Summer SAVY, Session 4 Day 1, “Solving the Chemical Spill: Navigating Ecological and Chemical Systems” (5th-6th)
Dear Parents,
This is a delightful group! Today, the students had fine insights, ideas, and questions regarding the chemical spill. We started the morning playing a few science games in order to get to know each other. Then, we discussed what it means to be a scientist.
The students were introduced to our corrosive chemical spill in downtown Nashville at the Cumberland River. We used the scientific method and tested the effects of “substance A” and “substance B” on items found at the scene (plants, metal, fabric, plastic, glass, etc.). We hypothesized about the substances and will be monitoring the items in these containers all week.
The class learned about living and non-living things, systems, and the interconnected people, animals, and plants involved in the chemical spill. This afternoon, we discovered a “smudged” invoice (with missing details) from Coleman Chemicals and discussed the financial implications of a spill, and the various stakeholders and perspectives involved.
Dinner table questions:
- What can you tell me about the chemical spill?
- What happened in today’s experiment?
- What did you contribute to the discussion, games, or activities today?
- What is something you learned from a classmate?
- Who was your lab partner, and how did you work together?
- We look forward to tomorrow!
Tomorrow we will be doing more experiments, and one involves pennies. We’d love it if your students could bring pennies (the dirtier the better) to use in our experiment. (Please don’t send valuable pennies; just 1-cent pennies.)
We look forward to tomorrow!
Warmly,
Ms. Elizabeth and Ms. Sharon
