Science Grade 7

Scroll Down - posts on this page will be chronological.😊

As well, please see the link to the BC Curriculum as a guide for other possible areas of focus (only if you are interested).
Grade 6:
https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/science/6
Grade 7:
https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/science/7

*Science Fair*
We are planning on hosting a mini Science Fair for students that have created a project and would like to share it with their peers. As we need to maintain small, safe numbers of participants, only students that have created a project and their parents are able to attend this event. The date of the fair will be Wednesday, June 10^th from around 11:00am until 12:00pm. This event is weather dependent, as it will take place on the back field. If we cannot have the event due to rainy weather, students will still be able to share their projects with their own classes on the following Monday, June 15^thor Tuesday, June 16th. Please let us know by this coming Monday, June 8th if your child would like to participate in this mini Science Fair. When we know who is attending we will solidify a plan and communicate this plan with those participating.

Friday, April 17th 2020

Okay, so there are lots of possibilities here! Below is a review of the process of scientific inquiry. On Monday, I will post a set of instructions below on generating a question. Start considering what you might wish to focus your project on.

Steps for a Science Project

Title: Think of something that captures your audience’s interest. For example: Thirsty Celery

Question: This is what you are wondering about. For example: How do celery stalks absorb water?

Hypothesis: A hypothesis is your prediction or scientific guess as to what the answer will be to your question. For example: I think that celery stalks absorb water through their roots, stems and leaves.

Materials Needed: This is an itemized list of all the materials that are needed to conduct your project. For example:

Materials Needed:

· Bunch of celery

· Measuring cup

· Food colouring

· Three one litre mason jars

· Water

· Cutting board

· Knife

Procedure: This is an itemized list of steps that are needed to conduct your project. This list should be in the order that they need to be done in. For example:

Procedure:

1. Cut the bottom of the celery off.

2. Measure the water and pour 500ml water in each jar.

3. Put 20 drops of red food colouring in one jar.

4. Put 20 drops of blue food colouring in another jar.

5. Put four celery sticks in each jar.

6. Stir the water with the celery sticks.

Observations: This is often a combination of written observations, drawings of the observations and/or photographs of the observations. For example:

Observations: Day 1

We followed the steps in the procedure and look forward to making observations on Day 2.

Observations: Day 2

The celery sticks that are in the jars with the coloured water are changing colour. For example, the celery leaves are turning blue or red. The celery in the blue water is turning a darker blue than the celery in the red water is turning red.

Observations: Day 3

The celery stalks in the blue water is very dark blue at the bottom of the stalks. Also, the celery stalks in the red water is very dark red at the bottom of the stalks. The “veins” of the celery have more colour than the other parts of the stalk. When we cut the celery from the blue jar we noticed that there were blue dots on the top.

Results: This could be a written result, it could also include a graph or a table. For example: The coloured water travelled up the xylem tubes (these were the blue dots that we observed in Day 3) through the celery stalks. We know this because of our coloured cross section. Although we couldn’t “see” evidence of the clear water travelling up the xylem tubes we believe that it worked the same way.

Answer to the question: This is an answer to the question that you originally posed. For example: Celery absorbs water through the xylem tubes that are part of the stalk of the celery plant.

Did the results support or contradict the hypothesis: This is a written response to the hypothesis. For example: Yes and no. We thought that the water was absorbed through the roots, stem and leaves but we did not know that there were tubes inside the celery stalks that are used for the transportation of water.

What we would do differently next time: Often during a science project you start to think about other possibilities or what you could have done differently. For example: We would mark the water line on each jar and measure daily so that we would know how much water the celery drank each day.

Of course, traditionally this information would be displayed on a board. However, this part will be left up to each student’s creativity. If more guidance is needed for this, please email me.

Monday, April 20th 2020 (Step 1)

Creating a Question for Science Fair:

Today you should start thinking about what question you want to pursue for your science fair project.

To guide you through this, we will watch Mr Metcalfe expertly make his way through his own recent experiment😁:

Mr Metcalfe Makes Bread:

https://youtu.be/4TN0h9zba8M

You can start with a wonder and then turn it into a question for an experiment. For example Mr Metcalfe's first wonder was: I want to do some baking, but I don’t have any yeast at home and the grocery store is sold out. Is there a way to make yeast at home? With a bit of research, that turned into a question for an experiment: What type of flour and what temperature is best for creating yeast for bread?

Do you see the difference between the first question and the second one? The first question is a general wonder about the world and the second one is a question that can be turned into an experiment with variables.

So, with this line of thinking started, you can now consider:

1. What is your wonder?:

2. What is your experiment question?:

Here are a couple of videos from the web to get your creative juices flowing:

Lemon Battery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=a1D-fZP8qJk&feature=emb_logo

World's Longest Home Run:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_F9CxSmGOM&feature=emb_logo

Tuesday April 21st 2020 (Step 2)

Generating your hypothesis:

Yesterday you looked into coming up with a wonder and an experiment question. Today we are going to take a look at creating a hypothesis.

Select a research question and develop the purpose for your experiment.
Get Ms MacInnes' approval (by e-mail) before you actually start the experiment (I’ve seen a lot of experiments in my time – I can maybe offer you some helpful suggestions).
Make predictions/hypothesis (make sure you do this before the experiment and do a bit of research to see what will likely be the outcome of your experiment).

Below is another video from the illustrious Mr Metcalfe to help you find success.

https://youtu.be/3wBZEJGq5oE

Wednesday, April 22nd 2020 (Step 3)

Over the past couple of days you have looked at creating a questions, developing an experiment question that has different variables, researching and creating a hypothesis. Today you are going to develop your materials and procedure.

Select a research question and develop the purpose for your experiment.
Get Ms MacInnes' approval (by e-mail) before you actually start the experiment (I’ve seen a lot of experiments in my time – I can maybe offer you some helpful suggestions).
Make predictions/hypothesis (make sure you do this before the experiment and do a bit of research to see what will likely be the outcome of your experiment).
Come up with materials and write out the procedure

This is what the rubric has to say about materials and procedure:

Materials are clearly outlined and are good measurement tools for experiment. Student knows how to get ahold of these instruments.
Procedure plan is clear, well-written, step by step, highly detailed, and uses the imperative verb to begin each sentence

You might be wondering what an imperative verb is. Here is an example: Fold your clothes up. Each sentence should start with a command verb. Here is Mr Metcalfe's sourdough starter science experiment write up, which includes his materials and procedure:

Sourdough Science Write Up

Assignment:

Create your own science fair write up including materials and procedure.

Thursday, April 23rd 2020 (Step 4)

So, you have looked at creating a question, developed an experiment question that has different variables, researched and created a hypothesis, and developed your materials and procedure. It is now time to consider your observations and results that have been collected.

In the above celery experiment, the observations are where notes have been taken each day to describe the transition or change in the colour of the celery. When you are reordering your observations, you record everything you see, hear, smell, touch, and sometimes taste (please don't taste anything without adult supervision and permission). Attempting to taste an experiment depends on the chemical make up of your experiment. For example, in the case of Mr Metcalfe's sour dough bread experiment, it is reasonable to taste as part of his observations.

Here we see Mr Metcalfe continue with his experiment.
https://youtu.be/NOy3wwui0Zw

Below are his results:

Rubric: Results have been interpreted into your own words, it is obvious that time and thought have been considered in recording the data. Students have owned the learning.
Results:
Whole Wheat Flour
Jars 1 and 3 were filled with whole wheat flour. When I first mixed them together they seemed be really dry and for the first couple of days they seemed to be doing nothing. By day 4 both of the whole wheat jars. Had doubled in volume and the mixture inside looked bubbly like a sponge. Every day after that the two whole wheat jars would expand after they had been “fed” and then fall back down by the morning of the next day. The whole wheat starters from Jars 1 and 3 created the fluffiest pancakes. They also tasted sour, which is a good thing because it means that there is Lactobacilli inside.

White all-Purpose Flour
Jars 2 and 4 were filled with white, all-purpose flour. The mixtures in these jars expanded on day 3 and looked bubbly/foamy and Jar 4 started to smell bad. Jar 4 never expanded again, and started to produce ‘hooch’ (a clear liquid) on top. Jar 2 continued to expand each day, but only up to 1⁄2 half the height of the jar and formed some ‘hooch’ each day. These pancakes did not puff up much when baked into pancakes. The mixture from Jar 2 was tasteless and I couldn’t bring myself to eat the pancake formed from the mixture in jar 4 because it smelled so rotten.

Fridge – Temperature: 19° - 23°
The whole wheat Jars (1 and 3) seemed to expand equally in both locations. However, the white all-purpose flour sourdough starter performed much better on top of the fridge (Jar 3).

Little Closet – Temperature: 27° - 30°
The whole wheat Jars (1 and 3) seemed to expand equally in both locations. However, the white all-purpose flour sourdough starter in the little closet (Jar 4) only expanded once and then never rose again.

Once you have collected your observations, you then turn these into your results. You will write a couple of sentences (as done above) or turn your observations into a table that elaborates on what you observed (as I have done with the celery stalk experiment).

Celery Stalk in Dye Table

Day	Blue Dye	Red Dye
1	regular coloured celery	regular coloured celery
2	celery leaves turning dark blue	celery leaves turning light red
3	stalks of celery are very dark blue “veins” of celery have more colour than other parts of stalk when celery cut, blue dots form at the top	stalks of celery are very dark red at the bottom