"We are in a Zoo!"

That is the comment I heard from a couple of  7th graders when I spent the day as their science sub.  The regular teacher had added a snake to her classroom animal collection and the kids had just seen it.  

The newest member, the snake, was out and about in his cage slithering around.  He got a bit shyer ( or perhaps was just tired) when I went over later to take his picture. 

The turtle looked like he was stuck in the log!  I think he may have just been chilly--although he did have a heat lamp nearby.  

The iguana basked under a heat lamp all day on his branch moving nary a muscle as far as I could tell. Must be the life!   

What classroom animals have you seen? 

Marshmallow Models

I spent time in a middle school science class this week and they were studying chemistry.  The teacher had set up the class the day with some background knowledge and an experiment.  She burned a magnesium strip to create magnesium oxide.  

On my watch, the students were to do some reading in their text then build a model of the chemical equation with mini-marshmallows and toothpicks.  It was to be a discovery session as they figured out how to represent the equation with the marshmallows.  At first the kids struggled some, but they soon figured out what they could do and the day was a success.  After creating the model they sketched their model in their science notebooks. 

At that point, some of the marshmallows were eaten! 

Any Questions?