Lesson Implementation/Reflection

After dealing with a flair up of my oh so not wonderful bladder disease (interstitial cycstitis) it has been rough getting back into the swing of things.

Anyway, I am back and ready to rock.

I had fun with my Modeling Earth Science instructional plan.  The use of a model to teach the water cycle was a good experience for me and my students.  I used a "Biome in a Baggie" to demonstrate the processes of the water cycle.  As I began implementing the lesson I soon realized that this model would have been better used after building background knowledge and viewing more real-world applications of the water cycle.

Basically, my thinking was I would have students plant grass seeds in a containier and have them place the container in a gallon Ziploc bag so they could observe what happens.  That did not go as planned.  We ended up planting the seeds on a Friday and when we came back on that following Monday the grass was growing and there was water droplets on the bag.  The students were excited, yes.  However, we did not have enough background knowledge built up before exploring the how the water cycle is represented in the "Biome in a Baggie."  I wanted them to be able to tell me how the "Biome in a Baggie" demonstrates the water cycle, but instead of them telling me, I ended up telling them.  They did a good job of summarizing the processes of the water cycle, but they struggled in making that connection to real-world application.  That is why I say that "Biome in a Baggie" needs to be saved for the end of the water cycle unit as opposed to kick starting the unit.

This activity also provided insight as to the writing skills we need to focus on, such as organization and providing evidence to back up our findings.

Considering this is the first time I have ever used "Biome in a Baggie" in relation to the water cycle, I don't think it was a complete disaster.  I think with a few nips and tucks, I can make it an awesome end of unit assessment.

Lisa

Helping with Natural Disaster Relief

Natural disasters are a part of everyones life either directly or indirectly.  I think that we can develop more scientifically literate and compassionate students by teaching our students about natural disaster relief as well as the disaster itself.  One idea I had to get students more involved with disaster relief was to start by having students bring in non perishable food items, toys, cloths, toilet paper, candles, soap, and any other item folks might need during a disaster.  We could then package these items and send them to the area in need via our local Red Cross or other organization that helps in disaster relief.

Web 2.0 Cool Tools for Schools Journal Entry

OMG!!  WOW!! I had no idea there were so many types of presentation tools.  Talk about information overload.

Even though my eyeballs feel like they are going to fall out of my head, I have to say that the presentation tools I liked best were Prezi and 280 slides.  Both were free, both were easy and fun to play around with, both allow for collaboration to occur, both allow the presenter to insert videos and/or pictures, and both could be accessed from the internet so as to avoid losing a jump drive.  I liked 280 slides because it's like a souped up version of PowerPoint.  I am most comfortable with using PowerPoint and I tend to be somewhat of a linear minded person.  I have to admit though, after being subject to PowerPoint after PowerPoint during all my professional development time at school, I am bored with PowerPoint.  It's time to move out of my comfort zone and use something different.

After playing around with Prezi, I think I have found a new favorite toy.  I can still present my information in a linear fashion, but it will be less boring than the average PowerPoint presentation.  I like the way Prezi allows the viewer to see the big picture and then as the presentation moves on, the presenter can zoom in on the details.  I am looking forward to using Prezi.

Hello

I hope all of you are well.  I look forward to working with each one of you.

Technology

The topic I chose to work with is a topic that I am familiar with because I have taught it in the past.  It is the topic of mixtures and solutions.  One of my greatest resources that I like to use in my classroom is http://www.unitedstreaming.com/. This is the link to Discovery Education and it provides a great variety of videos, images, and usable documents for teaching not only mixtures and solutions, but any subject matter.

These tools are important in developing scientifically literate students in the 21^st century because they expose students to the technology that is available.  Even if the students cannot have their own individual computer in the classroom, they can still experience the benefits of these resources when the teacher uses these sites with an Interactive Whiteboard in the classroom.  These tools help to create awareness.

One of the activities I have used with Discovery Education is to show videos of how mixtures and solutions can be created and how these mixtures and solutions can effect the environment.  The videos help to build that background knowledge and help to bring in the real world context.

One of the challenges faced in using the technology is the fact that sometimes the Internet server can be down or the LCD projector bulb can blow.  You just have to work around it.

Hot Stuff

I think that the materials used in this week's experiment discouraged the conduction of heat.  According to Tillery, Enger, and Ross (2008) conduction is the transfer of heat from one material to the other.  The materials used in this experiment that were the best insulator were those materials that prevented this heat from escaping or being conducted.

If I were to repeat this experiment I would test glass and rubber.  I believe the rubber would be the best insulator.  I am basing this belief on the knowledge that when I put my hot coffee into one of those plastic coffee cups with the rubber wrapped around it, I feel less heat though the rubber than I do through the plastic.

Because I don't teach heat transfer with my 4th graders I would have to do more investigations and research on this topic before I approached it with my students.  I say this because my knowledge of this topic is limited and I want to make sure that I develop my knowleded base before trying to explain it to my students.

Engaging Guided Inquiry

The focus question chosen to for this guided inquiry experiment was “How do different surfaces affect the momentum of marbles?”  In order to test this question, the learner set up two ramps.  The ramps were made by using four science textbooks and stacking them in two stacks of two.  A grooved, twelve inch ruler was placed on each stack of books so that one end of the ruler was on the books and the other end was on the surface to be tested.  The grooved ruler aided in keeping the marbles traveling in a linear path.  In order to create a fair test the only variable changed was the surface the marbles would roll over.  The same size marbles were used and the stacks of books were both placed onto the smooth tile floor.  The only difference was that a carpeted rug was placed at the end of one of the rulers.  In order to determine how surfaces affect momentum, the focus became to observe and measure how far the marbles would travel over a carpeted surface versus a surface with no carpet.  The discovery that was made confirmed the hypothesis; the smoother surface caused the marble to travel farther than the carpeted surface.  Momentum, in this case, is not affected by the marbles mass or velocity because both of these variables were constant until the surfaces changed.  When the surfaces changed friction became a more noticeable player in that the momentum of the marble rolling over the carpeted surface slowed much quicker than the momentum of the marble rolling on the smooth surface.

Engaging in a guided inquiry experience helped the learner further understand the scientific concept because it allowed for hands on investigation using familiar materials.  This experience also motivated the learner to apply the skills necessary to conduct an experiment to explore the concepts of momentum.  This process also enveloped critical thinking strategies such as making inferences and drawing conclusions.  The activity was engaging and the learner was not stuck reading about a science concept, but was instead applying the concept to a particular design.  It is easy to follow an already created procedure to complete an experiment, but to have to actually design the procedure and then put what you design into action is a challenging way to make the learner think about the process and not just the science concept being learned. 

One of the challenges faced in this process was the minimal amount of collaboration that took place.  Both the inquiry process and the engineering design process call for an extensive amount of collaboration and teamwork to get the project or experiment accomplished.  The learner found that without collaboration, ideas in design of the experiment were limited.  This confirms the old adage that “two heads are better than one” in some instances and it drives home the importance of collaboration amongst any group of learners.

This kind of experience will be a huge benefit to any science student.  This kind of guided inquiry gets the student thinking outside the cookie cutter recipe of doing science demonstrations and experiments according to a preplanned set of procedures and it gets them to creating, thinking, and designing.  It helps them to reach that higher level of thinking skills that all learners need.  The biggest challenge students will face in using this kind of instruction will be getting them used to thinking for themselves.  This process needs to be scaffolded so that all students, struggling or not can participate successfully.  Overall, this guided inquiry experience drove home the importance of doing the science as opposed to reading about the science.