Week of February 9-13

5th grade worked incredibly hard and made great progress with our Passion Projects this week. Each class was able to begin research based around our essential question. Students worked hard to find out where and who to gather information from in order to learn more about their global topic. Our real challenge was to find a local source of information and begin to draft a letter to them in hopes to gather insight from a professional in their specific field. Because we won’t meet on February 16 due to Presidents’ Day we had to switch gears towards the end of our time together and think about pitching our project to an audience. We watched a few great examples for inspiration and began to plan the outline for our own “Pitch”.

5th grade HW:

Due 2/16: Primary Source Letter emailed to Ms. Maline for review

Due 2/23: Completed Pitch Template (both front and back of template)

4a and 4b had the chance to see firsthand how different a food chain is from a food web. Each student was assigned a role from a Pacific Northwest ecosystem. We worked as a class to determine whether the role was a PRODUCER, CONSUMER, or DECOMPOSER. We then made an actual food web to show the connections between all living things in an ecosystem. The part that wowed us the most was the link between each role and the river. This helped us visualize the impact that an oil spill would have on the ENTIRE ecosystem. Then, we had the chance to watch a clip about the Yellowstone National Park and the impact of wolves on the ecosystem and the river. (http://youtu.be/ysa5OBhXz-Q) We had a little competition to see who could create the best version of the effects the wolves had on the park. The winners loved their prizes!

4a and 4b’s HW was to read an article about the addition of a larger underground oil pipeline and choose a side; either for or against the building. Then, write a persuasive lesson to convince your audience to join your side. Students need to keep in mind the effects of another potential oil spill and the wolf clip to see the positive and negative impact it could have on the environment.

4c finally got to test different materials and methods for cleaning up an oil spill! We spent time exploring methods/materials that would either contain or remove oil from a body of water. In small groups we then tested out each one to see how effective they were. We got some great results but also some not so great results. We have a lot more work to do in making and designing an effective plan for cleaning up an oil spill but are ready to use the Engineering Design Process to guide us to the answer!

4c’s HW was to research other ways to deal with an oil spill, especially with chemical dispersants. After you have done the research, determine the advantages and disadvantages to chemical dispersants. Finally, research one natural dispersants and list its advantages and disadvantages.

3a and 3b used their plans for an improved water filter from last week to “purchase” their materials and create their own water filters! We were able to test all filters that were made and were impressed by the results! After testing the filters we worked to, yet again, improve each design to target specific criteria (cost, time, color, or particle removal). When we meet next we will use our plans to re-build an even better water filter.

3c has just begun the Engineering Design process with a new problem in mind by asking, “How can we filter drinkable water, at an affordable cost?” We are working on improving the filters we created last week to ensure that this time materials are used and combined to be most effective. Individually, students imagined several filter ideas and then in small groups began to collaborate and plan how each component of the filters would work. When we meet next we are going to use the pricing guide to help figure out how affordable each filter is and finally get to create each unique filter! I know we can’t wait to test our designs!

3rd grade HW was to bring in 5 trivia game cards. We will compile all of the questions/answers and play a Water Filter Jeopardy Game in the upcoming weeks! Make your questions tricky but based off classwork, articles read and past HW assignments.