Today in science we started looking at the Water Cycle.  We discussed if we thought water was in the air.  Some people thought the answer was yes because it is a gas and we can't see it.  Some people thought the answer was no because you do not see water in the air.  We did an experiment where we had a glass of ice water and we noticed that there was water on the outside of the glass.  We had a long discussion about how that happened.  Ian came up with condensation.  Then we decided that there is water in the air. 
"Condensation happens were there is a change in temperature."Ellorie
"Condensation happens on glasses when you go in and out of buildings if there is a big temperature change."Emily
"Condensation happens on the outside of cups at restaurants." Riley
"Condensation happens on mirrors when you take showers in the bathrooms."Laura

Today in science we started our water cycle/ weather project.  We are going to learn all about water and weather to make presentations for other 2nd graders.  Check out our project.  project
Then we examined salt and fresh water and discovered the properties of each.  After that we made a tree map of fresh and salt water on earth. 

"Salt water is foggy compared to fresh water."Emma
"Salt water is found in the oceans."Laura
"Salt water tastes salty."Bailee
"Fresh water is in lakes."Sofia

We had a great day at the Perot Museum today.  The Engineering Room was amazing.

Today was our final day for our STEM Great Wall of China lesson.  The children had redesigned their mortar and wall design from our tests earlier in the week.  Today was our testing day.  Most groups had success and the group that didn't knew right away how they would change it if we were to build it again.  Here are the results.

This groups first wall fell apart on the level 3 hit.  Their redesign fell apart at level 4 at for 4 hits.  They changed the design of the wall.  They made their wall thicker and added more water. 

This groups first wall fell apart on level 4 with 4 hits.  That wall was one of the strongest and many people used their idea for a thick wall for strength.    This time their wall fell apart at level 4 with 8 strikes.  They were the strongest wall.  The changes they made were to add 1/2 Tablespoon water and in the design they put all the larger rocks on the bottom of the wall.  Congratulations!!!!!!

This groups first wall fell apart at level 1.  It was the weakest wall and they were the only group that had 2 scoops of sand in their mortar.  For their redesign they decided to go with 2 clay and 1 sand.  They also added 1/2 Tablespoon of water.  For the design they made the wall thicker.  This wall fell apart at level 4 with 5 hits.  Congratulations to this group for the most improvement in their wall design.

This groups first wall fell apart at level 4 with 4 strikes.  It was one of the strongest wall in the first design.  They decided to go with a mortar mixture of all clay for the redesign because they thought that with the sandwich test clay was the strongest so they felt this would make their wall even stronger.  When we tested their redesigned wall fell apart at level 4 with only 3 strikes.  So they figured out that all clay was not as strong as clay with some sand.  

This groups first wall fell apart at level 2.  For their redesign they added more water and made the wall thicker.  They made sure the rocks fit like a puzzle and they filled all the spaces with mortar.  This wall fell apart at level 4 with 5 strikes.  Wow what an improvement!

Today was the redesign day.  We used our redesigned mortar mixtures to build our redesigned walls.  Some of the groups used more water.  Most groups went with a clay, clay, and sand mixture.  One group went with a clay, clay, clay mixture.  Most of the groups went with a reinforced wall.  Last time we observed these held up better to the demolition ball.  Here are some pictures of our new walls.

"We added to more water but it was less soupy then last time." Laura
"When we built it the first time it was really runny but today we used the same amount of water and it was too dry."Emma

We tested our walls with the demolition ball.  Some groups walls started to break apart after 2 to 3 hits.  A couple of groups made it to the level 4 with 4 hits at that level.  We then analyzed all the walls and talked about what made those successful.  Both of the groups that made it to the level 4 had a mortar mixture that was 2 clay and one sand.  One group used 4 Tablespoons water and the other group used 3 1/2 Tablespoons.  Both groups used a thick wall design.  We then took the information from our observations and created our redesign for our mortar and wall plan for tomorrow. 

Today in STEM we got to create our 1st mortar mixture and build our 1st wall.  We used our plan from Thursday to create our 1st build. 
"I noticed that too much water in the mortar made it runny and hard to build with."Emma
"I think when the mortar is runny it will stick better in the end because it was sticking to our hands."Bailee
"You really had to put the rocks where they fit."Riley
"We had too much water in our mortar next time we are going to add less water."Laura
"We kept trying to make our wall tall but it kept falling down.  We think it was from too much water in the mortar."Jude

Today in STEM we finished the ASK step of the engineering design process.  We started the PLAN step.  We picked the materials we will use in our first wall design.  We then picked the amount we will use of each material.  We are allowed 3 scoops of material and 5 T of water.  Then we looked at the wall movie again to get ideas for our build.  We also examined the types of rocks we will use for the build.  Then they designed the wall they will build on Monday.  Here are some of their plan sheets.

"We decided we will do two scoops of clay and one scoop of sand to make it look like real mortar."Alberto
"We decided to do clay, clay and sand so it would look and feel like real mortar."Laura
"We are going to design our wall zig zagged so there will be mortar between each rock."Emma
"We are going to make our rocks fit like a puzzle in our wall."Laura

Today for our STEM lesson we tested the mortar sandwiched we made yesterday.  We created two tests for the mortar.  They were the Sticky Test and the Earthquake Test.  Before we started testing we did some predicting about the results based on our observations without touching.  Then we conducted the tests and the results were the clay worked the best on both tests.  The sand worked somewhat on the earthquake test but not at all on the sticky test.  We then looked at real mortar. (Thanks Laura) and realized how many of the properties were like the clay powder.  But we concluded that it was more gritty than the clay powder.  So we are thinking that maybe we should add some sand to the clay powder.

"Today I learned what dry mortar looks like."Levi
"I learned that all materials won't work as a mortar." Emma
"Clay powder and mortar both dry hard even thought they don't start out with exactly the same properties."Ian
"I think tomorrow we should mix some clay power, sand, and water and then test it."Jude
"Today I learned that real mortar looks a lot like sand."Alberto
"I learned that clay powder and mortar are alike."Bailee

Today in STEM we made mortar sandwiches out of the wet earth materials from yesterday.  Yesterday we concluded that the wet materials were more sticky and would be better for the mortar.  Today we took the 3 materials(clay powder, dirt, and sand) and put them between two tiles.  We labeled them and are leaving them to dry overnight.  We also decided on the tests we will use tomorrow to test the mortars stickiness and strength.  We decided on a "Sticking Test" and "Earth Quake Test".
"I learned that somethings stick better than others even when they are wet." Emma
"I don't think the soil will work because there is large wood chips and the particles are different sizes."Jude
"Clay was drying the fastest."Brooklyn
"I think the clay will work the best because it was sticky when it was wet."Bailee

Today in our Great Wall STEM lesson we were conducting experiments to figure out which materials would make a good mortar.  We were working on the "Ask" step of the Engineering Design Process.  They were given bags of dry earth materials and then bowls of wet earth materials.  They examined the properties of each when they were wet and dry and made comparisons.  Then they made predictions about which mortar materials will work best for our wall building. 

Today in STEM we went on a Wall Walk.  We know that we are going to build walls with mortar just like Yi Min and Chen did in our STEM story Yi Min's Great Wall.  We went on the wall walk to build our schema about the way engineers build walls today and in the past.  Then we watched as short movie about walls. wall movie  We created a chart with some of the examples we saw them we compared how all the walls were the same and different.  We looked at the walls with mortar and the walls without and discuss how we feel our wall would be stronger with the mortar.  So then we made a chart recording our thoughts on what would make a strong mortar.  To extend our schema about walls and what makes a strong wall our building challenge this week is to build a 1 foot wall that is 8 inches tall out of blocks that can withstand a marble strike.  The children were using many of the stacking examples we saw on out walk to help with the challenge. 

We found through our building challenge that the staggered walls were the strongest.

Today in STEM we continued our work as material engineers.  Today we looked at the same 4 objects. (paper, cloth, brick, and straw)  We reviewed their properties and then were given situations and had to decide which object would do the job the best. The situations were carrying egg, cleaning a floor, and sitting.  We had to use the properties of the materials to decide if they would be successful for the job at hand.  Check out our findings.