Effecting Change

In reflecting upon this week's discussion, and the actions that I am taking beyond my classroom to ensure that all students at my school or district are experiencing high-quality science instruction I can see that I have a good start on being involved but could definitely do more. I would say my most important role in this regard is being a member of our district Dynamic Curriculum Team. Six times a year I meet with several other science teachers from the county and we design curriculum lessons, activities, resources, and labs that are directly aligned with our state standards. We also work each year in developing a curriculum pacing guide for our county science teachers. All of this is posted to our district website in which ALL teachers in our district and beyond can access these resources to aide their instruction.  In addition, I am also a part of my school's Data Team which constructs our School Improvement Plan, Formative Instructional Strategies Plan and PLCS, and collects state testing data to share with students to inspire higher academic achievement. I believe being a member of these teams has had a tremendous impact on how I am ensuring that students are getting a firm science education in my classroom and beyond in my district. 

I have faced some challenges, some being veteran teachers who are resistant to change or try new strategies in the classroom, but overall it has been a great learning experience for me!

The Amazing Sputnik

Sputnik is something that occurred way before my time as I am only 28 years old. However, I did know a great deal about Sputnik prior to reading the article because 1-I learned about it in science class in school and 2- I grew up in West Virginia where the “October Sky” boys invented their rocket, and so because of this we talked a great deal about Sputnik and what it did for our country in school.  In reference to the United States during the Sputnik era, we did not want to be labeled second place, nor did we want to feel as though we were behind the times so to speak. It seemed to be a frightening thought at that time as if the whole country’s existence was a stake if our scientists did not find a way to compete with Sputnik.  Today, I would argue that we have lost that sense of urgency here in America. I believe that a great deal of Americans are have grown complacent and believe that we are bigger, better, and smarter than other countries. We need to recapture that sense of fear and urgency, especially in the 21^st century and talks of nuclear technologies in other countries around the world.

Freidman made a great statement in his article that I believe really hits the nail on the head “Our response to Sputnik made us better educated, more productive, more technologically advanced and more ingenious,’ said the Johns Hopkins foreign policy expert Michael Mandelbaum.”

It’s time for educators to inspire our students to take a stand and aspire to accomplish more, much like the generation of students in the Sputnik era.

Resources:

Friedman, T. L. (2010, January 17). What’s our sputnik? [Op-Ed]. The New York Times [Late Edition (East Coast)], p. WK.8.

Investigating the Living World- Ask a Scientist

Exploring the Ask a Scientist website was somewhat of an adventure for me. I found it to be a very interesting and resourceful website that I think my students will definitely find fascinating. After reading through several of the questions, I found that it ranged from everyday “I wonders and what ifs”, to deeper scientific, content specific questions. To be honest, the more content specific, deeper questions intimidated me. I thought I had good background knowledge in terms of cells and their functions because I have a nursing background before teaching. After browsing through the Ask a Scientist website as well as reading through the course readings for last week, I am feeling as though I need a major brush up on cells and their functions.

The causal question I have chosen relates to the endangered species I chose to work with in my course project. I do not know a great deal about bats, and thought this would be a great opportunity to learn more about the structural makeup of the Indiana bat from a scientist. I only know the basics about the Indiana bat: “the Indiana bat is quite small, weighing only one-quarter of an ounce (about the weight of three pennies). In flight, it has a wingspan of 9 to 11 inches. The fur is dark-brown to black” (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2011).

Question: How are the cell structures of bats, more specifically Indiana bats, different from the cell structures of humans and plants, in both makeup and function?

Sadly enough, I have not yet received a response to my Ask a Scientist question. Has anyone else received an answer?

Investigating the Living World (SCIE - 6662S - 1) WebTools Test Drive

As I stated in my discussion for this week, technology is the driving force behind almost everything we do today in the 21st century. Our students are on technology overload due to our culture; yet technology seems to be the main staple in really catching their academic attention and actively engaging them in learning. I love finding new technology resources to use in the classroom that help to “dazzle” the students. After test driving several of the Web Tools, I found two that really seemed to catch my attention and fit my needs as a 6^th science and social studies teacher.  

The first Web Tool I “test drove” was SlideShare. SlideShare is a program that allows you to take already created PowerPoint Presentations and place them “online, tag them, email them, and get html code for embedding them to your own blog, wiki or website”(WebTools4U2Use,2011).  One of the components I found to be really great is that you can also add audio, notes, and YouTube videos to your PowerPoint presentations in SlideShare. This would be a beyond wonderful resource for me in both my science and social studies classes. I feel that this web tool can really take PowerPoints to the “next level”.  In addition, I can use this program to upload my PowerPoints to my class website so that students and parents can view them/study them at home and we can work on projects in the computer lab at school via this program as well.  You can use SlideShare’s basic version for free to upload and share your PowerPoints, however, if you want to access special features you have to “go Pro” and pay a monthly fee. During the test drive I found the free version to be enough.  To learn how to use SlideShare there is a tutorial called Slide101 that will help in learning the ins and outs of the program. I am excited to use this tool!

My second WebTool I “test drove” was Museum Box. I thought this resource was really cool especially for my social studies classes. Museum Box is a web tool that allows you to “build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box” (Museum Box, 2011). In addition, you can “you can display anything from a text file to a movie…You can add text, images, video and sound to the side of the cubes.” (Museum Box, 2011). Museum Box has a link for teachers that provide specific tools, instructions, and resources for teachers; you can also register your school. This web tool is a free resource and has lots of files of pictures, videos, sounds, and links available for use. I have already created a Museum Box for my unit on Egypt in my social studies classes! I am very excited about this resource and am also going to train my students how to use it for social studies projects on computer lab days.

Resources

http://museumbox.e2bn.org/

http://www.slideshare.net/

Technology Resources for Physical Science

The concept of physical science that I chose to research this week is States of Matter.  The concept of what is matter is often a vague and complex topic for students.   Although there are several ways that States of Matter can be introduced to students and various labs that can be done, finding technology to coordinate with this concept is sometimes difficult.   My goal in research was to find a good interactive learning game for students of all academic abilities that is engaging and meaningful.  A powerful website I found for this is: http://www.scienceunleashed.ie/Games/States%20of%20Matter.swf

In terms of 21^st century topics and readiness, I wanted to research gasoline alternatives since we are currently having extremely high gas prices and environmental issues.   There are several technology resources for this topic; however, I came across a great website that has several activities and resources for both teachers and students for energy topics: http://www.nef1.org/educators.html. 

These sites use academic vocabulary and provide in-depth resources and activities for students to engage in which helps transform students into scientifically literate citizens.  

I would center a lesson around the first website for teaching states of matter as part of an introductory lesson. It is a fun and engaging game where students place different facts about gasses, liquids, and solids in a coordinated bin as fast as they can.  Then move to having students use the National Energy Foundation website to conduct research on alternative fuels and pick one to design a “mock” proposal for an effective alternative fuel source.  A challenge in integrating this type of tool is that some students do not engage well with research and may become bored or frustrated.

Week #4 Blog for Exploring the Physical World

HOT OR NOT?

This week we had to design an experiment using different household materials that would act as insulators for mugs of hot water. I chose to use aluminum foil, Press n' Seal wrap, a cotton pot holder, and a napkin. The results were quite interesting.  I predicted that the aluminum foil would hold the most heat and act as the best insulator and that proved to be correct. What was suprising for me, was that the Press n' Seal wrap and the Napkin acted the same in terms of being insulators. Both had the same ending temperature at the end of thirty minutes.
Which brings me to the question:

What, specifically, would you like students to learn from this experiment? Did you achieve this goal when you engaged in the experiment?

I would like my students to learn more about insulators and the specific materials they are using in the experiment. I gained a great deal of insight about heat transfer and insulators through conducting this experiment. In terms of insulators, I learned the proverbial rule “don’t judge a book by its cover. I based my predictions on what I knew of the materials when cooking and not neccessarily because of what they are actually made of.  Thinking ahead to having my students conduct this experiment, I would encourage them to research the consistency of the materials they have selected before conducting the experiment this way they have more background knowledge about which material may make the best insulator based on makeup alone. I feel as though I could achieve this goal if I were to do the experiment again.

Week #2 BLOG for Exploring the Physical World

This week we were to select a specific question and design a guided inquiry activity based on that question. 
The question I chose was: How do different surfaces affect the momentum of marbles?

 Here is my experiment or guided inquiry design plan:

Using a paper towel tube, place a marble inside above the desired surface. Allow marble to coast down the tube onto the surface and observe what happens to the momentum of the marble once it comes in contact with the surface. Repeat twice on each surface to prevent error.

Materials Used:

Marbles (2) one large red, one smaller blue

Different Surfaces

1-wood dinning room table

2- textbook cover

3-sidewalk (concrete)

4-Grass

Paper Towel Tube

I feel overall the experiment played out well and based on my previous experience with inquiry-based instruction there is not a specific element I would change in this activity. The results were very interesting and it was a fun and easy activity that works for a variety of academic abilities. In fact, my 5yr and 2yr old sons helped me conduct this experiement. The marbles gained the most momentum and speed on the smoother surfaces: dinning room table and textbook cover. There was less momentum and more friction present with the rougher surfaces used: sidewalk (concrete) and grass.  The paper towel tube worked well to drop the marbles onto the desired surface. In the future to make it more engaging, I may have students pick from a variety of materials instead of just using marbles and the surfaces I selected.

I would like students to use this experiement to learn about force and motion and how it is present in everyday life. I think this would be a great introduction activity to teaching Newton's Laws of Motion.   This was fun and engaging for my 5 yr and 2yr old so hopefully it would be fun and engaging for my middle school students as well.