A Geologist Visits Science!

Before the December vacation, Ms. Rausa's class (1-222), had a special visit from Belle Hallady's grandfather, John Hughes.  He is a mineralogist and a geology professor at the University of Vermont.  Professor Hughes has been involved in the discovery and description of over 40 minerals.  He even had a new mineral named after him - hughesite - from a mine in Colorado.

Hughesite - (Na3Al (V10O28.22H2O)

We found out that minerals are mined, they don't come from plants, animals or any other living thing.

Belle Halladay and her grandfather talking about minerals.

The amazing selection of rocks and minerals that we looked at and that
Professor Hughes left for our school collection!

We write with minerals - graphite.

Three minerals from Belle Halladay's collection.

So many questions!

Who knows what this is?

What color is this?

When a black light is shown on this mineral,
it changes color!  It's a fluorescent mineral.

Susan, Belle Halladay's grandmother (also a professor at UVM),
had us look around the classroom to find things that
had minerals in it.  We found pencils, glass and the wall!

  

We heard about some great websites to look at to learn more about minerals. 

http://www.mineralogy4kids.org/

https://franklinmineralmuseum.com/

http://sterlinghillminingmuseum.org/

And now for the fun part!  

Everyone donned goggles and got ready to smash a geode!

Belle Halladay's mom, Amy, supervises
breaking the geode! Each person gets
three hits with the hammer! 
The geode is in the sock!

The broken geode!  It had white crystals inside.

A big thank you to Belle Halladay's grandparents for such an exciting science class and for the mineral donations to the school!  We hope you will come back next time you are in Brooklyn!

Rocks from Utah!

Last week class 2-227 had a visitor during science class!  Julie Fry, Orla's mom, came and talked to the class about her trip to Arches National Park in Utah.  The park has more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches that have been made over time by rain!

Julie found some amazing rocks at Moab's Rock Shop and has kindly donated them to PS58's growing rock collection!  

Everyone liked the polished, colorful rocks!

The fossils were amazing!

And then we saw the geodes!

Everyone had their goggles on!

Orla cracked the Utah geode after a few good smashes with
the hammer!

Thank you so much for coming in Julie and sharing your experience at and photos of Arches National Park and the rocks you got at Moab's Rock Shop!

A Visit From a Biomaterials Organic Chemist!

Gangadhar Jogikalmath, Mira's dad (2-227) and an organic, polymer chemist, came to talk with the class last week!  He has materials start up company in Boston that makes high performance fabrics.

Gangadahar started talking about all the different materials we come across in our lives....

Gangadahar uses polymers when making his fabrics.  The fabrics can repel water or are fire retardant.  We talked about why someone would want a fabric that doesn't get wet (swimsuit, raincoat, a t-shirt) or won't catch on fire (a fireman's clothes, our clothes, a blanket).

The bottom right picture stumped many of us..they
are silkworm cocoons!

Man made polymers come from...

Polymers are derived from oil and fibers are made from them!  We were excited to see that sand, silt and rock were part of the process!  We just finished that unit!  We got to touch nylon pellets and feel a reel of very thin fiber thread!

We had so many questions! Gangadhar talked about DNA.  That was fascinating! The class wanted to know how many DNA strands were in so many things!   

I was curious about when he knew he wanted to become a scientist.  Gangadhar said he hadn't really thought about it, but remembered when "when I was in high school, I found a stack of old Scientific American magazines that intrigued me to no end.  The stories of scientists and their inventions were fascinating." That was the earliest memory of when he wanted to become a scientist.  

Thank you so much for coming to our science class Gangdhar!

A Visit From a Marine Biologist!

Christine O'Connell, Ella Jenson's (1-233) aunt and a marine biologist, came to talk with the class last week.  She asked us why science is important ("It helps you learn things nobody knows.", "You can discover a new Earth." and "You can make potions and help people.")? And what type of scientists did we know?  The class was so excited to have a "real" scientist in our classroom!  They had so many questions for Christine! 

What questions do you wonder about?

Christine said that asking questions is very important! Scientists ask questions and then look for the answer to their question.   Scientist also need evidence to back up their findings.  One boy declared that that is the scientific method!

Christine had a challenge for us....ask her questions to discover how she broke her arm!  That was tricky!  But we finally found out (by asking me as a secondary source!) that she broke her arm while snowboarding!

Lastly, Christine told us about her research trip to Cat Island, Bahamas in 2015 where she was tagging whitetip sharks.  The sharks are tagged so scientists can track where the sharks go throughout the year, where they have their babies and to help keep them safe.

Taking a blood sample to look at the shark's DNA.

You can read more about Christine's shark research at https://sharkchronicles.wordpress.com/.  All shark research photos were taken by Andy Mann.

In addition to Christine's research, she teaches college classes in science communication, oceans and environment.  She is also an assistant professor in journalism and marine science. 

Thank you so much Christine for coming to our science classroom and sharing your experiences!

A Visit from an Archeologist!

Tommy Berger, Sasha Berger's (2-231) dad, came for a fascinating visit last month.  Sasha's dad is an archeologist and professor.  He talked a little bit about evolution and about a dig he went on in Israel.

We looked at artifacts from the dig!

We looked at a replica of a skull. 
Sasha and her family call it Lucy!

A tool made from basalt (a rock that we studied!).

Looking at artifacts!

Artifacts can tell us about people
and how they lived.

We asked Sasha's dad when did he become interested in science.  He said his parents were scientist and they always encouraged him to ask questions. Then they challenged him to find out the answer to the question!

Outraghisss Pets visits 1st Grade!

Outraghisss Pets arrives at PS58 for another awesome visit!  Nicole shared with the 1st grade classes some perennial favorites!

The hissing cockroach!

Feeling right at home!

The hissing cockroach is nocturnal.

They hiss only when they are alarmed.

Scorpions glows in the dark when
they are under a black light!

Scientists aren't sure why scorpions glow like that.

Tarantula's don't spin webs to catch prey, they pounce!

Tarantula's have exoskeletons
that they shed as they grow!

When the giant millipede gets scared,
it coils its body into a spiral.

Thank you Amelia Stuto, Lindsay Wilkes and Lisa Terrio for sharing your photographs!