November 25

Today, we went to Elk Point. I went there for a my junior high years when I did the science fair myself and got third place. It was nice to see that it is still around. A lot of the projects were very interesting. One boy, that won in seventh grade, actually built some robots to test what would work best on a vehicle moving over a variety of terrian. I thought this experience was really fun and informative for our learning. The teachers seemed to have set it up really well.

November 20

Today we had a much needed work day for our final assignment. We got a lot done and found a good website that has a game for volume, mass, and density. My group worked well together, and we will accomplished enough to finish up our project on time. This project is going to be so cool.

November 13

We are now starting our second lesson plan for our science class. Today we just had a workday to plan our lesson plans. Aaron, Brandon, and myself are using a magic in science book and a book about King Arthur to teach about inertia. We are not teaching this lesson to the class, we are going to act as a room of teachers and present our ideas to our other colleagues.

November 7

Today in class we did a potato activity. We were given different materials (chunks of potatoes, salt, water, and different science things). The class and I were asked to invent our own experiment and test how much salt we should put with the potato and water, and then we were to make observations on what happened within the potato activity.

November 4

Amanda, Sara, and Katie presented on seasons and the different types of season there are. This presentation was excellent and very well organized. Then we went outside and set off bottle rockets and that was a blast. It was really great to see the reaction with the vinegar and the baking soda and how far each bottle rocket shot up in the air. Mine didn't go very far like some people's.

After the presentations we came back inside and talked about seamless assessment and how we need to open our minds as teachers and assess in different ways to allow students to learn on their terms and teaching and assessing one way hurts the students in the long run.

October 30

Today's class we finished the midterm lesson plans. Their was another experiment on Oublic, which involved making a suspension out of cornstarch and water to see the outcome. Carrie and Ashley did an activity on taste buds, which was fun when we got to eat jelly beans. Aaron, Brandon, and myself did an activity with balloon rockets, which I thought went well outside of it taking too much time to set up in the beginning. I thought Jessica and Ryan's presentation on magic mud was fun, and also taught students about suspensions. I thought it was fun to see a lot of lesson plans that are cheap to do, since sometimes the teacher might have to pick up the tab for the equipment.

October 28

Today's class was not very productive due to technical difficulties. We started with Maddy and McKenzie. The did a presentation called elephant toothpaste. It involved adding certain materials to dry yeast and predicting and observing what happened when we mixed the materials together. Nate and Ashley were next with a lesson plan on what happens to bird feathers when put in water and then in oil. This would be a good experience to show junior high students what happens during oil spills. Elly and Lourie had us make Oublic. Brittany, Brianna, and Andrea discussed bottle rockets and the many saftey precautions needed for the making and experiment with the rockets.

October 23

There were several groups that presented today. There were 5 groups total and each group had something different to bring to the class for discussion. The first group did their lesson plan on mixtures and what mixtures are. We watched a video on how to make Cherry Jello, and then we made Jello ourselves in class. Becca and Catie did such a great job on explaining things and made the time learning about Jello fun. Kelli and Angie did a presentation of sinking or floating and making a prediction on what object will sink or float. Mallory and Lindsey did their presentation on habitats and the different kinds of habitats. They brought in books that were kid friendly to learn about the different habitats in the world. The also had a video of the putting together their own habitat and the presentation was great. I thought that this group really put forth effort and tried to impress the class with their art skills. Brooke and Megan did the experiment to show that oil and water don't mix. Then they placed food coloring in the glass and then the students had to watch the reaction of what happened in the glass. The final group, Whitney and Danielle talked about living and non living things and then we quickly did a collage of living things on one side and non living things on the other.

October 21

In class today, we discussed different ways to have discussions and the different types of talk in the classroom. There are six types of talk moves which are: Re-voicing, asking students to restate someone elses' reasoning, asking students to apply their own reasoning to someone elses' reasoning, prompting students for further participation, asking students to explicate their reasoning, and using wait time. These were all good strategies for getting students to discuss, in depth, about a topic. We discussed proper classroom talk and the many benefits to create deeper meanings for the students. The students provide insight for the teacher to asses what the students already know and how they think in a organized, productive manner. We also did a project about using air pressure to move a ping pong ball from one glass to another. This would be a good activity for force,wind current, or air pressure. It makes you think of different answers and how to think more in-depth on the subject.

October 16

Today, we did safety lessons on the Internet about the Internet. We also did a scavenger hunt about safety. The worksheet would be a good thing for younger children. The question about not meeting with someone online and what to do if you feel uncomfortable was something I think children should have to be taught in today's technological world. I think the scavenger hunt was kind of fun and would have been better if I was a young kid again. I think it is important to be aware of children's surroundings in teaching about this information. Likely, children will have lots of questions and as an instructor you should be prepared to answer these questions to make them feel comfortable. It's hard enough to watch out for strangers in town, and now they have to worry about it even when chatting with friends on the Internet. P.S. I loved Doug as a kid.

October 14

Today's class was a work day. We watched a short video on youtube on how to use a webcam and upload the video to you tube. We were allowed time to work on our midterm project which was needed to make sure we were on the same page. We also found out that we could use videos that we find on the internet instead of having to make our own videos. This was great since my group and myself are pressed for time this semester. So, it was good to make sure that we had things ready and in place.

October 7

Today we discussed science safety that need to be taken in lab procedures. We learning about the possible damage that can be done to your eyes and clothes. We then did an activity that demonstrated the difficulty of trying something new for the first time. We took a mirror and a pencil and had to write our name and a sentence so it appeared correctly through the mirror. This activity was very challenging and provided an interesting insight into the learning process of students. I had done this activity before so I was probably a little better at it because of that.

September 30

We had our class online. For our online assignment, we had to answer questions from modules over chapters 3 and 4. We were asked to share our ideas on how educators harness young children's shared base of understanding and skill to help them learn science, how misconceptions help children learn science, and a couple other questions about the scenarios that are placed in each module. Through these questions we learned that children are natural learners/scientists, and they are always ready and willing to learn at that young of an age. They also have a rich knowledge of how the world works and using cause and effect. By using hands on experiments we can help put science into a different perspective and help them build those great connections. By learning from their misconceptions, students are able to use those a stepping stones to build on their experiences. Those misconceptions can lead to one big idea and they can build off of their ideas and also make more connections. We also to analyze a couple of class experiements and how they were effective and what we would change about them. For this assignment we also got to put ourselves in the shoes of parents, and how we would like to be incorporated into our children's learning. From reading the chapters we can learn alot and can get a lot of great ideas to use for classroom instruction.

Web Seminar

I did not attend the seminar, but I did go through the PowerPoint and a few sites. Our universe amazes me more every day. The seminar discussed stars. I understood most of the information given. I knew that stars were mostly made of Hydrogen and Helium. I did not remember that the most important factor in how a star evolves and dies is based on its’ initial mass. To think that clouds can condense enough to form a star is a hard point to wrap you mind around. The seminar discussed high mass stars and how they are brighter and have shorter lives then low mass stars.(High=Rigel; Low=Sun) The star classification was also something new to me since I really only found out about it about a month ago. I enjoyed trying to figure out the mystery star, which I think was composed of Iron and Magnesium. I was wondering about a neutron star and how it was formed since I cannot, for the life of me, remember. I thought that the seminar must have been very enlightening and very useful in information for teaching students about stars.

September 23

We did an experiment on acidic acid today, and used different types of acid to create a reaction with baking soda. We did vinegar, water, pink grapefruit juice, white grapefruit juice, lime juice, and orange juice. The acid that had the most reaction was lime juice which was really shocking to me. The next one was the vinegar and that reaction went about 3/4 of the way up the bottle. I also was surprised at what little reaction the grapefruit juice white or pink was. This reminded me of the old volcano trick in elementary school where you make a volcano spew out red food coloring. Fun stuff.

September 18

Today in class, we talked about nutrition and how important it is for students to be healthly. We tried to make different meals under a certain amount of calories to pass the test. If your meal had too many calories it would make you try again, and this was on a website. We also did worksheets that gave us the tools to meal plan for ourselves and it was a lot of fun. The only thing is that hotdog was the only source of protein, and that is not a very good source. We also received a handout on nutrition information and how much a serving size is along with what types of food are good for you. My mother is a nurse, so I get nutrition guides all the time.

September 16

Today in class we designed a safety game, and learned about different safety issues. The importance of safety in a science room is very important because every child needs to be safe in their actions. We also discussed the difference between the past and today's terms in science, for instance, content is the accumulated results of science, and now the content and process is linked. There are 4 different strands in connection of science to the real world connection. The first strand is understanding scientific explanations, strand 2 is generating scientific evidence, strand 3 is reflecting on scientific knowledge, and strand 4 is participation productively in science.

September 11

Today we discussed the difference between common, everyday terminology and the meaning of those words in science. For example, most people would consider that a theory is like an opinion. But, in science, a theory is an educated guess that has undergone plenty of testing. However, even theories can undergo changes like in the last year scientists figured out that dinosaurs actually carried themselves differently. It is important for us to know and understand these terms so we can help our students to better understand them.

Discussion- Temperature

This activity we did in groups of four. My group consisted of Aaron, Mallory, and Lindsey. In this activity, we tried out the LabQuests with the temperature calculator. We observed the temperature change in a regular cup of water. We then added ice to the cup and observed the temperature change. Finally, we tested the temperature of each person. I believe this activity was to help us use a LabQuest and observer how fast the temperature changes due to outside influences.

Discussion- Time

Our first science activity involved time. Each group was required to make 3 paper helicopters for the test. One was the control and the other two were for your experiments placing weight on the paper. Brandon and I found that all objects did not make much of a difference in the time it took to hit the ground. So, this proves that objects will fall at the same speed minus any resistance.