Conecting Students to Natural Disasters

I think one of the greatest ways to help connect students with natural disasters that are happening globally is to make cross-curricular connections with social studies. Students can learn about the geographic locations, the culture, the social impacts of the disaster in their social studies class while learning about the scientific aspects and potential ways to prevent such catastrophes in the future in science class.

Giving students the ability to discuss and study the people and areas affected by natural disasters would help them connect with the people and circumstances that they are going through. Starting a school or class chapter of a relief organization, or letting students organize their own releif efforts for people affected by natural disasters would help them become more compassionate citizens, while also becoming more scientifically literate about the disaster itself, how such a phenomenon occurs, and what can be done to protect human life in the future.

Counting Gray Bats

Ask A Scientist

I have yet to receive feedback from my "Ask a Scientist" question which was, "What would cause the CDK and Cyclin to work improperly leading to tumors, mutations, and cancers?"

I have come to learn through reading and through discussion that environmental factors could lead to mutations in the cell which could damage CDK and Cyclin. I suppose "What causes cancer?" is only a step away from the question that I have posed, and this is still something for which scientists are actively searching.

My students are constantly posing questions in my classroom; some that I can answer and some that I cannot. I think the "Ask a Scientist" website would be a great place to direct my students when their questions cannot be answered. I also think that students think that scientists are somewhat fictitious since they never really get a chance to interact with them unless they have parents who are scientists. By having the students pose their own questions to the scientists and get responses from the scientists, they get a chance to see that there really are scientists out there who are experts in their field. This is something that I plan on using in my classroom when my students have questions that I cannot answer. We will post the questions together on the site by using the SmartBoard and will make an event out of reading the responses we get.

Ask a Scientist Website: http://www.askascientist.org/

The web tools that I explored were the GoogleDocs, Prezi, VoiceThread, and Glogster.

GoogleDocs seems like a great program if you are creating or needing to present documents or slideshows from multiple locations. You can create, edit, and present your documents from GoogleDocs and save them in your virtual file folder. This makes the documents accessible from any computer that has Internet access. GoogleDocs is very user friendly as it is formatted similarly to the Microsoft programs. GoogleDocs is free to use; all you need is a Google account. The only thing that I didn’t really like about this tool is that it doesn’t allow all of the creativity that the actual Microsoft programs offer. There is no WordArt or animations that can be added to your documents so whatever you create must be very simplistic.
https://docs.google.com/#all

Prezi is a presentation tool very similar to PowerPoint but with a much more impressive end product! When your presentation is complete, viewers tour through your presentation very much like it’s a movie. Titles, video, songs, and information zoom in and out of the screen as you navigate the presentation. There is a slight learning curve involved in the use of this program as it does not navigate like programs that most people are used to working with, however there are tutorials for helping you get accustomed to Prezi’s unique format. The basic (public) version of Prezi is free, however you will have the Prezi watermark in the background of all of your presentations. For $59 a year you can get the “Enjoy” version of Prezi. There is also a student/teacher version of Prezi called “EduEnjoy” which is just like the “Enjoy version, however this version is free! Prezi presentations are able to be accessed online from any computer that has Internet access. For an additional fee, you can get offline access to Prezi.
http://prezi.com/

VoiceThread is a tool that combines voice recordings, slide presentations, blog posting, documents, and most other forms of media all into one location. What’s really unique about VoiceThread is that you can leave comments or add content to someone’s VoiceThread in the form of written comments or voice comments. It is a great tool for collaborative work. There are tutorials available for using this tool and I would assume that you have to be pretty familiar with all different platforms of media to take full advantage of this web tool. For a single educator account with no student accounts this tool is free. If you would like to set your classroom up using VoiceThread the cost is $60 per year. I think this tool would be great for students who are collaborating on class projects. The VoiceThread presentations are able to be shared and worked on by multiple students who have access to the Internet.
http://voicethread.com/

Glogster is a tool that allows you to make interactive posters. I reviewed a few of the posters that were already created and I didn’t see how this was any more than a way to present written information to music. It seemed like most of the posters that I viewed were made by teenagers professing their hurt or love toward someone to the latest top 40 hits. I didn’t really see any interactive components to these posters; it was really just looking at the poster and listening to music. The host website for Webtools4u2use has a Glog as their title page. Their Glog allows you to zoom in on pictures and activate links; demonstrating the interactive components. I think a Glog would be good to use to combine several different types of media that are already in existence or that were created using other tools. Some of the educational Glogs were beautifully made and would be an excellent way to incorporate Webquests into your classroom. There is no cost to Glogster basic and you can access it from any computer with an Internet connection. For a premium version of Glogster, the cost is $99 per year. There is a specific website for Glogster EDU: http://edu.glogster.com/

21st Century Learning Tools: Periodic Table

The most powerful resources that I found online that would help my students with their understanding of atomic theory and the periodic table were from Popular Science (http://www.popsci.com/files/periodic_popup.html) and the Dynamic Periodic Table (http://www.ptable.com/). The periodic table from Popular Science shows an interactive periodic table with photos of each element and provides information about each element. In addition, each information window for each element also has a link to more information about that element and pictures showing ways in which that element is used in everyday life. This would be helpful to my students so that they can see that the elements are the building blocks of all materials and how different elements are all around them in everyday life. It also drives home the point that the properties of elements can often be much different than the compounds that they can form. The Dynamic Periodic Table site provides students with an interactive periodic table that allows them to investigate the elements’ isotopes, properties, how changing temperature affects the state of the element, and the electron orbitals of the element. I especially like the temperature scroll bar because it shows the melting and freezing points of the elements in Kelvin, Celsius, and Fahrenheit.

I expect that these tools would help make students scientifically literate citizens because it allows my students to utilize technology to improve their knowledge and understanding of atoms. Using these websites also allows students to learn about the elements in a self-reliant way, investigate the elements of their choice, and inquire further about patterns that exist within the periodic table. Being able to understand the periodic table and the nature of the elements will allow my students to have future success in their chemistry and biology classes where knowledge of the elements and their interactions are critical.

One way in which I plan to use these resources in my classroom is by having my students investigate different trends and patterns in the periodic table. This would be a guided inquiry activity because I would simply be giving students the inquiry question (Banchi & Bell, 2008). To extend this activity, I would have my students investigate one element of their choice and complete an element poster on this element identifying certain criteria about their element. We would then gather the different posters from students within the class and make our own periodic table. When learning about electrons and electron configuration, the Dynamic Periodic Table can be put to use on my SmartBoard so that students can investigate the pattern of electrons and orbitals. I think that having this visual will be a valuable tool to my students in their comprehension and understanding of atoms and the periodic table.

Some potential problems I can foresee in using these tools is that the students will spend time "playing" and not necessarily in searching for trends and patterns within the periodic table. Another potential problem would be that students would all want to explore the same couple of elements (gold, silver, or platinum for example) and the periodic table that we create would be limited in its content. Getting all of my students to the computer lab for successive days would also pose a problem since computers are not available in my classroom.

The Heat is On - Heat Transfer

During the Heat is On experiment, all three methods of heat transfer were present. The hot water heated the air within the cup by radiation. The air at the surface of the water was heated by emitted heat from the water so radiation took place. The rest of the air within the cup was heated by convection. Hot air that was heated by contact with the water rose inside the cup (hot air is less dense than cold air and, thus, rises). When the hot air rose, the colder, denser cold air sunk inside the cup to be heated through conduction by the hot water. This cycle continues, heating all of the air inside the cup (Tillery, Enger, and Ross, 2008). When the hot air rises in the cup it comes in direct contact with the cover material and transfers heat to the material through conduction. The heat then passes through the material to the surrounding outside air through radiation.

When I conducted this experiment, I used wax paper(13 degree change), aluminum foil (15 degree change), plastic wrap (11 degree change), and no covering (24 degree change). If I were to do this experiment again, I would try using fabric and glass as a cover to see if their insulating properties are different than the insulators that I originally chose. I think that the glass would prove to be the best insulator because it would not allow any steam to escape from the cup as fabric might. Glass, like air, however, has a very low specific heat which would indicate that it will change temperature very easily and would transfer heat more readily (Tillery, Enger, and Ross, 2008). This would indicate to me that, after air, glass would transfer the heat from the cup fastest; faster even than the aluminum which has a higher specific heat.

I would like to try this experiment again with an object wrapped in the different materials so that the air pocket inside the cup could be removed from the experiment. I think a hotdog would be a good material to use because hotdogs are uniform in shape, they are easy to heat, and also easy to wrap in the experimental materials. I think that the hotdogs would cool faster than the water because water has a very high specific heat which requires a great deal of energy to change its temperature (Tillery, Enger, and Ross, 2008).

I think that this exact experiment could be used in my classroom. A wide variety of materials could be available for students to test out as potential insulators and conductors. To make this experiment more interesting for my students, I would present them with a scenario in which I had guests over to my house and I was trying to keep our dinner warm while everyone finished up their appetizers. I couldn’t find an appropriate covering for the food, everything got cold very quickly, and dinner was ruined (other scenarios could be used). I will ask my students for their advice on the matter and then invite them to try out their ideas. Once students had experience with this activity, I think a good extension of the lab would be to have students design their own thermos in which they have to sustain a specific water temperature for a given amount of time. Students would have to use their knowledge of heat transfer (all forms) to eliminate any possible loss of energy.

I would like students to learn about the three different methods of heat transfer, the different types of conductors and insulators and their properties, and I would like them to gain some experimental design experience. I achieved all of these goals while I was engaged in this activity.

Tillery, B. W., Enger, E. D., & Ross, F. C. (2008). Integrated science (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Engaging in Guided Inquiry

The question that I chose to explore was: Which pendulum will come to rest more quickly—a lighter pendulum or heavier pendulum? In order to set up this experiment I had to access my background knowledge of pendulums; for instance, what is a pendulum? I had to decide how I was going to create my pendulum using the materials that were provided to me in my science kit. I chose to use the small, lighter washer and the large, heavier washer, along with the black string. I knew that I needed to keep the length of the pendulum and the height that I pulled the pendulum constant so that any differences I observed in swing time could solely be attributed to the weight of the pendulum. From prior experience with pendulums, I also knew that I would want an area that the pendulum could freely swing without bumping into other objects because this would change the period of the pendulum and skew my data.
I hypothesized that the lighter pendulum would come to rest more quickly because it has less mass and therefore less momentum and less potential energy. Because this pendulum has less potential energy, it also then has less energy to convert to kinetic energy which would maintain its motion. What I observed through this experiment was that the heavier pendulum swung for an average time of 3.32 minutes whereas the lighter pendulum swung for an average time of 1.33 minutes. To get these averages I conducted three trials of each weight pendulum and then averaged the time results.
I did not experience any challenges in this activity but there were a few things that I incorporated into the lab that were not provided for me. I needed to secure the pendulum to my counter top so I introduced tape into the lab. Also, I wanted an easy way to take the washers on and off of the pendulum so I introduced a paperclip to the end of the pendulum so that washers would easily be taken on and off without having to untie and retie anything. This did not affect the outcome of the investigation because the same paperclip was used with both washers, therefore, not altering the overall net difference in weight between the washers.
To get a different result with my students or to use this same experiment in different ways, I might simply ask students "What affects the period (or swing) of a pendulum?" Students would get to change different aspects of the pendulum including the weight the length, and the height that they pull it back.
To make this activity more engaging I might bring up the amusement ride with the giant ship. I could challenge the students to engineer the ride so that the ride lasts longer or rocks back and forth the fastest. They would have to experiment with the different variables to identify what would make the ride longer or slower or faster.
What I would like to students to take away from an activity such as this is I would want them to be able to plan and set up an experiment to test their hypothesis, carefully write a procedure, make observations both qualitatively and quantitatively, and draw conclusions from their data and observations. I would additionally like students to be able to apply their new knowledge in a real-world setting. I believe that if I have been practicing inquiry with my students on a regular basis then they will be ready for a guided inquiry activity such as this and will, thus, walk away with the knowledge and skills that I have sought for them.

Reflection on Inquiry: Circuits

Banchi and Bell (2008) state that a structured inquiry activity is one in which “the question and procedure are provided by the teacher; however, students generate an explanation supported by the evidence they have collected” (p. 26). In my inquiry lab on circuits, the question that students are answering is “How can you make the bulb light?” I have not provided the students with a procedure for lighting the bulb, but I am not requiring the students write a procedure either. It is possible that this lab would actually be classified as a guided inquiry activity because of the lack of procedure. Students are required to experiment, generate an explanation of how they were able to make the bulb light, and collect evidence of how circuits work.

Our opening "engage" discussion about what a circuit is and how a flashlight works was successful and enlightening. The students knew much more about flashlights and how they operate than I suspected. They were able to draw on their previous knowledge of positive and negative charges and apply that knowledge to the batteries and how they work; why the positive and negative terminals had to touch and why it could not be negative to negative or positive to positive.

Students had a hard time transferring the information they discussed about what a circuit is to the lab activity. Students were not creating "circular" circuits. Many of their circuits were line segments and their bulbs were not lighting. Students were getting frustrated when they could not get their bulbs to light. After letting the students struggle with their materials they were able to figure out how to get the bulbs to light and would shout out exclamations of joy such as "It's lighting!" or "We did it!" The amount of time that was required for my students to complete the explore activity was more that I realized. Students needed closer to 20 minutes to complete the explore activity as opposed to the 5 minutes that I had originally allowed in my plan. Because of this additional time, we were unable to complete the elaboration activity and will be completing that portion of the activity tomorrow. At the conclusion of our explore lab I had the students draw one of their circuits on the SmartBoard and we discussed problems that we encountered with the circuits and discoveries that we made. Student discussed the problem of not creating a circuit but a line, they discussed not having the correct part of the bulb touching the battery and the wire (we elaborated on this idea and discussed how a light bulb works), and some groups hypothesized about adding extra bulbs and extra batteries to their circuits.

When I plan inquiry labs in the future I will set aside more time in my planning for the explore activity and will allow ample time for the elaboration process as well. It was very difficult to allow my students to struggle through the creation of their circuits but being patient and not providing them with information showed that they could work through it and this made it easier for me to do in the future. This experience further demonstrated to me that I cannot take my students knowledge, or lack of knowledge, for granted and I should not assume anything about their prior experiences.

Overall, I feel the lesson went well. I performed this lesson with all six of my classes and was able to fine tune the lesson as the day progressed. We discussed a lot of real-world applications of circuits and I feel this helped the students retain the information better and take a more invested interest in the explore activity.

The students were able to successfully create their circuits, find new ways to make the circuits, and finally draw their circuits. Students were able to explain their drawings orally, ask pertinent questions about circuits and their applications, and feel confident in their ability to use their knowledge of circuits to solve the "circuit puzzles" in tomorrow's elaborate activity.
Additional time is needed for exploration and elaboration. In the future, I would like to give each lab table a flashlight so that they can explore the parts of the flashlight up close. Maybe we would discuss the flashlight and how it is a circuit before hand, and then have them explain how the flashlight works in detail after they have been able to create their light bulb circuits. Possible revisions could include having students hypothesize about and draw what configuration they think will make the light bulb light and then have them test their hypotheses using the equipment.
 

References
Banchi, H., & Bell, R. (2008). The many levels of inquiry. Science and Children, 46(2), 26–29.

The Melting Icebergs
I would like to begin by stating that I have a multitude of concerns regarding the semantics that are used throughout this activity. The title is “Melting Icebergs,” however throughout the activity mention is also made to “polar ice caps” (pp. 3-5) and “glaciers” (p. 3) (Laureate, 2010). All three of these terms are different and have different implications on world-wide water levels should they melt. According to Dictionary.com (2010), an iceberg is “a massive body of floating ice that has broken away from a glacier or ice field,” a polar ice cap is “either of the regions around the poles of the Earth that are permanently covered with ice,” and a glacier is “a large mass of ice moving very slowly through a valley or spreading outward from a center.” These definitions indicate that icebergs are present in the water, polar ice caps are found both on land and covering water as one pole is covered by land (Antarctica) while the other is covered by water (Arctic Circle), and glaciers are only found on land. The results of this experiment would be very different if we were to simulate all three different situations, as would the world-wide effects. Since this activity simulates only what would happen if floating ice (icebergs) were to melt, that is what I will address in my response, despite the fact that the question asks, “What happens if the polar ice caps melt?”

If icebergs were to melt there would be no overall effect on the water levels world-wide. I know this to be true, even before I experiment, because the ice that is floating in water has already displaced its volume. Because the icebergs have already displaced their volume, there will be no increase in volume in ocean water and no rise in water levels. This can be seen when you have ice in your drink. When the ice cubes melt, there is not more liquid in your glass; the glass does not overflow.

Questions I have about this inquiry activity are, were the authors of this activity trying to confuse the children who would be performing this activity? Was the intent to make the teachers studying this activity look at the wording used critically and see the discrepancies in the activity? Did the authors of this activity have a hidden agenda in which they want us to believe that melting ice at the poles would not have the world-wide effects that are commonly believed by scientists? My father is very much a right-winged republican and this is the sort of activity that he would have me do to “prove” to me that even if the ice caps were to melt, it would not have the drastic effects that us “crazy liberal scientists” believe. Did the authors of this activity design it to make us question the activity or did they really believe that it was a valid experiment to explore the consequences of melting ice caps? Questions I have about implementing this into my classroom are, how would I be able to preserve enough ice to make this activity possible in class? Would my students have enough background knowledge about all of these different concepts to come to the same conclusion that I have? What activities would we need to do beforehand for them to see the errors that I saw?
 
References
Dictionary.com, LLC. (2010) Definitions retrieved on March 21, 2010 from http://dictionary.reference.com.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). Melting Icebergs Experiment. Baltimore, MD.

The 5 E's Strategy

When I began the lesson planning process this week I was a little overwhelmed. Seven pages of lesson plan template were daunting to me. My regular lesson plans are very thorough and often times are three to four pages long which, by most teachers’ and administrators’ standards, is excessive. So you can image my astonishment to see that our lesson plan this week was beginning as a seven page template.
I did find the 5 E’s Strategy to be helpful in this week’s lesson planning. The 5 E’s is a strategy with which I was already familiar, however it is a strategy that is relatively new to me and I had not yet had the opportunity to carry it out in my classroom. What I appreciate about the 5 E’s strategy is how it begins with a hook into learning. The 5 E’s strategy starts with a students’ prior knowledge or a fairly simple engaging demonstration, maybe a discrepant event, and gets the students excited and engaged in what they will be exploring. Because students are already invested in the content, it makes it very easy to keep the students on task and focused on their lesson because they are already invested in learning more about this baffling event; they want to know how the magician performed their trick, so to speak. I also like the way that the 5 E’s strategy allows for exploration of each topic followed by explanation (Buxton & Provenzo, 2007). It is critical that students be able to reflect on their own findings and make new understandings from what they have experienced because it allows students to process for meaning (Hammerman, 2006)
The 5 E’s strategy was different from the methods that I typically take during lesson planning because I typically work from an over-reaching theme or question, plan activities that can help the students grasp the concepts and work with the vocabulary from those big ideas, and then after exploration we debrief about all of our activities and create meaning together. We very rarely elaborate or extend on our concepts due to time constraints, and often times, the explanation process happens many days after the exploration because the students are exploring different topics on multiple days. I think that more immediate explanation would help the students make more immediate connections to prior knowledge.
If I were to implement the 5 E’s strategy into my everyday lessons, I would be most concerned with the time constraints that would hamper these types of activities. To incorporate the 5 E’s strategy thoroughly and properly, it would take at least 2 days of class instruction for each lesson that was taught. To remedy the time constraints while still being able to teach all of the content, power standards as discussed by Dr. Reeves or paring back the curriculum, as referenced by Project 2061 would be essential (Laureate, 2010; AAAS, 2009).

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