Mrs. Hall’s Science Class
Earlier this year, the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders learned about the renewable resource of wind and how wind turbines can harness this resource. After watching some informational videos, researching wind turbines on the internet, and reading some additional wind turbine information, the students started building their wind turbines. Groups of students had to first agree to the material in which to build their blades and then on the design. After many trials, the groups were able to produce energy from wind! They transferred their wind energy to turn on lights, make another small fan turn, and build up energy in a small super capacitor. To cap off our wind energy study, a Project Manager from Iberdrola Renewables visited our classroom to discuss wind energy and wind turbines even further. The middle grades certainly learned a lot from our hands-on experience with our mini wind turbines!
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| Two 8th graders were checking the amount of volts that their turbine was producing. |
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| Two seventh graders are adjusting their turbine blades. |
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| A project manager from Iberdrola Renewables watches as two students test their wind turbine. |
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After learning about the steps involved in the Scientific Method, the middle school students were ready to apply what they learned! The students not only studied plant life, but also organized and performed experiments with plants. In a 28 day period, they planted their Brassica Rapa plants, added a variable to their test plant, developed a hypothesis, made observations, collected data, analyzed their data, harvested seeds, and communicated their results.
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| Students focus hard while planting the tiny Brassica Rapa seeds. |
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| Recording detailed observations and measurements is important! |
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Cells: The Basic Unit of Life
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| The sixth graders studied cells. Throughout this unit, they developed their microscope skills to look at onion cells, plant cells, cheek cells, and micro-organisms found in pond water. They partnered these investigations with the study of both plant and animal cells.
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Electricity and Electromagnetism
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The seventh and eighth graders have been studying electricity and electromagnetism this year as well. Throughout the unit, they have built electroscopes, experimented with static electricity, built a simple series circuit and a parallel circuit, created a circuit with a switch, and made an electromagnet. During Christmas time, they made a quiz board that incorporated a series circuit. The quiz board had questions and answers that when one wire touched the correct answer to the question, a light turned on! The students visited both the first and second graders to test their Christmas knowledge. They loved it when the light lit up!!
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