What’s Happening at Hillside in February
Spotlight On…
Open House
Spice up your Thursday with some community time! Join the Hillside community and prospective families for snacks, chats, and time to connect before Mid-Winter Break. The Open House will be from 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m., and Joel sometimes has a surprise for those who remain until the end…
As always, please pass on information to any families you know who should know about Hillside. Ask your student(s) if they have information cards for you to pass out or leave at your favorite spot.
See you there!
Conferences
Mark your calendars for February 26th, when we will have our Spring Conferences for all grades. Sigrid will send out an email shortly with the information you need to sign up, including a link to the SignupGenius schedule and which teacher(s) you should meet with. Student attendance is encouraged at conferences so that we can have a team discussion.
Biology
Laura’s class extracted strawberry DNA in Biology:
We mushed up strawberries in plastic bags, then added a mixture of water, shampoo, and salt, then mushed them up some more.
We poured the mixture through funnels lined with cheese cloth and let just the liquid drain into test tubes.
Then we added ice cold isopropyl alcohol to the test tubes. When the students dipped craft sticks in where the clear isopropyl met the pink strawberry liquid, they found goopy pink stuff, DNA!
Strawberries are good for this experiment because they are octoploid, which means they have 4 times as much DNA as they would if they were diploid like humans. When we mushed up the strawberries, we broke apart many of the cells. The shampoo broke down the cell membranes, which are made of lipids (fats). The salt broke down the protein scaffold that DNA wraps around, freeing up the DNA itself. Most of the solution we initially added to the strawberry mush was water, and DNA remains dissolved in water, so it was able to pass through the cheese cloth in the funnel with the water. Isopropyl alcohol is not nearly as good a solvent as water, and cold alcohol is an even worse solvent. When we added the cold isopropyl alcohol, the DNA precipitated out of the solution and students were able to see it, since there was so much. Of course DNA is still tiny, so we weren’t able to see the double helix structure, or individual nucleotides, but thanks to our study of other scientists’ experiments, we know that they’re there!
Help us with Early American Crafts!
Here’s a chance to get rid of things! Sigrid and the Intermediate Class will be making some old-school materials for the home, and need supplies.
What do we want?
* Unscented candle stubs (any color is fine)
* Unwanted fabric.
During the next month, we will have a chance to hand-dip candles and work on braided rugs. This hands-on crafting will give students a glimpse into how life was in the days before Amazon could bring you a new rug in an hour.
Please feel free to drop any donations off in the Alder Room!
Events Calendar
Thursday, February 4
NO FENCING
Open House—6:30 p.m.
Friday, February 5
Writers’ Club—3:30 p.m.
Monday, February 8
Monday Fencing—3:30 p.m.
Tuesday, February 9
NO FENCING
Teachers Meeting—3:30 p.m.
Friday, February 12
Animation Club Term II—3:30 p.m.
Monday, February 15-Friday, February 19
February Break – No School
Wednesday, February 24
Block III-A Begins
Friday, February 26
NO SCHOOL—Conferences 5th-12th
