Welcome to a year of Grade 5
Science! I hope you are as excited to
learn about Science as I am to teach
it!
Grade 5 Science covers 5 units.
- Wetland Ecosystems
- Weather Watch
- Classroom Chemistry
- Electricity and Magnetism
- Mechanisms Using Electricity
Classroom Chemistry is now in full swing. We are experts on solids, liquids, and gases!
Chemical testing.
We had a Dental Health presentation in April. Here we are with purple teeth. We had a lot of fun and laughs over this.
Here our question was " Can other liquids besides water be used to dissolve solids?" We placed a gummy bear in cream soda and blue kool aid.
Day one
Here are our victims!
day 2 - here is the red gummy bear that was placed in cream soda. It so far has expanded and gained a deeper colour of red.
Day 2 - Here is the orange gummy bear sitting beside an original gummy bear. The orange one has expanded and taken the blue colour of the kool aid.
Day one 
Day 2
This week a super saturated suger/water solution was made to see if we could produce sugar crystals. We know that once the solution starts to cool and evaporate the sugar will leave the spaces of the solution and collect on the pipe cleaner. In the end we will have grown sugar crystals.
April 2, 2012
This week Classroom Chemistry was all about surface tension. We put a drop of water, canola oil, and rubbing alcohol on a piece of wax paper and observed the difference between them. After observing each drop we noticed that the water stayed in a nice little bubble on the wax paper where the rubbing alcohol and oil spread out in a puddle. We discovered that the water molecules at the surface are very cohesive (sticky). At the end we dropped dish soap on the water bubble. The bubble instantly became a puddle due to the soap breaking the surface tension.
March 26th and 27th
Saturation!!!
Day 3. 
Day 7
Here are salt crystals that we grew on BBQ briquettes. We mixed salt, vinegar, ammonia, and water together. The solution was poured over top of the briquettes.
Here we are stiring our solute (sugar) into our solvent (water) Which one do you think will become saturated more quickly?
We have decided that Classroom Chemistry is hard work. Especially since we have to be very neat when filling in a lab report. So far we have learned all about mixtures as well as solutions and suspensions.
Here are some photos of us mixing some solids with other solids and then separating them.
Here we are using air to separate light solids from heavy solids. Our materials are paper and rocks but we figured that we would use this in real life during harvest when a combine separates the plant from the seeds.
Here we are separating sawdust from paperclips using a magnet. We think that this might come in handy if we were building a house and wanted to pick up any fallen nails.
This is sand and gravel mixed together. We are using a sieve to separate the two parts. We thought this would be useful in the kitchen to separate pasta noodles from water.
Here we are separating a mixture of many different types of seeds. It was NOT the best way to separate the parts. So we discovered that there is a variety of methods that may be used and we should choose wisely.
Previous Unit:
Weather Watch!!!!!
During Gym class we have been using the Arena for the month of January to skate. There have been some falls but there have been more smiles. Thanks to Mr. DeWinter for setting us up with some drills to practice our skating and help us to get better!
The grade fives made barometers to test the pressure in the air. This was a fun experiment because we needed chewed gum to complete the experiment. So we all got to blow some bubbles in class. The grade 5s thought it would be cool if they could chew gum all the time!
On December 7th and 8th we constructed our very own anemometers. We now know an anemometer is an instrument used to measure the speed of the wind. Here we are outside testing our devices.
Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of wind to test our anemometers. However, we were glad for a break from the wind!
Here is a picture of a real anemometer outside our classroom window that is connected to our weather station inside. We were excited because now we know what that thing is for!!
Experiment: Does air rise when it is heated?
Answer... Oh Ya!
SLE # 2 --Describe patterns of air movement, in indoor and outdoor environments, that result when one area is warm and another area is cool.
Here we are testing our hypothesis of "Yes air rises". We held a paper spiral over a light bulb at different heights. As the spiral was raised it spun less. This shows that the warm air disperses the higher it goes. We had to work as a team to find our results. One person held the spiral, another member measured, while the last helper timed for 30 seconds.
Experiment: Does water heat up as fast as sand?
Using a thermometer to measure the temperature of 100 ml of water after it has had some time under the heat lamp's rays.
Experiment: Does water heat up as fast as sand? Here we are taking the temperature of 100ml of sand and water every 10 minutes after is has soaked up some heat lamp rays!
Specific Learner Expectation # 10 - Recognize that weather systems are generated because different surfaces on the face of Earth retain and release heat at different rates.
October 27th - Today we talked about how all organisms interact within a wetland ecosystem. If one thing is removed it affects the whole ecosystem. We decided that we don't want anything to be harmed or removed so that the ecosystem stays healthy. This picture is showing us making a web of a wetland. We had a lot of discussion on what interacts with what!
Previous Unit:
Experiment:
Observe dead leaves in wetland water as well as
in tap water over time.
Hypothesis:
1) Leaves will decompose in wetland water faster
then in tap water.
2) Leaves will decompose in tap water faster than
in wetland water.
The first picture I took was on day 4. Sorry! However, the tap water which is the jar on the left started out crystal clear with bubbles up the sides due to the oxygen in the water. The wetland water was murky and the grade 5s decided NOT fit to drink! The leaves were placed in both jars and left for observation. On day 4 we conducted our 2nd observation and have discovered that the tap water is no longer crystal clear. There seemed to be no observable change in the wetland water. Stay tuned!!
October 26, 2011 - Day 13. The water is getting rather murky. The tap water on the left is getting more colour. The wetland water on the right is getting considerably darker.
October 26, 2011 the stems have been detached from the leaves.
October 26, 2011 an overhead photograph of wetland water. Similar to the tap water, the stems have detached.
November 1, 2011 - Slight change, We are afraid all of the water is going to evaporate!
November 1, 2011 Wetland Water
November 1, 2011 Tap Water
November 7th 2011
November 21, 2011
A month later our leaves are still around. However, they are looking fairly gross. The wetland weather is of course on the right and the tap water is on the left.
December 8th 2011 - Well we decided it was time to exterminate our leaf decomposition experiment. We decided a long time ago that the pond water was decomposing faster. The wetland water turned darker rather quickly. We figure this is a good thing because a wetland helps to clean up all the dead stuff around us. Thanks Wetland Ecosystems! This unit of study has been interesting =)
* On September 28th, we embarked on a field study to the Magrath Fish Pond. Our task was to catch and release, observe, and record our organism findings. After we filled out our Science log we went on a hike to get some exercise!
A VERY close observation!
Hard at work
Collaborating!