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May 24, 2022
Spring Issue #13
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Weekly activities and lessons to keep your child thinking and progressing throughout the school year. |
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“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
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Hello and Happy Tuesday!
Oh, boy! Who was ready for this heat wave? Time is winding down on the school year and it seems more and more things keep coming up that need to be done. I really enjoyed reading this week book selection and I know your child will too. I is a very profound novel written in verse. Nice, light, refreshing read for these busy days. The math and thinking puzzles in this weeks issue are my favorites. They force the solver to use their entire brain. I hope you enjoy the writing prompts and the simple but educational science experiment.
Please share this flyer with your friends and encourage them to join our mailing list by following the links on this page.
Mr. McManus :-)
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The Last Fifth Grade of
Emerson Elementary
by Laura Shovan
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Incredible. I was not ready for this one to end. I have to find a way to use this in my classroom next year. It had so much educational value, besides being beautiful, moving and pleasing to read. Each page is a different student author and his/her poem. The book is also divided into quarters like a school year, so cute! The kids rotate their voices and their voices are so profound. My favorites were Katie, an individual who is trying to find a voice separate from her successful, yet controlling Mom and Norah, a girl from Jerusalem who makes comments about the cultural differences in her first and second countries that really open the reader's eyes to things we take for granted. It was hard to pick just two (my heart broke for Hannah and George a few times). This book discusses several important topics for children including: divorce, poverty, working poor (omg-the red dress--tears--you'll know what I mean when you read it!), protest, Hispanic culture, Middle Eastern culture, puberty, sexism, agism, change, finding your voice, government, environmentalism... Oh my!
Enjoy!
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Heat Convection in Liquids |
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Energy is all about action! Thermal energy is transferred in many ways. The thermal energy of a substance can be determined by adding up all the kinetic and potential energy of its molecules. Convection is one form of energy transfer where heat energy is transferred by large scale movement in a gas or liquid. Convection currents form, which are streams of gas or liquid powered by convection. Some of this movement is caused by differences in density. You might remember that density is how much matter there is in a given amount of space. In this convection current experiment, you are going to make convection currents in water, which you will be able to observe with the help of food coloring.
Problem
How does the convection of water work?
Materials
- Clear quart container or jar
- Water
- Freezer
- Coffee mug or other container that can withstand heat
- Blue food coloring
- Spoon
- Dropper
Procedure
- Fill the clear jar halfway with cold water.
- Place the jar freezer for 15 minutes. You don’t want the water to freeze.
- Fill the coffee mug about ¼ full with hot water.
- Add 10 drops of blue food coloring to the hot water and stir.
- Remove the jar from the freezer and set it on table. Wait until all the sloshing around from moving it has stopped.
- Fill the dropper with hot blue water.
- Lower the tip of the dropper until it is near the bottom of the large jar.
- Carefully release two drops of hot blue water into the cold water. Observe what happens, looking at the side and top of the jar.
- Add ten more drops, two drops at a time, observing what happens between each.
- Once you have added all the hot blue liquid drops, observe the jar for an additional five minutes.
Results
When you squeeze the drops of water with blue dye near the bottom of jar, most of it rises through the cold water and then continues to travel across the water’s surface. Ripples of blue color move through the water. A blue layer forms at the top of water in the jar. As time goes by, some of the blue water begins to sink, and after five to ten minutes, all of the water turns a lighter shade of blue.
Why?
The hot blue water molecules had more kinetic energy than the cold water molecules. That means the blue water molecules were colliding more, and pushing each other part. This lowered the density of the blue water because fewer molecules could fit in the given volume. The less dense blue water therefore rose through the cold water and floated at the top. Those streams of blue fluid you saw were convection currents. Over time, thanks to the convection currents, the hot water mixed with the cold water, evening out the temperature overall. The blue food coloring also diffused throughout the liquid. Diffusion happens constantly. The blue food coloring molecules moved from higher concentration in the hot water and zero concentration in the clear water to create a more uniform distribution throughout the liquid, giving it an even, light blue appearance.
Going Further
Do some research on warm and cold ocean currents. Water of different temperatures can move hundreds of miles!
Check out these videos:
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If you feel your child might benefit from a group or individual tutoring program to prepare them for the next phase of their education, please contact McManus Tutoring.
Programs are structured so that students learn independence, accountability, and self-possession. They will develop a repeatable structure that can be used to build success in the future.
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Three Writing Prompts and a Riddle
These prompts and questions will help jump-start your daily writing. Just as it's important to read for at least 30 minutes each day, you should also write for 30 minutes a day. Don't worry about your organization or spelling, just write!
"My neighbor's pet peacock kept me up all night so I..."
"The sudden heat wave was unbearable..."
"I'd never spoken to my sister like that before..."
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Nine dots are arranged in a three by three square. Connect each of the nine dots using only four straight lines and without lifting your pen from the paper. |
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