Grade 7 science students have been studying water quality testing and, as one assessment of their knowledge, were asked to give presentations and teach other students about specific tests that they researched. The presentations included posters, videos, digital displays, and testing demonstrations. After the presentations, students had to answer questions based on what they had learned in their own research and what they learned while listening to the other students’ demonstrations…which is why you see them writing so intently in the photos!

As a guest in the class, I was really impressed by the students’ knowledge of their topic and creative presentations. It was also wonderful seeing our new all-school science lab in action!

Our Grade 8 class has been studying the effects of phase change. In order to fully understand the concept, we were assigned the sweet and salty task of creating ice cream. First, we mixed together some secret ingredients, which required a bit of improvisation as a result of not having vanilla (think Mentos mints). We combined the liquid mixture into a small plastic bag and froze it by shaking it inside of a larger bag with ice. We observed the effects of the liquid to solid phase change, and after a few incidents with spills, finally had the chance to enjoy our tasty experiment.

While the taste factor of the experiment certainly made it a winner, we learned quite a lot. First, we realized that plain ice wasn’t fully freezing the ice cream. Our teacher, Mr. Pedersen, suggested that we put a little salt in the ice. We learned that salt lowers the freezing temperature of the ice, causing it to melt into ice cold water, creating a much more efficient freezing material. We learned that improvising sometimes leads to better than expected results. We got to experience through hands on learning the effects of heat (or lack thereof) on phase change.

I guess you could say that watching the ice cream freeze was quite…cool.

Thanks to Grade 8 student, Carter G, for writing this blog entry and taking the photos!