Dear readers,
Edublogs is blocked in China. For news of our class, please visit http://360.yahoo.com/mrsfitzonline.

Well, we didn’t get to see the eclipse with the rain and the snow we had on Saturday night, but other people in other places did. Click here to go to a site with lots of photos for the lunar eclipse.

This page has a gallery of photos that were taken 5 minutes apart, so you can see the progression of the eclipse.

And, you can also see some amateur videos of the eclipse at youtube.com. I have chosen four videos for you on this playlist. There are lots more. Pay attention to the one titled, Partial Eclipse of the Moon. That probably would have been what we would have seen.

It looks like the internet is finally returning to normal, so before Murphy’s Law of Internet Disconnection goes into effect, here’s what we’ve been doing these last two weeks.

Photo of a far away galaxy taken by the Hubble Telescope. More images at http://hubblesite.org/gallery/

We have been exploring our solar sytem with our new unit. The central idea is “The Earth is part of the solar system” and we are inquiring into the planets of the solar system and the relationships between the sun, moon, and earth.

The kids are really into this unit and they know a lot! Come visit our classroom and see not just once but two bulletin boards filled with facts they already know and much more they are learning.

Next week, we will devote some time to the second inquiry point. This means we will be studying the sun and the moon, and how they influence life here on Earth. I hope to be able to carry out simulations of things like eclipses, and the lunar phases.

The light pollution of Tianjin means that we are only able to see the brightest of stars and the moon when the sky is not overcast. However, try to go out and see what you can see. Make a map or take a picture, then do it again at the same time the next clear night. What do you think? Will it change?

As part of our Field to Table unit, some of our students are trying to find out about the process of making robots. We have not had much fun finding information on how to make real robots, but we have found lots of websites on robots and what real robots can do.

Low Life Lab is an interactive website where scientists show what they have learned about insects, and how they have turned that into robots that move and behave like bugs.

See all the different types of bugs, watch a couple of movies, and play a robot simulation game, all at www.robotsandus.org.