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.

 

Week 6 Lesson Plan Reflection

This week I taught a lesson on wave properties and the energy source that causes waves to occur in our world's oceans. 
The lesson incoporated several hands-on activities for the students.  During day 1 students were exposed to initial concepts and were given a drawing to complete of the characteristics of a wave; crest, trough, wavelength, waveheight.   These drawings are my student examples of work for this blog and really helped students to visualize the concept of a wave and its various parts.  These drawings and the prior knowledge of what a wave looks like helped in day 2 of the lesson's lab activity in which students tested different statements about wave properties using water, a ruler, a straw, and many different materials.
Overall I feel as though the lesson was very effective for the students.  Students enjoyed completing the drawings and were able to connect with a visual image of a wave instead of only mere word definitions. The students also truly engaged in the lab and did a wonderful job with inquiry based instruction.

Student examples of work

Melting Iceburgs Week 3 Thoughts

Reflecting upon question #9 from this week's Application Assignment, I was pleasantly suprised to find a question I ask my students each year when we talk about pollution and its total effect on our environment. I ask the question What would happen if the polar ice caps melt? I always get an array of answers from my 6th grade students and many of them are fascinating. What is sad and disappointing is that students often do not understand the immense effect pollution plays on our environment and our safety here on Earth. I explain to them that pollution causes a change in weather patterns, global warming, the greenhouse effect, etc. I also explain to them that if and really when the polar ice caps melt we will be in a world wide flooding crisis. Research states that if steps are not taken to go "green" the polar ice caps could melt within 50 years. Students are often blown away by this fact, as they will most likely still be alive in 50 years. I also explain that in the polar regions we are already seeing some melting which is causing changes in weather patterns and causing animals like the Polar Bear population to become very low and close to extinct. 

In terms of additional questions dealing with the science inquiry experience, does anyone have any extensions they have thought of or already done for a lab like this one? I would like some ways and ideas to take this lab one step farther and maybe incorporate more open-ended inquiry.

REFLECTION ON STEM/ 5 E LESSON PLAN

Planning the lesson for this week was a mixed bag for me.  Using the 5 E’s Strategy was helpful but took some getting used to.  I learned about the 5 E model in my undergraduate coursework some years ago, but have not really re-visited the strategies in my professional career. I found that I have been using many of the 5 E’s already in my lesson planning, just in a different format.  After planning this lesson, I know that I need more practice with the 5 E model to gain a more in-depth understanding of how to plan using the 5 E’s and implement that plan effectively in my classroom.  I think that the 5 E strategy model is great for science curriculum and would also work great in math classes as well.  STEM is something in my county we have been working with for a couple of years now, so this element was not new to me. Using STEM in conjunction with the 5 E model was a different process than I usually use for lesson planning, however, I am seeing how beneficial using these two tools together can be for my students.  I do use a similar lesson to the one I planned in my 6^th grade science curriculum. However, the mathematical applications I used in this lesson were much more difficult and may present issues, especially in my inclusion classes. I know that if I were to carry out this exact lesson, I would have to do several mini-lessons focusing on the mathematical applications in order to ensure student success within the lesson.  Overall, this has been a great planning experience for me and opened my eyes to various ways to use different strategies in my curriculum.

First posting for Blog for Nature of Science course.