Friday, October 14th

What are we working on?

Eddie, CC, and Gavin would like to officially
 welcome you to our class newsletter

This has been such a fun month for our 5th graders.  It's been great to get to know all of your sons and daughters and watch them begin their middle school journeys!

In science, we have been learning about the Scientific Method by experimenting with paper airplanes.   Students were challenged to design one control paper airplane (Dart model with a 5 inch wingspan) and one variable paper airplane.  Their goal was to research and build a design that would fly farther than the average paper airplane.  Students got mixed results on their designs, BUT they all used all five steps of the scientific method along the way!

Andy, throwing his control plane

1. Observe and Ask a Scientific Question
2. Form a hypothesis
3. Plan and do an experiment
4. Analyze data
5. Draw conclusions and communicate results

Students wrapped up the unit on the Scientific Method and scientific inquiry skills with a test, and are hopefully now equipped with some skills and knowledge that they can build on throughout the year!

Joey and Akshat take flight!

What's coming up?


Students are about to embark on our new unit: matter!  We will be studying the atoms and molecules that make up everything around us, the periodic table of elements, mixtures & solutions, states of matter, and more!  Students will be utilizing skills in note-taking, and then will be applying their knowledge in a series of hands-on activities.



Reminders
1. If you have not yet signed up for the Schoolway app, please do so for science.  Class codes are as follows: 
- Mercury Maniacs 1/2 code: pb4mj5
- Venus Flytraps 3/4 code: 56ossh
- Mars Bars 5/6 code: 9hrqlb
- Jupiter Red Spots 7/8 code: jjcgde
- Saturn Savages 13/14 code: bup9bc
- Neptune Narwhals 15/16 code: 4ncau8

2. Please continue to monitor your child's Google Classroom. Now that we are through the first unit, assignments will be posted almost exclusively on our Google Classroom page.

Use a QR code scanner or click the link to the
left to check out the Parent Headquarters

3. For any and all information regarding the 5th grade team, please refer to our 5th grade Parent Headquarters newsletter

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Paper Airplanes!

Danny L. gets ready to let it rip!

As noted above, students have spent most of our first month designing and implementing a paper airplane experiment to test which changes we can make to a paper airplane to make it as successful as possible! Students researched some modification that they could make to the design with the idea of figuring out if that modification made the plane fly more effectively or not. They had to design a scientific question (using the words How will ... affect ...?) and a hypothesis (using the words If ... Then ...). They then had to design planes, bring them to the Open Space area of the school, and fly them! Students learned that math is a BIG part of science when they had to measure the distances the planes flew and then average those distances to get a better idea of how the planes flew. Students filled in a data table, and analyzed this information to come up with a conclusion!

The 5th graders were encouraged to reflect on this process, here's what some had to say:

Luca F: 

Luca, David, and Ryan after a successful flight

I enjoyed this experiment because I learn how to make paper airplanes that fly far.I learn the real steps of the scientific method and it helped while I was gathering all my data about the paper airplanes. The step I did not enjoy was thinking of a Scientific question because it was hard to think of a question that made sense. I worked with 2 partners which were David and Ryan Z. We all had a equal share because I folded the plane and they did the research of the plane we wanted to build. We all got to have fun while flying the paper airplanes. It was fun getting to fly and build the paper airplanes.

Elise:

I absolutely LOVED the paper airplane lab it was so fun!

    This project did help me in the scientific method because personally I learn best when I do active, hands on learning it also taught me how to use the scientific method in real life.

    My least favorite part was probably Analyzing and interpreting the data, it involved a lot of math and was very difficult for me because when we had to find the average of our planes we had to long divide which is very hard for me.

    I did have a partner and the experience was great, I was in a group of three and was fun to do we all got to fly the planes and share our ideas with each other we all worked very hard and it was very successful.

Sophia and Megha test their planes.  

Natalie, Ashley, Rachel, and Jenna practice their measuring (and posing) skills

Addison:

 Addison, Sofia, and Ryleigh watch their experiment in action!

I enjoyed this unit very much, I think this was a great idea and I hope the 5th graders next year get the opportunity to do this unit.  Yes this did help me learn the scientific method because I can now reflect on on the procedure that I did to help me remember the scientific method. I enjoyed every part of the scientific method, Mr. Morris made every part of this project a fun learning experience. I was in a group of three people (including myself) and we all became good friends from that project. Everyone in the group was very caring and mindful about who was getting to do what.

Lily:

Lily, Ali, Raya, Rachel, Bella, and Stephanie
analyzing their data!

I enjoyed the paper airplane lab very much. I thought it was very cool and fun to be able to design and make our own paper airplane, and then test out a regular paper airplane and the one we designed to see which one would fly farther. The project did teach me a little about the scientific method, though I had learned about it previously in 4th grade. It taught me how I should always plan before I do an experiment or test. I didn’t really not enjoy any steps of the scientific method, because I thought they were all interesting and important in understanding how to do and test an experiment. My partners were Ali and Raya. The experience was very nice and I enjoyed working with them very much. We had a lot of fun, but we made sure we got our work done. We did an equal share of work, for example: We all gave our ideas for our variable plane, and then mixed them together into one big idea and made an AWESOME variable plane!!!!! We also all did the math when we were calculating our our averages for our planes, and then checked to see if we all got the same answer. If we didn’t, we helped the person figure out their mistake. I really liked this lab experiment and I hope we do something like this again!!!!!!   

Andrew B.:
I had a really good time with the paper airplane lab.The lab really did help me with the scientific method.It help me learn how to make a hypothesis and a scientific question. It help me a lot and that I learned how to do make averages and every other. The step of the scientific method didn't like as much was step four : Draw conclusions and communicate results because it was a little hard for me.My partners and I shared a lot of the work and we did all of it.

Claire:

This crew from the Mercury Maniacs
work together to measure how far
their planes flew

This experiment was  fun and very interesting and enjoyable. This experiment helped me learn more about the scientific method because we used series of steps to follow. To make the experiment successful, we had to make sure we did the correct steps in the correct order. I had the opportunity to work with two partners during this experiment. We all helped with different jobs to have an equal amount of work. We took turns flying and measuring the distances, finding averages and writing down information on the chart.  My least favorite part was having to choose which plane we would fly. This was a difficult choice because we had many good trial with other variables.  Overall I enjoyed the experiment very much and so did my partners.

Kiki:
Yes, I did enjoy the paper airplane lab. The project did help me learn about the scientific method because we had to go through each of the steps and it helped me remember them in the correct order, because before we learned about them, I couldn’t get them in order! The step I enjoyed least was probably interpret data, because I just wanted to go right ahead and test my paper airplanes! The experience was fun because I learned how to make different paper airplanes each time we started over. I had a fun time doing it all.


Can't forget about our research!
Alex:
I enjoyed the paper airplane lab very much. I so much fun with it. If I had the choice to do the paper airplane lab or a kahoot game, I would choose the paper airplane lab. I learned how to do stuff from the scientific method and how to do them. I learned stuff like, how to hypothesize, Gather, Record, and Display Data, and Interpret Data. I do not have a step I didn’t enjoy. I liked all the steps to the scientific method. My partner and I did do an equal share. He flew the plane once, I flew the plane once. He flew the plane once, I flew the plane once. It was a fun experience.


5th grade scientists working TOGETHER to help each other find accurate measurements!

Ali:
I very much enjoyed the paper airplane lab because I liked putting the rubric together and flying our planes.  I think the project really helped us learn about the scientific method because we did each step while creating our lab packet.  I don’t think that any of the steps weren’t fun in the paper airplane lab because I enjoyed all of them and thought it was very interesting learning them and using them.  The experience with Lily and Raya during this experiment was great!  We worked together very well and we agreed on most of things that we accomplished.  We also had an equal amount of working time,  we each worked on our own lab packet but we did the same answers and I made the plane we all decorated it, and Lily and Raya threw them.   I had a wonderful time on this report!

Sling?  What sling?  Harlow doesn't let her injury get in the way of science!

Nate:
I loved doing the paper airplane lab, it was my favorite experiment i’ve ever done. Doing the project didn’t teach me much, but it did teach me some new parts of it. I learned a proper scientific question, the words for a hypothesis, to plan my experiment, and to communicate my results. I didn’t really like planning the test in the lab. I didn’t like it because I didn’t really know how to plan an experiment yet. I think the experience was fun working with my group. We each did a different amount of work, but in the end I think we all did our share and we did well.

We had a blast learning all about the scientific method!  See you next time!

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Thank you to our student bloggers, and thanks for reading our class newsletter!