Exciting Energy!

Today your child began an exciting science program in their classroom offered by Science from Scientists. SfS is a Boston-based, non-profit organization that strives to improve science and technology attitudes and aptitudes. We send real scientists into the classroom during school every other week to teach exciting, fun, and curriculum-relevant science lessons. We will be visiting your child’s classroom every other week throughout the school year. We will bring engaging, informative, and stimulating hands-on lessons with us to supplement the school’s science curriculum.

Mr. Mavros and Mr. Hart will be the scientific instructors for the students at the Browne School this academic year. Mr. Mavros is earning his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from MIT. His area of research is in computational chemistry working with testing batteries. Mr. Hart received his degree in Biochemistry and studied multiple neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s Disease. They are both very excited to get the students exploring science in a hands-on atmosphere. 

In today’s lesson, students learned about the many different forms of energy – familiar ones like kinetic energy and light energy, and less familiar ones like thermal energy and elastic energy. Starting from the idea that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, but can change form, they learned to recognize conversions between different forms of energy. We practiced this as a class after a demonstration with burning flash paper, and then students investigated energy conversions at workstations set up around the classroom. They experimented with converting gravitational potential energy into kinetic energy and then into elastic energy and,chemical energy into either thermal or light energy,

Students dropped a ball from a certain height, and then measured the height of the bounce. This activity allowed them to demonstrate that some energy is “lost” to sound and heat when a ball is bounced. The ball starts with gravitational potential energy that is converted to kinetic energy as it falls and then becomes elastic energy when it reaches the bottom of the tube. When the ball bounces back up, some, but not all, of the elastic energy becomes kinetic again.

In a chemistry station, students set up chemical reactions in which the resulting energy conversions could be observed as bubbles forming or a temperature change. 

Students climbed under a dark blanket to observe triboluminescent effects. In one, the energy expended in breaking a mint elicited a visible blue flash (wintergreen oil can absorb the released energy and convert it into a visible blue spark). In another, reddish-orange flashes were produced by vigorously rubbing two pieces of quartz together. If your student came home asking for wint-o-green LifeSavers candies and rock-hunting for quartz, science class is the reason why! Have fun making sparks!

Please check the Classroom Post on our website regularly to read about the science activities that your child is participating in and to view photos from your child’s classroom.

Keep in Touch with Science From Scientists!
How to view your child’s Classroom Post:
1. Visit our website at: https://www.sciencefromscientists.org/for-families
2. Click on the link for See inside the classroom.
3. Select your school/grade from the list.
4. Enter the password: SFS2016
. Submit the form then save a bookmark to skip these steps next time!

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