Today students completed the 5 exploration activities set up to activate knowledge, skill, and questions concerning electricity.  They problem solved and worked diligently to record information and discuss their findings.  We observed that metals were conductors, but are all metals conductors?  We didn’t have a marble to test, but we substituted the glass portion of a bulb.  How can we research to confirm that glass is an insulator? We observe that in a circuit, a large nail increased the performance of a motor more than a circuit that included a paper clip.  Why?  Does the amount of a conductor increase the power of a current?  Does it increase the speed of the current?  Which influences the motor speed?

We discussed the process of designing experiments using a hypothesis, controls, dependent and independent variables, and constants.  How can we observe the outcomes informally?  Should we design a way to formally observe the outcome with data collection and analysis?

Finally, we considered a brief article from the Canadian Press, Windsor Star of Ontario about a historic power outage. You and your child can read more about this same event in the New York Times article, The Blockout of 2003.  What was the problem?  Were there implications for other systems?  What were the different points of view of those affected?

Looking forward to next week!

Mrs. Byrd

Photos from Day 3