South America Adventure

Welcome to South America. This is a continent full of beautiful and interesting places and people. Go to the website:

http://www.fluid7.demon.co.uk/adventures/home.htm

Here you will find a virtual tour of some of the most interesting places in South America. Read the information and examine the photos for each site. Fill in the table that you were given in class as you work.

When you have completed your work, leave a one paragraph (minimum of 8 sentences) comment here explaining what you learned about South America.

Factor Rainbows

Today we began working with factors in math class. We talked about making factor rainbows as a way of developing a list of all the factors for a particular number. This work is foundational to further study of factorization, factor trees, and prime factorization -- just ahead. Definitionally, a factor rainbow is a way of showing factor pairs in a list of all the factors of a number. This can be helpful in checking whether a list of factors is correct. Your student will be working on constructing some factor rainbows for homework this evening.

The Friendship Journey -- Aquifer Sundaes

As students gathered from around the world to study science with us, we made models of aquifers using ice cream and lemon-lime soda.  Our aquifer sundaes helped us to see how pollutants, poured onto the surface, can seep into the ground water and pollute the aquifers.  Our sundaes were good to eat, but we learned how important it is to be aware of our use of chemicals and hazardous products in our homes and yards.  Students devised strategies and plans for protecting the groundwater supply.

Square of Grass

Continuing our study of environment and ecology, we moved out to the front lawn of the school to study communities in the grass.  Students measured out an eight-inch square of grass, and then studied the plant and insect communities they found there.  Many were surprised by the number of organisms they found living in this small area:

Plant Sketches

We began our study of the environment and ecology by looking closely at plants and their adaptations for their habitats.  Students brought house plants for us to observe and compare.  Here are some of the sketches they made of their various plants: