Today we continued conducting our pendulum experiments. The manipulated variable in today's experiment was release position. The three different positions were: 135 degrees, 90 degrees, and 45 degrees. Students were tasked to conduct three trials at each angle and determine the average frequency of periods for this variable. Tomorrow they will be exploring the variable of length of pendulum. Once they have collected all their data we will be plotting our results on two-coordinate graphs to look for any patterns or trends.
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Students were in rare form today as they shared their weekends and upcoming plans for the Halloween holiday! We also spent some time practicing our prime numbers, rounding to decimal places, comparing and ordering whole and decimal numbers and solving multi-digit and decimal number equations.
Hooray! We started our experiments! Students conducted experiments to determine whether the mass of a pendulum bob (manipulated or independent variable) has any effect on the frequency of periods (responding or dependent variable). Check them out in action!! Today we finished our lesson on Powers of 10. There is NO HOMEWORK however students are encouraged to review Lessons 1, 3, 4, 5 as there will be a QUIZ ON WEDNESDAY. Monday we will cover Lesson 5, Tuesday will be dedicated to questions and review.
Today we spent time crafting our pendulums! This was no easy task for 42 fifth graders! Lots of long string, small parts and even smaller knots! It was a challenge but we're almost done! Tomorrow I hope to start our first round of experiments!
Students had a little bit of a "pop quiz' practicing using powers and exponents. This was not a graded assignment per se but I am using it to formatively assess where they are at with these skills. I have collected and graded almost all of this week's homework and provided feedback and opportunities to correct work if needed. The portal should be up to date with the status of your child's homework.
We also started Lesson 4: Multiplication Patterns. The learning target for this Lesson is to "use basic facts and patterns to multiply multiples of 10, 100 and 1,000 mentally." We will finish this Lesson tomorrow. There is no homework tonight unless students have any revisions to do on their previous homework assignments. I am looking ahead to giving a QUIZ on Lessons 1-5 on Wednesday of next week. We did a lot of practicing and role playing today to get each student ready for their jobs in the upcoming pendulum experiments. Each student will take turns being the supply "getter", the "timer" and the "counter". Exciting times are upcoming, stay tuned!
Today students practiced their problem solving and prime factorization skills by practicing a lengthy word scramble. It's harder than it looks! This exercise promotes Mathematical Practices: Make Sense of Problems and Persevere in Solving Them & Look for and Express Regularity in Repeated Reasoning. Students were then given in-class time to work on any outstanding homework, IXL or TenMarks.
Today students jumped back in to Scientific Inquiry and the Scientific Method. I introduced the topic of our next experiments: Pendulums! Students will be conducting controlled experiments to observe the effects of different variables in their pendulum systems.
Vocabulary introduced during this unit: Pendulum- Any object that hangs from a fixed point and is allowed to swing freely Period- a full swing of a pendulum from the start position to the other side and back again Frequency- the number of periods (full swings) in a specific length of time After reviewing the definition of a pendulum, students were encouraged to think of everyday objects they encounter that could be considered a pendulum. Watch the video below to check out this HUMAN pendulum! http://www.pbs.org/video/1607945122/ Today we continued our discussion of powers and exponents. Check out the videos I posted yesterday fmi!
Homework: Workbook pages 97&98 IXL- E1 & E2. Students should also be working on F2, F3 & G2 from last week if they haven't finished them already. TenMarks- Factors and Prime and Composite Numbers. IXL and TenMarks are DUE FRIDAY. These modules do not take very long and many students will either have part of class or W.I.N. time during the week to work on them. NOTE: Students are not expected to spend any longer than 15 minutes on a particular module. If it proves too difficult for them have them come and see me. |
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April 2020
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