Our class is hard at work preparing for our ‘Tiny Art Show’! We are using paints to craft a small painting on canvas. For inspiration, we watched this Artist who challenges himself to match ANY object’s colour. He does this by making keen observations and using colour theory. We will continue learning about colour theory as we exploring painting!

Our Engineers are hard at work designing an alternative to a single-use plastic product! Our goal is to create something that is convenient and can easily replace the plastic items we use every day (ex: plastic cups, disposable forks). We know that while some single-use plastics cannot be avoided (ex: plastic wrappers on medical supplies), there are many kinds we could replace with a new, interesting invention! Stay tuned!

Bubble artist Melody Yang holds one of the world records for getting the MOST people inside 1 bubble (181 people)! Below, she shares her recipe for bubble solution. We will try creating our own ‘perfect’ bubble liquid in class!

Have you ever noticed that banana flavoured things taste NOTHING like real, fresh bananas? Well, every time you bite into a banana-flavoured candy, you are actually ‘travelling back in time’ to taste a species of banana that is now extinct! The flavouring is based on the Gros Michel species of bananas, which were wiped out many years ago by a plague. The bananas we eat today are a different species, which don’t taste the same!

Humans have been adjusting, selectively breeding, and changing plants for hundreds of years! Check out what bananas used to look like below:

Today, our class talked about the prehistoric, aquatic, mysterious creature known as the ‘Tully Monster’. This species is known to be around 14 inches long, lived in streams/creeks, and had 2 long eye stalks and a large clawed appendage. However, many paleontologists are in disagreement about what kind of animal it was: was it related to a squid? Was it more like a fish? Is it something different altogether?

What do you think?

Have you ever tried ‘street food’? This could be a meal served in a cart or in a food truck! Some common street foods you might see include hot dogs, gyros, crepes, etc. Vancouver is famous for the Japanese fusion cart known as ‘Japadog’. What started as 1 street cart has now turned into over 8 carts and even a restaurant!

We also read a story about boy who wants to eat Halal hot dogs with his family after prayers. Halal is a special kind of preparation of food/rules about food that some people who practice Islam follow. Many Muslim people may eat Halal meats, or may choose not to eat pork.

Check out the real-life inspiration for the Halal Hotdog book below:

 

Our read-aloud novel is a bit of a ‘historical’ fiction… the story is set at the beginning of the pandemic (March 2020). Think back to what we were thinking and feeling back then. This story follows Knox, whose family moves from Hong Kong to American during the early stages of the pandemic. Knox has to deal with leaving his dad and dog behind in Hong Kong, worrying about his family’s money troubles, tackling his learning differences, finding his identity as a Chinese-American, and standing up against anti-Asian racism at his new school. On top of all of that, his older brother Bowen is always getting on Knox’s case.

This new book is from Kelly Yang, who wrote the Front Desk series (one of our favourites from last year)!

Some questions to consider at home:

1. If you could send a message to yourself in March 2020, what would you say?
2. Do you think that there will be lots of stories (and even textbooks) set during the pandemic in the future? Are we living during an important time in history?
3. Have you ever witnessed discrimination or prejudice?

If you want to watch Kelly Yang reading a chapter of her newest novel, watch the video below:

Do all ice creams and frozen desserts melt? Our Scientists conducted a myth-busting experiment to determine whether the following internet rumour was true: “Breyer’s Frozen Dessert does not melt. I left the ice cream out for over 70 hours without any melting or change. What is in this product that keeps it from melting?” (taken from a YouTube video with over 600,000 views).

Our class tested 4 frozen sweet treats including: a popsicle, rainbow sherbet, Breyer’s frozen dessert, and Chapman’s ice cream. We left the frozen desserts out for 5 hours, checking in every so often to see any changes. Our results are below:

Above left: rainbow shebert after 4 hours

Above right: Chapman’s vanilla ice cream after 4 hours

     

Above left: the Breyer’s frozen dessert (the focus of the internet rumour) after 4 hours.

Above right: the grape popsicle after 4 hours

What do you notice in our results? We found that all of the desserts had noticeable changes, however the Breyer’s frozen dessert maintained the shape/size. We think this might be due to the high concentration of gum products (ex: guar gum) and lower percentage of milk/dairy fats in this frozen dessert.

Feel free to watch the time-lapse video below of different frozen treats melting!

Have you ever tried bubble tea? This sweet treat was invented in the 1980’s in Taiwan. Since it was invented, many different flavours have been created. You could try a fruit tea with coconut jelly, a milk tea with brown sugar pearls, an Oreo slush with red bean, a taro smoothie with grass jelly, or a jasmine green tea with mango stars. The combinations seem endless!

Image above: a few options for toppings/add-ins available at some Bubble Tea shops.

Below: an infographic of how profitable the Bubble Tea market is, and how much they think the industry will be worth in 2026!

Check out the video below to watch the process of creating tapioca/pearls/boba at at Bubble Tea shop:

History Mystery Part 1_

Our historians are hard at work investigating primary sources, theories, and engineering blueprints about the Titanic! Take a look by clicking the link above!