All matter is made up of small particles called atoms.  Atoms can be rearranged to make matter with different properties.  Second graders are digging into this concept by seeing how different objects can be made up of the same set of pieces.  These pieces can be broken apart and rearranged into something new.  We're using Legos to help us discover this!  

Check out these second graders' creations.  Notice how two students created different objects from the same set of Legos...

Soon we'll see how we can rearrange these pieces even more to get something totally new!

At the completion of their experiment to determine which material absorbed the most water, second graders needed to interpret the data.  Data tell a story and can inform a design solution.  Second graders constructed graphs and then had to use the data to provide evidence for which material would be the best to use in a bib and which would be the worst.  Second graders are truly working on the science and engineering practices of analyzing and interpreting data and arguing from evidence!  Way to go second grade!

After completing their experiment to see which  material could absorb the most liquid, second graders shared their results together as a class.  They started to see that the data was not consistent.  What does this mean, especially if we all used water and the same materials?

Second graders had an in-depth discussion about what would possibly have given such differing results. Here's what they came up with:

1.  We all didn't start with the same amount of water in our graduated cylinders.  We probably should have.
2.  Some groups "double dipped" with their material, causing it to absorb more water than it actually could.
3.  Some groups squeezed out the water back into the testing cup, releasing water that it really absorbed.

We all agreed to do the experiment again, so that we can hopefully control all those variables and get more reliable data to inform our engineering solution (to design a baby's bib).  Keep up the great work second grade!