the one with the last class day

Today was the last class day and we were to evaluate the class over the past semester.

I thought that this class went well. I now have several ideas to use in my future classrooms. There are many things I have also learned from this class, such a assessment through the 5E model, that will be beneficial to me in the future.

blog you later,
[andrea]

the one with the science fair

Today we helped judge the Beresford middle school science fair. I thought this was a great experience. We all received partners and were given between 2-12 projects to judge. We first went around and judged within the grade level, then got together with other judges who had the same topic and judged within the topics. It was very difficult pitting the 7th and 8th graders together because the 7th graders were required to participate and the 8th graders were allowed voluntary participation. The 8th graders projects were, of course, on a completely different level of intelligence. Instead of something like wind energy, students were including complex math problem and intriguing scientific research.

It was so interesting seeing all the creative ideas some of these students had. Some of the projects were, of course, not very good, but most of the kids were still excited to participate and tell about their projects. Then, of course, there were the kids who did not know much about their project but their board looked clean and amazing and it was apparent their mothers had done most of the work.

I think this was definitely a beneficial learning opportunity for future teachers!

blog you later,

[andrea]

the one with the final lesson plans

Today was a work day in class. Our science lesson plans are soon due. For these lesson plans we are to focus on one topic and one grade and integrate it with the lessons above and below our own. The topics were to fit in together, which was a bit difficult because our topic was not actually in the SD content standards so we had to stretch some off them a little bit to make the standards apply to our topic.

I thought that our lesson plan went well. We decided to have the students weigh pennies and, depending on the year, guess what the pennies were made of and why they were heavier or lighter.

blog you later,
[andrea]

the one with the work day

We worked on our chapter 1-3 SAS quiz, the lesson plans, and some people still had to work on their PowerPoint assignments. My group only really had the lesson plan and the quiz to finish. It was nice having a work day to get some of our items finished and to ask some questions about what we were working on.


blog you later,
[andrea]

the one with the potatoes

During class today we discussed the 5E model [engage. explain, explore, elaborate, and evaluate]. Then, after reading a packet about using the 5E model in the classroom, we were given the assignment to create our own experiment with the materials provided for us.

Activity: Designer Potatoes
Purpose: To get us thinking outside the box; to have us come up with unique experiments that incorporate the 5E model.
Materials:

• 3 bits of potato
• 3 plastic cups
• measuring spoons
• water
• salt
• stirring sticks
• paper [for students to evaluate and explain their findings]

The activity was confusing to my group at first [most of us have ADD and we weren't really sure what we were supposed to do because we may or may not have been paying attention], but once I reread what was going on, I pointed it out to my group and we had a fine time designing an experiment.

Our experiment:

• Cup 1: no water, no salt, potato bit.
• Cup 2: 5 cm water, 5mL salt, potato bit.
• Cup 3: 50mL water, 25mL salt, potato bit.

After messing around and putting way too much salt in cup 3 [there was about a centimeter of pure salt at the bottom of the cup], we noticed that the potato that had no contact with the salt or the water was turning brown and that the potato in cup 2 had turned nice and white. This was interesting, so we watched the potato in cup 3 and sure enough it was white after sitting in the salt for a while! Very interesting.

My own personal prediction about the experiment was that we were making mashed potatoes or just soaking the potatoes for Dr. E so she would have a delicious lunch later...

blog you later,

[andrea]

the one with the discrepant events

We read an article about using discrepant events in science, "Engaging Science Students Through Discrepant Events," by Judy Jones. The article explains that "a discrepant event is one where the result is the opposite of what was expected." Meaning, students do not properly predict what the outcome of the experiment is. Because of their incorrect predictions, they must figure out what really happened and in the process they are learning more about science.

Jones describes the different activities she used in her class to provoke discussion. The one I enjoyed was the penny drop experiment. The students were to make predictions of how many drops of water could be placed on a penny. Most guess around 4 to 12. However, once students actually got to engage in the activity, some found they could fit around 100 on the penny! Jones even mentions how she uses the 5E model in her classroom, providing a definition of each stage [engage, explore, explain, elaborate/explain, evaluate].

I thought this was an interesting article. Unfortunately, her first link for a cat breeding experiment cost quite a bit of money to used, and the second link was broken. Other than that, I think that these experiments with discussions are a great way to get students thinking about science!

blog you later,
[andrea]

the one with the rocket launch

Today we watched one more presentation.

Britany finally got her wish. We took the class outside in the lovely weather and let them launch the rockets. They were pretty unimpressive at first, just reaching 2-3 feet in height and leaving a vinegary/baking soda mess on the ground. Then one of our classmates really shoved the cork in hard and his rocket shot into the air! It was awesome.

We took notes for the rest of the class period. The class was incredibly chatty today. Election day jitters/excitement? Perhaps. After class I exercised the heck out of my civic duties and voted.

blog you later,
[andrea]