Acid Candy Test

Wow...we had so much fun with this today! Thanks again to my friend Sherrie Roland for sharing this with me in a time of need!!!

First I read from the Seeds of Science book and YouTube video clips that I posted on the blog yesterday. Then we explored our candy!
 I bought a huge pack of Wonka candy.... with Nerds, BottleCaps, Sweet Tarts and Laffy Taffy in it.  We were able to see a reaction with all of the candy types except for the banana flavored Laffy Taffy.  I wonder if it wasn't sour enough?


The reason for the reaction?  Sour candy is made with citric acid from fruits like lime/lemons.  When you mix the candy diluted in water with baking soda, it emits a gas.  It only emits the gas if it encounters an acid.

We made a lot of observations - we noticed that a lot of the food coloring from the candy was diluted in the water.  We noticed that the baking soda sunk and made clumps on the candy.  We noticed many bubbles. Nerds made the most bubbles. 

 Here is how I set up the materials.  I put the baking soda in the bowl with three spoons.  I had a measuring cup with water in it and clear glasses.  I also put the collection of candy on the tray.   For listening purposes, we stated the directions one at a time:
1.  Get a clear cup
2. Pick your candy
3. Pour the water in (you may want an adult to do this)
4. Put in a spoonful of baking soda.
5. Watch and Observe


After it was completed, we graphed our results according to the candies chosen.  In this rotation, all the candies had a reaction.

It was a fun day!  I did this five times - with five different classes for our "Math/Science Day". 

Hope you will enjoy it too!

Science Activity for Halloween

When I was at the conference, I learned a new activity from the Seeds of Science Website.  It involves using the book Handbook of Interesting Ingredients to introduce that even candy has some interesting ingredients for flavoring! 

There are several activities on the link below for using candy for science. 


M&M chromatography
Did you know you can separate the dyes used to color candy? All you need is a glass of water, a piece of candy, and some coffee filter paper. To find out more, click here.

Floating M's and S's
Some candy logos float in water. To find out how to float M's and S's, click here.

Acid Test
The sour taste in candy is caused by acid. Here's how you can use baking soda to test your candy for acid.

I am planning on doing the Acid Test tomorrow.  I am using a large bag of Wonka Candy (we just finished the read aloud of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.)  That bag has sweet tarts, laffy taffy,  nerds and bottle caps.  My son and I tested them at home and found that they all produced bubbles but some produced more than others. 

To do this test, you need clear cups, wonka candy, water and baking soda.  You will put the candy in the water and then add a tsp of baking soda.  If there is citric acid in the candy, it will bubble.  Fun huh?

I will link up some pictures tomorrow to show how we graphed it and any anchor charts that we used.

For more information go to
http://seedsroots.schoolspecialty.com/post/Halloween-Candy-Experiments!.aspx

I recommend you "like" them on facebook because they are always sharing cool things there!

NSTA experiences!

Wow...what a day!  I have completely loved learning all about the 3rd edition of FOSS - Full Option Science System.  A few of the changes include:  Smart board Resources, Science Notebooking embedded in the daily lesson plans, daily formative assessments that are focused and on point, outside activities for all investigations, streaming videos that match the curriculum, new revamped science stories with high quality non-fiction, and so much more!  If your district is getting ready to adopt in the coming year (2012) then pay close attention to the new FOSS modules.  I know we are hoping in Virginia to adopt it in many counties!

Here are a few pictures of the event:





Tonight I am going to a VIP event for Seeds of Science with David Pearson.  I am super excited about that!
Oh, and I found the company that I bought the crystal scarecrow from - Educational Innovations.  They had a Christmas tree and a snowman.  I  bought a snowman for later....although, the chance of snow is high tonight in Hartford.

NSTA REGIONAL CONFERENCE

I am on my way to the NSTA regional conference in Hartwood Conneticut with my science gal Sherrie to learn more about FOSS 3rd edition.  I am attending three days of workshops to learn more about FOSS's new editions as well as attending a VIP event with the Seeds of Science team and Dr. David Pearson.  I can't wait to come back and blog about what I learn.  Maybe I will even have a moment to blog while I am there!  If not, see you in a few days....

Mystery Scarecrow..

From time to time, I just wanna have fun! Today was one of those days.  Last year I bought this Halloween scarecrow from a science catalog on clearance and actually held on to it until now.... I knew it would grow crystals, but wasn't sure if my students would.

So I brought it out at 9;30 during morning meeting and asked the kids what they thought would happen if I poured the mystery liquid into the basin of the scarecrow.  I got responses like:  it will explode (remember the mentos?), it will change colors, it will fly off, it will cause a chemical reaction of some sort...

I put the liquid in, and we made a time line during the day.  This is what it looked like:

Nothing glamorous or huge, just a simple time line where we recorded our observations.  After lunch, I decided to name the "fuzzy things" that were growing so the kids were know they were crystals. 

It was a fun, engaging activity that we made notes on during transition times.  The end result?

Happy Halloween....

Turning your observations into a paragraph....

We have spent several days observing animal pictures, video clips and even real crayfish!  Now I wanted the kids to turn their observations into a paragraph - an integrated writing experience. (We used the photo cards from the Variations and Adaptations kit from Seeds of Science and lesson 2.5. )

First we introduced a claim statement: A ------------------- has many adaptations that help it survive in it's habitat. That would become our topic sentence for our paragraph.

Then we brainstormed three adaptations for each animal and how it helps them survive. 

And then we talked about closing statements - need to wrap it up and stay on topic.

Next the students wrote and illustrated a paragraph that I could then grade for composing, written expression and usuage and mechanics as well as science content. 

Here are some samples:

Crayfish time...

This week we have been knee deep in studying behavioral and structural adaptations in animals. We have watched video clips, looked a picture cards and played games.  We have (admittedly) been mixing and mashing from FOSS and Seeds of Science as well as some other resources.  But that's Virginia - our curriculum just doesn't always flow.

Today, we observed the real deal - a live crayfish. 

Taken from the unit "Structures of Life" by FOSS we spent some time with our crayfish.  We started by looking at the body in this book "Investigating Crayfish."   This book is an awesome story about testing the environment of the crayfish to see whether he prefers gray rocks (to match his color) or white rocks.  It also has an excellent example of a diagram of a crayfish.

I put it up on the document camera so that we could really see the names of the structures on our crayfish.  Then I introduced the real guys in small basins of water.  Each science group (four -five kids in each) got on crayfish and a recording sheet to observe BOTH structural and behavioral adaptations.  I will admit, I let this lesson last longer than my allotted 45 minute time slot...but it was so worth it!

The kids were so excited to observe them, touch them and watch them explore.  We have had them as 'class pets' for two months now, but something about getting them out of the habitat made it more exciting.

Here is the recording sheets.  We absolutely loved it!