We had some great discussion around the below article, video, and image. It was interesting to explore the science behind sunburn. It helped us understand that the damage to our skin is quite different from being burnt by hot water or a flame. The DNA in our skin cells is actually altered by the UV light.
When your tent, clothes, or soccer ball colour fades where does the colour go? Do all coloured things fade? Do some colours fade quicker than others? Can you stop something fading? These are the questions we have been looking at.
We are conducting a bit of an experiment. We have selected various materials and are exposing them to UV rays over the next couple of months. We want to see what materials fade and how fast.
We considered the variables such as if the materials are all getting the same amount of light. We have put them on our window sill and discussed if the window glass will affect the results. We found out that most window glass reduces the UVB but not the UVA. It will be interesting to see if there are particular groups of materials that fade and which colours fade the quickest.
A yellow rubber ducky absorbs all colours of the rainbow and turns them to heat, except yellow, it reflects the yellow light back to our eyes. The yellow colour fades when UV breaks down the molecules that reflect the yellow light. So a faded object is absorbing more light and reflecting less.
We watched these two videos to help us understand colour fading.
The colour red fades more than any other colour, especially blue. This can be seen in the below photo.
Most fading of colour happens with dyed products. My question is will the material of a red tent break down quicker than a blue tent or is it just the red dye that will fade quicker? Will the strength of the material break down at the same speed, regardless of the colour?
We have been looking at the energy/light/photons that start off in the core of the sun and then arrive here at Earth. This energy is called the electromagnetic spectrum. Visible light is only part of it. It includes radio waves, UV waves, microwaves and some other types of waves. The sun is not the only source of these waves, in fact humans also emit electromagnetic radiation. It has been fascinating learning about how useful all these waves are for our everyday life. We use them in remote controls, TV's, radios, cellphones, cooking our food, medical procedures, and the list goes on.
This documentary is creating lots of great discussion around this topic. We are realizing that scientists use these waves for learning all sorts of new science.
We had a great time today with the students from Japan. We made sushi, origami creations, had our names written in Japanese, and experienced lots of other cultural activities.
As a class we spent the afternoon looking into the bombing of Hiroshima. This was a significant event in world history and had horrific consequences. It complemented our inquiry into the sun and the electromagnetic spectrum. We looked at the science of the bomb but also the catastrophic human impact. We watched a documentary and heard many stories from survivors. It was a heavy topic but gave the students an appreciation of the power of nuclear weapons and the vast consequences they have on humanity.
Emma and Tabitha went to Japan with their Mums over the summer and went to Hiroshima. They visited a peace memorial where thousands of paper cranes had been offered. We decided it would be a great thing for our students to contribute to. So we are sending 82 paper cranes to the contribute to the peace memorial. Well done guys. Paper cranes are not the easiest of origami creations but you did awesome.
The students have been creating flow diagrams and writing explanations on the journey light takes from the center of the sun to the Earth. They will be uploading their explanations to their blogs soon for you to view. It is a fascinating journey which takes over 100 000 years. They have learnt about the three main layers of the sun, atoms, plasma, and nuclear fusion. They then compared nuclear fusion to nuclear fission. The idea of creating energy on Earth from nuclear fusion is an exciting concept if scientists can work out a way to do it on a practical scale. The students are asking really interesting questions, especially around how scientists find out this information. This is such an awesome question for aspiring scientists to ask.
We have watched this documentary as part of our inquiry.
As part of Ruma Kokako's Te Pahu Challenge the students need to learn a new hobby and also complete 20 hours of community service. The students have had their proposals approved for these and it is really exciting to see all things things they will get up to this year.
The student's hobbies include all sorts of things, such as, juggling, knitting, astronomy, photography, learning Italian, horse riding, animation, cooking, the rubik's cube, and all sorts of other interesting things.
The students will present their hobbies to the class at the end of the year. The students will blog about their progress and I am really looking forward to seeing the progression of their learning.
