Grade 6 science

Just another school day at our house...

Science this past year consisted of mineralogy, physics, and astronomy.  I blogged about mineralogy earlier last fall.  We did our physics block in February and March.  In retrospect, this was not a good idea.  Next time I will put it early in the school year when I am feeling fresh, because it requires so much prep.  I did it right before spring break when I was feeling burned out.  I also did it during our busiest month of the year as far as outside appointments.  Dallin was getting braces, and we were going to the orthodontist almost once a week, as well as having other weekly appointments for Sariah.  This was not a good situation for doing a block like this.  One other thing to be forewarned about is that there is a good deal of equipment that is needed for this block, and I spent quite a bit of money.  Also, this is a block that needs to be thoroughly planned well ahead of time.  I had not done that due to many circumstances, and I was not as prepared as I could have been.  All of this contributed to a block that was in many ways a flop, although we did have some great moments, as can be seen below.

My resource for this was the book Physics is Fun by Roberto Trostli.  I also had Path of Discovery Grade 6 by Eric Fairman, which some people prefer, and I considered some of the things in that resource, but in the end I stuck mostly with Trostli for demonstration ideas.

Showing heat being conducted through a metal rod.  We put balls of beeswax on the rod and watched them melt one by one.

Magnetism was probably the most effective and fun part of our physics study.  Here Dallin is showing how magnetism travels through the air by holding the magnet close to--but not touching--the paperclip attached to the string.

Showing the attraction power and patterns of two magnets by covering them with paper and sprinkling iron filings over the top.

We magnetized a pair of scissors and watched it pick up metal objects.  We magnetized other objects as well, such as a pennywhistle.  I don't have a picture, but we even made our own compass by magnetizing a needle, putting it on a small piece of styrofoam, and setting it on the surface of a bowl of water so it could float freely.  The needle will orient itself toward north.

This is a special kind of plastic rod.  (I can't remember what it is called; it is one of those pieces of equipment I had to order).  We rubbed it with a cloth to create static electricity, then were able to attract this piece of string.

Here we watched two balloons repel one another after both were charged with static electricity.

The physics topics we studied included sound, light (mostly focused on color), heat, magnetism, and electricity.  Dallin felt at times that the concepts were too basic and kept claiming, "I already know this!"  However, I still felt it was important to articulate--and get him--to articulate--these basic ideas.  "Knowing" something is not the same as being able to explain it in words or writing.  And often he could not explain it as well as he thought he could.

We made colored circles, which we glued onto white paper.  It was cool to stare at each color until we could see it surrounded by its complementary color, then immediately stare at another blank piece of paper and see the afterimage.  This is a main lesson book page he did related to that activity.

After discussing sunsets and how they are a product of seeing the light of the sun through the earth's atmostphere, which produces the rich colors, I had Dallin paint a sunset.

Dallin is very creative!  It's hard to see, but at the top of this page on magnetism, he drew little signs stating "North Pole" and "South Pole".  I hope his teachers at school next year appreciate his sense of humor.  

Our last block of the year was astronomy.  I was also burned out for this one, but I was determined that it was not going to flop.  Dallin decided that he wanted to go ahead and earn his astronomy merit badge for scouts, so this block ended up involving quite a bit of extra work as I tried to incorporate my own plans for the block with the scout requirements.

Living in Pennsylvania made the outdoor portions of this block more difficult to accomplish.  It rained so much!  It was over a week and a half before we had any clear skies to observe.  All this made it challenging to complete scout requirements such as: observe the moon for four nights in a row.

Constellation drawings

Explaining the phases of the moon.

Explaining eclipses

Two of the four nights of moon observations.  All of the trees in our yard made observing a challenge as well.

I had him choose a rocky planet and a gaseous planet to learn about.

Later this month, he will be going on a church campout to a location that has the darkest skies in the eastern United States.  A stargazing activity will be part of the evening's activities.  Let's hope for no clouds!  Our own attempts at stargazing were not terribly successful.  Light pollution is alive and well.

I found out this year that Dallin really loves science.