When you are diving into a salad or a bowl of mashed potatoes, do you think about where your vegetables come from? Do you think about how they grow? Today, our class investigated how the vegetables we eat are grown… whether they are roots, tubers, leaves, stems, or flowers.

The vegetables we examined were: artichokes, mushrooms, turnips, broccoli, lettuce, radish, brussels sprouts, yams, green onions, beets, and asparagus.

One of the most popular examples of a ‘tuber’ is a potato! Check  out how they are grown (under the ground) below:

 

When paleontologists discover fossils, often they have to make educated guesses about what the dinosaur looked like, where it lived, what it ate, whether it was a predator or prey species, etc. Sometimes, the skeletons will be incomplete or mismatched. Today, we tried to assemble a skeleton based on the fossils that paleontologists founds. Check out all of our different results!

This is a picture of what the fossil looked like when it was uncovered.

Based on educated guesses, paleontologists think this dinosaur may have looked like this:

 

Mr. Murray has been exploring the world of paleontology with us! Today, we did a simulated dinosaur dig where we had to locate, retrieve, clean, and analyze our fossils. Then, we worked collaboratively to try to assemble our bones into a dinosaur skeleton. Check out our results below!

Have you ever heard of Hazel Ying Lee? She, and thousands of over women, were ‘Women Airforce Service Pilots’ (WASPs) that flew planes during the second World War! While these women were not allowed to fly during combat/battles, their job was also very dangerous; these women ‘test-flew’ planes that had just been built to check for any malfunctions!

Hazel Ying Lee not only faced discrimination as a female pilot, but also as a Chinese American. But she never gave up and was determined to be a pilot. She was even one of the few women to fly a fighter jet! After her tragic passing, she was not given any military recognition. Like many WASPs, her role in history has been erased or forgotten. We think it is important to acknowledge these ‘hidden heroes’ throughout history, especially during Women’s History Month!

Did you know that a girl named Mary Anning is credited as being a pioneer in paleontology? Her discovery of dinosaur bones (an Ichthyosaurus and a Plesiosaurus) when she was a teenager shocked the world! Many people did not believe this “giant lizards” could have existed millions of years ago. Mary Anning made many paleontological discoveries all through her life, but was not given the credit she deserved because she was a woman and because she was self-taught.

Our class has been investigating how fossils teach us about the past. Today, we made our own fossils by ‘imprinting’ dinosaurs into salt dough. Look at our amazing results!

For more information on Mary Anning and her contributions to Science, check out the video below:

 

Our class has been investigating Earth Science with Mr. Murray. We learned about how many layers there are ‘under our feet’ and how deep they are!

Humans have not been able to explore very ‘deep’ inside the Earth, but we can take ‘core samples’ to investigate what is below the crust. Our Scientists created their own ‘layers’ using playdough and then took a core sample using a straw!

Check out our results!

Here is Ms. Ward’s recipe for playdough:

Ingredients:

Today, our class took a look at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada. This museum has lots of examples of fossils from all different kinds of dinosaurs! We learned that dinosaurs, insects, and even plants from prehistoric times can turn into fossils in the right conditions. Paleontologists are responsible for discovering fossils and carefully removing them. We can learn a lot about the past from fossils!

Feel free to check out the virtual museum tour below.

 

Today, we watched the spoken word piece performed by Amanda Gorman. She talked about 3 different examples of coaches, warriors, and champions who are inspirational and influential in 2020/2021.

Who are some unconventional, unappreciated heroes in our everyday lives? How can we connect this to our speech on “What we learned in 2020”?

Have you ever looked inside of a flower? What did you notice? We continued our exploration of plant biology by dissecting lilies. We noticed that they had very bright, scented, orange pollen. We saw they had different patterns and colours inside the petals. We noticed the stamens and pistil inside of the flower and inside the bud. What do you notice?