Cereal Data

We had our first knock down, drag out math debate yesterday! Based on the data we had collected, would the new Cheerio Crunch cereal (with 8 grams of sugar per serving) be considered sugary or not?

One group argued that the since the range of sugar per serving was 1-20 grams, ten would be the midpoint, and thus, 8 grams of sugar would NOT make be a sugary cereal. Others argued that 15 and 20 grams of sugar were outliers, and since the great majority of the data lay between 2-12, 6 should be considered the midpoint, thus making 8 grams a relatively high amount of sugar. Here are my favorite quotes, capturing the drama if not the mathematics of the moment:

As Sage crossed off data points and Thomas argued, "No!NO! NO!" Gio laughed and said, "This is even better than cable!"

Concerned that one group was ignoring the outliers, Brody said something along the lines of: "We live in Massachusetts. But just because your grandparents live in Florida doesn't mean they're not part of the family! You can't just ignore them!"

Welcome! It's time to post photos and notes from our new year! In the meantime, you can still check out posts from last year's fourth grade!

Slide show of (parts of) our year!

Making our own filaments and more

In this picture, Shannon is making the final connection that will make the nichrome wire filament glow.

Yesterday, students learned to diagram circuits using the symbols that electricians use to represent batteries, wires, and bulbs. Today, students built circuits with batteries in series and in parallel. They noted which had a brighter bulb and predicted which would last longer.

pride

Earlier this week, our students wrote me a final letter, reflecting on their growth and imagining goals for next year. Here are a few quotes about what they are proud of from this year:

• Reading out of my comfort zone in the reading missions unit.

• Reading over 50 books

• Taking something I love (Greek gods) and making poetry about it.

• My math confidence went from 8 to 10.

• I wasn't the biggest fan in writing, but now I enjoy writing.

• How much better I got at throwing a football and a baseball.

• The states: I improved by 25 states between my first test and my last test.

• The poetry and stories I have written.

• Dominating in the Word Olympics for the second year in a row

• I started making more and more time for reading

• More than anything else: winning the Battle of the Books

• My collection of TFK magazines

• How many new friends I have made this year

• I didn't try to change myself to be like other kids

• One last thing I am proud of is the whole class. We have all learned stuff academically, physically, and we have learned how to take care of each other, and not bully one another.

A Closer Look

In this picture, two students from our class are working together to build an electric circuit. When their bulb lights, they know they've done it!

In addition to the circuits we are building, we are reading The Magic School Bus and the Electric School Bus.

This book helps us understand and talk about how electrons run through wires (and other conductors), how magnetism can create electric current, how lightning forms, how switches work, and many important safety rules related to electricity.

Electric Circuits!

Our class is studying electric circuits. First, we had to make a small bulb light with a D battery and a wire. Then the whole class tried to make a big light bulb light. First everyone guessed how many D batteries would make it light. We started with two D batteries and worked our way up. It finally lit at eighteen batteries!

(entry written by Piper)