Heat Transfer Lesson

For this lesson, I decided to use a cloth, paper towel, saran wrap and tissues.  I wanted to use tin foil but of course we were out of tin foil.  The saran wrap was the most effective insulator.  In the future I want to compare the tin foil to the saran wrap to see which one is the better insulator of heat. For my students, I would like to ask them to think about how they keep things warm or cool in their own home.  I would like them to base their prediction on this and bring in the materials from home for them to test.  Perhaps I could make groups based on the students who bring in the same materials and then we could test and compare as a whole class.  I would like to have a test to see which size container keeps the water the warmest like in the article we read this week with the porridge.  I think that is something that students do not realize and would be beneficial for their understanding not just for class but in life as well.

Guided Inquiry Lesson

For this assignment I did tested the different surfaces affect on marbles.  I borrowed a ramp from my brother and used carpet, tile floor and sandpaper as my different surfaces.  My results were the same as my prediction.  The marble traveled the furtherest on the tile floor because it was slick, less friction than on the carpet which was thick and have more friction with the marbles.  I had conducted a similar experiment in the past with cars so the results were the same.

When setting up the experiment, I did not have enough resources which is always a struggle for teachers.  At first I only had enough 2 sheets of sandpaper which was not enough for the experiment.  We are having work done at my house so I asked the construction workers if they had more paper I could borrow.  In general, it always seems that teachers need a lot of different resources and I always get the same confused look when I ask people about different materials!

I was going to try to test the amount of time it took the marbles to travel but then I realized that would not really measure the momentum as much as measuring the distance it traveled. I think I would like to provide students with different materials (such as different ramps) and allow them to see which one would help them provide the best results.  I wouldn't like to make this an open inquiry because I am not sure I would know how to supervise one and I would be afraid that a topic such as friction would be too confusing.

It would be fun to have students go to a local park and put different surfaces on slides and have students race each other.  For example one student would just slide on the slide regularly and the other would have to slide down a felt slide.  Then I would have students compare and explain which student traveled the fastest. I would want students to understand how different objects react with different surfaces and understand real life applications such as driving on a wet surface as opposed to a dry surface and the implications it would have in their everyday lives.  I would also like students to be able to use the term friction easily and accurately in their explanations. I think I achieved this goal for myself but I know my students would need more practice to become comfortable using scientific terms.

Structured Inquiry: Adaptation

For my lesson I had students conduct a lesson on adaptation using different bird beaks.  Unfortunately, due to the scheduling of the class, we were unable to complete everything that we wanted during the lesson.  Attached is student work.  I started as whole class but this was the first science experiment we have done in class so they were very excited and we lost time during the instructions.  I ended up choosing a small group at the end of the day to finish the activity.  Students had to compete for food sources using different beaks (tweezers, straw, spoon and chopsticks).  They predicted how effective their beaks would be and then they recorded how much of each food they collected in their stomachs.  After we discussed if their prediction was correct and the second question.  Unfortunately we did not finish the rest of the questions but given the time, I think the students could have shown their understanding more clearly.

For the most part, the students understood that the spoon was the most effective beak.  The students used their data to answer the second question which we discussed as a class as well.  The students who had the straw were very frustrated but learned more about the activity because their bird could only have one food source and very little of it.

These two were Lilly's work:
https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=138df54727&view=att&th=12e200874b2beb0b&attid=0.3&disp=inline&realattid=f_gk47y0ut2&zw
https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=138df54727&view=att&th=12e200874b2beb0b&attid=0.4&disp=inline&realattid=f_gk47y82o3&zw

These two were Alan's work:
https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=138df54727&view=att&th=12e200874b2beb0b&attid=0.1&disp=inline&realattid=f_gk47xtfe0&zw
https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=138df54727&view=att&th=12e200874b2beb0b&attid=0.2&disp=inline&realattid=f_gk47xwx01&zw

Global Warming

Global warming seems to be one of the most controversial topics in science today.  Personally, I feel that throughout my background study of global warming it seems that this is a dangerous issue that is facing our society today. Ecosystems are in a constant state of balance and imbalance, however the changes that the world has shown are more rapid that other changes observed in smaller ecosystems.  If the polar ice caps were to melt, I think it would have a dramatic affect on the sea level and destroy the wildlife that exists in the polar regions.  Our world ecosystem would be in a dramatic imbalance and I find it hard to see how it would go back to a state of balance.  There would be such drastic change, that it would affect multiple areas of the world.

Some questions I have include:
How can we teach students to understand the interrelatedness of global warming to their every day lives?

What are we doing in schools to encourage students to be proactive about their environment?

First Science Lesson

While trying to plan for the first lesson, I felt I struggled a bit with the format.  I thought it was helpful to have the standards but I had trouble relating the work to the historical perspectives.  I felt that they were very broad and did not give much help that could be used for elementary purposes.  Many of the historical perspectives shared what middle school and high school needed which made it difficult for me to relate material that would meet those standards.

I thought the 5 e's were helpful although there was some overlap with the learning activities section.  I felt that the 5 e's should be used to help guide the thinking process but not a part of the lesson planning itself. Perhaps I was confused on what specifically needed to go in those sections.

Typically I do not write out a developed lesson plan like the one for this assignment.  My school has lessons that they want us to teach in specific ways so often I find myself just following what other teachers in my grade do.  I would like the chance to develop more lessons so I can see the whole picture of what my classroom will look like from every angle.  Although it requires a lot of time which is always an issue in education.

I think implementing this lesson would be difficult because I incorporated a field trip into the lesson.  I could not put this lesson into action because my school has set field trips and I cannot plan trips on my own.  There is freedom in a college course to develop lessons and resources but when it comes down to doing the lesson, certain logistical things have to be changed.