Whodunnit? - Week 2

Here is the crime scene for our second class, a case of Industrial Espionage in the test kitchen of a famous cookie manufacturer. The kids quickly noticed that a break in had occurred, that the safe with a coded message inside had been accessed with the tools left behind by the culprit. It's harder to see but on the table is an Alberti Cipher Wheel and on the floor a package of chocolate chips with R=G written on it with black marker.

We discussed the history of secret messages and tried our hand at a grid cipher (check out the NSA's site for kids for some great information on this topic). Then we constructed our own cipher wheels and went to work on decoding the secret message from the safe. The kids really enjoyed this activity. We may try some other kinds of ciphers next week.

Whodunnit? Week 1

I started a new unit entitled Whodunnit? which mixes activities centered around forensic science and the study of the Mystery genre. In searching the web for classroom ideas I found Whodunnit and decided to pattern a class after this site. I created the crime scene below for the students to study and process (my apologies to Yankees fans, but it is a crime in Massachusetts to be a Yankee fan). Pictured is some graffiti, a spray paint can, a hat, a pair of gloves, a newspaper clipping of the Red Sox which has been defaced, a sweat shirt, soda cans, candy wrappers and a set of keys. I asked the students what they thought had happened and who might be responsible. They had some great ideas. The hat, gloves and sweatshirt were worn because the perpetrator rode a motorcycle. He/she is a Yankee fan and hates the Red Sox. The perpetrator has been to Hawaii because the key chain is from there. He/she liked to eat candy and drink soda. All great observations.

Then we proceeded to process the crime scene. First we took photographs. Then I gave the students a sheet of paper with a grid (very conveniently, the floor is tiled and I taped off the exact number of corresponding squares) for them to draw out the crime scene. Then I had the students take turns coming into the crime scene with me to measure the distances between the items. Lastly, the students made labels (date, item, and detective's name) and we bagged up the evidence.

With the crime scene sheets we can work on some math concepts. The grid can be numbered and we will be able to talk about coordinate planes (i.e. at what coordinate pair is the spray can?) as well as use the measurements to create math problems (which two items are the furthest away or closest? What two items are 17 inches apart?).

Endangered Species Day May 11th - Update

In the most recent online newsletter of the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) I have found a link for Endangered Species Day to share with you. You will find a variety of useful information, activities, and print outs. Enjoy celebrating this important day with your class.

Count Down to the End of the School Year

Now that we are into the second week of May, summer vacation doesn't seem so far away anymore. My daughter's math teacher has counted down the days since day one. Last week, I substituted for a 5th grade teacher who has a great twist on counting down the days. On the first day of school he represents the day as 1/180, the second day is 2/180 or reducible to 1/90, and so on. Each day the students calculate the fraction of the school year completed. Mr. M. has each of the fractions listed on the wall. Today was the 151st day of the year, as a fraction of the total it is 151/180 and is not reducible. Great way to build math skills!

May 11th Endangered Species Day

Endangered Species Day is May 11th and here is an idea for studying about these animals. Recently my Cub Scout den earned their Wildlife beltloop, and we discussed the difference between endangered and extinct animals. We placed the boys into small groups and had them research an endangered animal and answer the following questions: where does this animal live, why is this animal endangered and what are people doing to help preserve this animal?
My co-leader Joanne then explained a game that she and her sons created one night at the dinner table. They were eating hot dogs made from turkey, beef and pork and Joanne wondered what kind of animal that is. They create the "beorky," a black and white spotted, pig headed and tailed, tiny winged creature that stood on two turkey like legs. This creature's call is "wobloink," it can perch in trees and beware of the cow patty-like excrement. So we asked the boys to choose two to three endangered animals and combine them to create a new creature. They then had to choose its name, call, habitat, diet and to draw a picture of what it would look like. Below is a "progzly" a cross between a panda, grizzly bear and cougar. It lives in temperate woodlands, eats salmon skewed on bamboo and makes a "GURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" sound. (Drawing by my son Matt)

Earth Day Update

I had clipped a list of Earth Day sites from the Boston Globe's weekly column Surfing the Net with Kids and couldn't find them the other day. In cleaning up my pile today I unearthed them just like a good archeologist would. Here they are since you could use some of them any day of the year.

1. EcoKids- a site from Canada's youth education program about the environment.
2. Kids Domain: Earth Day- this site gives a history behind the creation of Earth Day as well as games, activities, clip art and more.
3. Kids for Saving the Earth- this is a environmental kids' club created by Clinton Hill before his death from cancer at the age of 11. His mother is carrying on his mission to get kids involved in saving the planet.
4. NASA: Earth Science Enterprise: For Kids Only- NASA has created this site with information, lesson plans and games for teachers and students.
5. The Wilderness Society: Earth Day- photojournalist John Dunne's study of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Let's face it everyday should be Earth Day!

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Gum Drops and Toothpicks - Squares vs. Triangles

Recently in my after school Science with Everyday Objects class we tried out some engineering experiments. We discussed using squares versus triangles as basic building blocks for structures. Then the kids created their structures and we tested how well they could bear weight. We used books and toy cars as weights. The strongest structure held 6.5 pounds (as weighed on a kitchen scale)and could have gone on except we ran out of toy cars to pile on top. Then we tried spaghetti and marshmellos. Not as successful. The spaghetti was too brittle and broke when they tried working with it. The kids still had fun trying. See ZOOM for this and other building project ideas.

Ethanol Gasoline Additives

Today I filled my car for the first time with gasoline with the new Ethanol additive and started wondering how you could study this in the classroom. I went searching for information on the Web and here are a couple of good websites I found.

1. How Stuff Works - explains what gasoline additives are and their history starting with lead
2. Department of Energy - good description of ethanol and where it comes from

You can also do some neat experiments with Yeast (the producers of ethanol). Yeast are an important class of fungi and very helpful to humans. There are many other products besides ethanol that they help to produce (bread, yogurt, and cheese to name a few). Check out the following sites.

1. Yeast Experiments - for older students
2. KidWizard - for younger students and a way to study other by products of the fermentation process (i.e. carbon dioxide).
3. Herbarium - a similar experiment to the one above but with a twist. This experiment also provides a control sample. Put a drop of each solution on a microscope slide with some stain and compare the number of colonies from each sample.

Lastly, if you want to do some math related activities why not chart gasoline prices over a period of time (introduce students to Excel or other spreadsheet programs). Try to discover why there is such a fluctuation in prices (weather, war, politics, increase use due to summertime travel).

National DNA Day

April 25th is National DNA Day celebrating the completion of the Human Genome Project and the 50th anniversary of the description of DNA's double helix. There will be online Webcasts from the National Human Genome Research Institue see http://www.genome.gov/DNAday.

Classroom ideas for studying DNA:

1. visit TryScience:
   http://www.tryscience.org/experiments/experiments_begin.html?dna
2. visit Origins at Exploratorium:
   http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins/coldspring/index.html
3. visit OLogy at the American Museum of Natural History:
   http://ology.amnh.org/genetics/index.html - this site includes several ideas for off-line projects to do in the classroom like DNA in a blender and a DNA model.

Girl Scouting-Studio 2B has a new interest patch which includes an activity for extracting DNA from fruit which you can do in the kitchen (or classroom for that matter). See http://www.studio2b.org/lounge/gs_stuff/ip_evidence.asp for activity directions.

Earth Day 2006

With Earth Day coming up, my Cub Scout den recently participated in our town's annual Spring Clean-Up. To extend the boys' learning about the impact of pollution on our environment we read Lynne Cherry's A River Ran Wild, the history of the Nashua River which runs through our community. (Lynne's site is http://www.lynnecherry.com and she has several other nature related titles.) You can visit http://www.nashuariverwatershed.org to learn more about this environmental project.
In the classroom students can learn more about the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts by visiting http://www.epa.gov/r5water/cwa.htm for older students and http://www.epa.gov/kids for elementary aged students.
There are many ways for students to extend their learning of how pollution impacts our lives and health. Some research topics could include: increasing asthma rates in urban areas, ground water contamination, communities with unusually high cancer rates, the impact of bottle bills, recycling efforts and products made from recycled materials, global warming, alternative fuels, and the list goes on.
It is important to remind students that science isn't only something to study, but something to be lived.