Five Planets Visible!

During the last week of this month, starting Jan. 23, all five planets visible to the naked eye can be seen at the same time, around dawn each morning.  This sight will continue through mid-February.  Some sources say that it's starting Jan. 20, but Mercury will be pretty hard to see for the next few days.  All throughout this time, the most difficult planet to see will be Mercury, since it will be very close to the horizon.  So, to see all five planets, you'll need an open area without a lot of trees or buildings toward the eastern horizon. 

Rolling Power! K-1 Science

We experimented with rolling shapes and evaluated what rolls best! Round seemed to be the winner!

News Show Prep!

The 2-3s are practicing camera savvy skills. All their research and rehearsals are paying off.

Four New Elements added to the Periodic Table

Chemistry Is Exciting!
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/04/periodic-tables-seventh-row-finally-filled-as-four-new-elements-are-added

The scientists who found them must now come up with formal names to replace the clunky Latin-based placeholders – ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium and ununoctium – which reflect their atomic numbers, 113, 115, 117, and 118. The atomic number is the number of protons found in an element’s atomic nucleus.

IUPAC announced that a Russian-American team of scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California had produced sufficient evidence to claim the discovery of elements 115, 117 and 118.

The body awarded credit for the discovery of element 113, which had also been claimed by the Russians and Americans, to a team of scientists from the Riken institute in Japan.

Holiday Citizen Science

Check out some of these Citizen Science projects- keeping you exploring over break!

Planet Hunters: Graphs of light as bright as 5 gold rings as I analyzed light patterns from far away stars to look for the presence of planets.
http://scistarter.com/project/595-Planet%20Hunters?utm_source=2015+Christmas+Newsletter++&utm_campaign=Christmas+Projects+December+2015&utm_medium=email

Sing About Science:

Nine scientists dancing to the greatest science tunes found in their database.

http://scistarter.com/project/517-Sing%20About%20Science?utm_source=2015+Christmas+Newsletter++&utm_campaign=Christmas+Projects+December+2015&utm_medium=email

Noise Tube:

An app to measure the noise made by 12 drummers drumming. 

http://scistarter.com/project/475-NoiseTube?utm_source=2015+Christmas+Newsletter++&utm_campaign=Christmas+Projects+December+2015&utm_medium=email

Bee Careful!

Isabella created a Save the Bees Scratch game! She designed it so the bee has to make it safely back to the hive without getting hit by pesticides or radio waves. Hopefully it will be open for all to play soon!

K-1 model

Practicing their skills with model dioramas!