Monthly Archives: May 2019

Immigration Spark Video

5th Grade, Free Write,

Geography: I learned what geography really is/means. I also learned how widespread Immigration really is. I learned that many immigrants came to the US because big companies needed their labor to build railroads. I learned that a lot of immigrants came to America for the Gold Rush.

 

History: I learned a lot about the push and pull factors of the history of immigration and about the details that went into those factors. I learned that some immigrants came to America for more food and some because their voices weren’t being heard in society.

 

Economics: I learned that land=money and that most immigrants are very hardworking. I also learned that the US wouldn’t be the same if immigrants hadn’t come. I learned that immigrants mostly created their own businesses because no one wanted to hire them. I learned that immigrants had a bad reputations. I learned that illegal immigrants were shot if they tried to come into the country.

 

Civics: I learned that civics played a super big part in immigration. I also learned that most immigrants weren’t familiar with the idea of democracy. I also learned that many people came to America because we had better laws. I learned that laws were passed to keep immigrants from doing certain things or even entering the country. I learned that if you wanted to come to America you had to be healthy and strong. I learned that a lot of immigrants were sent away because of disabilities and illnesses.

Overall, I learned a lot from all of these presentations!

Science Centers

Science,

In class, we did science centers with our science groups. The first activity we did was called Create It! We had to sort beads by color and we observed the properties of the beads. We saw that the beads were hard, small, colored and square. Then we had to make a mixture out of the beads. We observed whether the properties of the beads changed or stayed the same. The properties of the beads did not change, but instead of one color, there were many.

Next, we did Sort It!. In Sort It!, we sorted mixtures, solutions and compounds into seperate piles. When we were done we had sand and water, sand and iron filing and salad in the mixture column. We put soda, sugar and water, and air into the solutions column and we put table salt baking soda and water into the compound column.

Next, we did Match It! In Match It!, we matched words and definitions. Here is what we learned: Physical Properties: a characteristic of matter, Mixture: a combination of 2 or more substances, Solution: a type of mixture in which one substance dissolves in another, Solvent: the substance that dissolves in another substance to make a solution, Solute:the substance in a solution that there is more of, and Dissolve: to break down into smaller pieces until it is invisible.\

Next we did Explain It!, In Explain It!, we made observations on the recipe of lemonade and then we wrote what we learned. I wrote that the hot water is the solvent, the sugar was the solute and if you add the cold water with the lemon to the hot water and the sugar, it’s a solution. I learned that you can mix a solvent and solute together add another liquid and you would still get a solution. I wonder if you didn’t mix the sugar and hot water, would the sugar still dissolve? If so, how long would it take?

Overall I learned so much from these activities and thought they were a lot of fun!

 

Capstone #3

5th Grade, Capstone, ,

My Capstone is going well. I have gathered lots of research and am looking forward to gathering more. Meanwhile, I am working on setting up my interview. On Thursday, I talked to my mom about my interview and site visit (see Capstone # 4 when published). I am going to interview Dr. Herbert A. Newman, MD. I knew right away that he would be the best person possible (plus, I already know him). I am going to visit him in his office on Tuesday, May 21. My interview questions are:

Why did you become a pediatrician?

What advice would you give to a new parent about their decision to vaccinate their child?

What is your opinion on vaccines? Why?

Why do some people view vaccines as dangerous?

Have there been certain years where more people refuse to vaccinate their children? If so, what were some of those years and reasons?

Are you ever concerned about a certain vaccine? Why or why not?

Where are vaccines made? Are they all made in the same place?

What are the laws surrounding vaccines? Do you support these laws? Why or why not?

Is there anything else I should know, concerning my topic, that I don’t already?

I am so excited to conduct the interview!

 

I did my interview! What happened was: I went into my interviewee’s office. I asked him if it was okay for me to record the interview. He said yes, and I asked him my interview questions (see above). Everything went pretty smoothly except the phone rang in the middle of the interview, so we had to stop. It was a really good interview!

Overall I learned so much that I don’t already know about my topic and added on to things I do know. I also learned a lot about being an interviewer such as speaking clearly and slowly and to make sure that your interviewee understands the question. Overall I learned a lot from my interview and am now super excited for my site visit! (see Capstone #4 when published)

Refugee

5th Grade, Reading,

In class we are reading a the book Refugee by Alan Gratz. This week, we talked a lot about the theme of power.

In the beginning of Josef’s story, Hitler and the Nazis had the power. They could arrest Josef’s family or kill them at any time, place or setting. When Josef’s father jumps of the boat to escape being sent back to the concentration camps in Germany, Josef has the power within his family. His father is stuck in Cuba because of mental issues and his mother is starting to go a bit crazy. They are not fit to take care of the family. So, like it or not Josef is the one in power. Another time when Josef is in power is when he and some men on the ship take the crew hostage to try to get them to turn away from Germany. When the group captures the captain and then chicken out when the captain says he will send them back to the CC camps, Josef is the one who speaks up and acts like the one in power.

In the beginning of Isabel’s story, Fidel Castro had the power. He could arrest Isabel’s father anytime he wanted to. When Isabel’s mother is very sick, and the Bahamas police tell them that if they step foot on Bahamian soil the would be sent back, Isabel is the one to speak up and say “Does anyone have aspirin for my mother?”. When Isabel’s and her family escaped the Coast Guard they felt powerful. When Castro broadcasts that any family who wants to leave Cuba by boat can, Isabel and her family feel like they have the power.

In the beginning of Mahmoud’s story, the war has the power. It can kill anyone, at anytime, in any place. Mahmoud and his family feel powerful when they cross over the border to Turkey. They feel powerful when they finally get to Greece, when they crossed the Macedonian border, when they passed the Serbian border. The felt powerful when they deceived the guards at the borders. When they reached the Hungarian border they felt like they had power.

Overall, the theme of power is common throughout all the character’s stories.

Capstone #1 and #2

5th Grade, Capstone, ,

My grade has started a project called Capstone. First we had to pick our topic. I chose medicine. I chose medicine because I am really passionate about it and really want to become a doctor when I grow up. Medicine is a really big topic and I had to narrow it down to make it a bit more reasonable.

The next step was to come up with a main inquiry question. My teacher told us to do a wheel to narrow our topics down. Then we had to choose one of the different parts of our topic to focus on, based on our questions for each category. For example, I decided to focus on the study of medicine. Then we chose the question that was the best in that category and used it as a base for our main inquiry question.

My first iteration of a main inquiry question was “How has the study of medicine advanced over the years, but then I realized that that question was going to stress me out. So, I narrowed it further.

My 2nd iteration of a main inquiry question was: “How is advancing medicine affecting children’s medical care”. Then I realized that that question would still drive me crazy. So, this time I really narrowed it down. I thought that maybe I could narrow it down to something like vaccines. And I did just that.

My 3rd iteration question was: “Why are vaccines considered dangerous?”. But that sounded too much like I already had an opinion. So, I tweaked my question a bit. In the end, my main inquiry question was this: “Vaccines: Are they safe or dangerous?” See the difference?

Then I had to come up with 5 sub-questions. My sub questions are: “What are the pros of vaccines?”, “What are the cons of vaccines?”, “How is mis-info affecting people’s decisions over vaccines?”, “What are the laws relating to vaccines?” and “What is the process the FDA goes through to say that a certain drug is safe?”

Overall, I am so excited to continue working on my Capstone and am excited to begin the actual research!