Science - KS3 Bitesize

Today I spent some time doing revision on Bitesize.

Energy, electricity and forces:

• Energy transfer and storage
• Electric current and voltage
• Magnets and electric current
• Physics triathlon

Then I did the section on:  The environment, the Earth and the universe

• Rocks
• The environment, the Earth and the universe
• Changes in the environment

Science: Chemistry

Today I did these things on the KS3 BBC Bitesize website.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks3bitesize/science/chemical_material_behaviour/

Chemical and material behaviour

1. The Particle Model
2. Behavior of Matter
3. Atoms & Elements
4. Compounds & Mixtures
5. Acids, Bases & Metals

Science - Some fun experiments to try out

Science: Very useful science websites

Very useful Science websites

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/  
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks3bitesize/science  
http://www.schoolphysics.co.uk/age11-14   http://www.educationusingpowerpoint.com/Key_Stage_3_Science/index.html
http://www.edinformatics.com/math_science/  
http://www.gcsescience.com/pfm.htm

For  Formulas see http://www.middleschoolscience.com/formulas.pdf

Science Revision

We are doing a quick recap of Science done end last year.  I am starting with KS3 so wanted to make sure the KS2 was well cemented in my mind.

I went through most of the book today and have a couple of chapters of Revision for tomorrow.

Today I went through:

1. Looking at living things
2. Plants
3. Living things in their environment
4. The human body
5. Variation and Classification
6. Looking at materials
7. Changing Materials
8. Seperating Mixtures of materials
   
   
   Tomorrow I will also do a couple of experiments.
   
   
   A bit of a pain i.e.irritating thing is that I just heard that a Science group came out to visit the local school.  Unfort the school did not let me know so I missed it.
   
   We did ask them to let us know of any special events where I can join in and they agreed to it but seems like they are not bothered ;(   Never mind.  I do loads of experiments at home he he
   
   

Science: The Periodic Table of Elements

Great blog - At Home Science

Science Festival: 1- 4 March 2011 - Moray

Who is going to the Science Festival?  http://www.moray.ac.uk/moray-college/about/science-festivals.php

Where is Moray? http://www.thisismoray.com/moray-road-travel-c55.html

What is on at the Moray Science Festival?

WORKSHOPS



All Creatures Great and Small (Tues & Wed)
Come and meet Monty the Python; Rosie the Tarantula and lots of other beasties.


Taste Bud Challenge ( Tues & Wed)
Do you know that you taste with your eyes and nose as well as your mouth? Take this challenge and see if you can guess the flavour with only your eyes and then your nose! Also come and find out about acids and see how they affect what you taste.


Build a Beast (Falconer Museum ) (Wed & Thurs)
Explore the adaptations of real animal specimens from the museum collection. Imagine climate change has raised sea levels and design adaptations to your animal to suit the new conditions.


Renewable Energy (Tues, Wed & Thurs)
What does the term renewable energy mean? Play lots of interactive games to find out the use of renewable energy resources.


Cosmic Dome (Thurs & Friday) 
Identify the stars you can see in the sky at night. Where is Orion’s belt – is it holding up his trousers?


K’NEX
Windmill challenge - use K’NEX to make the best wind power models.


Scotland Landscape
Discover the geology of Scotland, touch and feel and look through the magnifying glasses to find out how the rocks are formed.


Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Deserts and Mountains:
This is Scotland + Why do earthquakes happen? What is happening under your feet? Find out what is happening in the world e.g. eruptions, floods and earthquakes guaranteed!


Busy Bees 
Will you be the scout locating the honey or will you follow the crowd but only when you’ve done the waggle daggle dance to discover where the honey is will you be happy.


Beat the chill
Its cold out there what would happen if an Ice age occurred. Discover what the environmental effects might be. See your own Ice age before your very eyes!


The Life and death of Susie the Salmon
Discover how Susie Salmon changes as she gets older. Become a living part of her lifecycle and see how she adapts.


Hide n Seek
Look out for the camel, find out why animals live in different habitats? Can you be the fastest to put them in the correct Biome?


Baisse travels the world 
Follow the adventures of Baisse the raindrop as it goes through the water cycle and the changes he goes through around the world. Become the raindrop and act out the water cycle.


Flaming Fire 
- Could you put out a forest fire? Make your own forest and set it alight then discover how to put it out by making your own extinguisher.


Bacteria your own little world
-How clean are your hands? Come and see what lurks on them underneath a UV light. Finish by making your own special bacteria.


Asteroid Acne
Why do surfers like the Moon? Discover how the moon affects the tide and what causes the moons acne.

SCIENCE: ISAAC NEWTON

I have compiled some info on Sir Isaac Newton whose theories on gravity are important.

Isaac Newton was born in England, on xmas day in 1642 (the year Galileo died).

During the time he was studying, the plague was spreading across Europe and the university closed.  Newton returned home and spent 2 years concentrating on mathematics and physics problems. 

He later wrote that during this time he first understood:

• the theory of gravitation,
• the theory of optics (he was the first to realize that white light is made up of the colors of the rainbow), and
• a lot of mathematics, i.e. integral / differential calculus and infinite series. 

On returning to Cambridge in 1667, he began to work on alchemy.

Newton’s first major public scientific achievement was the invention, design and construction of a reflecting telescope.  He ground the mirror, built the tube, and even made his own tools for the job.  This was a real advance in telescope technology, and ensured his election to membership in the Royal Society.

Gravitational Force 

The legend is that Newton saw an apple fall in his garden in Lincolnshire, thought of it in terms of an attractive gravitational force towards the earth, and realized the same force might extend as far as the moon.  He was familiar with Galileo’s work on projectiles, and suggested that the moon’s motion in orbit could be understood as a natural extension of that theory. 

Ref:  http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/lectures/newton.html
Ref:  http://www.zephyrus.co.uk/isaacnewton.html
___________________________________________
**Another interesting thing in the article I read is this:

Later in the 1670’s, Newton became very interested in theology.  He studied Hebrew scholarship and ancient and modern theologians at great length, and became convinced that Christianity had departed from the original teachings of Christ.  He felt unable to accept the current beliefs of the Church of England, which was unfortunate because he was required as a Fellow of Trinity College to take holy orders.  Happily, the Church of England was more flexible than Galileo had found the Catholic Church in these matters, and King Charles II issued a royal decree excusing Newton from the necessity of taking holy orders! Actually, to prevent this being a wide precedent, the decree specified that, in perpetuity, the Lucasian professor need not take holy orders.  (The current Lucasian professor is Stephen Hawking.)

SCIENCE: Revision - the human body

Today I was revising the human body.  We decided to do acrostic poems to help remember important facts.

Skeleton
Support, movement and protection
Keeps the body in good shape
Every part is essential
Ligaments hold the bones together at the joints
Even muscles work in pairs, contracting and relaxing
Tendons hold the muscles to the bones
Organs are safe inside
Never break your bones - keep them inside not out!

Blood Vessels


Blood in capillaries
Lets food and gasses move in and out
Organ that pumps blood around the body is the HEART
Oxygen is taken from the lungs by the blood
Deviously CO2 is given back
Veins, arteries and capillaries work together
Every heart beat creates a pulse
Seventy beats per minute when resting
Sets the pace for the adult heart
Essential for
Living
So look after it and be careful who you give it to


Teeth

Try to brush all 32 of them 2 x every day to keep Mr Plaque away
Enamel on the outside, dentine on the inside, rooted in the gum
Eat the right foods to prevent tooth decay
Tearing canines, cutting incisors, and grinding molars
Have to work together to get the job of chewing done!

SMILE a lot to show them off!


Exercise

Exercise strengthens the muscles
'Xhilerating', 'xtremely' invigorating
Everyday you should do some.
Really develops the lungs
Co-ordination building
Incentive to use up food
Sleep tight
Every night


Health Risks

Healthy living is vital for a long and prosperous life
Every drug is addictive and damages your brain
Alcohol harms your
Liver
Tobacco contains addictive nicotine
Heart attacks are a
Risk
Ingesting alcohol can slow your reactions
Smoking causes lung cancer
Kids should be careful not to do these things
Stay healthy, keep clear of dangerous habits!

Remember why things are good or bad for you.

Science Bootcamp - Revision for Year 6

Here is some good revision for what you needed to learn for science for Year 6.

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/science/sciencebootcamp.htm

Enjoy revising!

Revision on a regular basis cements knowledge into your memory banks. The more often you go over something the more likely you are to become an expert. If you become and expert, then it'll be a great help to your friends, who might be struggling with a certain topic.

If they are not your friends then you could charge them a small fee to help them with their science knowledge

Starting "The Sciences": 7 Stages of Living and Parts of a Plant

Today, we started going through the Keystage 2 - Science book. Thanks so much Fran xxx

Its really interesting.

We did a quick look at the whole book to get an idea of what will be coming up. Then started at the beginning.

The 7 stages of living (animals and plants)

This is easy to remember, using a mnemonic of "Mrs Nerg".

Mrs Nerg stands for the first letter of each of the life processes that one needs to remember.

M - Movement (Plant roots grow down, animals move their whole bodies, )

R - Reproduce (Offspring in animals /seeds in plants)
S - Sensitive (Reacting to changes i.e. plants and light, dogs and food)
N - Nutrition (Food provides energy to grow).

Plants make their own food using the suns light

Animals eat plants and other animals
E - Excrete (get rid of waste gases, liquids and solids)
R - Respire (Breath - both plants and animals need gases to stay alive e.g. oxygen)
G - Grow (Seedlings grow into bigger plants and animal's offspring grow into adults).

The next page was about living/dead/never lived and cells and particles. The info on cells was easy as I looked at that yesterday a bit with my microscope ;) The questions page was easy peasy!

The next page was Section 2 - Plants.

There are 4 main parts to a plant:

1. Flowers - (reproduction)

Colour, Smell to attract insects.

Make pollen (male) to join with 'eggs' (female).

Part of flower dies and remainder becomes the new fruit/seeds.

2. Leaves - (Nutrition/food)

Green chlorophyll - photosynthesis (From the light)

3. Stem - (Support)

Hold, move the plant towards the light

4. Roots - (Anchor the plant)

Root hairs suck water and minerals from the soil (Nutrition)

I drew a diagram of a plant to help memorise all the parts.

Then we had a look at different flowers I picked in our garden and I used my new safety knife to slice them vertically for cross-section studies.

I also did a flower part 'story' on purplemash.com

Links

For parts of the plant and flower: http://www.purplemash.com/flowerparts/ ( you can build your own group of photos and descriptions to help you remember the parts of flowers).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/ - there is a cool game on here that you have to work out how to get your questions by clicking of things in the picture, in the right order and then answering the questions on english, maths, science etc. Its fun with cute drawings.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Its very frustrating that we did not do this sort of work at school during the past 2 years! I am so pleased I am now home schooling.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday my little sister came home from school and told us that they did not do any school work on the first day back at school and I felt happy that I had learned a lot at home school! Swimming as part of PE at school has also been stopped due to budget cuts.

Luckily our family went swimming last night as part of our gym membership and we had a bit of fun as well as practicing our swimming. As we do watersports like sailing and kayaking its really important that we can swim a distance if we need to.

My little sister was really good and started swimming backstroke from watching us. She used a board to swim to the deep-end and back a couple of times which is good for her stamina. Not bad for her age! So at least we get swimming even though other kids don't. Quite a few kids go to the fun sessions at the pool outside of school but they dont practice their style or stamina, just fool about on pool toys which is fun but does not help if you are out sailing or kayaking and need to swim to shore !