The Braman Bunch

Check out the video of the size of the observable universe so far.

Click here for the link to Macy’s

As everyone is aware, I am a big Star Wars fan.  I thought since we have been talking so much about force and motion, I would share this fun clip of every time “the Force” is mentioned in the six Star Wars movies.

Enjoy!

Angry Bird ready for launch!

Penny Drop

Here comes a marshmallow!

Now, you may be asking yourself, “What do these things possibly have in common?” Well, our students could tell you! This week we explored projectile motion of objects and talked about how projectile motion has two components: horizontal and vertical. We explored how the gravity pulls objects down in the vertical direction, but gravity also doesn’t affect the horizontal motion of a projectile.

Along the way, we did a short experiement to launch a penny and drop a penny at the same time from the same height and found out that they both hit the ground at the same time. This makes sense because gravity pulls down on all objects with the same amount of force. We also launched marshmallows to see projectile motion in action and proved how we need to use the right combination of horizontal force and vertical angle upwards to reach our target. It was delicious fun! (At least for Mr. Braman) And last, we looked at how the game Angry Birds uses these same ideas to make the game fun. Who knew science could be such a blast?

This past week we have been talking about falling objects and what causes things to fall the way they do. After giving a bunch of time to how gravity causes objects to fall towards the center of the earth, we switched gears and began talking about how friction causes a change in the motion of falling objects. We then looked closely at air resistance and what it does to falling objects. During the discussion, someone asked about flying squirrels and how they fall differently because of air resistance. After talking about it, we checked out a short video clip about them and then looked at how humans are starting to use this same idea. Check out both videos below!

This week we talked quite a bit about motion and specifically, how friction impacts motion. As part of our learning, we talked about how friction impacts different moving things. We found that friction causes moving things to heat up and wear down. To show an example, we used sandpaper and wooden shims to prove it and to show our evidence to back up this claim. Check out the following pictures to see our process.

Before adding friction to our shims

Adding force and motion to create friction

Adding lots of force

What's left of our sandpaper and shim after one minute of Furious Friction!

Today we dug into our new science textbooks and examined what the scientific method is and what steps are involved. To bring the point home, we compared how video games involve the scientific method all the time. Specifically, we looked at the website for Launchball and showed what we knew about the different steps of the scientific method. Check out the steps below and don’t forget to visit Launchball to see how you do!

Check out how you can support a new community wide cause. Go Falcons!

Last week we spent some time in science invlolved in practicing measurement. We had several opportunities to practice skills that exposed students to the metric system and the importance of multiple measures. We also spent time with a vocabulary activity called Free Rice. It is a great game with a great cause. For each answer you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.
We also continued to read Tuck Everlasting as part of the Global Read Aloud. We made it to a pivotal part of the story and used a program called Wallwisher to describe our ideas about the book. Check out some of our progress below!

In science this week we have been warming up and talking about the scientific method and how it connects to all parts of science, especially the science we are going to be involved in this year.  To connect to this idea, we did an activity to use the scientific method to help figure out what type of soup was in each of the unmarked containers.  How can you tell?

We also are moving along in science. Today a student helped use an iPad app called Show Me to explain how to play Factor Captor. Check it out below!