21st Century Topics & Tools

Just viewing the lesson this week on the periodic table, I decided to focus on the chemistry aspect of physical science.  Students seem to either love or hate this particular area of science and it’s our responsibility to get those that hate it interested. Students love mixing chemicals and get an explosive reaction, baking soda and vinegar for example.  It’s the less glamorous mixing or even separating that students become disengaged.  They seem less impressed with oxidation, electrolysis and sometimes even cooking.  When we perform activities and labs covering this topic the common question I receive is why.  Students want to know why they are learning this and why this sis important.  I try to present the information in a manner where the students understand they witness chemical reactions everyday whether it’s photosynthesis, digestion, decomposition and even as simple as making iced tea.  Chemical reactions are all around us.

Some useful sites that I utilize: 

* http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/ is a great site which allows students to perform labs in which they create new substances and see how different substances interact.

* http://sciencespot.net/Pages/classchem.html provides numerous activities with worksheets and also multiple interactive lessons.

* http://www.the-simple-homeschool.com/chemical-bonding.html another site providing numerous information such as key terms, videos, explanations and labs.

* http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/science-projects-for-kids-chemical-reactions.htm This is the website I would incorporate as a culmination of the unit.  It provides numerous activities and students could choose one as a group and perform the activity for the class.  They could present their data and explain the energies involved and the type of changes the chemicals underwent.  This would almost be like a science fair as we study chemicals at the end of the year.

 * Another great tool to incorporate into our classrooms is YouTube.  If certain lesson or labs are too dangerous, or expensive, students can witness the experimentation and observe online.  From what they view they can form conclusions.

There are thousands of helpful websites for teachers.  What we need to do is find some we find useful and comfortable using.  Bringing technology into the classroom is a key component of education today. In addition to exploring websites, it would be beneficial to have students create their own sites, blogs or even Facebook pages.  By doing this, they can share their learning with students outside our classrooms.  They would be able to communicate on a global scale allowing themselves to gain insights and perspectives from a vast array of students outside their community.

Of course the difficulty we may experience in implementing this technology would be its' availability to us.  My classroom has a smart board but not all districts are granted this luxury.  Our computer lab is small and often unavailable.  Some of us have to make due with what we have and improvise and be creative when incorporating technology into our rooms.  It all depends on what’s available to us.

Heat Transfer

Sorry everyone, my posting is a bit late.  I just went through our materials again and realized a posting was due week 4.

     In the heat transfer activity I decided to test foil, cardboard, plastic and ceramic.  As a frequent coffee drinker, I would explain that my travel mug doesn’t keep my coffee warm enough.  I would invite students to explain ideas and materials that would improve the insulation of my mug.  After that, I would obtain the materials and complete the inquiry.

      My hypothesis was ceramic would insulate the mug greater than the other materials because of the density of it, although, plastic and cardboard are both sufficient insulators.  Despite my predictions the initial results were scattered.  The starting temperature was 45 degrees Celsius and the final temperatures had a difference of 2 degrees.  Plastic had the worst insulation temperature at 32 degrees, while cardboard was the best insulator producing a temperature of 34 degrees.  Meanwhile, the control mug, no insulation, was recorded at 32 degrees after the 30 minutes.

            Disappointed in my result and unable to from a strong conclusion, I began a second trial.  This time the starting temperature was 50 degrees.  In both trials the room temperature was 22 degrees Celsius.  Once again the results were confusing.  Even though our initial temperature was much higher, 50 degrees, the control mug reached a final temperature of 32 degrees.  The final results were, again, separated by 2 degrees.  This time ceramic provided the best insulation at 36 degrees; meanwhile, foil was recorded at 35 degrees.  The other two materials had a final recording of 34 degrees.  Therefore, I could form no formidable conclusion.

     This was an engaging activity that allowed students to hypothesize, experiment, present and form conclusions.  Students will also recognize, despite their hypotheses, activities do not always yield expected results.  They were able to take a scientific concept and relate it to an everyday activity.  The lesson was engaging and could be used to introduce key terms and concepts.  They would be able to engage in discussions about insulators and conductors.  They could describe radiation, conduction and convection.  They could incorporate energy types and transfer.  In addition, this lesson could be scaled back for the lower grades or developed into something more advanced for high school students when discussing global warming.

The Pendulum

The questions posed in this week’s application are all concepts my classes have studied the past few years.  Despite studying motion, mass, and friction, I’ve never incorporated the use of pendulums in my teaching.  Because of this, I began to examine the question, “which pendulum will come to rest more quickly, a lighter pendulum or heavier pendulum?” 

I incorporated the assistance of a few of students to complete the inquiry. I had students explain their hypotheses and found them to be very informative.  The students involved were average students, not the “Gifted and Talented” students.  They really accessed their prior knowledge when explaining their reasoning.  For example, sample answers were, “objects with a larger mass need more force to stop, so the lighter mass will stop first”.  Another great answer I received was, “I saw an older kid and a baby on some swings and the parent had to push the baby more because he was stopping more, so the lighter mass will come to rest quicker.  This was an excellent answer because the students related the concept to something meaningful in their own life.

            The students measured one meter of string. On one string they attached a 50g washer, and on the other they attached three 50g washers for a total of 150g.  The students attached the other ends of the string to a pole suspended 2m in the air.  The washers were pulled back to the exact distance and released simultaneously.  We observed that the one washer did come to a rest sooner than the three washers.  These results occurred in all 5 trials.  Normally, if we were not pressed for time, I would have the student record the times it took each string to stop and calculate an average time for each.  The students’ hypotheses were confirmed and then we began to generate new questions based on our observations. 

            When formulating new questions and extending the activity I really tried integrating guided and open inquiry.   When completing the original procedure I presented the question “what if one string was longer than the other”, in hopes, students would formulate their own questions.  From there they did create some new, and interesting, questions.  They included, what if we pulled them back further, what if we released them form opposite sides, and, does the height of the pole matter.  These are all questions we could further investigate.

            I’m not sure there is much I would do differently.  We could extend the activity to examine air resistance.  For the high school level, students could examine how the motion of a pendulum relates to the motion of the earth.

INQUIRY REFLECTION

I think my lesson went well.  It was an introduction to energy transfer utilizing prior knowledge the students learned in the last unit, which was motion.  As for starting websites, podcasts, blogs and whatnot, I am very new to this.  Therefore, I only have one link to a website I started to create.  The website includes a sample of the worksheet the students used with their answers and pictures of some of the sails they created.  The sails needed to move a suspended vehicle 2m.  From there I would introduce, and we would begin to discuss energy and energy transfer.  The site also continued to say for at least an hour, unable to save.  I hope it works.
https://sites.google.com/site/cbsspot/

MELTING ICEBERGS

To those of us in the northeast corridor, global warming\melting ice caps are an intriguing topic when you consider the temperatures and snowfall amounts the past two winters.  In fact, in the past 25 days, lawns have been snow covered for 21 of them.  This bit of information would guide me to research why this has occurred due to melting caps.  Has the jet stream been affected?  Have the melting caps caused an influx of storms and extreme temperatures?  You can consider the recent flooding in the west and harsh winter here in the northeast.  Is this an effect from the melting caps?

I've not researched this topic as much as I maybe should have.  I do think the question should be what will happen if the polar caps continue to melt.  Some research says the contraction of the Arctic ice cap is accelerating global warming. Snow and ice usually form a protective, cooling layer over the Arctic. When that covering melts, the earth absorbs more sunlight and gets hotter.  In addition to this, Melting glaciers and land-based ice sheets also contribute to rising sea levels, threatening low-lying areas around the globe with beach erosion, coastal flooding, and contamination of freshwater supplies. Rising seas would severely impact the United States as well. Scientists project as much as a 3-foot sea-level rise by 2100. According to a 2001 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study, this increase would inundate some 22,400 square miles of land along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, primarily in Louisiana, Texas, Florida and North Carolina (NRDC.ORG)

It's apparent the melting caps present a major concern.  As educators we can develop lessons which analyze this information and have students determine what can be done to reverse the trend.  Lessons can be adapted from elementary to the most advanced college level classrooms.  This is a worldly issue which must be discussed, debated and studied.

REFERENCES
http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/qthinice.asp

STEM Lesson

In this weeks's assignment, I adapted a motion lesson Ive utilized in the past using K'nex.  As I was designing the lesson I came to realize I often implement the 5 E's, I think all lesson should incorporate these aspects in order to be successful.  Obviously all componenets are essential, but I think elaboration and extension carry the most weight.  It's imperative we develop lessons that are meaningful and relate content to the student's interest.  That being said, I did struggle a bit with this assignment and think I crammed too much into this lessson.  I implemented too much of the unit, which can be overwhelming to some students, rather than focusing and on one ar two concepts.  It was a perfomance assessment, which, I think I may also struggle with time constraints now that I reflect back on it.

FOR ALL TEACHERS INTERESTED

On 11 January, 2011, Google is  launching the inaugural Google Science Fair. They have partnered with NASA, CERN, National Geographic, Scientific American and the LEGO Group to create a new STEM competition that is more open, accessible and global than ever before. Google is reaching out to educators prior to launch to let you know “the Google Science Fair is coming” and to extend an invitation to schools and teachers to get involved early in the global competition.  
To sign up for fun and free resource kits for your classroom or school (with bookmarks, stickers, posters and more!) and a reminder notification when GSF registration opens, please visit the Google Science Fair at: http://www.google.com/sciencefairThe Google Science Fair is a global competition that any student aged 13 - 18 from around the world is eligible to enter. Students can enter as individuals or as teams of up to three. There is no entry fee and registration and submission will happen online. The deadline for submissions will be the 4 April, 2011. The Science Fair will culminate in a “once in a lifetime” celebratory event at Google headquarters in California in July 2011 where finalists will compete for internships, scholarships and prizes in front of a panel of celebrity scientist judges including Nobel Laureates, tech visionaries and household names.
Google wants to celebrate and champion great young scientific talent and give students from around the world the opportunity to compete for amazing experiences, prizes, scholarships and internships.  Google hopes you are as excited about this upcoming competition as they are!