I’m sad to say I won’t be coming back to Alta Vista next year as I will be teaching at a different school in North Port. I loved being your science teacher and will miss launching water rockets, making chemical-powered cars, and exploring just how awesome the world is with you, but I know you will soar no matter where you are. I can’t wait to hear about all the amazing things you will do.
Mr. Thompson
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We may not usually notice that over 95% of all living things are actually invertebrates, things without backbones, and 90% of all animal species are actually insects. 
Our 2nd and 3rd graders have been busily studying these fascinating creatures learning about how all insects have an exterior skeleton called an “exoskeleton”, six legs, and three body parts (head, thorax, and abdomen).
Of course, many other critters belong to this amazing group such as the colossal squid, which our third graders learned about on the 3rd grade page (The Deep). As well as many other fascinating and beautiful creatures.
For the past four weeks our 5th & 4th graders have been working on a massive Vertebrate Classification Project in which they have been working in groups through various centers learning about how vertebrates are grouped into Birds, Mammals, Amphibians, Reptiles, and Fish.
Our first big project for Science Clubs, in which we made cars propelled by the chemical reaction of vinegar and baking soda.
This week in Science our classes are learning about simple machines, by looking at (and in some cases building) some of the basic hand tools that use them. While some of these simple machines may not look like what we usually think of as a “machine”, technically a machine is anything that helps us do work using less force.
Simple Machines
You can test out how well you know your simple machines by looking for some around the house here:
Welcome to Mr. Thompson’s Applied Sciences Lab. “Applied Sciences” means we don’t just learn about science, we do stuff with science. To see updates on class experiments feel free to visit our class blog, if you’d like to see some of our Science Club projects please visit our Science Club page. . .once I make one.
Mr. Thompson's Applied Science Lab 