A project begins

In the Elementary classroom, I started a project to graph day length and solar energy output (in my new home solar photovoltaic unit) for the duration of the school year. I introduced the big posterboard which will ultimately have about 35 weeks' data on it. Now it has just one dot and a lot of empty space. Nobody seemed to know what I was starting here, which is just fine with me. I'll let it become clear slooowwwly as the data points are filled in. I figure each week I'll have a different volunteer to actually put the dot on the graph - - that should be fun.

Also, it turns out that the math problem "how many minutes of daylight did we have today, if the sun rose at 7:14a and set at 7:32p" is a pretty tough one for elementary school. I'll decompose it to its component parts and let it settle in over a week or two.

Or, heck, I could make a Worksheet out of it.

Somebody asked about sweat last week, so I brought in a book with a really neat diagram of a sweat duct and pore. This is a recurring theme. You ask a question: next week a library book shows up. Parents: if you haven't been to the library lately, go check out the science section of the Juvenile book shelves. The quality of science writing and publishing has skyrocketed since you were a kid. Remember those dry, condescending, poorly illustrated science books they used to have? Those are gone, gone, gone! Today's kid science books are terrific. The photos are spectacular, the facts are well presented, there is good depth.

It was from this week's Kid Science library book that I learned how to get skin cells onto a microscope slide, using a magic marker and a piece of scotch tape. The brown color is from the magic marker and makes it easier to find and focus on the skin cells. This slide was prepared during class and everybody saw this image (the microscope is wired to a large TV monitor).

There was a good discussion about Hurricane Ike; I brought in satellite photos showing the storm Bigger Than Texas.

I did not bring in a ringing crystal wineglass, which definitely was a faux pas, since we had talked about them the week before ("how can a singer smash glass?"). Naturally your children let me know in a firm but friendly way that I had omitted something. Firm but friendly translates to, good grief! I'd better not forget again!

In the K class we also talked about Hurricane Ike. The library books for K were about the moon, because of last week's question about moon rocks. Also I brought in a demonstration of how craters form.

Here is the moon's surface, also known as a lunch cooler filled with dry grout.

Close-up view:

And here is the moon's surface, cratered after being pelted by meteors, otherwise known as driveway pebbles dropped by seventeen small hands.

Here's one of those moments of delight: We talked about the moon being waterless. One student was clearly puzzling over several elements at once: hurricane clouds are wet, hurricane clouds are high above us, the moon is dry, the moon is high above us. You can tell he figured it out and found the way to make all the facts fit together properly, because he raised his hand to ask, "So. . . the moon must be higher than the clouds, right?".

Perfect.