We talked about Alloys today. There are very few labs on-line that are good hands on activities (that we could do safely). So I brought in several alloys that we use everyday; cast iron, stainless steel, white gold, and sterling silver for the kids to view and talk about.  We also watched a NOVA video on making Bronze bells and one on how steel is made that I will post a link to. 

I showed the kiddos the intro to the Beverly Hillbillies to show crud oil. We talked a little about the oil industry, living on an oil rig, and why big factories need to lubricate their bearing to prevent friction (just like our joints). In 8th there was a heated discussion of catalytic converters, and I lost the argument. I was the only one who was in favor of them, ha. This got started because we were talking about car emissions and gas in cars. 
  I realized I had forgotten about petroleum and had tried to skip on to polymers. So we finished petrol today and we will restart polymers Monday with polymer clay. 
 Don’t forget to be working on your Chemist biography report. 

No Layla we did not do polymer clay without you. We will do polymer clay on Wednesday. We did however melt some polymers today. We melted some #6 polystyrene cups and shrinky dink. Eighth grade watched the crash course video with our BFF Hank on polymers. Seventh grade will finish the video on Wednesday. If you missed today, and you’re in 8th, you might want to watch it tomorrow. 
  Look around your house to find other recycle numbers (those little numbers in the recycle triangle on the bottom of plastics). Look up what kind of polymers they are. 

Tomorrow during recess we will be doing the unit 6 test again. Most of 7th will be retaking and some of the 8th graders. I sent emails to the 8th grade families that need a retake on partial or all the test, but most of 7th needs to retake. The labeling of the carbon cycle is worth 8 points. 

Just a reminder. It was a short/fun unit so hopefully everyone will do well. I was really impressed last unit test. 

Y’all got your eclipse glasses yet? It’s less than a month away. We will not be in the totality zone but it will be close. It will be on a Thursday I believe so we won’t do anything in class about it. 

We went outside the book again today. We took the lab a little further and made bread. We talked about how yeast is a little like Goldie locks and blooms best at 100F. We watched the yeast grow when we fed it sugar and then grow even more with the flour starch. We talked about the gluten turning into long chains of proteins as we kneaded the dough. It was a yummy day and we made the school smell good. Next Monday is the test. 

We had an exciting day in chemistry. We had a Food Scientist, Larissa Justice, from Bush’s bean Company come in and do a food sensory presentation. She had some explained the things that they look for when making new recipes and quality control for the food industry. She had some hands on tasting experiments for aromatics, texture and desensitization. 
  We then had a taco bar for lunch and watched some “how stuff works” about food production. 

Welp, I thought I was going the extra mile by having a special guest speaker on Monday, but Liddell and the 8th grade girls took it up a notch. Now we are having a taco bar after the speaker. My friend Larissa is a food scientist at Bush beans. She helps with development, quality control and  food safety.  I will combine both 7th and 8th in my room before lunch so she only has to speak once and can get back to work. We will then have a taco bar for lunch in my room. Liddell put together a sign up sheet for bringing items in 8th grade. If anyone wants to bring some plates, cups and forks that would be great and meat from 7th, that would be great. I will bring beans for us to try. 

   Our lab on Monday literally made me gag. Shout out to Jonah, Hudson, Sam and Layla for supplying the saliva for the experiment. Their enzymes definitely broke down the bread better than water alone. We watched a good video by the Amoeba Sisters in enzymes to help us visualize too. 

The test that is coming up on Monday is only three pages and I feel like they have a pretty good grasp on this unit. Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t study but it should seem easier. It’s less info and we’ve had lots of hands on experiments to help us over the past few weeks. There is no quiz this week so they have time to prep for test. We played a review games today and everyone did really well. 

The lab today did work perfectly so we got the litmus paper back out and worked on the goal of seeing neutrality. We tested several things with litmus paper, put them in order of acidity and then re neutralized them. We dipped the litmus in the lemon juice and it turned dark orange and then put the same paper in ammonia (strong base) and it turned the paper green or 7 on the pH indicator. This showed us that we can use a strong base to counteract or neutralize a strong acid. We talked about how I don’t expect them to know how to balance a chemical equation but to at least know what one looks like and how to pick out the different parts and the over all concept of them. We reviewed how to draw a hydrogen atom and a chlorine atom to show how salts and why they are formed (they make an octet electron shell). They gave a test next week so we will play trashketball on Wednesday after notes to review. 

The science room smelled really good today with all the cabbage juice, ammonia and vinegar we had out. We did two labs today to test acids and bases. Most students turned in their test and quiz that they did over the break. Others need to bring them in on Monday. I didn’t not give out a quiz for bases this week bc we did not get to the notes. We watched and video as a combined class instead. 
  We will continue to catch up on Monday with bases notes and a quiz. And hopefully get back on track. 

thank you so much for my Birthday gift! That was a big surprise!