Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Moon Phase Question/ Response


What can you learn about the moon and its motions from observing and
recording its shape and noting the time you saw it? 

   You can lean a lot from watching the moon and observing its motions and recording its shape every night. I saw the moon go from one phase to another. The following sentences are the moon cycle and the phases the moon goes through. I saw the moon start as new moon. Then after a few days the moon went into the phase of waxing crescent. After the phase of waxing crescent the moon went into the phase of first quarter for a few days. After being the phase of a first quarter, the moon becomes the phase of a waxing gibbous. The next phase after the waxing gibbous phase that the moon goes through is the phase of full moon for a few days. The next phase after full moon is waning gibbous and then a third quarter. The next phase after a third quarter is waning crescent and then the moon goes back to a new moon. The phases of the moon change everyday into a new phase.  There are sometimes two full moons in one month.  It is true that sometimes during the day you can only see the moon. At night the sky can have the moon and also some bright stars. The moon gets bigger as you watch it until it gets to a whole circle and a full moon. These are my observations and recordings.  I found this video to be very helpful for me to explain to my class the different changes of the moon and how we view from earth. The astronomer explains how each moon phase is seen. The video explains how the moon is seen in the southern hemisphere. The moon spins once around the axis. The astronomer explains about new moon, first quarter, full moon, and third quarter and how these different phases look. She explains how the moon looks to us on earth. I thought that it was important for my class to learn about the different phases from an educated person who studies the stars. This is an educational video that is very helpful to teaching the phase of the moon and it is educational and great for the students in the class to see and learn from.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Cool Float or Sink Science Experiment



I thought that the experiment represented by the video was very cool. The experiement can be used as a demonstration to show students in the class how other objects can float and sink. I think that it would be cool for the students to see and guess what objects or items with sink or float.It is an educational video that could be used in fourth grade. I would demonstrate with the first soda can and then ask the class what would happen with the rest of the cans as I put them into the water. I think that the students in my classroom would like to see this video and learn a lot from this video about how different objects that look the same can have different results. This is a cool and easy experiment to do in class and to show students about float and sink.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Week 9 Assignments

Due for this week is assignment 5, 6, and 6a. To have been completed during Wednesday and Friday class was the  5 E model in our groups through Google. docs. This week I also did the 5 Kingdom Quiz and took a Snapshot of my result. I also put up my chart on 5 Kingdoms.


It is good to say what is due by the end of the week. It is important to know when assignments are due and what assignments are due. I would give out a paper copy of when assignments are due as well as have it on my teacher's webpage when I become a teacher.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Class 23 - March 18, 2011

No Science Class today Dr. Smirnova is at a conference is New Orleans.

5 Kingdom Quiz

 
  Under Week 9 under Monday on Moodle is the 5 Kingdom Quiz. On Wednesday March 16, 2011 I took the quiz. Today in class we the class were assigned a website of 5 kingdom quiz with multiple choice questions that I  found to be very fun called Study Jams! This particular one was about 5 kingdoms. I got 100%.    http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/plants/kingdoms-of-life.htm

 I thought that this quiz was great thing to take. It definitely incorporated the five kingdoms and asked questions to see if you knew the different between each kingdom. It is a great source of review for the five kingdoms.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Class 22 - March 16, 2011

There is no class because Dr.Smirnova  is at a conference. I spent the class time doing some of the science work on  my blog. The time was well used to work on my blog and some of the other assignments listed on Moodle.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Zooburst

Great idea. Looks like a fun way to make the phases of the moon.

   This would be a great tool to use as a teacher. It would also be great to show to your students and have them use it for a project. 


I say check out the site. 
www.zooburstcom

Friday, March 11, 2011

What is important to know as a teacher

These concepts listed below are important to know to be a teacher:

5 Steps Learning Cycle:
1. Engagement
2. Exploration
3. Explanation
4. Elaboration
5. Evaluation

Alternative Conceptions:
Sometimes students develop inaccurate ideas about the way things work

Key them from NSES:
1. We learn science by doing science
2. We learn science by inquiry
3. We learn science by collaboration
4. We learn science over time
5. We learn science by developing personal knowledge 
 - learn how to respect each other

pedagogies as science and art are important?

It is important for a teacher to give positive feedback to his or her students.

It is important for the teacher to know condition, behavior, and criteria to put into lesson plans. It is important for students to know how to write goals and objectives. As a teacher it is important to know both state and national standards.

As a teacher I will have my students do a Science-in-the News due at the end of the week on Fridays. This way the students get to learn some news each week.


It is a great thing as a teacher to show educational videos to my students sometimes instead of teaching a lesson.


As a teacher it is nice to start the class with a Do Now to get the students engaged in the lesson to come. The Do Now can be be a word or a question.


Teachers can use the tool of a graphic organizer to help with teaching a lesson.

Janine Koch Quote:

Quote: "I believe there is a childhood scientist in each of us who is waiting to be awakend." Do you agree with the statement. If you agree what do we need to do, as teachers, to awaken each student's inner scientists?

My response:
I agree with this statement because as a child scientist we all want to discover and explore nature and learn things through asking questions about things we don't know about. Students are  curious about things and that is what  awakends us.
We need to encourage the students exploration in your classroom and let them (the children) make discoveries.


Teaching and what I thinks is important

    It is important as a teacher to figure out the prior knowledge of each student in the class. It is important for students to learn from their teacher. It is our jobs as teachers to make sense of the abstract meaning. It is important to make learning part of the subject matter and to also have that subject matter relate to the real world. As a teacher it is important to have your students comprehend what you are teaching them and to make sure that the students understand what has been taught. It is important as a teacher to get the message that you are teaching across in many ways because not each student learns in one way. Students learn in different ways. Some students are auditory learns while others are visual learners. Some learners are both auditory and visual.


  Students need to learn through acquiring facts, skills, and methods that can be retained and used as necessary.  Memorizing facts is not the best way to learn.

What I will do as a teacher

   I would always make sure that my students understand what is going on in the classroom. I would also make sure that my students understood what the homework assignments were and what I am looking for in their homework assignments/ projects. I will make sure that my students write down the homework and answer any questions that my students have about homework or classwork or projects. I will make myself as a teacher available early in the morning and after school if needed for my students so that I know that my students will do well in my class. I will be a teacher that is there for my students. I will explain and reexplain a topic to my students if necessary. I want my students to learn and understand what they are learning and feel safe enough and not embarrassed to participate in my classroom.

Week 7 -Focusing Questions

  Ch. 7 Focusing Questions:
  • What experiences, if any, did you have with planting seeds, indoors or outside? 
When I was little in the second grade my teacher gave us each a seed to plan in a pot of soil. Each morning that we have science our teacher would remind us to take out our journal and go observe how our plant is doing and water our seed.. I also planted a seed when I was in biology class in the tenth grade. For two weeks I watched my seed grow. I have also when I was younger planted seeds in my garden of cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and tomatoes. I would go out and water these seeds in my garden each day. I like to watch the seed grow. 
  • What do you think it means to be “ alive”? 
   It means to be living and breathing. Alive to me means you are living and living life to the fullness. There is living versus nonliving. Living means you eat food, drink water, breath, and move. Nonliving means no breathing, no moving, no food, and no water. Being alive means to live.  
  • What is the point of a class science exploration that takes days or weeks to complete?
   The point of a class science exploration that takes days or weeks to complete is to see change. It is important to see the cycle of life that something goes through. There are phases in life for all organisms both living and nonliving. It is important to give time to let these changes happen.
  • How does working with a partner or small group affect your learningexperience? 
   Working with a partner or small group can affect your learning experience in a few ways. By working in a group you each can collaborate and find a good answer. It also brings forth different opinions and ideas to try.Working in a group or with a partner the other person or persons can check your mistake or think of a thought that you did not think about before. There are advantages and disadvantages to working with others. One disadvantage is that the partner may not pull his or her share of the work. Working with a partner can bring new light to the experiment or show a new way to show the problem or a new way to do the experiment.  
  • What is your reaction when you encounter earthworms? 
  Earthworms are interesting creatures. I am not really to fond of earthworms. If I encounter an earthworm I try to avoid in and don't step on it if possible. I do not want to touch an earthworm or even get near one. 
  • Have you ever handled a worm? what was your reaction?
   I think I might have handled a worm when I was little but I don't remember. I don't remember my reaction either. 

Week 7

Week 7. Sustained Inquiry: Exploration of Living Things
Learning science, like learning most any thing, happens over time as ideas and processes are revisited, re-explored, and reinforced or modified. Inquiry, a multifaceted process of problem solving through investigation and experimentation, often takes longer than the time allotted in the school day for “science.” 
During this week you will be engaged in sustained inquiry—investigations in which students revisit their explorations daily and weekly. As defined in the text, sustained inquiry refers to extended investigation of a scientific phenomenon over a period of time. For school science, this typically means an investigation that includes multiple activities during the course of several days or weeks. You will experience a couple.
Alongside, as future teachers, you need to develop teaching skills --- how to write and teach science lesson. To begin with, you will practice how to write effective objectives




:
Prolonged investigation of a scientific phenomenon. For elementary and middle school science, this typically means an investigation that includes multiple activities over the course of several days or weeks.



:
The type of exploration that lies at the heart of scientific activity. According to the National Science Education Standards, inquiry is "a multifaceted activity that involves making observations; posing questions; … planning investigations; … using tools to gather, analyze, and interpret data; proposing answers, explanations, and predictions; and communicating the results" (National Research Council, 1996, p. 23).



:
Aims, Goals, and Objectives as Part of the Pedagogical System and Instructional Planning Design


These words are all important for teachers to know. It is important to know what an objective is and what an objective needs to include in a lesson plan. For teaching science, it is important to know inquiry and sustained inquiry. Sustained inquiry is a little more involved and is typically used for multiple lessons in elementary schools and middle schools. It is important for students to learn and explore on their own and inquiry lessons allow students to do that. 

Week 6

During this week, we will experience the “messy” nature of scientific exploration. The primary science skill practiced during this week isclassifying — in this case, classifying matter as solids, liquids, or gases.
The term messy refers both to the ways in which students “mess about” with materials in their explorations and to the ways in which scientific explanations themselves are often “messy” because the distinctions among categories are not clear-cut. The main objective of this week is to help you, future teachers, understand that “messy” playand flexible thinking serve important functions for students who arelearning science

:
Sorting objects or ideas into groups on the basis of similar properties
:
can be defined as anything that has weight or mass and takes up space (as opposed to energy, for example, which has neither of those qualities).

As a teacher I will teach students about classifying liquids, solids, and gases. I could do the trail mix experiment to show that a solid remains the same. I could do a few different experiments to show the classification between solid, liquid, gas, and matter.




Week 5

During this week we will have hands-on, minds on activities:

  1. Discuss the concepts of Chapter 5. (Study the glossary of the week 5 terms and readings).
  2. Be prepared to present the Scientist Interview projects.
  3. Be ready to exchange the Science-in-the-News projects.
  4. Design and implement the Science Circus and Science Cornerprojects.
2.) Science Interview project was with Dr. Larousse. She teaches MST at the Mount. Catharine and I did a video interview and asked her some questions. Dr. Larousse was very willing to participate in this interview. I learned a lot from this interview. 

3.) In our group each member shared our Science-in the- News projects on February 16, 2011. My's article was about stars that have reborn and make sister stars. It would be considered physical/ earth science. Nicole's article was about crabs and had their ecosystem are being destroyed in Antarctica. Nicole's article would be considered earth science. Dana's article was about impact of a comet on Valentine's day. Dana's article would be considered earth/ physical science.Catharine's article was about evolution. Catharine's article would be considered earth science. The Science-in-the News article was a great idea to do. I really enjoyed looking up the articles about science and seeing what new science discoveries are in the news. 

4.) Science corner included aluminium foil, pennies, scissors, and ruler for the Science Circus of Buoyancy Boats. Buoyancy Boats included a worksheet, a task, a problem, standards, materials, and process skills. Buoyancy Boats is a fun station that involves making a boat and putting that boat in water and then putting pennies in the boat and seeing how many pennies it would take to sink the boat. 

Science Circus was a great idea. It is nice to participate in different experiments and to learn new things or to expand on what is already known. I enjoyed each experiment. I will definitely use Science Circus in my class when I am a teacher.       

Module 1: Week 4: Science as Process. Using the Skills of Scientific Study - February 7, 2011 - February 13, 2011

Week 4: Science as Process. Using the Skills of Scientific Study: February 7, 2011 - February 13, 2011 includes: went over powerpoint called Teaching Science as a Process PPT, balloon activity, went through discussion of observation report for Float, Sink, or????, Assignments: A4, Share URL for blog, and share the analysis table for magazine 

It is important for students to know science as a process and process skills. It is also important for students to do activities and I think that it is a good idea to do the balloon activity with your students. 

 Week 4: Science as Process. Using the Skills of Scientific Study. 

During this week you will: 
1. Brainstorm, discuss, and suggest ideas how to engage students in using science process skills in meaningful and purposeful ways; how to use constructivist approach to teaching science and engage students inbasic forms of inquiry. (Monday - Use: Book, Ch.1-3,+ Ch. 4 Moodle readings, glossary for weeks 1-3)


   To engage students in using science, process skills in meaningful and purposeful ways. Learning as interpreting and understanding reality in a different way. Learning involves comprehending the world by reinterrupting knowledge.Some meaningful ways to engage students through doing experiments and through scientific methods. Some ideas and purposeful ways to learn science is through observing, investigating, discussing, and reflecting. Experiments help to gain inquiry. Science is a set of ideas which include definitions and explanations of natural events. Students can be engaged through doing experiments and by looking at a video. It is important to use constructivist approach which is to construct their ideas on the basis of their experiences of the world. Science as a process uses the skills of scientific study. To understand how students learn science provokes us to find teaching strategies that honor students' ideas and create safe and open spaces in which they can create their own meanings. Hands-on experiments are a great way to engage students in using science process skills in a meaningful, learning, and purposeful ways.  This is what I would do to engage the students in my classroom when I am a teacher. 



:
   Abilities that help people gain information about nature and natural phenomena; these include skills such as observing, inferring,classifying, recording data, predicting, and planning investigations. Process skills are employed on a planned and regular basis by those engaged in scientific activity. Also called inquiry skills.


2. Brainstorm and Design a multi-stations "circus" activity and analyze how it works. (Read for Wed. Ch. 4, p.96-107. In class Monday, Wednesday to implement it the following week.


   Science Circus is contained within a single room, the science circus consists of several stations at which the visitors are asked to perform certain tasks and record their results or reactions.It is circus-like because many different activities are going on simultaneously, but it is far from chaotic. Each group of the class did a science stations. Hip Habitats was done by group 1. The Human Body Corporation was done by group 2. Buoyancy Boat was done by my group (group 3). Falling for Gravity was done by group 4. Magic Growing Balloon was done by group 5. Shapes of the Moon was done by group 6. These were fun science stations. Each group worked together through Google Docs to put all the information together. The station included a worksheet, a problem, a task, a process skills, materials, and standards. 


    I enjoyed all the different science stations.  I think that science circus is a great way to get students involved in classroom activities and a way to get students to love science at a young age. Students can work in pairs and work together to come up with the solution to each station. I would incorporate that students complete a worksheet at each station and then write about the stations in their science notebook. I would probably do science stations twice in a semester but four times a year as a way to show the students that there is more to science then facts and watching me do demonstrates on guide them through demonstrates or experiments. When students are doing the science circus I will be there to help them as their teacher but I also want them to try to figure out the station and find a solution on their own. 


Family Science Night: 


  The concepts of a science circus --- several stations offering a wide variety of activities --- can form the basis for an event that involves students' family members. Engaging adults in science experiences together with students is a way to not only bring families together, but also to encourage a deeper interest in science and science-related activities. By emphasizing the relevance of  science outside school in our students' everyday lives --- we can help change those negative images of science.


  I would definitely have a family science night. This way that the parents get involved in the students schooling and also the students can show the parents their science skills. It is a great way for students to work with their parents and have fun at the same time. I enjoyed all my family science nights when I was in elementary school with my parents so why not bring the experience I had with those family science nights with me when I teach and let my students experience the same experience that I experience when I was little.

3. Summarize your learning outcomes in Module 1 "A Scientist Within"(during the first four weeks) in a blog entry. (Due: Weekend)
Learned many things from this week. I learned about alternative conceptions. I learned about science as a process, process skills, how to teach science, and some other stuff that is important to Science. 




   Science Notebook: integrates writing and science, but it is more carefully structured as a thinking tool for students. A student science notebook is more than a collection of data or facts. It is a record of the student's reflections, questions, predictions, and conclusions. Writing is one way that students express the science ideas they are learning in their own words. Science notebooks are very important to have in a classroom. Those notebooks are where student keep their observations. 

Module 1: Week 3: The Teacher as Mediator and Facilitator of Student Learning - January 31, 2011 - February 6, 2011


Week 3: The Teacher as Mediator and Facilitator of Student Learning: January 31, 2011- February 6, 2011 includes: going over NSES & NETS Themes, on Wednesday had class online and went through a powerpoint called Week 1 PPT, went through Bloom's Taxonomy, Submit for Grading as of now: By now you have to:
1. Have started your science blog
2. Completed observation activity+ summary
3. 4th Gr.Test (individually) and its analysis (in groups)
4. 
A1 (Scientific Me), A2 (blog)
5. Posted Forum reflections on the read Week 1 & 2 chapters.
6. Created an e-folio pbworks space.
Weekend assignments: A3 and Week 3 reflections 
Virtual Conference for Education 

I was glad to read about teacher as a mediator and facilitator. It is something that I never thought of before reading this. It is a good idea to know Bloom's taxonomy. Using what you learn from Bloom's taxonomy will make you better at what you do and will help you as a teacher advance your students and challenge your students. 




Week 3. The Teacher as Mediator and Facilitator of Student Learning
During this week you will:


  Mediator: A teaching role in which the teacher helps students to learn by reflecting their own ideas back to them and guiding them in sorting out the inconsistencies. As a mediator, the teacher helps students delve deeply into their thoughts and expand their own thinking about an idea.

  Facilitator: a person who helps watch over the students in the room and guide the students through an activity. 

1. Explore 
the phenomenon of how students can make meaning from a concrete science experience. How Bloom's Taxonomy can help you plan these concrete science experiences?


  Bloom's Taxonomy is very important. Bloom's Taxonomy is based on taxonomy of cognitive objectives. It has six levels and provides a way to organize thinking skills. It starts at the most basic to the higher order levels of thinking. Original terms: evaluation, synthesis, analysis, application, comprehension,and  knowledge. New terms: creating, evaluating, analyzing, applying, understanding, and remembering. The names of the six major categories were changed from noun to verb forms. As the taxonomy reflects different forms of thinking and thinking is an active process verbs were more accurate. The Bloom's Taxonomy can help plan these concrete science experiences with using these new verbs in the objectives and goals to make the science lessons more important and more specific.


  The active process of knowledge construction is part of family of theories called constructivism. Contemporary constructivism reflects what we now know about how people learn. 


  Valuing the students' ideas is a way of communicating to them that they are important members of the class. Only as knowers can they construct new meanings by building on their prior beliefs and ideas. Science activities and experiments need to provide students with the freedom to say exactly what they think-- even if that is the freedom to be wrong. 
  
2.Increase understanding of what it means for a teacher to be amediator and facilitator.



   Mediator helps students to bridge the gap between their initial understanding and the deeper knowledge they can build as a result of the lesson. The teacher can do this in a variety of ways, but the process usually begins by exposing students to new experiences and helping them to probe their own thinking.

  3. Read Ch.3 stories and analyze the classroom situations where teachers teach science concepts and develop science skills - p. 63 Ms. Hudson, p.72 Mr. Willson, p.82 Mrs. Parker. Be ready to discuss your ideas in class.


  I really enjoyed reading all of the Science Stories in Chapter three. I liked the Bottle and the Balloon and Jcicles. I really liked how Ms.Hudson explained the Bottle and Balloon story. That seems easy to do in the classroom. I really enjoyed the Jcicles story to and it also seems easy to do and Mr. Wilson did a great job explaining the story. The teachers of all three Science Stories explained them really well and how they would use the experiments featured in the stories in the classroom. I would look to their guidance before doing the experiment in my classroom.  

4. Interview a science teacher/or a scientist (Project of 2)



   I thought that the interview of a science teacher or scientist was a great idea. It is always nice to work in pairs of two because if you forget something your partner can remember. My partner Catharine and I interview Dr. Larrousse. Dr. Larrousse teaches MST at the Mount. It was a nice interview.

5. Analyze how scientists are pictured in the science magazines. (Group project of 4)
I did not really enjoy this project don't think it should be offered again. 


Chapter three notes: 
Students as Knowers


  Teaching science requires both information and guidance from the teacher in order to help students learn. One of our goals is to help students become autonomous learners- to take charge of their own learning by performing tasks and making meaning of those experiences. We also know that there is a profound difference between acquiring information and gaining true understanding. Understanding how students learn, science provokes us to find teaching strategies that honor student's ideas and create safe, open spaces in which they can create their own meanings. To do so, the teacher must provide an appropriate context for learning and a setting in which students' own questions and ideas emerge. The teacher's role includes: engaging students in concrete experiences, encouraging them to express their ideas about what they observe, listening seriously to those ideas and considering how they are based on the students' prior knowledge, asking probing questions about the students' thinking- an important technique because students usually have alternative conceptions (mistakes) that ought to be modified, encouraging the students themselves to reflect on their ideas, and scaffolding students' learning.  




 As  a teacher I would mediate/ facilitate during science experiments. I would walk around the room and make sure that all the students are on task. I would ask the students questions and go over to each group and make sure that the students are answering the questions and understanding the experiment. I would facilitate a discussion with having the students become involved in participating in the topic we are talking about. I could facilitate by asking questions to start a discuss and to have the students answer the question so that I the teacher are not doing all the talking and this way the students are involved in the discussion and learning about the topic. This is what I would do as a mediator/ facilitator.