We've figured out that air has mass and volume, but how does that relate to when the volume of space that air can take up is reduced or enlarged?

Check out our physical models of compressing and expanding air!  Awesome thinking 6th grade!

 So in a quick demonstration, we're starting to think about how we can best represent air, not only all around us, but as it relates to us smelling something from a distance!  We used what we know about air to figure out what water would do in the set-up above!  And check out the student's work below, as they explained their thinking!

So after a long (but insightful) discussion, we agreed that air has to play a role in smelling something since almost all the models had it in them.

Since air is invisible, we decided to work with some things that could maybe help us better understand air and it's role in smelling something from a distance.

So we used what we had around our classroom...playdoh, balloon, blocks, etc.  And we figured out some important concepts.​

Regardless of something's state of matter, all matter has mass and volume.  Mass is a measure of how much matter is in something, and we use a scale to measure this quantity in grams.  Volume is the space that matter takes up.  We figured out that two objects can have the same mass and take up very different volumes, and the opposite is also true.  Two objects can have the same volume but have different mass.  The concept of density, which is the ratio of mass to volume, will be explored later in future grades.

So we all agreed that from all our questions based on our anchoring phenomena, that we should start with figuring out how we smell something.  We developed some initial models to explain our thinking, and then used a model analysis tool to compare them.  It'll generate some great conversation as we work to establish how we smell an odor!

We used our Notice/Wonder chart to begin generating questions for our Driving Question Board.  There was really great conversation between the students today, and there were LOTS of great questions generated! Check out the start of our DQB!

And combining both sections of students, we ended up with a DQB that looks like this!  We've got our work cut out!

So we pulled out our good 'ol "Notice and Wonder" charts....

And watched as Mrs. Brinza did some odd things today.

1.  She set out some candles, popcorn, a mystery substance in a clear jar, and some clementines.
2.  They sat out awhile...
3.  And then she lit the candles, popped the popcorn, opened the jar, and peeled the clementines.

We jotted down a lot of stuff...

​And tomorrow we'll be creating our Driving Question board...all focused on "How Can I Smell Things from a Distance?"