Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Hands On Science in 6th Grade

SLS recently added 5 new triple balance beam scales to our program. Today 6th graders were practicing their science skills of measuring and recording. We were given the task to measure the weight of a pecan in the shell. What weight would you guess a pecan weighs? 4 grams, 7 grams or 15 grams.

We found that our pecans average 6-7 grams each... Next we wondered how much of a pecan we could eat and how much was shell? Back to measuring... We found that the nut part of the pecan is about 40-45 percent of the total weight. Thus a 10 pound bag will yeald 4+ pounds when shelled. We also learned that pecans are very tasty when we are done with the science project.
Doing science is so much fun...