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I Scream, You Scream, ...

We all scream! Not because it's the last day of the school year (enough reason in itself) but because we made ice cream in science! Using their knowledge of endothermic reactions, seventh graders put on their engineering hats and designed devices that could successfully freeze milk within minutes to form ice cream. It was a tasty way to close out the year.

Ups and Downs

Seventh grade students investigated endothermic and exothermic combinations of substances in preparation for choosing the most endothermic combination for an ice-cream making device. They measured the temperature changes of six reactions or mixtures, sometimes surprising themselves with the results.

Around and Around

Eighth graders finished their very last day of science by learning how orbital velocity interrelates with the gravitational pull of a planet. Sound tricky? Not so much when you get to spin around with water balloons outside to learn this!

Away We Go

Just before the end of eighth grade science, we took a loooong walk to model the solar system to scale. If Jupiter is the size of a peppermint, just how far away is it from Earth? More than 100 steps away. To get to Pluto (a mere pinhead), we walked nearly to Winnemac Park!

Curdling Experimentation

Seventh grade took a second look at milk plastic, designing their own experiments into questions like: Can you make milk plastic with non-dairy milk? How does the temperature of the milk affect how much plastic is produced? and Do citrus fruits work as alternative acids to produce milk plastic? The results were interesting, to say the least!

Kickball Time!

The eighth graders played a great game of kickball against the teachers... even if the teachers did beat them by multiple runs!

Field Trip!

Nothing says fun like a field trip, especially to someplace as cool as the Museum of Science and Industry. From watching a chick hatch to boarding a plane to stumbling through the mirror maze, students were enthralled with the museum from start to finish.

Fit for a Queen

Did you know that you can make plastic out of milk? Today seventh grade students made their own casein plastic from acetic acid and milk, a throwback to when plastic was commonly manufactured this way in the first half of the twentieth century. In fact, the queen of England even used jewelry made from casein plastic!

Strung Up

Eighth grade is wrapping up their unit on outer space with a few final days of hands-on activities. One of those activities was making a scale model of the solar system using string and beads. Seeing how far apart each planet is in a condensed 4.5-meter model gives you a much better sense of what millions of kilometers really means!

Thief in the Kitchen

Seventh graders solved a kitchen mystery to begin our chemistry unit. They tested the physical and chemical properties of five different substances to determine which chef stole the cookies. Later in the week they then got to make their own plan for how to test the properties of a marshmallow. 

Sun's Out, Fans Out

We enjoyed the one sunny day last week by going outside with eighth grade. As part of our unit investigating outer space, students used mini solar panels to see how the angle of their position affects the transfer of energy. This helped them make connections about how Earth's tilt relates to the seasons.

Apps for the Future

Seventh graders finished up their rock transformations/natural resources unit by designing apps that would help a person reduce their impact on the environment. Choices ranged from single-use plastics to home utilities, and we were impressed by their creativity in the designs. 

Human Blender

Seventh graders were tasked with becoming human blenders in their efforts to make recycled paper this week. By conducting the process of recycling themselves, they were able to see just how much energy recycling takes -- and why reducing and reusing are even more important.

Happy Earth Day!

On Earth Day, homeroom 403 ventured out to the garden to help prepare it for spring. They picked up litter and planted sunflower seeds in honor of Ukraine. We can't wait to see how they grow!

Teamwork Makes the...

dream work! We've all heard the saying before, but homeroom 404 tested it out with a puzzle activity. Since the seating chart changed for fourth quarter, what better way to strengthen collaboration skills with their group than with a team-building activity? Half the group could see the puzzle pieces but were not allowed to use their hands, while the other half had to put the puzzle together (with closed eyes) just by listening to their group members' directions. 

Diamonds???

Seventh graders honed their rock identification skills using identifying characteristics of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks. Then, they were able to use their new skills to determine whether a rock that local hikers had found contained garnets or diamonds. 

Sweet Tooth

Seventh grade modeled their first type of rock by creating sedimentary rocks out of Jolly Ranchers. They enjoyed weathering their rocks by shaking and hammering them to create sediments, and now we'll let them compact under pressure for several days before unveiling the final rocks.

Connect the Dots

Eighth grade students did their first natural selection game in order to see how the adaptiveness of different traits depends on the environment. They, as the "predators," hunted white dots and newspaper dots on different backgrounds, simulating how a population of moths in Manchester, England, changed over time because of the impact of soot on trees during the Industrial Revolution.

Wild Loops

In a second game, eighth grade channeled their inner bird to act as "forkbirds" collecting wild fruit loops. The fastest predators were able to survive and reproduce, occasionally passing on their traits and occasional mutations to their offspring.

Insta-Graham Worthy

Seventh grade students were lucky enough to use graham crackers, frosting, and fruit strips to model plate motion in a hands-on fashion. (Though they weren't lucky enough to get to eat any of these snacks.) Using the food items helped them see how plate tectonics creates different types of landforms around the world. 

Too Hot to Handle

Continuing their dive into the interior of the Earth, seventh graders explored how convection currents form. This helped them better understand how mantle material moves and thereby causes plate motion.

Hazard a Guess...

Can you guess how the seventh graders are wrapping up their plate motion unit? They are researching plate hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis, and redesigning buildings to be more structurally sound. Students got to choose any event from within the last 10 years to investigate and create either a drawing or model of their improved structure.

Detectives on the Scene

Eighth graders took on the challenge of solving a car crash crime scene last week. To earn the privilege of investigating the scene, they first had to earn their investigator's license by solving physics problems. With that in hand, they were able to examine the shards, skid marks, and markings left by the collision. By the end of the week, they had figured out which vehicles were involved, their velocities and masses, and which driver was at fault.

Messing Around

We weren't actually messing around, but we were making a mess! Seventh grade investigated the state of Earth's mantle by using three models: oobleck, honey, and honey. They loved getting to see how a soft solid material acts under different amounts of pressure.

Redesign

To conclude the force and motion unit, eighth grade applied their learning to designing new crash test dummies. They had learned earlier about the disparity between male and female injuries in car crashes due to the outdated, male-only dummy currently used in safety testing, so students designed a new type of dummy to propose to government regulators. Choices ranged from pregnant women to pet dogs to teenage girls to people with Down syndrome. 

Puzzling Away

Seventh graders stepped back in time to see how Earth's continents have changed over time. They used a puzzle to explore the various types of evidence that scientists were able to use to determine the existence of Pangea. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Homeroom 408 celebrated Valentine's Day with a little extra fun during science class. They built teacher-sanctioned paper football/basketball/soccer games to "kick" around and... as they say... have a ball.

Habits Awards

Congratulations to our three 408 Habits Awards recipients for quarter 2! Today we honored Adrian with the Most Creative award, Keon with the Most Improved award, and Hassan with the Habit of Heart award. Be sure to check out the video recording of the speeches coming next week.

All Dried Up

After wrapping up their analysis of phase change on Titan, Saturn's moon, seventh graders transitioned their exploration to a more local planet: Earth. Students are now exploring factors that affect droughts on Earth, particularly as we face global warming.

Photo Gallery

On Tuesday last week, students toured the Budlong Photo Gallery (aka our annex hallway) to brainstorm variables that might affect droughts around the world. This week they returned to the gallery hall, this time to examine indicators of drought.

Our Turn

Finally, students investigated questions of their own design around droughts. Groups chose many different independent variables, including land elevation, topographical shape, and presence of a body of water. One group even decided to investigate using the snow outside!

Go Mandarin!

With the start of the third quarter, seventh grade said farewell to Ms. Teresa in theater and 你好 (nǐ hǎo) to Ms. Wang in Mandarin. Ms. Wang planned an extra-special start to the semester by inviting in a CPS artist-in-residence to teach students the game of GO. 

Launcher Fun

Eighth graders, meanwhile, had fun on Thursday using alka-seltzer tablets to launch "roller coaster cars" of different masses. This continued their study of Newton's laws, and next week they will solidify their understanding of all three laws.

Iso... what?

What's isopropanol? And how quickly does a drop of water evaporate? Now Budlong seventh graders can answer your questions. Last week, students got to test out how different substances evaporate at different rates, and they were surprised to see just how quickly isopropanol evaporates compared with water. 

May the Force Be With You

Eighth grade has been delving into Newton's first law of motion the last two weeks with several hands-on activities to explore forces. They used force meters to compare the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces, and they played (scientifically!) with spring launchers and other objects to see how forces affect velocity.

Lunar New Year

Happy Year of the Tiger! We enjoyed a parade from our Mandarin students around the track on Thursday afternoon. 

And the Winner Is...

After months of students' hard work, the science fair came to an end. Students this year did research on many topics, including preserving guacamole, how well wet wipes really work, and the impact of music on a person's mood. The following winners were recognized by an independent panel of judges for their outstanding work. 

7th Grade

• • 403 Runner-up: Eryka

  • 404 Runner-up: Gus

  • 408 Runner-up: Isabel

  • 3rd place: Vennes

  • 2nd place: Atalia

  • 1st place: Maida

8th Grade

• 402 Runner-up: Bree

• 406 Runner-up: Adiba

• 3rd place: Joseph

• 2nd place: George

• 1st place: Stephanie

Overall winner of Budlong Science Fair 2021: Jose

Congratulations to all of our 7th and 8th graders for their interesting research!

Sled & Slope

To celebrate the day before winter break, each class participated in a STEM challenge to design a slope and a sled. How far could they make the sled, with its two passengers, go? The record was 23 centimeters. Not bad for using cardboard, tape, foil, paper plates, and "human" dropper bottles!

Door Decorating

Homeroom 408 joined in the schoolwide door decorating contest with a theme carefully crafted to showcase Chicago's skyline. A big thanks to Jill, Kaylani, Matthew, Nayeli, and Atalia for their hard work before, during, and after school!

Field Trip

Just before Thanksgiving, seventh graders got to head back to River Park for another field study. This time they conducted biodiversity samples to compare and contrast native and non-native habitats. We all enjoyed the sunshine!

Aaahhh!

The final eighth grade haunted houses were fantastic! Students' presentations explained the ins and outs of electricity, and several groups went above and beyond to share the haunted lore behind their houses. They did impressive work.

The Power of Nature

Seventh grade enjoyed a hands-on investigation of ecosystem services this week when they looked at different ways that ecosystems can help purify water. Thanks to a donation of turf samples from our friends at Perfect Turf, students were able to investigate just what a difference plants can make in filtering run-off. Other groups used celery to see how plants can absorb pollutants, and the final set explored how healthy soil acts as a natural filtration system. Nature is amazing!

Diversity Matters

Seventh graders also participated in a simulation this week to explore why biodiverse habitats are healthier and more stable. By acting as different tree species, they were able to see what happens when the emerald ash borer attacks a diverse ecosystem versus a monoculture. Next week they'll get to return to River Park to conduct biodiversity samples in our own Chicago River ecosystem!

Quarter 1 Awards

Finally, we enjoyed a virtual version of our traditional habits award assembly. I am proud to share the quarter one award recipients in room 408:

• Habit of Heart: Kaylani

• Most Improved: Adesa

• Most Creative: Crystal

Congratulations!

Haunted House

Eighth grade is hard at work designing haunted houses with working lights. This week they figured out how to create a simple circuit and began their designs; we can't wait to see how the houses turn out next week!

Maxed Out

Students this week put together their knowledge of limiting factors and ecosystems to analyze what affects a population's carrying capacity. They practiced identifying carrying capacity on graphs using an old favorite -- whiteboards.

Candy Grabber

Seventh grade designed a machine to save the day after a local factory had a major candy spill. With a limited budget to spend at the Scheiber Shop, only 45 minutes, and restrictions on how close they could stand, the task was a tall order. Luckily, some machines were able to rescue at least a few pieces of candy!

Happy Halloween

The costumes were very fun to see today! We enjoyed a parade from the younger students in the morning as well as spooky stories in the afternoon.

Oh Deer!

Seventh graders played the Oh Deer! game to learn about limiting factors in an ecosystem. They then applied what they have been learning about in math class (coordinate planes) to graph their population data over time. 

Scavenger Hunt

Eighth graders explored the school to find as many different types of energy as they could. They found an impressive number of examples, everything from gravitational potential energy in water fountains to sound energy in fire alarms to chemical energy in the cafeteria food. Trickiest was locating nuclear energy, since around Budlong, it's only in the center of the sun.

Sun Fun

Seventh graders love being silly on sunny days at recess! A reminder to please send along jackets with students as we move into late fall. We will continue to have recess, mask breaks, and some KW classes outside.

Wade in the Water

Seventh grade got a real treat this week with a field trip to River Park to explore the local river ecosystem. Students loved putting on waders (tall boots) and getting in the water to survey macroinvertebrates. Coolest of all was that we found samples of the very species of crayfish we had read about in class -- the non-native rusty crayfish. Students also got to conduct a habitat assessment, do a scavenger hunt, and identify tree species. Thanks to Friends of the Chicago River and our chaperones for helping us investigate!

Local Friends

Before going to the river, we got familiar with the species that inhabit the Chicago River ecosystem (both on land and in the water) by beginning to create a food web. Next week we'll dive deeper into that food web and the effects the rusty crayfish has had on local populations.

Toys for Learning

Eighth grade continued their investigation of energy using Hot Wheels cars, this time exploring how mass affects kinetic energy. Their graphing skills have dramatically improved even after just two experiences with graphs this year!

Hot Wheels

Eighth graders are investigating the variables that affect kinetic energy, and what better way to do that than with Hot Wheels cars? During the first week, they explored how changing the height of the ramp affects a car's kinetic energy, and next week, they will design an investigation of their own hypothesis.

Yeast Feast

Seventh graders have been learning about population size in ecosystems, so this week we studied a changing population right in our science lab. What better population to use than yeast? Wait... yeast are alive? This was news to most of our students, but they loved watching the yeast population grow in response to sugar. Just as interesting was observing yeast cells under the microscope!

Curiosity Challenge, Day 1

Budlong students generated thousands of questions this week during our curiosity challenge. On the first day of the challenge, they rotated to three different stations to think about questions related to their daily lives, physical materials, and photographs from around the world. 

Curiosity Challenge, Day 2

On the second day, we celebrated our curiosity and got to look at other students' questions during a visit to the Curiosity Gallery. Then we learned about what makes a question testable and began writing our own testable questions in preparation for science fair.

Budlong's Most Curious Students

Check out how many students were excited about their questions and wanted to be added to the official "Budlong's Most Curious Students" list! We're proud of every question we got, but just for fun, there is a star next to the name of the person with the highest number of questions in each homeroom.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Seventh grade ended the first day on a high note with four different team-building activities. Students got to visit with their classmates from other homerooms as they navigated obstacle courses, completed the perfect circle/square rope challenge, played the name game, and tossed paper airplanes. We love getting to know each other!

Save Fred!

Science is all about problem-solving, and what better way to begin the year than with a problem-solving challenge. Students had to figure out the best way to rescue "Fred," their gummy worm, by putting on his life preserver. Some teams even managed to do two additional versions of the challenge -- 1) one-handed and 2) non-dominant one-handed. Way to go, scientists!

Stack It Up

For Fun Friday, students tackled the cup challenge, creating different configurations of cups using only a rubber band and string tool to move each cup. In the process, teams learned the importance of cooperation, clear communication, and patience.