Saturday, January 9, 2016

Grade 6 - Physics - Week 3

Monday: We explored body temperature and talked about the different sources of heat. We did the experiment of the water bowls: Take 3 containers big enough to fit a hand. In one, put hot water, in one ice cold water and the last one, tepid water. Stand with one hand in the hot and cold bowls for about a minute, then move the hot hand to the tepid water... how does it feel? Now, try the cold hand in the tepid water. Then, we drew a parralel to outdoor temperature. In the Spring, 15 degree Celcius feels warm after a long winter... but in the fall, it feels pretty chilly! We also tried some of these experiments (the girls loved the steel wool and battery one!) and draw this in our Main Lesson Book (MLB):



Tuesday: We talked about the effects of heat on solids liquid and gases. We melted an ice cube in a saucepan until it became liquid and then gas (and until it had completely evaporated). We talked about the condensation process (the droplets that had formed on the saucepan). We draw this in our MLB:


Wednesday: We talked about the transmission of heat. We talked about radiation (heat from a light bulb, sun in a window), conduction (pan on the stove and the experiment below) and convection (hot water rising to the top in a cold fish tank). We also talked about microwave heat and how it worked. Then we did this experiment: 




Thursday: We did another heat conduction experiment. Here's the complete procedure.


Friday: We explored the effect of hot and cold air with this experiment.




2 comments:

Catherine said...

Hi Catherine,
Thanks for posting about your physics block. I have to admit I feel quite intimidated by our physics and (next year) chemistry blocks, but you make it look very straightforward. I expect it will be one of those subjects that after I've done it I'll wonder what I was worried about.
I notice you have split this block up into short units to spread through your year. I'm starting to think that might be a really good idea. Is it working well this way?

Catherine said...

Hi Catherine! We have love the physics block so far. The girls love to do the experiments. It seemed like a good idea to keep the 3 different physics themes separate. It worked really well for us!