January 24, 2024

Despite the short week, science inspiration was all around us as Cerrito students gear up for their much-anticipated gizmo project! After last week’s foray into magnetism, in Tuesday’s science class, students teamed up to use what they’d learned about circuits and magnets to build an electromagnet strong enough to pick up 20 paperclips. They used the now-familiar materials of copper wire, D-cell batteries, and switches; the students were given an iron nail around which to construct a solenoid. Students experimented with coil placement, the number of coils, and additional power sources to adjust the strength of the magnetic field in order to accomplish their goal. 

Tuesday students also got a hit of inspiration from the 6th grade’s Cardboard Arcade projects. Cerritans got to play all the games that the 6th graders constructed with cardboard, circuits, and Scratch programming, learning just how tricky it can be to make even the simplest of circuits behave as intended. Keeping in mind all the planning, designing, and on-the-spot troubleshooting that was done by the 6th graders to make their games run, will aide the Cerritans when it comes time to design their own gizmo in a few week’s time!

Temescal-Rito-Berry Goes to the Exploratorium

And last but certainly not least, Temescal Creek 3rd graders joined CerritoBerry for a trip to the Exploratorium! 4th and 5th graders were tasked with investigating all the electricity and magnetism exhibits and were tasked with drawing a model of the circuit (if there was one) and writing an explanation of how the gizmo worked. Cerritans declared this fieldtrip the best yet, and can’t wait to get building gizmos of their own! Click through this album to see more!