STEM- Mrs. McKenzie

Welcome to the STEM page for Samuel Adams School! I am excited to start the 2021-2022 school year and have many exciting things planned for STEM. Please visit your grade level page for current curriculum and grade level updates.

Please reach out through Talking Points or via email amckenzie@bostonpublicschools.org with any questions or concerns.

You can also tweet me @McKenzieSciBPS

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3s-5zDbXyE4Nxdg2ynInjw/featured?view_as=subscriber

September 30, 2021

The school year is off to a great start.

I am excited to see all the students in the building again and hear the laughter and play outside of my classroom window at recess time.

You may have noticed my title has changed. I am no longer the Science teacher, but now rather the STEM Teacher. So what does this mean? While there are some changes to what I will be teaching a lot will stay the same. I will continue teaching science curriculum using Amplify curriculum units however, I will incorporate more of the "TEM" (technology, engineering, and math) into the year. During the month of October the entire school will take part in STEM week, during the month of December we will be coding, and I will also create more engineering activities and challenges throughout the year.

I am excited for what the year has to bring and as always if you have any questions please feel free to reach out!

New Schedule of of March 1, 2021

Science Student of the Week: M.A.G. - 4th Grade

M.A. always participates during science class and tries his hardest to do his best work!

Week of June 1st

Science Student of the Week: S.B. - 6th Grade

S.B. always works her hardest and completes all of her class work.

Week of May 24th

Science Student of the Week: A.P. - Kaiser

A.P. tries his best at answering questions and is a great artist during science class!

Week of May 17th

Science Student of the Week: A.S. - K1

A.S. tries her best and is always answering questions and sharing her ideas during science class!

Week of April 26th

Science Student of the Week: J. D.J. - Grade 5

J.D.J. has worked exceptionally hard during science class, especially during the scientific writing piece.

Week of April 11th

Science Student of the Week: J. G. V. - Grade 2

J. G. V. always tries her best and is willing to help others during science class!

Week of April 5th

Week of March 29th

It was a great time watching you all make super creative snowflakes during the assembly!

Science Student of the Week: L.C. - Grade 2

LC continually tries his best and is always willing to share his thoughts and ideas during science class!

Week of March 15th

Paper Airplane and Paper Tower Challenge with 2nd Graders in Ms. Spring's class!

Welcome Back to School Bitmoji

Science Student of the Week: A.R. - Grade K0/K1

A.R. did a great job of describing types of weather in science.

Week of March 1st

Science Student of the Week: W.W. - Grade K2

W.W. shows up to every science class ready to work and always shares his creative thoughts and ideas!

Week of Jan. 25th

Science Student of the Week: M.Y.L - Grade 5

M.Y.L. is a very hard worker with a positive attitude, she completes all of her science assignments and I can always count on her to share her thoughts and ideas during class.

Week of Jan. 19th

Science Student of the Week: O.G.A- K1

O.G.A always is a hard worker and always participates in science class by sharing his ideas and thoughts.

Week of January 11th

Science Student of the Week: W.H.

W.H. is a very hard worker. He shows up to each science class ready to work and I can always count on him to share his thoughts about class topics.

Week of December 14th

Science Student of the Week: E.S.J.- Grade 2

E.S.J. always participates in science class by sharing her ideas, having a positive mindset, and building on her classmates solutions to solve science class questions.

Week of December 7th

Science Student of the Week: A.M.G- Grade 3

A.M.G. shows up to every science class ready to work, with a positive mindset, she has completed all of her assignments, and is always willing to share her thoughts and ideas.

Week of November 30th

Science Student of the Week: A.R.V. - K2

A.R.V. shows up to every science class ready to work, with a positive mindset, and always willing to share his thoughts and ideas.

Week of November 16th

Science Student of the Week: S.B.- Grade 6

S.B. completes all of her health ed. classwork on time and tries her best. She also is always willing to share her ideas during class time.

Week of Nov. 2nd

Science Student of the Week: B.C. - Grade 4

B.C. is always willing to share her science ideas during class discussion time and she is always willing to help a fellow classmate!

Week of Oct. 26th

Science Student of the Week: S.T. - Grade 1

S.T. is always trying her very best in science class. She is also always willing to share her ideas during class as well!

Week of Oct. 18th

Science Student of the Week: L.S. - Grade 5

L.S. has always offered to share his ideas and collaborate with fellow classmates during class. Keep up the hard work!

Week of Oct. 13th

Welcome Back to School!

I'm very excited to see all of you during science class this week. Please make sure you come ready to learn at 11:30AM sharp! See you then!

Monday 11:30- Grades K1 & K2 https://k12-bostonpublicschools.zoom.us/j/89436109224

Tuesday 11:30- Grades 1 & 2 https://k12-bostonpublicschools.zoom.us/j/89436109224

Thursday 11:30 Grades 3 & 4 https://k12-bostonpublicschools.zoom.us/j/89436109224

Friday 11:30 Grades 5 & 6 https://k12-bostonpublicschools.zoom.us/j/89436109224

Monday 12:00 Ms. Gabriella/Ms. Kara's class https://k12-bostonpublicschools.zoom.us/j/89436109224

Tuesday 12:00 Ms. Vincent's Class https://k12-bostonpublicschools.zoom.us/j/89436109224

Thursday 12:00 Mr. Kaiser's class https://k12-bostonpublicschools.zoom.us/j/89436109224

Friday 12:00 Ms. Kindorf's class https://k12-bostonpublicschools.zoom.us/j/89436109224

June 2020

Science Investigation Follow Along (or Watch!) Thursdays.

With Myself and Mr. Turo for ESL Supports

Oobleck and Slime

Elephant Toothpaste

How to inflate a balloon

Surface Tension

Lava Lamp

Baby Bird Update!

I can't believe how fast the birds are growing each day. They have grown from barely being able to holding up their heads to now covered in feathers, holding up their heads with beaks open awaiting their next meal. I barely see Mama bird anymore these days and when I do it is mid-feeding.

June 5, 2020

We Have Baby Birds!

We have 4 baby chipping sparrow babies!

Between Friday night and Saturday morning all eggs have hatched. I am so excited to share with you a picture and video of the bay birds.

June 3, 2020

video1babybirds.MOV

Egg Update #2

We are now up to 4, yes 4!, eggs. I have not seen 4, but my mother and daughter did. For the past 5 days Mama bird has barely left the nest. She is definitely in incubation stage. I have read that it can be anywhere between 10-14 days until the baby birds start to hatch! I am still trying to ID her, but I believe I have it narrowed down to 2 types of sparrows. Either a Chipping Sparrow or a Song Sparrow. I am leaning towards Chipping Sparrow! What do you think?

Below are the birds; 1st: Chipping Sparrow, 2nd: Mama Bird, and 3rd Song Sparrow

5/24/2020

Egg Update

We are now up to 3 eggs. I also saw Mama bird up close and my original guess as to the species of birds was wrong! What kind of bird do you think it is?

Email me your guesses!

5/18/2020

I am Eggstatic!

I walked out of my door a couple days ago and was pleasantly surprised to see a bird's nest in the topairy bush by my front steps. This morning when I went outside to my surprise I saw an egg! A lone, single egg...but alas it is an egg and how cool is this!!! I can't wait to see what the future holds for this egg and to share my egg-journey with you!

I believe the bird is possibly a European Starling.

5/16/2020

Baking Soda, Vinegar, balloon, and a water bottle.

Materials:

empty water bottle
vinegar
baking soda
balloon
elastic band

Procedure:

Pour about 2tbsp of baking soda into the balloon.
Pour about 2-3" worth of vinegar into the empty water bottle.
Carefully attach the balloon on to the top of the water bottle, it is important you do not let any of the baking soda fall into the bottle at this point in time.
Once the balloon is securely attached hold it up so that you dump the baking soda into the bottle of vinegar.
Watch what happens!

Watch my video doing this with 2 of my children. On take 4, due to bloopers we finally got it to work...until the end....watch to see what happened!

5/14/2020

balloonInflate.MOV

What a busy week.

I'm not sure how this week went by so quickly, yet felt so long.

After being part of 10 live Zoom classes, 2 zoom meetings, and countless hours correcting work, recording videos, emailing, preparing for next week, and all the other not so fun parts of remote teaching I am thoroughly EXHAUSTED! So much so I never updated this page this week, so I apologize!

Here are zoom classes that are available each day for the remainder of the school year. Please email me or see the school-wide Zoom calendar for links to join! I would love to see you all and miss you so much!!! As always reach out if you need it and we can set up a 1-on-1 Zoom session to help with your work.

5/8/2020

Monday:

10:50-11:20- Ms. Vincent's Class

11:30-12:00 Specialist onboarding for grade 4

12:00-12:30 K1/K2 Animal Themed Lesson with myself, Ms. Peters, and Mr. Durney

12:30- 1:00 Specialist onboarding grades 1-3 and 5

1:00- 1:45- Ms. Centeio's Class

1:45-2:00- Ms. Flores's Class

Tuesday:

12:00-1:00 Science Fair work Time with Mr. Turo

Thursday:

12:00-1:00 Science Investigation with Mr. Turo, grades 1-3

2:00-3:00 Science Zoom with 5th grade

Friday:

9:00-9:30- Science Zoom with 3rd grade

12:00-1:00- Specialist Check-in Zoom grades 2-5

Colorful Raindrops

Materials:

empty clear cup
water
vegetable oil
food coloring

4/28/2020

WaterOilandFoodColoring.MOV

Directions Video

ExplanationOilWaterFoodColoring.MOV

Explanation Video

Happy Earth Day!

What will you do today or a day in the future to help the Earth?

Watch this Mystery Doug video about the Earth to celebrate Earth Day!

4/22/2020

How old is the Earth?Watch the video to discover the answer to "How old is the Earth?" and don't forget to vote for next week's question!

Visiting a Pond!

I went to visit a pond by my house today with my 3 kids and my nephew in hopes of finding tadpoles or even frogs. Unfortunately, they are not out yet and still hibernating. We did however find really large snails!

I also want to wish you all a happy first day of vacation week. Make sure that you catch up on any science work you have not finished yet!

4/20/20

Pond.MOV

Dancing Raisins!

Materials:

clear cup
raisins
seltzer water

Procedure Steps:

Pour the seltzer into the cup.
Add in some raisins!

Questions to think about:

What do you see happening?

Why is it happening?

What do you see surrounding the raisins?

Would this work with plain water? Why or why not?

4/17/2020

DancingRaisins.MOV

Fresh Air!

It is so important to make sure you get fresh air. Fresh air and being outside actually has many health benefits. My homework to you today is to get some fresh air! Benefits of fresh air include:

Vitamin D from the sunshine!
Relieves stress.
Helps you sleep better at night.
Strengthens your immune system.
It is good for your brain heatlh.

I took my kids for an early morning hike today. Here are some pictures!

4/14/2020

EarlyMorningHike

Butterflies, Lots and Lots of Butterflies!

All 7 of the butterfly have successfully completed the 4 unique stages of metamorphosis! Check out the close-up photos and video I captured! Also, don't forget to listen to my favorite butterfly life cycle song! I hope you are all doing well and I miss you all.

4/13/2020

butterflycollage

Butterflies.MOV

Green Anole Update!

AKA the lizard from the River Tank :)

4/8/2020

Green Anole Update.mp4

He was so happy with his new terrarium that he decided to molt his skin!

Marshmallow Catapult

Materials:

popsicle sticks or something similar
6 elastic bands
marshmallows/cotton ball
spoon

Procedure:

Stack 3 popsicle sticks and wrap an elastic band around the end of them to hold them together. Take 2 more popsicle sticks and do the same thing. Connect them together with a third elastic band to look like Pac Man's mouth.
Take about 5 more popsicle sticks and stack them, secure each end of the stack with an elastic band. Place this between Pac Man's mouth (step 1).
Attach a spoon to the top popsicle stick with a elastic band.
Place a marshmallow on the spoon, gently push the spoon down and release!

Let me know how it works! Other materials can be used instead of the items on the list, be creative.

4/6/2020

CatapultVideo.mp4

We have Pupae!

Check out this video that goes along with the 2nd graders weekly assignment. Discuss the answers to the questions that I asked in the video! Share with me what you think. I miss you all!

4/6/2020

We have pupae! .MOV

Zoom! Friday April 3, 2020

There will be a Zoom meeting today at noon for grades 2-5! Check you Science Remote Learning Google Classroom for the link to join! Can't wait to see you all.

The caterpillars are changing and growing!!

What stage are they in now?

What is your prediction for what stage they will be in next week?

4/2/2020

Today I went on a rainbow hunt with my kids! It was so fun seeing all the different rainbows people put in their windows. Draw a rainbow at home and put it in your window so passerbyers can see it and spread some cheer! Here are some of the rainbows from my hunt and a fun extra Toy Story scene I set-up at my house!

3/31/2020

Dish Soap Silly Putty

Ingredients:

1.5 tablespoons of dish soap (dawn or any is fine!)

2 tablespoons of corn starch

Directions:

Mix the ingredients together. If it seems too runny add a pinch more of corn starch. The silly putty will hold its shape while you are playing with it, but once you stop it will drip like thick syrup!

Let me know how it works!

3/27/2020

Try at Home!

Rubber Egg

Follow these instructions to make an egg bounce while learning about chemical reactions.

You will need

hard-boiled egg, with shell on
glass of vinegar.

What to do

To make your eggs bounce you will need to:

Put the egg into the vinegar – you should see bubbles start to form on the egg.
Leave the egg undisturbed for at least a day. You should see some wonderful scum form.
Take the egg out of the vinegar and rinse it with water. The shell will rub off.
Give the egg a poke with your finger and squeeze it gently.

What’s happening

Vinegar, or dilute acetic acid, ‘eats up’ the calcium carbonate in the egg shell, just leaving the inner membrane, or skin, of the egg behind. As the calcium carbonate is responsible for making the shell hard, the vinegar soaked egg feels soft and rubbery.

When calcium carbonate (the egg shell) and acetic acid (the vinegar) combine, a chemical reaction takes place and carbon dioxide gas is released. That’s why you see the bubbles.

The chemical reaction keeps happening for about a day until all of the calcium carbonate in the egg is used up. Calcium carbonate is in eggshells, seashells, limestone, and many other materials.

Share pictures or videos making your Rubber Egg at home!

3/26/2020

Caterpillars!

3/25/2020

Caterpillars#1.MOV

Listen to the book reading Brear Shadow. I also added it to my youtube channel!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3s-5zDbXyE4Nxdg2ynInjw/

3/24/2020

Bear Shadow Book Reading March 24, 2020.MOV

Good Afternoon Adams Families!

Today I went to the school to collect the classroom goldfish (Mr. Evans took the crayfish). They are very happy in their new home away from home!

Starting this week Friday will be the day that science work is due/to be done. What this means is the other days of the week you should be focused on work from your classroom teacher and on Friday focus on work from Science and the other specialist. However, if you want to do your science work sooner that is fine too. I will post all assigns grade 2-5 on your google classroom, which you can now access through Clever. Grades K0-1 your assignments will be posted on SeeSaw. Please contact me for log-in if you do not have it!

3/23/2020

Wild Turkey in my neighborhood.

Question to talk about with your family:

Why are the wild turkey leaving their habitats to look for food in neighborhoods?

3/19/2020

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