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.