Upcoming!

Just a friendly reminder of the upcoming test over Ecosystems. First, Second, Fifth, and Sixth period will have a test on Monday!!! Eighth period's projects will also be due on this day! Twelve days til Christmas Break...KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!

SFOTW: Don't Blink You'll Miss It

It is something that you never think about during the day. It just happens while you go about throughtout your day. I bet while you have been reading this blog you have done this a few times. Can you guess what it is??? It's blinking! And this week the sceince fact of the week is that average human blinks 4,200,000 times a year! What is your average number of blinks during a day? Have someone count how many times you blink for a minute, then multiply that by 60 (because there is 60 minutes in an hour), and then muliply that by 24 (24 hours in a day). thats the average number of times you blink during one day. TRY IT OUT!!

Science Fact for the Week!!

Since every student in the sixth grade seems to have brought in a caterpillar my classroom, I found this fact appropriate.  

SCIENCE FACT OF THE WEEK:

The human body has less muscles in it than in a caterpillar!!! 

So the next time you are feeling small, think about the caterpillar.  He is way smaller than any body builder, but has way more muscle!!! 

Energy Transformation = Big City Lights

What runs a city that never sleeps....one mega-load of electricity!!! A mega-load of electricity must come from somewhere and in Las-Vegas, Nevada you can give the credit to the Hoover Dam. Hoover Dam is one of several hydroelectric generating stations; it is actually the world's 35th largest!!!

How does this happen you may ask??? Large amounts of water can be very powerful, so why not use it! The kinetic energy of falling water can be used to generate electricity. Water is backed up behind a dam on river. Once this is completed a lake or reservoir is formed. Lake Mead was formed once Hoover dam was built. The water near the top of the dam then falls downward. The kinetic energy of the moving water spins generators, which produce electricity. The potential energy of the water behind the dam is transformed into electric energy. From the electricity that is generated from Hoover Dam, 23 % is allocated to the state of Nevada and on the other side of the river, 19 % is allocated to the state of Arizona.

Check out the generators in Hoover Dam that I photographed while I visited this national landmark.

Think About It?

Ask a sixth grade student the following question.

Is the electrical energy from Hoover Dam a new creation?

Save a turkey...order a Thanksgiving Ham and support the Hornet softball team!!!

Orders are now being taken for Thanksgiving hams. Bypass all the trouble that comes with cooking turkey for your family and contact one of the girls to place your order. There are several girls in the middle school that have order forms. Hams are selling for $30 and will be collected til November 16!!!

Bacteria: Good or Bad?

It is ironic that we started this activity prior to the recent "bugs" that have been troubling our immune systems. For the past week the Science Skills class have been conducting a bacteria study on everyday objects found in our school.

Our journey began after the students had been divided into two teams; red and blue. Students first had to conduct research and pass a quiz on bacteria. The research process was educational as well as entertaining due to a few student comments and realizations of the different types of bacteria.


The fun began as we took a nature walk through the school for the two groups to plan the sites of the "swabbing." A few teachers were invaded for various acts of "swabbing;" from Mrs. Meritt's toe, keyboards, and the most poplar book from the library. Both groups were supplied with three petri dishes to examine their bacteria samples. For both groups perti dish "A," consisted of a skin sample from each group member. The eight samples remaining to be examined in petri dishes "B" and "C" were chosen by the group members. Some samples that were chosen were door knobs, hand dryers, the handle on the hand sanitizers, and various areas throughout the school.
Students collected data on the growing bacteria for one week, which added to the meaning of "you never know what is growing in my classroom." I was amazed just as much as they were on the growth of the bacteria, which would be frightening for the untrained brain. Bacteria is both good and bad. Its been a hard task to prove this with all the bad bacteria floating around over the past weeks, but one bit of information that the students learned from this experience was that we would be far worst off if there were no bacteria.

Keep following my blog to stay caught up with the class! You just never know what will be unleashed in Miss Sidebottom's classroom....or what jar will be opened!!

Extreme Home Makeover: Frog Edition

Two weeks ago we adopted our first classroom pet. "Luna aka Momma," an Upland Chorus frog, has been living in a shoe box in my classroom. Today we had an extreme home makeover frog edition for Luna. My Science Skills class assisted in the home upgrade.