Category: 5th Grade

Mixing Colored Sugar and Liquids

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Today in Science, we mixed colored sugar and liquids. The liquids we mixed with colored sugar were oil, vinegar, and water.

The way we made the colored sugar is we took 4 teaspoons of regular sugar, and then we squirted some purple food coloring onto it. After that, we mixed it until all of the sugar was purple.

The first liquid we mixed with colored sugar was oil. Our hypothesis for this was: If we put the colored sugar into the oil, then both materials will stay separated and the color will stay in the sugar. Our hypothesis was correct: They both stayed separated, and the color didn’t spread.

The second liquid we mixed with the colored sugar was water. Our hypothesis was: If we put the colored sugar into the water, then the color will spread and the sugar will dissolve. Our hypothesis was confirmed. The color spread and the sugar dissolved.

The last liquid we mixed with the colored water was vinegar. Our hypothesis was: If we put the colored sugar into the vinegar, then the sugar will dissolve and the color will spread. We were only half correct: the color spread, but the sugar did not dissolve.

Overall, I had a lot of fun doing this project and learned a lot. Thanks for reading!

Mixtures and Solutions

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Today we played a match game. It was called “Match It!” Basically, we had to flip the cards over, and then Sam (my partner) and I would flip two cards at a time. If we flipped both the term and its definition, we got to keep that set of cards. Whoever had the most cards at the end would win. At least that’s how I think you play the game. There was a bit of confusion. Sam and I didn’t really know who won, though, because like I said, there was a bit of confusion. I learned a lot from that, and it was pretty fun too! These are some pictures from the “Match It!” game:

We also sorted lettered and colored cubes. Basically, there were maybe 100 little cubes each with a letter and color on them. What Sam and I decided to do was sort them by color. There were six different colors and a whole lot of cubes, so it was hard work. But in the end, it was really satisfying to see all the cubes in their own color spot. If I remember correctly, the colors were pink, orange, green, blue, purple and yellow. I learned about Chemical Elements and Compounds from this project. Here’s a picture my group took while sorting the cubes:

We also watched a video and took a test. I got 7/7 on the test! It was really informative and I learned a lot!

I really enjoyed this experience and learned a lot! Thanks for reading!

 

Refugee #3

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Alan Gratz’s “Refugee” is a book where power is switched between characters a lot and is sometimes misused. In this blog post, I will be talking about how power is switched between characters, and about how some people in the story use it the wrong way.

In Isabel’s story, Fidel Castro, the Cuban dictator, starts out with the power, but later on, gives the Cuban residents the chance to leave. When Isabel and her family heard this, they took the opportunity and tagged along with the Castillos. In the brief few peaceful minutes they had after escaping Fidel Castro and his abuse of power, they felt very powerful because they had done what, just a couple hours earlier, had seemed impossible. But soon after that, the storm took the power from them. After surpassing that challenge, they felt powerful, but then the tanker started to steal the power from them, and finally, the Coast Guard took then power from them because it was about to capture them. They then lost and gained power at the same time because they were going to make it to Miami, but at the same time, Lito wouldn’t be with them.

In Josef’s story, Hitler and the Nazi’s held the power, but when Josef and his family heard the news that their father was coming back, they felt powerful. This ended soon though because when they saw him, they realized he had turned into a crazy lunatic who believed that Hitler was always coming to hurt him. When they got on the ship, felt pretty depressed and powerless because of Josef’s father’s distraught situation. But once they set sail to Cuba, they started to regain some power because they thought they would never have to face Hitler’s wraith again. They felt like this until Josef’s mother took the sleeping med and Josef’s father attempted suicide. They lost most of their power then, but when Captain Schroeder announced they wouldn’t be docking in Cuba, they lost all power whatsoever. But when Josef and the other men broke into the ship’s bridge, they got some power back. But when the group retreated, they lost some of the power they had gained. But when France accepted Josef and his family, they felt massively powerful. Fast forward a couple months, they lose a lot of their power because Hitler invaded France.

In Mahmoud’s story, The Syrian government starts out with the power, and when Mahmoud’s building gets destroyed, he loses a huge portion of his power. But when they escape with the car, they gain a little bit of power. And when they meet the soldiers and realize they’re good guys, they gain a lot more power. But when they started to get shot at in the car, they lost a lot of power because they had just lost everything. But when Mahmoud’s Dad gets the iPhone back, they get a little bit of their power back. And when they get to Turkey and start waiting for the boat, they gain even more power. But when the boat doesn’t come, they lose some of their power. And finally, when they do get on the boat and it crashes, they lose all their power. But when the Coast Guard appears and they see Waleed and Mahmoud’s dad on it, they regain some power, but not a lot because they had to give away Hana during the time when they were treading water. Then when they get to Greece and the Taxi Driver threatens to shoot them, they lose a lot of power. And when they finally get to the border, but get caught and get sent to prison, they lose a lot of power. But when they see Waleed and Mahmoud’s mom, they regain some power.

Passion Project #5

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I have started my Passion Project creation! I am making a video using WeVideo. I am not done yet because I still have to put in the video where me and Michael play Poker together. I am having  lot of fun with this project. I have done a lot of research and I also had my interview with Cy’s Dad. My interview was very interesting and I learned a lot. One thing I learned is that a good Poker Face is not only an emotionless face no matter what happens but also a crazy face no matter what happens. Another thing I learned is that Poker has a lot of strategy involved. I will probably include my final product of my video in my last blog post. I am really excited to continue working on this project. That concludes my fifth blog post. Thanks for reading!

Passion Project #4

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This is my fourth Passion Project blog post. This time, I am writing about some frustrations and setbacks I’ve had. For starters, while playing Poker on my phone is a great resource, I hate it when I lose a lot of money for no reason whatsoever. Its really annoying when a message broadcasts across my screen saying “You haven’t played for 24 hours. Minus 10,000 chips.” If I only have 10,000 chips, then I have to restart my progress so I can actually play and take notes. For example, a little while back, I had just lost a lot of chips and I was only at 9,750. I hadn’t played for a while after that, out of rage because I had a great hand and still lost, and when I got in again, it said “You haven’t played for 24 hours. Minus 10,000 chips.” I had to restart all my progress, and that was kind of maddening, because I was at a pretty high level. So that is one major thing I dislike about mobile poker games. Also, when I tried to research some questions about the origins of Poker, it didn’t really answer my questions. I asked questions like “Who invented Poker?” and “Where was Poker first played?” That was annoying because those questions are kind of important and really interesting. That concludes my fourth Passion Project blog post.

Passion Project #3

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I’m so excited because my interview with Cy’s Dad is tonight! I have not changed my questions since I put them in my last blog post. Some new facts I’ve learned about Poker are: “The place where you play Poker is called The Table” and “Even if someone has never played Poker before, they still have a chance at beating a pro (I learned this not from doing research but from the time when my Mom beat me).” I have become a fairly good player because I learned that playing with my Dad or Mom is as good a resource as some website. I also realized that playing Poker games on my phone is good for me getting better at Poker (Even though they rig the cards). I also started watching some Poker tournaments on ESPN, because, believe it or not, Poker is apparently considered a sport. Also, the reward for the World Series of Poker in 2018 was 8.8 million. That concludes my third Passion Project blog post.

Passion Project #2

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This is my second Passion project blog post. I have done a lot of research since my last blog post. I also am going to interview Cy’s Dad tomorrow! I have ten questions to ask him. They are:

  • How did you discover Poker?
  • How did you decide to play in Major Poker Tournaments?
  • What’s the best hand you’ve ever had?
  • Do you plan on playing in any Major Poker Tournaments in the future?
  • How old were you when you started playing Poker?
  • What was your first Major Poker Tournament?
  • Who taught you how to play Poker?
  • How do you prepare before playing in Major Poker Tournaments?
  • How do you know when to leave the table?
  • Were there any times when you thought you should have left the table a couple hands ago?

I have memorized every Poker hand and its ranking, and I also have a pretty good Poker Face. I am excited about my interview with Cy’s Dad, and I will put what he says on my next blog post. I know the highest pair of cards to get dealt is Double Ace and the lowest is a Seven and a Two.

That concludes my second Passion project blog post.

Passion Project #1

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For my Passion Project, I have decided to study Poker. A Passion Project is a project in which you do a lot of research and in the end, make something to show what you learned. I’m pretty sure that the way I will show what I know is that I will take a film of Michael, Cy, Alejandro and I having a Poker tournament. I will interview Cy’s Dad. The way I became interested in Poker is one day, my friends and I decided to play Poker, but I had no idea how to play. When I got home, I watched a couple of videos that taught me how to play. At snack the next day, we played Poker. I was really bad, but since then, we have played Poker every snack. I’ve become a little good, but I want to become even better through this project. Some facts I’ve learned so far are: “The cards that everybody sees are called ‘community cards'”, and “Poker is both a game of skill and a game of luck”. The videos I have watched so far are: How To Make & Keep A Poker Face, and Poker Hand Rankings. That concludes my first Passion Project blog post.

Rube Goldberg Blog Post #6

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Today we shared our videos. I was kind of nervous to share mine, but I think Michael and I did pretty well. I think Ms. Boyer liked ours. I was kind of embarrassed to share my work because I kept thinking “What if they don’t like it” or “What if I did bad”. After I shared it though, I don’t think anyone thought it was bad. We made some edits to the video and changed it up from the video I put in my last post. This is the new and improved one:

The video was fairly hard to make and took a lot of time and effort. I think it came out well. This is my last blog post about Rube Goldberg. Thanks for reading!

Three Sentence Summary: George’s Secret Key To The Universe

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George’s Secret Key To The Universe:

This book is about a kid named George who lives simply, without any electronics, and even has a pig. One day, his pig gets lost in the neighboring yard, and while looking for the pig, George meets this guy Eric who owns a supercomputer which can make windows and doors into outer space. One day, George comes back from school, and Eric’s daughter, Annie, says she’s been to outer space, and when George doesn’t believe her, she takes him on a trip through the supercomputers door to space, and they start riding a comet, and see a lot of planets.

This book is realistic fiction, and I recommend it. This is the cover: