Monday, May 2, 2011

Atoms



Did you learn about atoms in third grade? Probably not. (I know I didn't!) Your children are! Last week, third grade scientists learned that the world around us is made up of matter. Today we dug deeper and learned that matter is made up of atoms. Atoms are incredibly small. In fact, the period at the end of this sentence is made up of billions of atoms.

Above you can see the model of an atom. Challenge your third grade scientist with these questions about it:

What is the center of an atom is called? (The nucleus)
What is inside the nucleus? (Protons and neutrons)
What is moving around the outside of the nucleus. (Electrons)
Describe the charge of electrons and protons. (Electrons have a negative charge. Protons have a positive charge.)

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post describing our investigations into static electricity!

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