Ms. Stone's 4th grade Engineers

So today is our last day at the STEM academy, but we get prizes and gift bags.  They are awesome!  We also got a grasshopper that you make—that is cool, too.  But all that matters is that I had fun, even with my teacher because she is funny and nice so that is one way to make this day exciting. So I hope I have the best day even though I will miss all my friends but my teacher will keep the blog open so I will still type more blogs on the internet  so could you still look at my posts.  I plan on going to a hotel so after that I will write a post about it.  Bye.

Hi my name is Taylor.  On June the 28 the last day of camp, we had a lot of fun.  We got prize bags and a science kit. Here are the things we got!!!  A little bug we can make—it is so little and cute, a telescope, a pencil, a master clip, a highlighter, a CD,and an eraser!!!!

p.s I made my little buggy

by Taylor

That’s the little buggy!!!!

Today is the final day of our STEM Academy! I have enjoyed working with my students so very much.  Each of them is precious and each of them has unique skills.  I look forward to hearing great things about them in the future.  I hope they know that they can be whatever they wish to be in their lives…including engineers!  Thank you, parents, for sharing your child with me this month.  Thank you, Austin ISD and the Eastside Memorial Vertical Team, for bringing this program to the students of Austin.  This experience has enriched my life and I hope to continue to be a part of the STEM initiative in AISD.  Our blog will remain open throughout the remainder of the summer and into the start of the 2011-2012 school year.  Happy Summer, everyone!

On Tuesday we experimented with golf balls and two long  jars.  One  was filled with water and one wasn’t.   The one without water affected the golf ball because there was drag but not enough to stop the golf ball from falling fast.  The one with water went slow  because the water pushed on the golf ball.  That experiment was exciting and helped me to understand thick atmospheres and thin atmospheres.

Today we learned about how suspension lines for  parachutes do matter.  The longer the string ,the slower it goes.  The bigger a parachute’s canopy is the slower it goes.  The bigger ones have drag inside that’s why they were slower.

Wednesday we got to build our parachutes and we got to test them out.  My group was testing the canopy size and my group did all three of them right.  Well we made a  few mistakes.  We went to the playground and we tested them out.  The big parachute always and I mean always landed last.  The medium always landed second.  Last but not least, the little one always and I mean always landed first.  The little one always landed first! Do you want to know why?  Because there was not that much drag pushing against it.

We got one empty jar and a jar with water.We dropped the balls in the water.  We did that to see which ball will drop faster because the one with water fell slower than the  one without water.  Then we put food coloring in the water. Then we dropped the golf balls again and the golf ball mixed the food coloring  up then the water turned red.  We did that to see which ball will fall faster with thick atmosphere and thin atmosphere.

On  Tuesday we were talking about drag.  Ms.Stone was showing us an example of thick and thin atmospheres.  I was in the example . I had to walk from the pink square to the purple square in a normal speed .  So that means I had to walk . But it only took me 6 seconds . Then I had to step out of the classroom . Then I came back into the classroom.  It was a mess !!!  The rest of the class had put a lot of stuff in my path, like chairs, pencils, journals.  So that was really hard to do.  But it only took me 12 seconds .  So that is how the atmosphere is when it is thick.  Then she said lets  get to the  experiment.  So we went to Terron’s and Joseph’s table to do the experiment . It is where we have two jars—one has water, one doesn’t.  We had to guess which golf ball would fall first .  I thought it would be the one with no water in it.  I was right about which one would fall first .  So then she put red food coloring in it .  I thought the ball would turn red  when she let it go in there. But it didn’t , it was still white .  Have you done an experiment ? Did you like to do it ?

On Wednesday, me and my class built some parachutes.  It was kind of hard.  My group was testing different materials for the canopy.  The most hard thing was when we had to cut the plastic bag into a circle.  I tied a knot at the bottom of my parachute.  When everybody was done we went outside.  On the playground, we let down the parachute  on the bridge.  My group went first.  The first time we let them down, my parachute got second place.  The second time I got third place.  The third time I got third place again.  I was testing the plastic bag for the canopy.  It was so fun!!!!

Hi my name is Taylor.  On Tuesday, June 21st, my class did an experiment on golf balls and red liquid and jars.  First we put the golf ball in the jar  with the water and without water in it.  Then we took the golf ball out of the jar.  We put the red liquid in the jar with water because you can’t put the red liquid in the jar without water.  So we put the red liquid in the jar of water and when we put it in, the red liquid started to come down and it looked like red silk coming down.  And it was pretty!!!

p.s.  The reason why we did the experiment is because it showed us how objects move through atmospheres that are thick and those that are thin.