Month: October 2019

8th grade is in the middle of their chemistry unit. They have been learning about the periodic table and different properties of these elements. This week, the 8th grade was looking at boiling and freezing points. It’s hard to imagine a liquid oxygen molecule or a solid gas since we are used to living at a comfortable climate. So to understand this, students investigated dry ice or frozen carbon dioxide. At a cool -109 degrees F (approximately) and the classroom at a temperature of 68 degrees F, this drastic temperature change creates a sublimation state change for the dry ice; it changes straight from a solid to a gaseous form.

Students began to understand how the quick change creates a dense gas or fog coming off the dry ice. This dense air sank and created a bubble of air the students could use to float the block on top of the counter. They pushed pennies into the block to see how matter responds at that temperature and how solid gases react to warmer solids colliding into them. By adding water to the block, they saw the water bubble (boil) with white gas filled bubbles and then freeze the water they had once put over the dry ice.

They then related their understanding of what was happening in our solar system. As frozen gases orbit through space, when they come close to stars, they melt, much like our dry ice was doing on the table, and produce a gaseous tail. We recognize these orbiting frozen gas balls as comets.

#SaklanHandsOn

Second and third graders have been learning about Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead in Spanish class. Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday where families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives for a brief reunion that includes food, drink and celebration. A blend of Mesoamerican ritual, European religion and Spanish culture, the holiday is celebrated each year on November 1-2. This holiday involves family and friends gathering to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, and helping support their spiritual journey. In Mexican culture, death is viewed as a natural part of the human cycle. Mexicans view it not as a day of sadness but as a day of celebration because their loved ones awake and celebrate with them. In 2008, the tradition was inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called ofrendas, honoring the deceased using calaveras, Aztec marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts. Visitors also leave possessions of the deceased at the graves.

Sugar skulls represent a departed soul, it has the name written on the forehead and is placed on the home ofrenda or gravestone to honor the return of a particular spirit. Sugar skull art reflects the folk art style of big happy smiles, colorful icing and sparkly tin and glittery adornments.

Last week, second and third graders went on a field experience to El Corazon de Pueblo in Oakland to make sugar skulls. Students were very excited to learn how to make the dough for sugar skulls, put them in molds and then decorate them with colorful icing.

#SaklanExperiential