outside water in the container? We found out today.
Friday - Saturday - Overnight trip to the American Museum of Natural History. (2/8/08 - 2/9/08) We left school at 4:00 pm and arrived at the museum around 5:00 PM. We discovered that we would sleep under the Blue Whale in the Hall of BioDiversity. After an orientation, we began to explore the museum. The museum staff had explainers and activities set up all over the place. At 7:00 PM we went to see a presentation on Birds of Prey. They had an owl, falcon and hawk. After this presentation, we went on a scavenger hunt in the dark with flashlights. The place, the dinosaur halls on the fourth floor. What a blast, searching in a scary place full of realllyyy old bones. At about 10:30 we were given a snack and it was off to an IMAX movie called Dinosaurs Alive. Bed time was about midnight. The morning brought to more exhibits and of course the Gift Shop. everyone had a wonderful time.
Friday - February 8, 2008 - We finished talking about the atmosphere and saw a video on the Northern Lights and another called the Reason For The Seasons. At the end of the day, we will start our field trip to the American Museum of Natural History. This is an overnight adventure.
Thursday - February 7, 2008 - We backtracked to talk about the Atmosphere. We worked on pages 113 and 114 0f Bob.
Wednesday- February 6, 2008 - All classes finished the experiment on Seasons. We found out that the way light hits the Earth determines if the area will be warm or not, This is direct and indirect light.
Tuesday - February 5, 2008 - Classes that did not start this experiment on Monday will start today. This is a two period experiment.
Monday - February 4, 2008 - We started experimenting on Investigation 3 - Seasons. We need to understand direct and indirect light. Aiming a flashlight at a piece of paper yields a small circle of light. Aim that same flashlight at a sharp angle and an ellipse will light the paper. The same light covers a larger area now. The small circle of direct light is more concentrated. Spread out the light and it becomes weaker and less warm. Now to prove it. We attached heat strips to a globe at four places starting at the Equator and moving horizontally north. After turning on a heat lamp, the strips began to change color. The strips near the North Pole did not change color and were not affected by the lamp. The light there was so spread out that this indirect light had little warmth.
Wednesday - Friday (January 30-February 1) Various students went with Mr. Blum, Mr. Olamit and Mr. Grambo on an OPEX adventure to Stoney Kill Farm and Taconic Outdoor Education Center. During this time students on the trip participated in various outdoor environmental experiments. In school, students worked on the Readings for the Science Fair in Jake on Wednesday. Thursday there was a reading on Seasons and Friday, students had to figure out the length if day.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - The rest of the classes set up their notebooks for Investigation 3 - Seasons - We saw a video on the Science Fair called Science Shack with Janice VanCleve.
Monday, January 28, 2008 - Classes set up their notebooks for Investigation 3 - Seasons - We saw a video on the Science Fair called Science Shack with Janice VanCleve.
Friday, January 25, 2008 - We went outside to visit our Study Site in Veterans Plaza for our January visit. When we came back inside, we had a discussion about the Science Fair.
Thursday, January 24, 2008 - We all met in Mr. Blum's room to find out about the things air is made of. We made Oxygen and Hydrogen gas. We used a gas generator to make the gasses from mixtures of chemicals. Oxygen burns and Hydrogen explodes, however, when mixed into the air, these properties are made less to to the great amount of Nitrogen in the air. We also found out about the language of chemistry and about the Periodic Table of Elements (you have a copy on page 117 of your planner).
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - Today we reviewed what we know about air and had a discussion on the Atmosphere. We found out about the Troposphere. Stratosphere and Ionosphere. We found that the atmosphere is in layers that surround our planet. Tomorrow we go to Mr. Blum's room to find out about the parts or things that are in the air.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 - Mr. Blum and Mr. Grambo were at a FOSS Meeting at Gateway National Recreation Area. The were talking about the Insect unit we will be working on in the Spring. Work was done in school on the Atmosphere.
Monday, January 21, 2008 - there was no school today. It is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday
Friday, January 18, 2008 - Many classes went on a bowling trip today to JIBB Lanes. We did, however, finish our experiments on air. Next week we will talk about the Atmosphere and then go into the Seasons. All classes received a progress report and the papers everyone needed to achieve a better grade were on tables in the hallway. The only way to get a bad grade is to not hand in your work.
Thursday, January 17, 2008 - Students were working on the experiment using the syringes to prove air takes up space and has pressure. Some of the syringes broke their tip when pressure on the hose was sideways. Pulling the hose off the syringe was difficult. Students finished the three page (pp118, 119, 102 of Bob) write-up.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 (ELA Exam - periods 1-3) Some classes were finishing up the past three experiments. Others began their own experimentation and write-up on air pressure. Using two air syringes, tubing and a foam block, students need to prove air has pressure and air takes up space. We received a progress report today. It needs to be signed and brought in the next school day (no exceptions)
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 (ELA Exam - periods 1-3) Our experimentation took us to an experiment where we extracted all the air from a can by heating it. With no air inside the can and a great deal of air outside the can, the can just crushed. This experiment was in the center of pages 116 and 117 of Bob.
Monday, January 14, 2008 - Today we started Investigation 2 - What is air. I asked to see 6-235 today (they usually do not have science on Monday, however, they will miss science this week due to testing). We did an experiment to prove that air takes up space. We use two cups, water and a sheet of paper. This experiment is written up on page 116 of Bob. We now wanted to show that air has mass, so our next experiment involved both inflated and deflated balloons on a Triple Beam Balance. We had to finish the write-ups for these experiments for homework.
This week is the ELA Exam in Reading. The morning classes will miss science for a few days. Many classes will be out of sequence this week.
Friday, January 11, 2008 - We finished our plots of Hurricane Dean and reviewed how hurricanes start, build strength and then die. We were given a reading on Hurricanes to do for homework. We also received all the sheets we needed to glue into our Bob notebook for Investigation 2.
Thursday, January 10, 2008 - We began to plot the path of Hurricane Dean. This hurricane made its way through the Caribbean during August of 2007. using plots from both the Weather Underground and the National Weather Service, we plotted Longitude and Latitude points of this Hurricane as it made its way towards Central America.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - All classes defined the word Weather on page 103 in Bob. We used the Think, Pair, Share method. First we wrote our personal definition for the word. We then shared it with our team and came up with a team definition for the word. As a large circle in the hallway, the teams shared their definitions and we came up with a single class definition for weather. We also saw a video on HURRICANES. We wrote about the video in a booklet on page 105 of Bob. Tomorrow we plot Hurricane Dean on an Atlantic Weather Map. The words Hurricane and weather should now be included in your glossary. You will need your NEW Jake notebook for Friday. We will put together the Jake Notebook so you can begin your Science Fair Project. We still need Baby Food Jars for an experiment.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008 - The classes we did not see on Monday started the unit on weather. In the video, we learned about giant hail stones made of ice, red sand mixed in the air blowing 2000 miles and soot from volcanoes covering the sky and lowering the temperature of the Earth. This type of weather is unpredictable and severe. Tomorrow we will make a definition for the word weather.
Monday, January 7, 2008 - We began our new unit of study on weather. It is called Weather Watch. We started with a Quickwrite on what we feel Weather is. We put this information into a KWL chart. After this we viewed a video segment called Things That Fall From The Sky. This video was about severe weather. We answered a few questions about this video and were given a Homework assignment on Weather. We had to compare two readings on weather.
Friday, January 4, 2008 - Most classes took their test on Simple Machines. We gave out a reading for Homework. It was called the Earth's Breath. This reading was from an old ELA Exam.
Thursday, January 3, 2008 - Some classes finished learning about the Math problems on pages 76 and 77 of Bob. 6-326 had their test today. It looked like it took longer to finish the test than expected. The rest of the classes will receive their test/Quiz on Friday.
Wednesday - January 2, 2008 - Today we worked on the Math sheets in Bob on pages 76 and 77. We talked about Work, Mechanical Advantage, Power and Efficiency. Everyone thought that if you hold a box you are doing work. For work to be done, there has to be movement (there has to be a measurable distance). Some classes were not finished and will finish on Thursday. There will be a Quiz on Thursday for third floor classes and Friday for all other classes.
Saturday - December 22, 2007 - Tuesday - January 1, 2008 - School is closed for winter break. You have to: a) collect weather data every day B) Go to you study site (My piece of the neighborhood) each weekend to make a site entry. C) Begin the moon project on January 1, 2008 D) Fix up your notebooks - There will be a Quiz on Simple Machines when we get back to school. E) Fix up and hand in any work that your Progress Report (From Dec 14) says is missing or incomplete (low grade)
Friday - December 21, 2007 - We finished our experiment with ramps. We discovered that the lower the ramp is, the better. Steeper ramps needed more effort to lift the load. We went into the hall today to talk about the moon project and what we have to do. No scanners were in the building today.
Thursday - December 20, 2007 - We are almost finished with our experiment on Inclined Planes. We received a packet of information for our January Moon Project. Part of this project has us watching and drawing the moon every day as it goes through it's phases. The scanners were back again today. We have a web site to help you. www.armstrong227q.com/moon/index.htm
Wednesday - December 19, 2007 - Many classes were out of the building today on a trip to see the movie "The Golden Compass" The Scanners were in the building today going through everyone's stuff. They are usually here for a few days.
Tuesday - December 18, 2007 - We are continuing with our experiment on Inclined Planes.
Monday - December 17, 2007 - Our classes were working on the Inclined Plane experiment. This experiment will take three days. Data is recorded on the table on page 66 of Bob.
Friday - December 14, 2007 - We set up our Bob notebooks for the Inclined Plane (this starts on page 62). Our procedure has three parts. We have to set up a low, medium and steep incline and write down how to set up the equipment. We received a PROGRESS REPORT today. It needs to be signed and handed in.
Thursday - December 13, 2007 - All work on pulleys is finished today. Tomorrow we start on the Inclined Plane. We also talked about Cloud Cover out in the hallway. Using a sheet of blue and a sheet of whit paper, we learned to estimate how much of the sky is covered by clouds as a percent.
Wednesday - December 12, 2007 - Mr. Grambo was working with the Community Concert. We worked on a reading about pulleys. This reading was a poem. A reallllyyy weird poem about a pulley that breaks and in tern breaks someone's arm.
Tuesday - December 11, 2007 - The classes that came in today were working on Pulley Experiment 3. We also handed in our homework reading on pulleys. This assignment will be glued onto page 88 of Bob when we get it back. Tomorrow we will get a reading that is a poem on pulleys.
Monday - December 10, 2007 - The third floor classes were on a trip today. The only class we worked with was 6-416. They began to work on the third Pulley experiment where we are using multiple pulleys to lift a 2.4 N mass with an effort under 1N. The class also worked on an experiment about Cloud Cover that we hung on the wall outside the classroom. We did this experiment to learn to estimate the percentage of the sky that is covered by clouds. This week is the Winter Concert.
Friday - December 7, 2007 - We looked at the Sally notebooks. We were looking for eight site entries for the My Piece of the Neighborhood Project and entries for the weather from Monday to Thursday. Some classes started the third experiment. In this experiment, we can use multiple pulleys trying to get the effort under 1 N. Tonight is the Holiday Dance.
Thursday - December 6, 2007 - We spent today looking over our Bob notebooks and making any additions that may be needed. Sometimes we run, run, run and never finish all parts of what we started. We try sooooo hard to keep up that we miss some of the things we need to see. Today we are stopping and taking a good look at our book to allow us to fix what we may have missed. We received a Homework Reading on PULLEYS.
Wednesday - December 5, 2007 - The second and Third floor classes had their Sally books looked at. The grades for 6-326 were pretty good. Most students did exactly what was expected of them. The Fourth floor classes were both on a trip today. Their books will be looked at tomorrow. Period 6 and 7 tomorrow Mr. Grambo will be going to get items for Friday's dance. Mr. Olamit will still be in class working on experiments. There will be a reading tomorrow for homework.
Tuesday - December 4, 2007 - We finished up all parts of this experiment and talked. We collected the Bob notebooks from 6-235. Many parts of pages did not have the questions answered. This Thursday, we are going to work on our notebooks to fix up missing information and to make sure all questions are answered.
Monday - December 3, 2007 - We finished up our experiments using just two pulleys. On Wednesday, we are checking trough our Sally book. We will look to see the journal Entries for the My Piece Of The Neighborhood project. Our main reason for looking, however, is to make sure that everyone is beginning to collect their weather data.
Friday - November 30, 2007 - We went over the expectations for the Weather Data collection project that we set up in our Sally notebooks the other day. We are to collect weather data each day for a total of seven weeks. This is a great site for weather data information:
weather underground.com - DailyHistory We will need this information next month when we are working with our weather unit. We read and signed the contract on page 62 (Sally). We now went online (using a projector) and looked at the program called Google Earth
Thursday - November
29, 2007 - We went outside to Veteran's Plaza to make a site entry onto
page 23 (f and g) of our Sally Notebook. We posted pictures link here :
Wednesday - November 28, 2007 - While working on our Pulley Experiment (using two pulleys) we were given three sheets to glue into our Sally Notebook. These are for an upcoming project on weather. We will begin this project on Sunday, December 2, 2007.
Tuesday - November 27, 2007 - We are continuing to work with the two pulley system. We have to find four ways to use the pulley, collect data from the spring scale and draw illustrations of our procedure.
Monday - November 26, 2007 -We started our second experiment. This involves the use of two pulleys in a system.
Thursday - Friday - November 22-23, 2007 - School was closed for these two days. It was Thanksgiving Break.
Wednesday - November 21, 2007 - We are finishing up our work with the single pulley. Next week we start work with two pulleys in a system. We will also do some math involved with these experiments (mechanical advantage, power, efficiency and work)
Tuesday - November 20, 2007 - Today was a shortened day. We had Open School afternoon. We continued working with our experiment on using a single pulley set up as a free pulley system and a fixed pulley system.
Monday - November 19, 2007 - We began work on the Pulley today. Our job was to really look at the data chart on page 73 of Bob and figure our a way to collect that data. By doing this we will make up the procedure for doing this experiment. Most people already built the Fixed pulley where you pull downward when using one pulley. Tomorrow is 1/2 day for Open School afternoon.
Friday - November 16, 2007 - We went to page 38 of Bob and wrote in the things we learned about Force (we forgot to do this a few weeks ago). It was time to start on Pulleys. We talked for a while and then had to make a piece of rope with a loop on both ends. This rope had to be 75 cm long. We found out about fixed and free pulleys. We then wrote in the "K" part of a KWL chart on pulleys. We examined the Data chart on page 73. Our job is to design an experiment that will let us collect this particular Data. 6-235 received their permission slips for our January Taconic Trip. Everyone else will receive their slips on Monday or Tuesday.
Thursday - November 15, 2007 - We glued the Data Tables into Bob and on page 68, we wrote what we learned about levers and what we learned about Energy. We also went to the Auditorium during first period to hear the speeches from the candidates for Student Organization President and Vice President.
Wednesday - November 14, 2007 - We set up our Bob notebooks for the upcoming experiments with the Simple Machine a PULLEY. We wrote on pages 68-91 of Bob. At the end of the class period, we were given a Comic Book on energy.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - Mr. Grambo was not in school today. His father got sick and he had to go to the hospital. Mr. Olamit went over How energy is moved from the Power Plant in Astoria, Queens to your house.
Monday, November 12, 2007 - There was no school today, it was Veterans day.
Friday - November 9, 2007 - Mr. Grambo was not in school today. We did a reading assignment on Electric Power Plants and were to write a composition.
Thursday, November 8, 2007 - We continued with our work on energy. We found that our Glencoe Science textbook has 30 pages on energy (pp. 30-70)
Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - We talked about energy in general and found that there are two main kinds of energy. Potential Energy and Kinetic Energy. Potential energy is stored energy hidden in an object waiting for the opportunity to do something. Kinetic Energy is energy in motion.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - Today is Election Day and there is no school.
Monday, November 5, 2007 - Today we finished up our experiment on levers and made sure everyone understood the three types of levers (first class, second class and third class). We received a homework assignment that asks us about energy and to write about five forms of energy. We will talk about energy this week and we need to have some background knowledge so as to participate in our classroom discussion. (this sheet will be glued onto page 65 of Bob after it is handed in for a grade.)
Friday, November 2, 2007 - On Friday, we went to Veterans Plaza, the park across from school, to begin a site study project similar to the one we do at home every week. This project is being documented in a journal on page 23 of Sally. We will go to our study site in the park one time a month to see how our site changes over time. Friday had us taking temperatures, collecting plant samples and drawing pictures of things found on our site. We found a Praying Mantis and other arthropods. The last question on page 23-E has us making an opinion or hypothesis about what we will find when we come back to our site in one month.
On Friday, we received a
listing of words that belong in our glossary
Thursday, November 1, 2007 - we were working on experiment three of levers (pages 59-63 of Bob.) In this project, we moved around the fulcrum in a lever system. We found out that there are three kinds of levers: a first class lever, a second-class lever and a third class lever. In a first class lever, the fulcrum is in between the load and effort. The second-class lever has the load in between the fulcrum and effort and in the third class lever; the effort is in the middle of everything. In some lever systems, it becomes easier to lift the load. In others, the effort increases way past the mass of the load or object you are trying to lift.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - Today was Halloween. Many people came to school wearing costumes. We made sure we knew the information from our first two experiments. In a first class lever system where the Fulcrum is in between the load and effort, we find that as the effort moves farther from the fulcrum the easier it is to lift the load. Then as you move the load around, things become easier as you move the load closer to the fulcrum.
Monday - Tuesday, October 29-30, 2007 - We began to talk about the third item that could move in the lever system, the Fulcrum.
Friday, October 26, 2007 - Today was the day of the Halloween Dance. We worked on a Simple Machines word search puzzle. These type of puzzles increase our ability to Spell new science words. We had to define a few words from the list and should add them to our Glossary.
Thursday, October 25, 2007 - We started moving the Load in a lever system. We are noticing that the Graph we create from our collected data shows a reverse diagonal line from the graph in our first experiment. What does this mean???
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - We read about the Greek philosopher, Archimedes and his experiments with levers. Archimedes always said that he could move the earth, if he had a lever long enough and the right place to put the fulcrum.
Monday-Tuesday, October 22-23, 2007- While working with a lever, we discovered that three things could be moved in a lever system. Our first experiment, Bob pages 46-50, had us moving the effort, while keeping both the load and fulcrum in a constant position. Our second experiment, located in Bob on pages 54-58, has us moving the load, while not moving the effort or fulcrum.
On Monday, 6-235 went on a trip to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge with Mr. Grambo. The Refuge is part of Gateway National Recreation Area and is located on an Island between Howard Beach and Rockaway.
Friday, October 19, 2007 - We are continuing with our work with the experiment on pages 46-49 of Bob. Next week we have to learn to make the graph (page 48 of Bob).
Thursday, October 18, 2007 - It is now time to prove what we said about how the effort changes, or becomes less as we move away from the fulcrum in a lever system. We set up pages 46-49 of Bob to write up the following experiment: How will the lever be affected if I change the position of the effort while the Load remains in a constant position? We started on this experiment of Friday and will finish next week. In this experiment we have to write on a data table and have to construct a graph from our collected data.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - It is one thing to say it is harder to do something and another to prove it. In order to show this proof, we have to use a Spring Scale. We spent part of the week learning how the Spring Scale works and then how to use it. This information was placed onto pages 42 and 43 of Bob.
Monday-Tuesday, October 15-16, 2007 - we put together a lever system that had the Load or Mass set on one side of the lever at the 15cm mark. The fulcrum of this lever system was hanging at the zero mark or the center of a half meter stick. On the other side of the lever we placed our finger at certain markings and pushed down on the lever trying to raise the load. We found that the further we were from the fulcrum, the easier, it was to lift the load. We wrote all this information onto page 41 of Bob.
Friday, October 12, 2007 - We all took a Quiz on Forces today and Mr. Grambo and Mr. Olamit looked over our Site Entries for the My Piece of The Neighborhood Project on Page 14 and 15.
Thursday, October 11, 2007 -
Today classes 6-326 and 6-419 completed and reviewed pages 28-31
in Bob. We went over how to "show work" when showing the math
involved with forces, including the use of "N" for Newtons, the use of
arrows, and whether we should be adding (forces in pushing/pulling in
the same direction) or subtracting (forces pushing/pulling in opposite
directions). We also reviewed some of the equipment and how they
work (such as the spring scale).
6-235, 323 and 416 worked on a reading about How To Do A Reading (this will get glued onto page 197 of Bob.
Tuesday-Wednesday, October 9-10, 2007 - During these two days our classes worked on the POE Charts on pages 28, 29, 30 and 31 of our Bob Notebook. We found out everything we need to know about balanced and unbalanced forces. We also found out how to show forces using drawings. We made these drawings on page 31 of Bob. We will be having a Quiz on forces this Friday (10/12/07)
Friday, October 5, 2007 - We worked in Mr. Blum's room today playing Tug of War. Here we really discovered the terms Balanced and Unbalanced Forces. We played three games and wrote about the games in our Bob notebook. We posted the worksheet at: Building_Big_Things_tug_of_war_experiment_sheet.pdf and posted photos of the event at: Building_Big_Things_TugOfWar_PHOTOS.pdf Homework was a reading on Unbalanced forces.
Thursday, October 4, 2007- Mr. Blum and Mr. Grambo went to an OPEX meeting at Gateway National Recreation Area. We were planning our January overnight trip to Taconic. An assignment on Balanced Forces was assigned for the class periods.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007 - We began to work on our POE (Predict, Observe,Explain) charts on balanced and unbalanced forces.
Monday-Tuesday (October 1-2, 2007) - We were finishing up our Group Games project and still trying to figure out how to flip the mat with everyone's feet still on it. Oh, did I say feet on it instead of standing on it?
Friday, September 28, 2007 - Working together as a team is not always soooo easy. Group Games is an activity that helps with Team Building skills. In our first activity, we had to pass a can with a ball in it from person to person. This was our Criteria (What we had to do). Then came the Rules or CONSTRAINTS. We could not use our arms, the can could not touch the floor. The ball could not touch the floor either. Our group needed to talk, come up with a plan and the try the plan out. We then had to write about this activity onto page 16 of Bob. Our second activity involved passing a hoop over our bodies and across from person to person. We did not finish our third task. There was a mat on the floor that our team had to stand on. Criteria - to turn the mat over. Constraints - we all had to stand on it. No one could get off. We could use our hands to touch the mat, but we could not touch the floor, walls our outside people. We need to think about this for a few days and come back with new ideas and plans for our team.
We also received the Table of Contents pages for Sally and there was a Homework Reading on Machines.
Thursday, September 27, 2007 - We glued "Sally" together today. Some pages had to have titles and all pages had to be numbered. There were booklets for a park project and booklets for drawing practice. We even put an index into our "Sally" notebook. Our first project is called My Piece of the Neighborhood. We have to pick a small study site near our house (with a tree and some plant material). We have to visit and write about this site every week. We also have to collect leaves, make and obtain maps and write four poems. This project will be done for 36 weeks. We also went into Bob to make sure we finished the definition for FORCE on page 26.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007 - Today was BUCKET GIRL day. In this activity we tried to move a bucket. The FORCE required to move the bucket was either a Push or a Pull. We collected books from 6-326.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 - Some classes worked on machines while others worked on Bucket Girl. We collected the Notebooks from 6-323.
Monday, September 24, 2007 - We began our unit on Building Big Things. Today we talked about Machines. We came up with a definition for Machines using a Think - Pair - Share method.
Friday, September 21, 2007 - Today we spent fixing up our Bob Science Notebooks. We have been going very fast and we needed to slow down a bit to make sure our journals were OK. Our Bob notebooks are being collected next week.
Thursday, September 20, 2007 - Our experiment today was all about writing a procedure that was easy to follow. We called it the Great Tomato Sauce Experiment. What a blast, our teachers were making a mess. We were telling our teachers what to do but they were making a mess. We needed to get realllllyyyy specific with our instructions. You can find the video on line at: Tomato Sauce Experiment - The VIDEO
Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - We were given a Science Textbook from a company called Glencoe (that is owned by McGraw Hill). We then worked on a scavenger hunt of our textbook called a Textbook tour. We were asked so much information about our books.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - We came up with a definition for Inference using a method called Think - Pair - Share. First I think about what the word might mean. I Pair up and let the others in my team hear what I wrote. We then share with the class and come up with a single definition for the class to use.
Monday, September 17, 2007 - We checked our Bob Notebooks to see if the five signatures were done (pages 1, 197, 198, 199 and 200) We then worked on an experiment on Inference or Hypothesis skills. We were given a sentence made with drawings called a Comic Strip. This three frame strip had a missing center frame. Our job was to use contect clues along with our powers of observation to figure out what the missing drawing was.
Thursday and Friday, September 13 and 14 - School Closed
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - We finished the Observation Experiments on pages 6, 7, 8 and 9.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007 - Everyone began to work on the experiment about Observing. We looked at a dollar bill and tried to remember where every little part belongs. It was not easy, because we see dollars all the time, but never took the time to observe it, study it so we could remember the details at a later time.
Monday, September 10, 2007 - Most classes went to the Auditorium today to hear the principal speak about how things happen in our school. She introduced all the Assistant Principals and Guidance Counselors. The classes looked for the e-Mail address sheet and library card from each student.
Friday, September 7, 2007 - (On Friday, We see all five of our classes) Today all classes set up their Bob Notebooks and Glued in their beginning of the year pages. If anyone has trouble understanding what to do, go to our class web page : www.armstrong227q.com/grambo and click on the link for the Bob Notebook.
Thursday, September 6, 2007 - (On Thursday, we see all five of our classes) We continued working on the Rules today. If we have forgotten to write down any rules, they are listed on the Bulletin Board next to Team Ones table.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007 - We started writing up rules for our classroom and then went on a tour of the room. We do not have to ask the adults in the room for every little thing (Like going to the rest room). We were shown the procedures so we can do most things by ourselves.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007- Today was the very first day of school for students. We found out a little about our class and were given a list of supplies. We also were given a phone list and were told we had to make a new e-Mail address for class and had to get a Library Card from the Public Library.
Thursday and Friday - August 30 and 31, 2007 The teachers came back to school and had meetings. We also were given time to Fix up our Classrooms.
ENTRIES for 2007-2008 School Year begin on August 30, 2007 |