Mrs. Brisbin's Science

This week is going by swimmingly.

In PE, Girls and Boys classes practiced circuit training. The circuit included wall sits, jumping up on the curb and then off again, arms straight out in a "T" making small forward or backward circles (depending on the station), jumping rope, jumping jacks, jogging in place with high knees, lunge steps, and holding a plank (top of a push-up) position. Oh yes, and there was one station for rest. Students spent one minute at each station and then had about 10 seconds to move to the next station. Good work everybody! This was challenging, and you did not give up!
...I am wondering if anyone will be sore tomorrow...

Reminder: Girls have yoga on Thursday.

In 6th grade science, we are studying heat and temperature. In class on Monday and Tuesday, we read chapter 6 section 2. In class today, we completed a lab activity about how molecules behave when they are heated or cooled. We  put one drop of food coloring in very cold ice water, room temperature water, and very hot water just off a boil. In the very cold water, the food coloring sunk straight to the bottom and remained in a puddle at the bottom of the jar. Isa pointed out that it looked like a jelly-fish. The food coloring did not turn all of the water pink. In the room-temperature jar, the food coloring spread out slowly, and over time, all of the water eventually turned pink. In the very hot water, the food coloring spread out super fast and all the water was pink within a blink of the eye! This experiment showed us that warmer molecules move faster or have more kinetic energy and colder molecules move slower and have less kinetic energy. We also measured the circumference of 3 balloons. One balloon was then kept at room temperature, one was put in a cooler full of ice, and one was blasted with a hair dryer. The circumference of the balloon in the cooler decreased by about 1cm, the circumference of the balloon blasted with heat increased by about 1cm, and the circumference of the balloon left at room temperature stayed the same. This experiment showed us that as you warm molecules they move further apart and when you cool molecules they move closer together! Cool!

Please remember to do a really amazing, awesome job answering the questions!

Tomorrow we are outside for another lab activity studying radiation (the transfer of heat through waves, in this case light waves from the sun).

8th Graders (and 7th graders) studied some relevant current events on Monday. Rio Rancho is facing the possibility of not having enough water to support its population in the future. To counteract this, the city is considering a "toilet to tap" program that will inject treated waste water back into the aquifer. Students wrote a one page response to a newspaper article chronicling these events using the article itself and the information they gained from the guest speaker from the water authority, their trip to Albuquerque's water reclamation plant, and information they have picked up from me or the documentary we watched last Friday. On Tuesday, we finished our lecture on fish and drew diagrams of cartilaginous fish (chondrichthyes) that illustrated all their differences from bony fish (osteichthyes). Some of these included denticles instead of ctenoid scales, a ventral mouth, a heterocercal tail, internal fertilization and live birth, a large fatty liver instead of a swim-bladder, and many more. On Wednesday, we took our chairs and books outside for a vocabulary quiz in the sun and a reading circle.

In 7th grade, we spent Tuesday doing one last fun invertebrates project. Students cut out names of phyla and a bunch of different characteristics describing organisms in the phyla. After grouping the characteristics into the proper phyla, everything was glued to construction paper and is now proudly displayed in the cafeteria! On Wednesday, we started talking about mitosis, which is the division of the eukaryotic cell nucleus.

P.S. Gnash says hi!