Category: Science

“A medicine wheel is a foundation of teaching and learning that shows how different parts of life are connected and balanced. The symbol of four colours in a circle represents the interconnectivity of all aspects of a person’s relationship with themselves, others, and the natural and spiritual world”

Words by Joyce Perrault from “All Creation Represented: A Child’s Guide to the Medicine Wheels”

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Burnaby School District is excited to offer outstanding summer programs.

Elementary Registration opens at 10am on Tuesday, April 12th (button will not be visible until 10am)

The online registration system is super easy. You will be required to have your child’s Personal Education Number (PEN) and birthdate. PEN numbers are located on their report card.

Please note popular summer programs like coding and robotics fill up fast.

Click here to see the brochure

Please keep checking the Burnaby School District website for more information regarding course options. https://burnabyschools.ca/summersession/

How do you make slime with glue, water and Borax? Slime is made after a chemical reaction occurs between two main ingredients; polyvinyl alcohol and borate ion. Glue contains polyvinyl acetates (PVAC) molecules. These are long polymers that are like long strands of spaghetti tangled together on your plate. The Borax (borate ions)hook these together so they don’t flow so well and begin to act more like a solid and their viscosity increases.

During the slime lab students learned that increasing the amount of water in their slime mixture helped it flow better, while increasing the amount of Borax made the slime firmer.

Today we learned about the process of emulsion by making butter. Once our butter formed we then tried it on some English Muffins, which were delicious.

Whoever told you that oil and water don’t mix might not have considered the term “emulsion.” It is possible for tiny particles of two seemingly unmixable substances to suspend in one another like oil and water. This super scientific experiment demonstrates the magic of the invisible globule while bringing a yummy result to the table.

Milk is mostly water with about 5-10 percent protein and fat globule. Cream is milk that contains closer to 15-25 percent fat globules. What is a globule? A globule is a super tiny membrane filled with fat molecules-think of a microscopic water balloon. Because these globules are so small and fat is lighter than water, it floats. This forms a “stable suspension,” a colloid. The bigger the globules, the slower it moves resulting in thinker milk or cream.

When shaken, the globules’ membranes smash against each other and break apart like bursting water balloons. The fat then spills out and clumps together with the contents of the other burst globules, which causes the freed fat to separate from the water. As this process continues, two new substances are formed: a solid (butter) and the remaining liquid (buttermilk)!

Last week in class we learned about crystals and the process of crystallization. A crystal is a solid substance with a symmetrical pattern of faces and angles with a repetitive arrangement of atoms in a substance. Snowflakes are one type of crystal. They are formed when air and water cool and molecules move closer together. Crystallization is a natural process when the materials solidify from liquids, or they precipitate out of liquid or gas. Crystals can be made of 1 species of atom, different species of ions, or even from molecules like proteins.

During the lab we learned how a solute(borax) and solvent(water) interact to form crystals. We also learned that different conditions affect how crystals grow. We tested making crystals from different materials like epsom salt, paperclips and string in a solution. During the experiments we discovered that materials like epsom salt and paperclips do not provide the proper conditions to grow a crystal, but borax, pipe cleaners and string do. We also noticed that the crystals that grew on the string were larger than the crystals that grew on the pipe cleaner.

Following the lab, we had an opportunity to record our observations and use magnifying glasses to determine the shape and size of our crystals. We learned that crystals grow together and the surfaces are either be flat or curved. We also learned how to define unsaturated, saturated, and supersaturated solutions and were able to point out in the lab when our solution went through each phase.

Blog Post Written By: A.W

The following is information on Capitol Hill’s French Late Immersion program for Grade 5 students going into Grade 6 in the fall. If you are interested in the program or would like more information please let me know.

This week in class we’ve been discussing how our choices and actions impact others.   We We all have a responsibility to be kind and treat others with respect.

Here are a few poems that were presented by Division 5 during today’s Pink Shirt Day Assembly. (more…)