This week I am reflecting a lesson I did on plate tectonics and natural disasters. I do not teach Earth Science so I had to implement this lesson after school with a small group of my students. I thought this lesson went well! In previous lessons I did not use student choice and I noticed this time my students were responding more to the assignment because they could “choose” what they wanted to do. I appealed to their interest and I felt that this helped the lesson. I also for the first time used visuals, videos, and models all in one lesson and I found that this helped my students grasp the material more. This I could see in their formative assessments and Frayer Model assessments. I also allowed my students to present to another class to get student feedback on if their information was clear and provided enough information. This I will try again in the future.
 
  I felt this lesson went very well! I would have never thought to do a student led project lesson for a topic like this! I have not taught Earth Science in a long time and since it was not in my curriculum this year the students were very receptive to including it into our curriculum after school. They really got into the lesson and were able to take more ownership over their projects. I could see with my own eyes that discovery, hands-on, and minds-on works for any topic in science even topics outside of my curriculum.
There is one thing I would change and that is to allow more time for research or provide a structured way of collecting the research needed for the projects because some of the groups were just writing down everything they read instead of chunking the information. I felt I did not explain it well to everyone and some students were confused on how to do proper research. We try to be hands off toward the end of the lesson as per the GRR (Gradual Release of Responsibility) model but with this activity I needed a longer mini-lesson so directions were clear. 

NATURAL DISASTERS!!!!

Do we all know everything about Natural Disasters?

To create scientifically-literate adults is to educate through a common area. This would mean to not only give data on weather channels or through meteorologists, but also through commercials. We advertise all kinds of things but why not use it to educate in small doses. Not enough to bore someone but enough to educate in small doses. I think it would work! How about you?

In the classroom I create scientifically literate “teen adults” through “seeing”. They are big believers when they see and experience things so I try to make concepts real to them through videos they would have probably never have seen before or through real life applications. Recently my students had to become news anchors reporting on a natural disaster and this helped them gain so much knowledge. Students were able to ask each other questions after their news cast and the students were able to actually answer their questions. My hope is that they bring this information to their parents to educate them!

With this work in the classroom our school also has become part of relief efforts through food drives and clothing drives. Our students also reach out to the community through letters to raise money, food, or clothing for the families who were affected by the storm. This is great for making them apart of the effort of helping someone other than themselves and once they get involved they always say “That felt amazing!” I love that part!!

This week I tried out the ask a scientist website to see if I could use this with my students, but I am not impressed. My students (who are in high school) but are pretty much like any student when it comes to asking a question, they need an answer now! This website has not gotten back to me and maybe my question was a little much so maybe that's why its taking so long.  The major curiosity that was evoked was if there is an actual website where students can ask questions and get a response in a decent time frame? Do any of you know any other good sites for this?!

I like to set up my classroom where the students get to work exploring a science concept and if they have any issues then I am asked a question but I wish there was a scientist website that was working on a regular basis where students can ask questions about their research topic or project. Ill keep searching for a working website and Ill get back with my results in a few.

THANKS!

Web 2.0 - Presentation Tools!!

This week I tested different presentation tools! I tested: PreZentit, Vuvox, Prezi, and FormatPixel......

 This presentation tool was very easy to navigate and use. It has templates that are pre-programmed and you can upload them into your slideshow very easy. It works just like powerpoint in that you can add text and pictures to a background page. The only thing I did not like was that I could not upload my own photos into the program. It had difficulty reading the picture files. I may need to go back in and play around with it to see what I need to do to upload my own pictures. This program setup is a little different than most but so far very user friendly.

 This presentation tool is very cool! I like the collage feature that allows you to scroll through the slideshow instead of trying to complete slide after slide like Powerpoint does. This program allows you to create interactive presentation which is nice and it is very easy to use.  The pictures I uploaded were quickly downloaded and easy to place into the presentation. There are still some kinks I need to work out with inputting videos but with practice I should be able to do it with ease. The site also offers a tutorial which is nice!












This tool is one I have used all the time in my classroom to try to spice up a slideshow! You can upload pictures with an ease and add text or videos. The presentation starts from one picture and then zooms into the other pictures that are on the page, one right after the other without leaving that page. You can do one slideshow from one actual background picture which is awesome! It adds a source of engagement and a cool feature to use in the classroom or in any professional development.

This tool is awesome to use when creating brochures! It can be your presentation on the screen and you can print it out and hand them out so everyone has a hard copy. I played around with this one the most this week because I can see my students using this for their projects. It is very easy to add pages, upload pictures, change background and add text. I recommend using this one completely if not for teacher presentations than for student projects. I think this is much easier than using word documents to format a brochure. Check it out!

This week I searched through the 21st century skills map for all content areas and I came across a section on critical thinking and problem solving for physical science. This essentially is the "main idea" for what students should be able to do in physical science through critical thinking.

--> Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Student groups in a physical science class design experiments to examine how different sources of error can impact the results of a lab activity focused on the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration. 
Retrieved by: www.p21.org/storage/documents/21stcskillsmap_science.pdf

I believe that students need to become critical thinkers and be able to ask higher order questions to really be apart of a 21st century skill science classroom. The ability to use creativity and innovation to learn a science concept is where science classrooms should go.  

Through my searches I also found a cool website for students where they can use their engineer hat and design. Students follow the whole website from start to finish learning physical science and creating!! This gives them real world application to what they learn in the classroom and when they go to an amusement park maybe they will have some cool things to share with their families!
Check this out:
http://www.learner.org/interactives/parkphysics/

The only challenge I would face is time in my classroom. The time to discover and keep up with the curriculum. I struggled with that this year and fell a little behind. I need to better work on the timing of everything for next year!

                                                

This week we conducted a guided inquiry to find a good insulator for hot water. The set up that I used included 4 mugs with a hot water covered with different materials (cotton shirt, rubber square, aluminum foil, paper) each of equivalent thickness. I needed to make sure that thickness was held somewhat constant so that it would not become another independent variable in this inquiry activity. The best insulator in my set up was the rubber square but I could not tell if it was because it provided a better seal compared to the other materials or if it truly was the best insulator. I had wished I could try styrofoam but I could not find a piece that was the same thickness so I had to scrap it. I do not like to use more than one independent variable in an experiment. I need to know that no other factors are involved when conducting an experiment and this was the best way. 

If I were to do this in my classroom then I would do the opposite and have them find a good insulator for cool beverages. A cooler is made out of a certain type of material as well as the handheld coolers so I would want my students to become engineers and create a handheld insulator that is cheap but efficient. This type of activity can bring math in the mix and the students could actually make something they can possibly sell in the school to teachers for a fund raiser. It would be great to see how creative they get! This would for sure allow them to really understand the concept of heat transfer and with a project like this they will never forget the content.  I do not teach a grade where this is apart of the curriculum so I am wondering how everyone else teaches as well as how you all build engagement around a concept like this. I almost want to do this as an end of the year project just to keep them focused until the end!

                  

MOMENTUM, DIFFERENT SURFACES, AND MARBLES!!!!!

This week we had to complete a guided inquiry and I chose different surfaces to test.  I chose a carpet square, wool, wood plank, a strip of tile, sandpaper, rubber pad, and a piece of paper. One discovery I made was that rubber slowed down the velocity of the marble, which in turn decreased the momentum (ρ = mν) more than the sandpaper did. The next slowest velocity came from the wool piece, and again when the velocity decreases so does the momentum. When I checked what the friction coefficients were I quickly realized that rubber did in fact have a higher friction coefficient than sandpaper so my evidence was supported with research. The other surfaces actually did not change the velocity of the marble much, and in turn the momentum was pretty similar to each other. I felt this experiment went well! There wasn't anything too challenging with setup or with running the experiment. The results were supported with the friction coefficients so again it went well! I could see myself bringing this into my classroom to use with my students for sure. 

The only thing I would do if I were to bring this into my classroom is to have my students change try out different IV's such as different size marbles or change the ramp angle. Testing all these different variables could add a design project to teaching this concept. I could give each group a students their own IV to test out and then they can present their findings to the class and the data can be analyzed to explain how mass, ramp angle, and different surfaces affect momentum.

 If I do it in the next few days Ill keep you posted!

 This assignment was used as my pre/post assessment. The flip side was marked pre and they answered the question. This student chose Bernie as his pre-assessment choice (this was wrong). After the activity he turned it to the side you see now and either had to defend his previous answer or change it. This student changed his answer to Phoebe (the correct choice).

Along with the pre/post assessment I gave them post lab questions to answer for homework. This allowed me to see if they really did understand the concept of mutations and adaptations. The first upload is a picture of his first side and the second is the picture of his backside of the assignment.




























Since this was the start to the unit the students walked into class and collected their formative assessment probe (this isabovet) and wrote “pre” on top to signify that this was pre-lesson and they had to answer the probe on adaptation. They put this away and I had a basket that was passed back and the students picked a letter. This letter signified their mutation. Then I posed a question, “What effect do mutations have on your ability to acquire food, consume food, and get away from your predator”? From there the students assembled their mutations and they went to their respective home in the room. Their food source was then pointed out and they had 5 minutes each round to “figure” it out. At the end I was able to assess them a couple of ways to see if they understood the aim of the activity. Again since this is the beginning of the unit I just wanted them to get the basics and then the next lessons would hone in on the more specifics of Natural Selection and Evolution. I could clearly see that this student made the connection between the inquiry lesson and the actual concept being taught. The common misconception has be addressed and fixed! 


Last year I struggled with teaching evolution because my lessons were dry and full of a lot of reading. I usually do not teach this way and the students wanted me to go back to my old lesson delivery days, but I did not know how for this unit. I did not think of doing a science inquiry lesson until this course and I am so glad I did it! I did have a few students not make the connection but that is where I use my assessment data to drive my instruction for the next few days to reinforce the concept. But this was a better way to teach this part than last year!

 This weeks post is about the ice caps melting and so this cartoon is quite fitting!
We were to complete an inquiry experience where ice cubes were put into a glass of water and we had to observe until the ice melted. In this experiment the observation made was that there was no water that overflowed from the glass. This I attributed to the ice causing displacement in the water and when the ice melted it filled the displacement so no water could overflow from the glass.

Now if we say this is like the ice caps then "if the ice caps melt" then the sea level would not rise, RIGHT? Well, Not exactly!

Not all the ice on Earth is creating the same displacement like in the glass of water so the sea level would rise as a result. An example would be if all the ice that makes up Antarctica at the South Pole melted then the sea level would rise. The ice in South Pole is thick and does not float like in the North Pole so if it were to melt it would add to the water already there and make the sea level rise.  Also with Greenland, if it melted then it would raise sea levels quite a bit based on my interpretation of the activity.

At the North Pole the ice is not as thick and it acts like the ice in the glass so if the Arctic Ocean melted it would not affect the sea levels at all, again this is based on my interpretation of the ice in the glass.

My questions to everyone: 
Is my interpretation correct? 
Does this activity really mimic real life with the south and north poles?