Mrs. Hamaguchi's Class Online

Last week, it was very exciting to have so many parents come to our classroom to see the projects the kids have been working so hard on.  Researching for this project what a challenging and time-consuming task for our kids. As well, deciding on a presentation format, then constructing/designing it also proved to be a great collaboration experience. As I mentioned in my introduction, last week, although the information may not all be perfect and 100% accurate in their final presentation, the process of researching, planning and preparing their presentation provided great learning value and increased their skill level that will contribute to their ability to complete such tasks in the future. It was obvious that they were all very proud of their presentation. Both the performers and our young audience took great delight in them. Thanks again for your support and enthusiasm! The slideshow is a compilation of photos taken while the kids were working on their projects,  when we kicked off our new unit on Energy and when we invited all the parents in for our Cultural Fair.

This week, our class learned all about biomass with me, Mrs. Hamaguchi. First of all, the kids learned what biomass actually means. Ask your child the answer for that! One great example can be found in the video clip, below. Then they learned how we can take plant and animal waste biomass and use it as an      energy source to give us power. One way of learning this was experimenting with yeast and a few other ingredients. The experiment required precision and patience, as can be seen on the slideshow. The yeast produced a gas, much like biomass does in a digester. WE Energies in the USA created a great video to demonstrate this, as you can see on their website.

Auckland Zoo Poop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2_CoWx5-KI&feature=related

We-Energies video on biomass: http://www.we-energies.com/educators/renew/renew_pres/we_renewables.swf

On Tuesday, our class learned all about hydropower with Mr. O’Neel.  Brainstorming what hydropower means was tough but everyone had great ideas.  Ask your child if they can tell you more about hydropower.  Then, everyone took part in two different exciting activities.  The first one they tried to see how far they could get a marble rolling using angles and a ramp.  The connection to water flowing in a dam was quickly made.  For the second activity they created a waterwheel and used the power of water to raise a ping pong ball attached to a piece of string.  Check out some of these cool videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDgGvPdAuTU&feature=fvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-4Ll_v32RY

http://www.juliantrubin.com/encyclopedia/renewable_energy/hydroelectricity.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEL7yc8R42k