Learning about Day and Night

Students have such great questions about day, night, and the movement of the Earth!

-How does the Earth spin?
-What would happen if the Earth stopped spinning?
-Why don't we feel the Earth spinning?

...and so forth! Here are some resources to explore to help you find answers to those questions.

Day and Night animation
Watch an animated Earth rotate. See how people experience night and day.

Another animation
This animation also shows night and day. How is it different from the first? Who is it designed for?

Interactive
Try out this interactive. How do you do on the quiz?

Ask an Astronomer
Have a great question about day and night? Visit this site to see questions and answers from astronomers.

Migration Maps

Several students have asked for the links to the migration maps that we've been studying. It's fun to track animal migrations! By looking at where other people have spotted birds, we can be ready to view new species.

Hummingbird map

Barn swallow map

Monarch map

Milkweed map

Oriole map

When do you think we will see orioles? Will monarchs arrive before the end of the school year?

More Antarctica Research Links

Everyone is so excited to learn about Antarctica! Here are some links that can help you with your research.

Ice Core Science: This is a link to Mara Inoue's blog. She describes life in Antarctica, Christmas on the ice, and cutting and learning from ice cores.

Captain Robert Scott: This is a biography of Robert Scott.

Ernest Shackleton: A short biography of Shackleton.

Icefish: The Southern Ocean is home to some animals with white blood! These creatures, called icefish, have special adaptations for life in a cold environment. (Challenging read)

Easier text on icefish: This is from ARKive.org and includes basic information about the icefish.

"Just the Facts": This article includes glacier and iceberg facts. Be careful--some of the information refers to areas around Canada.

Iceberg Image of the Day: This image shows an iceberg cracking off of a glacier. When did this happen? Can you figure it out?

Jobs in Antarctica
This site has information about what kinds of jobs people can have in Antarctica.

More about jobs in Antarctica

History of Palmer Station: This site shows a timeline of Palmer Station's history.

Palmer Station: This site includes a number of links related to Palmer Station.

McMurdo Station Virtual Tour: Tour the largest research station in Antarctica!

Your Stay at McMurdo Station: This is a booklet intended for people who will be staying at McMurdo!

Other Research Links: This link takes you to a previous blog post with other links.

YouTube Playlist: This is the playlist that I have created with videos that we have seen in class. Can you figure out how to use the text features to get to the video that you want to see?

Animal Cams and Adaptations

Here are some links to different animal cams and videos. What physical adaptations can you observe?

-Can you find an animal that has a special body covering, like fur, scales, or feathers?
-Can you find an animal that has a special color?
-Can you find an animal with a certain body shape?

Polar Bear Cam
This link is to a camera at the San Diego Zoo. How is San Diego different from the natural habitat of the polar bear?

Snake Video

What do you notice about this snake?

Arctic Tern Cam
The arctic tern makes the longest migration of any bird. What do you notice about it?

Shark Lagoon
Watch the sharks swimming. What adaptations can you see? (Can you find out if this video is live or not?)

Long-eared Owl
So many physical adaptations! Can you find them all?

Animal Adaptations

Learn more about animal adaptations with these websites!

Mission Adaptation: Read about adaptations. Then, travel around the world to document animal adaptations!

How do animals meet their needs? Learn more about the adaptations of different animals.

Interdependence and adaptation: Find woodland creatures and sort them into food webs.

Slither Run: Join the Kratt brothers to help an animal that is a predator and prey.

Bird Beak Gallery: Look at this gallery of bird beaks to learn about how birds use their beaks to catch their food.

Camouflage Game: Choose backgrounds and colors to create camouflaged creatures.

Leave a comment to let me know which game you like the best!

Learning about Classification

This week, we have been learning about the processes that scientists use. One of our science skills is classification. Students learned that classification is the process of putting things into organized groups.

This PowerPoint was used in class to talk about different kinds of classification:

After learning about classification, we tried classifying different items. Kids really liked using the trinket bags to classify. These little bags of various items are based on an item called Think-ets. Students came up with many different ways to classify the items in the bags.

Then, students classified liquids using litmus paper. We tested various liquids to find out if they were acids or not. We used ordinary household liquids like lemon juice, vinegar, water, and dishwashing soap. Ask your child about our results!

Putting together a kitchen chemistry set can be lots of fun! Litmus paper is not expensive and can be found here. Try testing different liquids around the kitchen. What can you discover?

Learning about Water

This week, we'll continue to learn about water. Here are some interesting websites to explore!

Benthic Macroinvertebrate Sampling

This is a mayfly nymph that I found in a stream

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Uh--what is that again? Actually, it's a long word for a simple idea. A benthic macroinvertebrate is a stream-dwelling creature. By looking for these creatures in a stream, you can learn whether the stream has good water quality or poor water quality. Explore the different kinds of creatures that you can find in this interactive. Then try looking for creatures in a stream near you. (Ask your parents first, of course.)

What Is A Watershed?
This movie explains what a watershed is.

Virtual Classroom
Visit this interactive classroom to learn more about watersheds. Be sure to check out the Watershed Creator on the blackboard.

Understanding Water Resources

Our next science unit is about water and water resources! You can review the water cycle with the interactive diagram at this website.

Water cycle interactive

 Learn more about the water cycle with the video and quiz on this site.

Water cycle video

We'll be learning about the water cycle, bodies of water, and even how people use water resources. What bodies of water have you visited? How do you use water in a day? Leave a comment to tell about your experiences with water.

Here is a slideshow about water resources to help you study.

Water resources

View more PowerPoint from Emily Kissner

How do we use water?

As we look at bodies of water, it's important for us to think about how people use water resources. Today we talked about how many gallons of water we use each day. One gallon? Two gallons? Kids were surprised to learn that the average American uses 80-100 gallons of water each day!

Here is a game that you can play to see how much water is used by everyday activities.

If you like Pac-Man, you might enjoy this game from the EPA. Take the water droplet Flow through a maze and answer questions about water use.

Here is the Powerpoint that we used to talk about water resources in Pennsylvania. Do you remember what the word agriculture means? What about tourism?

Water resources

View more presentations from Emily Kissner

Seed Experiment Update

Our seeds have sprouted! We're already beginning to see some big differences between the different cups. As one student said, "The salt water must be killing the plants!" Every group has had Plant A--the seed watered with tap water--sprout and grow. But the seeds watered with slightly salty and very salty water are not growing.

Another student brought up a good point: What about other kinds of seeds? This is a great question to investigate! Radish seeds seem to have a problem with saltwater. But are there seeds that can grow in saltwater? How could you find out?

Understanding Lentic and Lotic Ecosystems

As we study bodies of water, we've been looking at the difference between lentic habitats (still water) and lotic habitats (flowing water). We watched some videos of different streams to observe how the water flows. We also tried out this fun interactive, created by a teacher in northern PA:

Lentic/Lotic Interactive


Students sorted cards into piles according to whether the ecosystem was lentic or lotic.

Have you visited any of these water habitats? What have you noticed?

Learning About Water Habitats

In science, we're starting a study of water habitats. Students will be learning about different freshwater and salt water habitats. Here are some fun links to find out more about water habitats.

Coral Reefs
From NOAA, this site has pictures of different coral reefs and the plants and animals that live there.

Vernal Pools
Maybe you have a vernal pool in your own backyard! This special habitat is a puddle that is wet through the spring, but dries up in the summer. Many different kinds of animals, like wood frogs and mole salamanders, lay their eggs here.

Chesapeake Bay
Learn about the organisms that live in the Chesapeake Bay.

Rivers and Streams
Learn about rivers and streams at this site. (Links to other habitats are at the top--have fun exploring!)

Tide Pools
Create a tide pool with this interactive tool.

Keep checking for more fun links. And keep learning new information about our water habitats!