Sophia's Blog

This week I took a hike with my family. At the start of the trail there was an interesting board about soil and I did research with my dad about it in the car on the way home. Kalkaska soil covers a million acres of michigan. It’s the official state soil. The soil was formed from glacial sand and gravel. It was formed about 10 thousand years ago. Healthy Kalkaska soil is super beneficial to trees, and helps Michigan have so many healthy forests.
Most of the soil on the trail had 4 layers. The first layer is just topsoil and things that come of plants. The second layer is rich minerals like iron and other organic materials. The third layer is similar, but its extra rich in aluminum. The last layer is large gravel chunks. I wonder how the layers stay separate. Are there worms in the bottom layer? I wonder how many types of soil are in michigan.

Here is my misconception project from science expo!Misconception

This week, I’ve been working really hard with Avery to make a solar system. It has been super fun and were really excited about it. First, we did research on the order of the planets. Now we are making clay planets and its really cool because were blending them so they’re like marble. Next we painted a piece of card board to make it look galaxy. When we finish we are going to hang them from the board with string. The planets look really nice so far!
I have really enjoyed working with Avery because we collaborate well. We have both been doing the work together and making compromises. I think the hardest part for us was making a scale. We couldn’t figure out what size we could do that is accurate and reasonable. It has been cool to do multiage because we aren’t used to working with younger kids so we see a new kind of thinking. I think it was cool to be with kids in other grades because we have different things we are used to. I learned from Avery because she was good at different things then I am.

This past week was the science expo! We had to make hovercrafts as a class. We had done it before, so we were able to start them quick. We remembered how to do everything and the first day of building was very quick. We were able to cut the plastic, tape the plastic, and make holes all in one day. Savannah hadn’t made them before so we got to teach her. It was really cool to teach someone else because it helped me understand it more myself.
The next day we got to test them and as expected, they weren’t working at first. It was fine, we made more holes in the bottom and added more tape because the air was not leaving quick enough. When we tried to make more holes it wasn’t working because there was too much air leaving. We found out that we had made holes on the top so the air was leaving but it wasn’t helping float the hover craft. We tried to tape those holes but the tape was just ripping. It was very frustrating, but we had to take it apart and restart the Day of science expo. it ended up working fine and it was a good learning process.

Here is my project about sensitive ferns.

Sensitive Fern

This week, we went to brys estate vineyard. We got to learn all about the process of making wine and harvesting grapes. The grapes went through a lot of machines. The fist machine twisted the grapes so they fell of the stem. Then they went through a tube in to another big machine. It smushed all the juice out of the grapes and put the juice in a big tray. Then, it goes into a really big container and sits for 3 days or so so it can ferment.
There were people outside picking grapes and moving really quick. I wonder what techniques they have that let them go so fast. Also, how long does a grape vine need to become harvestable after its planted. I learned that we have yeast in the air all the time. Yeast is what ferments grapes. If a grape isn’t harvested, it will start to ferment. That’s why it smells funky by the grape vine downstairs sometimes.
I wonder if they could make alcohol.

    This week we are working in groups to make solar powered cars. Once we are finished, we are going to race them. We had to assemble the car as group and decorate it too. We did research on why solar power cars are useful. They save a lot of energy. Solar energy is  pollution  Free! It doesn’t use harmful gases.

This project has been really fun. It was fun to decorate the car and make it pretty. We got to explore solar cars and I knew almost nothing about them. One thing I learned was that solar panels work from rechargeable solar batteries. It was kind of hard to have 3 people working on one small car the first couple days were really hard. After a while, we started to work together more so it was easier.  Once the car worked, it was really exciting !

This week we went to the Leelanau outdoor center. We did lots of team building like the low ropes course. We went to the beach and cleaned up glass, then went swimming.  I think my favorite thing was the high ropes course.  We took a hike in the woods and it was super pretty. When we went  canoeing we saw a turtle and a lot of fish.  We were outside for almost the whole time, so we got to see a lot of pretty things.

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This year my time at loc was definitely better than other years. I was able to spend time with the seventh graders who I didn’t know as well. Team building was fun but sometimes frustrating. I think it helped us communicate. Once our communication was better the challenges were easier.I really enjoyed doing the high ropes course because it was fun yet challenging. I was very scared at first but I ended up getting better at it.  It was cool to watch people slowly improve on it.

My science expo project was a blind taste test.  For my experiment I used Coke, Faygo cola, and pepsi as my variables.  The temperature of the drinks and the type of cup are my control variables. For the Experiment I gave people three cups labeled A, B, and C.  Drink A was Coca-Cola, drink B was Pepsi, and drink C was Faygo cola. I asked people what they normally like to drink. Then I had them try all three and pick their favorite letter drink.    Three people said Coke was their favorite drink but chose Pepsi in the experiment. Two people said Coke was their favorite drink and chose Coke in the experiment. One person said Pepsi was their favorite drink but chose Faygo cola in the experiment. Another person said Pepsi was their favorite drink but chose Coke in the experiment.

1. Would people choose differently if they were displayed differently
2. Would people choose differently if they were different temperatures
3. what would happen if they were different colors?