A Lil' Chemistry

Finishing the year, we have accomplished so much in science that we have some time for chemistry. Today, students learned about reactants and used three of them to produce a chemical reaction that produced a color change, heat, and gas. To say the students liked today's lab would be an understatement.

Kids Court

Today we visited the court house as our capstone project in learning about the 3 branches of government and our focus on the judicial branch. Students either had specific reading theater parts that had been worked on for the past five days or were the jury and got to decide if the defendant was innocent or guilty (guilty was our verdict).

Pen Pals at UNR

Students were finally able to meet their pen pals, with whom they have been communicating with all year. The pen pals, who are University of Nevada, Reno student ambassadors, helped students tie dye and gave a tour of the campus. A highlight was being treated to the cafe where most of the UNR Freshmen eat. So many choices to choose from! I think for some students, it was the food that might perhaps convince them to attend UNR in coming years.

Solar Cooking

Yesterday we had just enough sun to break out our solar ovens and do some cooking. Although shadows from clouds came and went, we had enough solar radiation to convert to heat energy. Hot dogs were cooked and consumed.