Our Minibeast Display!
Water Filtration Update!
After much thought and planning, groups were given their materials and they experimented combining the materials to try to turn dirty water into clean. They were given soil, sand, pebbles, a beaker and funnel (could be a coke or water bottle cut in half), a rubber band (could be a bit of vine or a piece of thread from clothing) and a coffee filter (could be a piece of clothing). The groups were told they needed to use every item together to clean the water. A lot of the groups mixed the sand, soil and pebbles together. Most groups realised that the coffee filter had really small holes and could be used as the last line of filtration, thereby attaching it to their funnel. We quickly realised that the sand had a pretty high clay content as it was clumping together when the water was added and not allowing much water to pass through. In the end, the team led by Max (Matthew, Zahia, Kiara and Hope) were able to get water through their funnel (without the coffee filter) and it came through fairly clean. We believe the reason for this is that they didn't mix the sand, soil and pebbles as much and they had the pebbles as the last line of filtration which is the recommended method for filtering water with these materials. Well done!
Survivorman!
For our HSIE unit 'The Need for Shelter', we watched some clips from the show 'Survivorman.' The concept of the show is similar to Bear Grylls however the survivor, Les Stroud, is dropped into isolated places completely alone. The only company he has is his camera and sometimes (if he's lucky) some basic provisions. We also read an extract from the novel Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. The book is about a 13 year old boy who survives a plane crash and is left stranded in the Canadian woods.
Not only is shelter important in survival situations but so is fire and water. We watched Survivorman make fire from sticks, however clean drinking water can be harder to find in a survival situation. Mrs McArthur has challenged us, in cooperative learning groups, to develop a water filtration device that can clean dirty water, using materials found in a survival situation; soil, sand, pebbles, a beaker and funnel (could be a coke or water bottle cut in half), a rubber band (could be a bit of vine or a piece of thread from clothing) and a coffee filter (could be a piece of clothing). Stay tuned for our findings! |
Rain in a Cup
As part of our Science unit 'Water Works' we created rain in a cup. All we needed was a cup of water, shaving cream on top and a dripper with blue food dye. We started with a couple of drops of food dye and not much happened. Then we added more drops and it began to rain! We continued to add drops and as the 'clouds' became heavier the rain really started to come down. Finally we jiggled our cups a little bit to simulate wind or a storm. It was really cool to watch all the changes.
Schoolyard Safari
Last Wednesday 1/2J went on a Schoolyard Safari. We explored different habitats situated around the oval. We searched for Minibeasts in grass, on trees, in the herb garden, on the fence, and around the mulch pit. We found ants, snails, bees, ladybugs, flies, spiders and even a cocoon! We really enjoyed searching with our magnifying glasses and recording our findings.