Mrs. Mauk needs garden help! Her garden wilts soon after being watered. Could it be the soil she's using? The students wrote a testable question: Which type of soil will absorb the most amount of water? Then they developed a way to test the soil. The unanimous decision involved placing a small sample of soil in a coffee filter, pouring water into the soil, and measuring the amount of water that drained out. We headed to the lab. They discovered that soil sample 2, which turned out to be clay, absorbed slightly more water than sample 1, which was sand. Both the clay and the sand absorbed much more than sample 3, which was bagged compost purchased at a store. Because the compost contains the nutrients, but allows water to drain through, the 5th graders thought Mrs. Mauk should mix some sand and clay into the compost for this year's garden.
Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination. AuthorWe are the 5th graders at Paradise Intermediate. Join us on our science journey this year as we stretch our imaginations and make new discoveries! Archives
November 2017
Categories |