Let's learn about earthquakes!

P-waves, S-waves, surface waves?  What does that mean?

Check out this wonderful video by the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology:

Say tuned for our slinky earthquake lesson!

video credit:  IRIS

Math in our world

Math is all around us.  From a child's point of view so many moments in nature, at the grocery store, on the drive home - are experiences that they can stop and observe numbers, patterns, shapes, and rules.  This article by Deborah Farmer Kris describes ways to engage the innate creativity of children as they view our mathematical world.

Using Creativity to Boost Young Children's Mathematical Thinking

Let's build a planet!

As part of our STEAM program, each student will be able to invent a planet that they discovered.  There are no rules on what the planet needs to look like, everyone's planet can be different.  Each month they will be able to revisit their planet and apply their new science knowledge to their description of their planets weather, moons, habitats, food sources, animals, clothing, ...  Check out some of the planets that they have already created!

Woodlawn Planets

Exoplanets - 500 and counting

So far we have discovered over 500 exoplanets.  Here is an amazing poster by Martin Vargic that shows 1/4 of the confirmed exoplanets arranged by temperature (left to right increase in temperature) and density (bottom to top increase in density)

For every action

there is an equal and opposition reaction

- Newton's Third Law

The Woodlawn third graders are learning how the force from a simple kick can change the motion and direction of a soccer ball.  They also observed that the soccer ball does not keep rolling forever; other forces try to slow down the ball - friction, gravity, and the push of the classroom wall.  We practiced these words in the classroom with the fun game 'snapshot' where the student teams had to act out a vocabulary work in front of the class

Using their new vocabulary words, the class were ready to test Newton's Third Law with stomp rockets.  Each student was able to set up the rocket launcher, apply force with their foot on the rocket pad, and observe and measure the equal and opposite reaction of the rocket flight.  By the end of the class each student was able to predict which angle could make the rocket fly the furthest, either vertically or horizontally.

On the second day the class was able to measure a smaller 'reaction rocket' in the classroom and record the height of the rocket flight from different drop points.  We graphed their results and could make a hypothesis as to how high a rocket could fly from a 2m drop!

Check out more photos of our 3rd grade Woodlawn Rocket Launchers!

Just in time for Halloween!

It's as if the universe itself was trying to get into the Halloween spirit.

A large space rock resembling a skull narrowly missed Earth shortly after 1 p.m. ET Saturday. NASA says asteroid 2015 TB145 is a "dead" comet that once spewed debris across the solar system. In NASA terminology, that means it has "shed its volatiles" that would produce the visible tail seen on some comets.

It missed Earth by about 300,000 miles (slightly farther away than the moon). The rock, dubbed 2015 TB145, was visible to those with good telescopes.

Gianluca Masi, astrophysicist and curator of science at Planetario di Roma, featured a live stream through the Virtual Telescope Project in order to track the asteroid as it cruised by Earth. "I always like looking at those close approachers," he told CNN. "They (show that) we do live in such dynamic solar system, where collisions play such a big role in shaping planets, Earth included.

"Now we are aware of those brushing visitors and are studying them, but in ancient times they had such strong effects on life and evolution on this planet," he said.a