Betty Marshall [Gregory School, 4th grade] Handout: Glue Goo, developed
by
Lynn Higgins [708] 447-6339
put the following items on the front table:
We mixed 4 parts of thinned glue to 1 part of borax solution, and began to knead a small amount of the mixture in our hands. After several minutes, we began to get the final form. We fine-tuned by adding small amounts of glue or borax, as appropriate.Then, some of us added a small amount of green food coloring to the mixture, so that our mixtures were either green, white, or somewhere in between. The mixture eventually stuck to itself, and ceased to stick to our hands. When we threw it onto the table, it would bounce a little, and then quiver. It could be shaped into a serpentine [snake-like] form, a ball, or whatever. The material form is called a polymer. Very nice, Betty!
Lori Fugate [Leland School, 2nd Grade] Handout: Dancing Raisins
gave each of us a small box [1/2 ounce] of raisins, and we made estimates as
to how many raisins were in the box, and then we counted the number of
raisins. Then we drew a bar graph of the number of people whose box had a
certain number of raisins:
Number of Occurrences
_|
_| X
_| X
_| X
10 __| X
_| X
_| X
_| X
_| X
5 __| X
_| X X
_| X X
_| X X
_| X X X X
|____X________X__X__X__X__________
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | |
25 30
Number of Raisins
Next we considered what happens to the raisins when we mix them with 7-UP™
Raisins sink since they are more dense than water. However, the 7-UP™ contains bubbles of CO2 that are less dense than water. These bubbles collect on the raisins, causing them to float. When they reach the surface, the bubbles pop and the raisins sink to the bottom again. The cycle is repeated. It works best with regular 7-UP™, rather than the diet variety. Also, it helps to shake up the 7-UP™ can before pouring it into the glass.
Thanks, Lori!
Jeanine Frazier [Pullman School] Volume
placed the following items on the front table
Scattered on the table, there were many sheets of paper with questions on them. For example:
We worked in groups of 2 or 3 to find the answers to these questions. Good work, Jeanine!
Notes taken by Earl Zwicker
Section B: [4-8]
Marva Anyanwu [Green School, K-8 Science Teacher] Aerodynamics
divided us into groups and set up each group to construct a wind tunnel,
using the following materials:
We built the wind tunnel by completing the following tasks:
The groups observed that the area of the shaped target was the most important feature, and that with shapes of the same area there was a smaller tilt with triangular shapes than rectangular shapes.
One group observed that, with the fan with a baffle in front, the straw tilted toward the fan when the fan was aimed directly at the target shape, indicating that air was actually flowing toward the fan in that case. When the fan was "off center" in relation to the target, there was indication of strong flow away from the fan. Also, the hair dryer produced a steady and uniform blast of air, which became quite warm in a few seconds.
Marva also handed out a sheet describing two additional exercises:
Very interesting, Marva!
Roy Coleman [Morgan Park HS] Puzzle
wrote the following pattern on the board:
| | | | | | | | |
| ____ | | | ____ | | ____ | | |
|| || || | | || ||| | |
____ ||____ || || | | || |||____ | |
|| | ||| || || | || | ?? ||
||____ | ||| ||____ || | ||____ | ||____
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
What should go in the region in which ?? is located? The answer is
based upon the pattern for displaying numbers on hand-held calculators, which
involves a display on which any of seven lines are present. The number 8
involves all seven lines whereas the number 4 has four lines and the
number 7 three lines, as shown:
____ ____
| | | | |
|____| |____| |
| | | |
|____| | |
Roy's pattern shows a complementary image, in which only the
"unlit" lines are shown. Let us put in the lighted lines by using the *
symbol:
| | | | | | | | |
**** | ____ | **** | **** | ____ | **** | ____ | **** | **** | ****
* *|| *|| *|| *|* *|* ||* ||| *|* *|* *
*____*||____*||*****||*****|******|*****||*****|||____*|******|******
* *|| *|* ||| *|| *|| *|* *|| *|* *|| *
******||____*|*****|||*****||____*||*****|******||____*|******||____*
| | | | | | | | |
Taking away the | symbols, and then replacing "*" by
"|" and "_" in the appropriate places, we obtain
the pattern:
____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | ____| ____| |____| |____ |____ | |____| |____|
| | | | | | | | | | | | |
|____| | |____ ____| | ____| |____| | |____| |
Porter Johnson [IIT] mentioned that the letter sequence o, t, t, f, f, ... is difficult to understand, until you realize that it is "shorthand" for the following:
one, two, three, four, five, ...
Roy Coleman asked why put the numbers in this order: 8, 5, 4, 9, 1, 7, 6, 3, 2, 0. The answer: alphabetical order:
eight, five, four, nine, one, seven, six, three, two, zero
Bernina Norton [Abbott School] Fractions with Egg Cartons
Take the bottom half of an egg carton, and divide it into the various parts
using 1 cm ´ 10 cm paper strips, being careful
not to split any egg
locations:
halves (6 / 12), thirds (4 / 12) , fourths (3 / 12), sixths (2 / 12)
Now take colored paper squares [about 3 cm ´ 3 cm] and put them in the egg locations to make the following fractions:
| 6/12 | 4/12 | 3/12 | 2/12 |
| Ý ß | Ý ß | Ý ß | Ý ß |
| 1/2 | 1/3 | 1/4 | 1/6 |
For example, here is the representation of the fraction 1/2 = 6/12:
| ¨ | ¨ | ¨ | ¨ | ¨ | ¨ |
Next she showed us how to teach addition of fractions using three egg cartons. The well-behaved class members got to perform this exercise using Hershey™ Chocolate Bar squares, whereas the rest of us used the paper squares. For calculating the sum 1/3 + 1/4, we filled 1/3 of the slots [4/12] in the first carton, and 1/4 of the slots [3/12] in the second carton, and then put all of the squares into the third carton [4/12 + 3/12 = 7/12]. Similarly, we used the egg cartons to show that
1/2 + 1/3 = 6/12 + 4/ 12 = 10/12 = 5/6.
Bernina gave us a handout that described making comparisons between fractions, such as 5/6 > 2/3, since 5/6 = 10/12 and 2/3 = 8/12, and 10/12 > 8/12, because there are more squares in the egg carton for 10/12 than for 8/12.
Neat-o!
Notes taken by Porter Johnson