Spring SAVY 2020: Day 2 – Environmental Explorations: Dig It! (K)

Posted by hallep on Tuesday, February 18, 2020 in Grade K, SAVY.

After getting our lab shirts and personalizing them to represent us as scientists, we were ready to spin our learning using the Wheel of Scientific Investigating and Reasoning!

Last week, we observed that change happened with our wind experiment, but how could we apply these observations we made with other situations where there is change? Well, we brainstormed, in small groups, situations where we thought change happened overall, and “oh my” did we come up with many! It was like a fountain without an end. As we brainstormed ideas, we wrote them on strips of paper. Then, when we were finished, we applied what we had talked about earlier, categories, and as groups, we sorted our ideas and gave them category names such as Nature and Not Nature, Seasons/Time; Plants, and School. Next week we will take this thinking to other ideas that will complete our thoughts of change. Change is everywhere, Change relates to time, Change can be natural or manmade, and Change may be random or predictable.

When we received a plea for help from a geologist located on Queen Anne’s Island regarding environmental chaos, we jumped right on it! First of all, we had to learn about natural resources, and how they are categorized as renewable or non-renewable. We learned that renewable natural resources are produced in nature so they can never be used up, which include wind, waves, air, plants, animals, and sun, and nonrenewable resources are available in limited amounts and include coal, natural gas and oil. To help us understand how we must all conserve natural energy resources, we read a book called Common Ground, by Molly Bang, and then we went on a walk around the grounds to identify natural resources and things that were not natural resources but use natural resources! We brought our science journals with us so we could write and draw our observations,

Before closing our day, we wanted to conduct another experiment, this time, about the sun’s energy because we read another book, called My Light, by Molly Bang, where we learned how the sun makes the energy that produces our electricity using water, heat with the use of turbines, generators and copper wires! Our experiment was with bottles painted either black or white and the use of balloons. We formulated our hypothesis, of which color bottle would absorb or store the most of the sun’s energy. Next, we observed closely. We will check the results next week!

Here are some discussion starters for you and your young scientist this week:

• Do you think your hometown may have similar environmental concerns as Queen Anne’s Island (polluted water sources, eroded farmland, poor air for breathing from traffic and industry), why or why not?
• What are some ways your family could use solar energy at home? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using this energy source at home?

Next week is our last week for Spring SAVY. The parent Open House is from 2:15-2:45, in our classroom. Be on the lookout for more details about open house in your parent email this week. We are excited to show you what we have been doing!

See you all on Saturday,

Mrs. Tyson