Modeling Density Currents with 1st Grade Students

The first graders at my school have been studying the oceans. As part of their curriculum they were to learn about the three ways ocean water moves; tides, waves and currents. To help students visualize how temperature creates ocean currents, they experimented by adding ice water colored blue and hot water colored red to room temperature water to see how they reacted. After students had a chance to interact with the materials and explore for themselves what happens, I set up a density current model using a small aquarium. The students were fascinated to see this demonstrated and were able to accurately explain that cold water is more dense and sinks deeper into the ocean while warmer water is less dense and rises closer to the surface.

You can find the Density Current Model at the following link:

http://www.mediafire.com/?28xy7fbhkp9ayy4I

Warning: View at your own risk. This was filmed by a first grader. You may experience motion sickness!

Natural Disasters

Natural disasters and man-made disasters seem to be occurring more and more frequently recently. Students are interested and often concerned about these events. When natural disasters occur, they can be used to teach students about earth changes and events, as well as helping students understand the importance of compassion and reaching out to those effected by the disaster. Our school uses Core Knowledge curriculum which covers weather and other disasters such as earthquakes and volcanoes. The students are exposed to historical events of each type of disaster and can see the effects of those disasters on civilization. However, learning about a current natural disaster is much more relevant to them. Students can learn what causes these natural phenomenon through watching simulations, researching and communicating their findings and watching appropriate footage of the disaster.

Our school is already very culturally aware and compassionate to those in need. Since my own children have been attending the school, they have participated in activities to raise money to help those less fortunate in our own community but also to send aid to those affected by the Japanese tsunami and Joplin tornado last spring.

Ask a Scientist

For my Investigating the Living World science class, we were asked to formulate a causal type of question about something we were curious about involving cells and their structures. After discussing our causal question with our discussion group we were to post it to the Ask a Scientist website at http://www.askascientist.org/askascientist/index.html.

The Ask a Scientist website is an excellent resource for questions related to biology and health and has other resources geared to students ranging from elementary age up to graduate level. The Ask a Scientist section allows you to ask a question in the hopes of getting a response. While the response time is not very fast, they do have archived questions that maybe similar to the one you have. This is what I found when exploring the website.

My initial question after reading about Notothenioids, fish with antifreeze proteins that allow them to live in arctic waters, was "How does a new species of animal just evolve? How do the cells differentiate so much as to create a new species?” I was curious about this question because the article asserted that 90 different species of Notothenioids have emerged from one single species millions of years ago (Matz, 2011).

Though my actual question has not yet been answered, I found that an answer to a question previously posted may help my understanding of how new species of animals just evolve. The key seems to lie in gene mutations that occur and get recorded into the DNA of the species and then replicated in new offspring. While this still seems complicated and abstract to me, it does make sense. I look forward to my actual question being answered to see if I am on the right track.

References:
Matz, M. (2011). Fish: Fresh, not frozen. Origins: Antarctica. Retrieved from http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins/antarctica/ideas/fish.html

Evaluating Web 2.0 Presentation Tools

It's that time of year again and I am back to work and school. For my first blog entry, the assignment was to preview a couple of Web 2.0 presentation tools to evaluate for use in my course project but also for ease of use with and motivation for my young learners. I decided to play around with three different web-based tools. Because I have no experience with these types of programs I primarily chose tools with an included link for a tutorial or demonstration.

280 Slides

The first presentation tool I looked at was 280 Slides because it did have a tutorial. When playing with this, it was easy to use. However, I did not feel that it had any WOW factor. It was pretty straightforward. There were limited graphics and background choices which I did not feel to be very motivating. With this presentation tool, it was very easy to add graphics from the web into the slide show but it did not provide any options for transitioning from slide to slide or any cool text effects.

PreZentit

Based on how easy 280 Slides was to create, I decided to try out PreZentit even though it did not have a tutorial. The fact that it could be used collaboratively with more than one person working on the same project at a time and could be downloaded and shared without the need for an internet connection intrigued me (cooltoolsforschools, 2011). I would say it is a step ahead of 280 Slides. It definitely had more options. The background gallery was more extensive than the one available with 280 slides. It had the capability for some cool slide transition effects but was not as user friendly. I accidentally deleted the slides I created. However, it did have a handy undo command that reversed that error. But, it still did not have the WOW factor I was looking for.

Prezi

Just because our class resources for the week included a tutorial for Prezi, I did not want to make a quick decision that this was the tool I was going to use. However, after playing around with the tool briefly, it definitely has the WOW factor. There are so many cool effects that can be done in a Prezi presentation that I see this being a huge motivational factor for my young students. The presentations that can be created in this program have moved well beyond the typical slideshows possible through programs like PowerPoint and even 280 Slides and PreZentit. I know that I am going to have to really play and experiment with the Prezi tools but the outcome should be great and well worth the time.

On a side note, something else that really impressed me with Prezi was the upgraded membership/account available for teachers and students that allows for making content private, still at no cost. For even more options an EduPro license can be purchased at a very reasonable annual cost.

References:
Web 2.0: Cool Tools for Schools (2011). Retrieved from http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Presentation+Tools

Web based Technological Tools for Classroom Instruction

I am going to begin this blog by announcing that I have been offered and accepted a position as the K-2 Science "Specials" Teacher at the charter school my children attend. I am extremely excited about this position and have researched to complete this blog assignment based on that new position.

The school I will be working for uses The Core Knowledge curriculum and one "big idea" for the 1st graders is the concept of matter; states of matter, changing states of matter and properties of matter. In my position most of the content matter will be taught by the students' teachers and I will develop and implement the hands on investigations that will help the students actively participate, experience science and make their own meaningful connections to the content through their inquiry.

Through my research, I searched for interactive web based tools that would be age appropriate for the students I will be teaching and found many interactive activities that would help reinforce the concepts the students learn in their class and in our science investigations. These tools allow students to sort materials based on what their are made of and other physical properties, practice measuring items to centimeters and explore the molecular properties of the states of matter and what happens to objects when heated or frozen. The links are located below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/7_8/characteristics_materials.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/6_7/grouping_materials.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/5_6/sorting_using_mate.shtml
http://www.gamequarium.com/measurement.html
http://www.fossweb.com/modulesK-2/SolidsandLiquids/activities/changeit.html
http://www.fossweb.com/modulesK-2/SolidsandLiquids/activities/changeit.html

While the students will be involved mostly in hands on inquiry when working with me, it is important for them to learn to use technology in their learning in order to acquire 21st century skills. The above activities could effectively be used with small groups or individually and would give the students experience with technology and would also engage them while reinforcing the concepts taught.

A couple of limitations I see to my ability to use these resources is the limited amount of time I will have with each of the classes each week and the limited number of computers in each of the classrooms.

Heat Transfer and Insulators

For our inquiry experience this week, we were asked to choose 4 different household materials to test for their effectiveness in insulating hot water. The materials I chose were aluminum foil, a micro fiber cloth, a wool ski sock and a piece of printer paper (at the urging of my son). I chose the aluminum foil as I thought it would be the best insulator because there are no air pockets to allow for the release of the warm air and that the metallic nature of the foil would help hold in and reflect some heat back into the water. Contrary to my initial beliefs but after reading the course text, I chose the micro fiber cloth and the wool ski sock to test because they are constructed in such a way that they contain many small air spaces that should prevent heat loss through conduction as the air spaces make the vibration of heated molecules more difficult (Tillery, Enger & Ross, 2008). I predicted that the printer paper would make the worst insulator because condensation would saturate the paper allowing the paper to cool and thus allowing the air under the paper to cool faster, cooling the water below.

One of the challenges I faced when completing this activity was that my coffee mugs do not have a lip at the top to allow for the materials to be secured at the top. I had to completely wrap the materials around the mug and handle securing the materials at the bottom of the mug, which allowed for a large air pocket under each insulator, as shown below. Because I was not sure of the accuracy of the results I obtained because of this problem, I chose to complete the experiment a second time using four identical drinking glasses.





The results of both trials in my experiment were as I had expected. The aluminum foil and micro fiber cloth topped the list as the best insulators, with the wool ski sock right behind. As expected, the paper proved to be the least effective at keeping the water warm. However, I was surprised by how close all the results were, including the results of the printer paper.

Amount of Heat Loss Trial 1-With Coffee Mugs

Insulating material	Initial temp. in ̊C	Final temp. in ̊C	Change in temp. in ̊C
Aluminum foil	56.3̊ C	39.8̊ C	-16.5̊ C
Micro fiber cloth	56.3̊ C	38.9̊ C	-17.4̊ C
Wool ski sock	56.3̊ C	38.4̊ C	-17.9̊ C
Printer paper	56.3̊ C	37.7̊ C	-18.6̊ C

Amount of Heat Loss Trial 2-With Drinking Glasses

Insulating material	Initial temp. in ̊C	Final temp. in ̊C	Change in temp. in ̊C
Aluminum foil	66.8̊ C	44.6̊ C	-22.2̊ C
Micro fiber cloth	66.8̊ C	44.8̊ C	-22.0̊ C
Wool ski sock	66.8̊ C	43.4̊ C	-23.4̊ C
Printer paper	66.8̊ C	41.7̊ C	-25.1̊ C

Even though the results were as expected, I gained many insights about heat transfer through this activity. I was able to observe all three modes of heat transfer; conduction, convection and radiation, thus deepening my understanding of all three. Conduction was observed by the heating of the aluminum foil above the hot water, as energy was transferred from the hot water to the cooler foil causing the foil to heat up (Tillery, Enger & Ross, 2008). The heating of the air above the water in all of the mugs or glasses demonstrated convection (Tillery, Enger & Ross, 2008). Convection currents were also experienced with the difference in temperature between the warmer water on top and the cooler water on bottom, which presented another challenge that I resolved by stirring the water before taking the final temperature of all samples (Tillery, Enger & Ross, 2008). Radiant energy was emitted from all samples and was easily felt in the air above and around the mugs or glasses.

I felt that this inquiry activity accomplished what it was meant to. I feel I have a better understanding of the three modes of heat transfer explored and the properties of a good insulator. I believe this inquiry activity would be engaging for younger students as they would probably enjoy just predicting what they believe would happen, making the observations and seeing if their predictions were correct. Older children may be more engaged with a more challenging scenario, such as developing the best container to keep food hot during transport.

References:

Tillery, B.W., Enger, E.D., & Ross, F.C. (2008). Integrated science. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill .

Pendulum Guided Inquiry Activity

For the application assignment in my Exploring the Physical World class, we were asked to choose a question to explore on momentum. The question I chose was "Which pendulum will come to rest more quickly—a lighter pendulum or heavier pendulum?" To investigate the answer to this question I used the following materials and procedures.

Materials-
long piece of string
3 washers of different sizes
stopwatch
notebook

Procedures-
1. Make a pendulum by putting the string through the hole in the small washer and grabbing the two ends of the string at the top with the washer hanging straight down. Raise the washer and string so the string is taut and the washer is at the same level as the hand holding the ends of the string and release. Observe the pendulum in motion and time the motion from when the washer was released until it comes to a stop. Record the time in your journal. Repeat two more times.
2. Repeat the above procedures with the medium and large sized washers.

Through my investigation, I found that the larger the washer was, the longer the pendulum stayed in motion, confirming my understanding that an item with more mass has more momentum, will remain in motion longer and takes more force (in this case, gravity) to stop its motion.

This was an easy guided inquiry activity to conduct and feel that it would be effective in helping students understand how mass effects momentum.

Structured Inquiry Lesson-inertia

For this week’s structured inquiry, I planned and implemented a lesson on Newton’s First Law of Motion and inertia. Since I am not currently teaching and had to implement my lesson with a small group of children during non school hours, I tried to plan this lesson to be completed during one lesson period. It proved to be a little bit of a challenge and time did not permit my group of kids to go as in depth in identifying, researching and explaining real world examples of inertia as I would have liked. However, I felt the lesson was successful and I will be excited to try it with a group of students in a real classroom setting.

This lesson was implemented with a group of six 3^rd-5^th grade students. I started off with two demonstrations explaining to the students that each of the demonstrations had something in common and asked them to try to figure out what. The first was an activity called Newton’s Beads, in which I moved a 50 ft string of beads from one glass to another where the beads appear to jump up out of the first glass as it moves into the second. The link to the beads I used, with a still picture of the demonstration, is http://www.docgizmosciencedemos.com/product/DG4. The second demonstration involved setting a card with a quarter on top of a glass, flicking the card and watching the quarter drop into the glass. The kids were amazed and totally engaged for the remainder of the lesson in which they got to complete the activities themselves while trying to figure out what was happening and watched a fun, short video on inertia that really helped them figure out and connect with Newton’s First Law of Motion.

The majority of my assessment was done through observing students work and discussing with students how each of the examples demonstrated inertia. The students did record their observations, predictions and final explanations of what was happening in each activity. I am including two of the students’ written work. The students were also asked to think of everyday situations involving inertia, which they successfully did. However, this was the part of the lesson I was hoping they would delve deeper into. In a classroom, I would hope that I would be able to devout a couple of lesson periods to this in order to allow students time to research examples of inertia and implications, such as safety concerns and solutions.

Melting Polar Ice Caps

Participating in this iceberg activity, I have to honestly say is the first time I have thought much about global warming as I tend to be the kind of person who thinks everything will work itself out, no worries. However, I was alarmed when reading about the disappearing glaciers and polar ice caps. Reading through the articles and watching the NOW video, it is amazing to me the disastrous effects this will potentially have for life on earth and how soon the disappearance of the glaciers and ice caps are predicted to happen.

The disappearance of the glaciers and polar ice caps are happening because of global warming but their gradual disappearance is also helping to make the earth warmer as well. The ice reflects the sun’s energy but by melting and turning to water, which absorbs the sun’s energy, earth will continue to heat up. The melting polar ice caps will spell disaster for many animal species, most notably the polar bears and penguins which make these areas home. The polar ice caps are a frozen reserve of fresh water and as they melt they will raise water levels significantly which will cause widespread flooding but will also cause problems for the oceans’ currents. For example, the Gulf Stream which is responsible for the mild climate enjoyed in northern Europe will potentially become blocked with the added fresh water and lead to a significant cooling of Europe. As the earth continues to heat up more and more disastrous weather phenomena are expected, such as stronger hurricanes and typhoons which will certainly lead to loss of life and property in areas affected.

I also found it interesting that a local issue affecting my state is possibly occurring, not necessarily because of the melting polar ice caps, but because of global warming as a whole. The state of Colorado is battling a huge pine beetle epidemic which is killing off huge portions of evergreen forests in the mountains because of the warmer winters that are not destroying the bugs.

STEM Lesson Reflection

I have never used the Five E’s Lesson Format until now. Reflecting on the lesson, I believe that using the Five E’s format was helpful in creating a meaningful learning experience for students and can see the benefit of using it for creating a unit of study, as that is what my lesson ended up being. However, completing this instructional lesson was extremely time consuming, as it took approximately 12 hours to finish. I don’t know if I was thinking about it too much or if I misunderstood what was expected for this assignment. I felt that the instructional plan was a bit redundant while filling out the different sections of the template and cannot see how it would be feasible to do for every lesson taught.

The Five E’s really helped me make sure that my plan addresses the needs of my students and challenges them and keeps them engaged through the whole lesson. I am excited to use my learning experience with students when I return to the classroom. However, until I have a classroom, it is difficult to imagine what modifications will need to be made to address the unique diversity of my students. As a teacher, flexibility is vital and even the best planned lessons will have to be modified, often at the spur of the moment.

Any feedback with how to more efficiently use the instructional plan template is welcome! Thanks!