The tree's branches and trunk can easily survive long, harsh winters, but their leaves aren't that strong. So the tree has a decision to make. Should it shed its leaves and not worry about them? Or should it find a way to protect them?
    Evergreen trees protect their leaves by covering them in a waxy coating that helps resist freezing and makes it live for years!
    The rest of the trees choose to shed. They are called deciduous trees. The leaves of deciduous trees change colors when they are about to fall off. They all change to different colors.
    Why do they change colors? This is because they contain certain chemicals that contain color pigments.
    The chemical that makes green leaves is chlorophyll. This is an important part of photosynthesis, and colors all leaves year-round.
    Chemicals that make other colors do not usually color leaves all year. The yellow-orange chemi

Reflection:

1. What was the most surprising thing you learned about energy during this entire unit?

     The most surprising thing I learned about energy was that it could be used to create elaborate chains like this that can do a variety of things.

2. Why is energy important?

     Energy is important because we use it, and depend on it, so much. Also, without it, we wouldn't be able to live.

3. Where is energy found?
    Energy is found in our food, batteries, electrical wires, our own movement, our voices, the sun, hot things, bright things, and, well, pretty much everywhere.

4. How would you define energy?
    Energy is the thing that fuels most of the things we rely on in life from our video games to our food, to things as simple as talking and moving, light and heat, and even the sun.

Dear Diary,   
    After I got paid, it was obvious, I thought, that a little trip was well deserved. My boss was, in fact, giving me a period of time off work. So I hitched a short ride off to Illinois. Not many people were willing to give me the ride, as Illinois was west of the Appalachian Mountains, and they were too cautious of the law.
    Finally, I got to Illinois. The very first thing that I saw was a group of people talking to small children. I walked over to a little group just in time to hear Leon duBois and Catherine (well, really only Catherine) teach us about the children's latest fashions. Some of the kids were clearly new to the time period, and had many questions that most people would know the answer to after living in the colonies for a week!
    I learned a lot about children's clothes anyway, and also about a long list of other topics including, education, inn-keeping, carpenting, land, and the list goes on.
    I feel that my short vacation was not only a time of escaping from normal life as the knacker's apprentice, but also a very valuable experience. Did you know that a hat costs about what the average teacher makes in a year? Well, did you know that a girl had straps on her gown that tied to her mother's apron until she was of marriageable age? Did you know that an inn can get taxed for charging too much? These are questions I ask to people I found after the vacation. No one answered "yes" to any of them.

Your Writer,
Julia
   

Write about meeting your character (the one listed above) for the first time.  What are they like?  What was he or she doing?  What did you learn from them?  Create a story about your first experience with them.  You'll be spending more time with them tomorrow on our field trip!

    Today, I met Leon duBois & Catherine, clothing makers in 1775 Illinois. They are really nice. They were not only good clothing makers, but they also knew a lot about farming. Not surprising, because they had a farm. I hope I can visit them again soon!

Reflection:
    During this experience today, I learned that a 100 watt incandescent light bulb is about 8 times brighter than the 25 watt light bulb (Wow!), the 25 watt incandescent light bulb is supposed to last about 3 1/2 times longer.

Reflection:
    I learned that the CFL bulb was a lot brighter because it didn't waste its energy on heat. I would use this in the future because I would want a long-lasting, brighter, more efficient light bulb for my house when I grow up, and not a dim, not-as-long-lasting, less efficient bulb that draws the same amount of energy.

Reflection:
    I would buy the CFL 24 watt light bulb instead of the incandescent 100 watt light bulb because it is brighter, more efficient, and longer-lasting.

    Mystery Skyping is where you Skype another school, and, using yes or no questions, try to figure out their location. We have done three of them so far this year.

Answers:

1. Our maximum was 95.4 degrees.
2. Our minimum was 70.9 degrees.
3. Our range was 24.5 degrees.
4. The materials we used were a plastic bag (touching the jar), a piece of thick felt (in the middle), and a piece of quilt (on the outside of the jar).
5. We chose the plastic bag because we knew that plastic was a good insulator; we chose the thick felt because we thought that, because it was thick, it would keep the water warm; and we chose the quilt because quilts keep people warm, so we thought it would keep water warm, too.
   
6. We didn't choose foam, aluminum foil, or cotton.
7. We didn't choose foam because we had seen tests from the previous experiment (Insulated Bottles)  that showed foam being a bad insulator; we didn't choose aluminum foil because we learned it was a good conductor (Conductors), and good conductors are bad insulators; and we didn't choose the cotton because we didn't think it would be a good insulator.
8. On our graph, everything from about 7.5 minutes until the end of the experiment was a blip. I think it did this because of the way the bottle was being held, and possibly some movement of the bottle.
9.  An insulator is not a good conductor of heat energy.
   

Our material was plastic wrap.