This week's slideshow highlights: 8th graders conducting a taste test experiment to see if they can taste the difference between tap water, bottled purified water (taken from a tap at another municipal water supply somewhere), bottled distilled water, and bottled spring water as they have been exploring plastics as part of their "Chemistry of Materials" SEPUP unit; 8th grade also investigated a lab where they crosslinked two polymers the same way chemists do who work to create various plastics as they made a plastic that resembled slime; 7th grade continued exploring genetics; 6th graders explored how natural resources are unevenly distributed around the world due to past geologic events and they performed some in-depth data collection-analysis-interpretation of how ground water aquifers are impacted as well by both natural events and human activity; and 5th grade continued their unit on "Weather & Climate" with a couple of cooperative investigations to learn more about prevailing winds and how they impact global and regional climates; and there is a pic of a rare sighting of the elusive "Leroy the catfish" in our classroom aquatic ecosystem. Thank you for checking in with us this week:)