Aloha e 5th Graders,
I would appreciate your feedback on the solar boat project. Click on the links below to get to the surveys that I would like you do complete. Thank you for all your hard work and participation!
Mahalo, Mrs. Chang
Congratulations to all the 5th graders who participated in the 6th Annual Solar Boat Regatta today at Hilo Intermediate school. You did it! You got all your boats to run and it looked like you had a lot fun doing it.
Special congratulations as you were awarded the Community Contributor Award. I’m most proud of you for this award. This award it giving to the school who demonstrates teamwork, cooperation, school spirits and the spirit of Aloha.
Other awards included Best Use of Recycled Materials to Naniloa, Cherelle, and Ka`ohinani and Best Engineering to Kyra, Tabitha, and Malia. Congratulations!
April 22 is known as EARTH DAY all over the world. Earth Day is a day we remind ourselves to take care of the earth for future generations. What could you do today to help our planet’s future?
I hope that you will review these videos to remind you about Earth Day.
Earth Day Games from PBS
The first graders have been preparing for a special unit that they will be a part of next year as second graders. This project will be a unit on the Native Hawaiian Rainforests. As an introduction to this project, a special guest, Chris Wong, gave a presentation on the native `ōhi`a lehua tree, one of the main trees that make up a native Hawaiian rainforest.
As a follow-up to Uncle Chris’s presentation, the first graders observed how to plant the `ōhi`a lehua tree. These two trees will represent the first graders and will be part of the project next year. Yesterday, Uncle Chris returned and graciously brought an orange lehua tree for us to plant. So now we will have an orange and a red `ōhi`a tree. Also helping us was Uncle Kaimi who dug the holes and helped install the tree carefully. Kumu Crabbe also shared his mana`o on the tree parts, chanted and provided a pule over the trees, students and the project.
I look forward to continuing this project next year as well as the years to come. Mahalo to Chris Wong, Greg Ho, Kumu Kaleo, Kumu Littrell and Kumu Crabbe for all your support.
Aloha e 5th Graders,
Iʻve been getting many questions regarding page 4 of the solar boat packet. So Iʻve put together more information and resources on the blog. On the top menu bar there is a section called “Solar Boat Resources”. I have updated the sections on ʻenergy transferʻ and ʻenergy sourcesʻ. Please use it to help you.
Also, click HERE for another great visual resource. It is an illustration summary of energy. It has cool graphics, information, diagrams that you can interact with. Check it out to help you with your solar boat packet reflection questions.
Thank you to the ones who emailed me with questions and concerns. I appreciate you taking the initiative to ask and seek help. All the best!
Mrs. Chang
So very excited to see the new Next Generation Science Standards. Hear it will be released next week.
What happens when hot meets cold? Just ask the fourth graders. In exploring thermal energy, the students conducted a simple experiment called hot meets cold. In this experiment, the students observed two jars, one with hot water and one with cold water. They placed them into a container of water, poked a hole in each jar and waited to see what would happen.
Many of the students explained to me that they saw the hot water (red water) move upward and the cold water (blue water) move to the bottom. One students explained that the blue water is going down because it is denser or heavier than the hot water, which is lighter. Another student compared it to being in the ocean. He explained that when hanging out in the water, he sometimes feel the cold water on the bottom and the warmer water at the top. Then another student realized that this experiment was like a thermometer. When the liquid in the thermometer gets hot it expands up and when cold it contracts and goes down.
What do you think?
Currently the second graders are learning about where their garbage goes it is put into the trash can. Students learned about how garbage goes into landfills and how many of those objects can be recycled. One such object is paper. So we took out own old newspaper and paper in the recycled bin and turned into recycled paper. Check out the process the second graders went through to make their own paper.
Aloha e 4th graders,
Please watch the following video about how to set up your experiment for today’s class.
Hot Meets Cold from Kalei Chang on Vimeo.
In their 1:1 iPad pilot, Mrs. Ah Hee’s class were asked to use Educreations, an app on the iPad, to create of video about how a variety of energy sources are generated, transferred and distributed to users. Check out a few samples below.
Mahalo to all the students in Mrs. Ah Hee’s class for being patient with learning this new app and willing to learning and teach me. I enjoyed this lesson.
Currently Mrs. Ah Hee’s 5th graders are conducting a pilot on 1:1 iPads in the classroom. Taking full advantage of students having iPads, I asked them to bring them to science class. The students used the iPads to showcase their understanding of of how fuel is generated, transformed and distributed for the masses to use.
Traditionally, the class would have been assessed by having it written and drawn in their notebooks. However, using an app called Educreations, students could do the same task but make it digital and include an audio recording.
Using this opportunity to see how iPads could be integrated into a science curriculum we learned a lot about this process. We came upon some challenges, but the student quickly rose to the challenge and helped to fix it. If it couldn’t be fixed, the students were patient and flexible enough to try another way. Content was still displayed using the iPad and app, however most of the struggle came with the limitations of the app.
So as the students completed the best they could with these limitations, myself and the students agreed that using this particular app for this particular assessment wasn’t the best. And being a pilot, these are the types of conclusions we are hoping to figure out now.
Mahalo nui to 5B for their hard work in preparing their formative assessment on this topics, being patient when challenges arose, helping each other, being respectful to each other and most of all allowing me to learn from you. I truly appreciate the experience of this 1:1 iPad pilot. I look forward to hopefully trying it again.
Today the 3rd graders had their first taste of energy labs for the 3rd trimester. Students will be looking at three types of energies: light, sound and heat. They will be exploring the properties of each type energy.
In light energy students are exploring the following ideas:
Take a look at Ms. Manliguis’s class as they explore the properties of light energy.
Around the world millions of people in hundreds of countries shut off their lights to show their support for global climate change awareness. Take action by showing your support for a better future. See this year’s official Earth Hour 2013 video.
Want to learn more about Earth Hour 2013, click HERE.
