Does air weigh anything?

A powerful chop!

We have been doing science experiments around air, movement and force. Check out the wonderful science reports on our students' blogs like this one by Marcus. Yesterday we did a fun little experiment to prove if air weighs anything or not.

 Equipment: 

Ruler, newspaper, table, volunteer (who can karate chop).

 Method:

1. Place table on ruler so it balances with some of the ruler off the table.
2. Karate chop the ruler (to the side of the table).
3. Pick the ruler up, place it back where it was.
4. Screw up a sheet of newspaper, place it on top of the ruler on the table side.
5. Repeat step 2.
6. Repeat step 3.
7. Place a flat sheet of paper so that it covers the ruler on the table side. Smooth it down so that there is no air between the ruler and the piece of paper.
8. Repeat step 2.

 Hypothesis: 

 The ruler will flip with the force of the karate chop. When you put the screwed up bit of paper on, there will be a catapult effect. However, when you flatten the paper down, the weight of the air on the ruler acts like a counter force. When you karate chop this time, your force is met by the weight of air now holding the ruler down and the ruler smashes.

 Results: 

 Look and see!




Ruler Smash! from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.

Here is a clown doing the experiment:

 

Nala and Zippa

On Friday, the Tree of PRIDE were visited by two mischievious labrador puppies. Nala and Zippa are from the same litter. Their owners, Henry and Joshua are both proud daddies.

Nala, Simba's playmate 

Room 16 thought they were so cute, except for Teva who thought "they were a little terrifying." They definitely were excitable and curious. You can see for yourself by watching the video below. Sharyn (Josh's Mum) said that "they are the most photographed puppies in the world." Joshua also wrote a neat story about the arrival of Nala which is definitely worth a read.




 
Nala and Zippa from Kieren Moriarty on Vimeo.
Music: Don't go down the mine, Dad by Frank Miller used under licence through Creative Commons.

Number Power Lines

For a starter in maths today, we tried playing Number Power Lines. It is a fun game and Room 16 enjoyed competing against each other. The idea is to make each power line match a given total using all the numbers that you are given. Our main strategy was guess and check. However the best learning was to come later...

Look I am on Level 8, Mum!

Play Time

Crighton certainly got ahead of me when we were playing the online game, as he raced through the levels. Then Henry worked out how to get on to Phase 2, using the password that you earn in Phase 1.

Creating

Following the game, the students had a go at designing their own algebra power line. For the first challenge, the students had to have three connected power lines that added to 16. You were not allowed to use a number more than once. Here is a collaborative Google drawing of some successful creations.

Look how different each pattern is to each other. Do all the lines add to 16?

The next challenge was to create four connected power lines that all add to 24. Again, not using any number more than once. Do the lines below all add to 24?

One of these patterns is not quite like the others.

What phase or level can you get up to in Algebra Power Line? Can you create your own Algebra Power Line pattern for others to work out?

Holiday Highlights

   
       












We have enjoyed our holiday and it is great to be back in Room 16! Here are some holiday highlights that the students will be sharing on their blogs soon. Our highlights were pasted into Star Wars Crawl Creator and Tagul to produce the word displays. If you scroll over the Tagul word cloud, the text is highlighted and then zooms out so you are able to read the smaller words.