http://www.gloucesterhs.ocdsb.ca/UserFiles/File/ISU/uzma/quiz/quiz.htm
http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/cardshow.php?title=levels-structural-organization&quesnum=1
http://quizlet.com/13423341/11-organ-systems-of-the-human-body-flash-cards/
http://anatomyandphysiologyi.com/homeostasis-positivenegative-feedback-mechanisms/
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Thursday, May 27, 2010
chemistry joke
Some helium floats into a bar. The bartender says "We don't serve Helium in here". The helium doesn't react.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Neanderthals
Neanderthals
Map of Neanderthal Migration:
Compare the skeletons:
So did they look like this?:
Or this?:
Links:
Map of Neanderthal Migration:
Compare the skeletons:
So did they look like this?:
Or this?:
Links:
Last Neanderthals Were Smart, SophisticatedJennifer Viegas, Discovery News
Neanderthal Women Joined Men in the Hunt
Them and Us by Danny VendraminiLast of the Neanderthals
Map of Neanderthal Geography
New Evidence On The Role Of Climate In Neanderthal Extinction
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Action Research
My partner and I used the desire2learn web chat program to conduct our interview. I was off by an hour for the start time, as I thought my partner was 2 hours different when she was actually only one hour difference. Aside from that we worked together quite well. I started using radio lingo, which is very common here in Northwest Montana, not very common in Chicago. That was fun, we learned to say OVER every time we were finished, so that our partner knew they could ask another question. I did type a very long response initially and the chat program limits the number of characters, so we learned early to post in short chunks, a sentence or two at a time. I was the first to be interviewed, which was nice as I was able to get my ideas out on paper, and worry less about interviewing. I think there might be an advantage to going first for that reason. I was able to actually narrow in on the actual activity I have been wanting to try, the Lab Report Blog. In reflection I found some other interesting trends and I will explain more fully what a Lab Report Blog is all about.
So here is the transcript of the interview itself:
Megan: So I read a little bit about what you were thinking of doing in terms of technology and creating a discussion board which sounds great. Is this your main idea so far?
Jasper: I think sometimes I think I have to go big. I will probably lean towards something that has to do with technology integration. That is a really big deal right now, as the information age goes full tilt. I have had some other ideas too that I have been very interested in. One that came to me in the weary hours was the how simply changing the arrangement of the room can improve student perfo
Jasper: that is not very cool, it cut off like half my response... lame
Jasper: over half
Jasper: so from there I said effect of room arrangement on student performance
Megan: Oh that is a pain...
Jasper: also how to improve class discussion, and look at the effects of having students keep a science journal
Megan: And now it sends my responses twice apparently! Was there more after the arrangement of the room?
Megan: So it sounds like you have a number of ideas. How are your class discussions now? Is participation a problem at all?
Jasper: Discussion is a very regular part of my classes. It is like pulling teeth at times but I usually get a majority of my classes buying in and participating. I could always improve on this
Jasper: I made a modification of the desks in my classroom last week
Megan: Really? What did you do?
Jasper: I made them into a horseshoe shape two rows deep
Jasper: I moved my podium right into the middle of the two horseshoes
Megan: Wow. Did you see any changes with the new set up?
Jasper: I am about an equal distance from every student in the front horseshoe and the same could be said of all kids in the back horseshoe
Jasper: sure, the seats hiding back in the corners are gone, and the two desks front and center are gone, I smashed the "learning T"
Megan: What class did you do this in?
Jasper: there are still some small "blind spots" but most every kids gets the same amount of face time, and most every kid can see each other
Megan: I'm back to a double message...how did you students react?
Jasper: all of them, Chemistry and Environmental science
Jasper: they thought it was cool, they like that I am always doing things different. I kind of am known for and pride myself for doing things differently than most
Jasper: the kids know about my classes, and I share a lot of pedagogy with them
Jasper: They have known all year that my main emphasis has shifted away from lecture and exclusively into discussion
Jasper: OVER
Jasper: like a CB
Megan: I wish I could make that switch! That is really great. So is it safe to say that you definitely want to focus your action research on some kind of plan that would improve discussion?
Jasper: Not necessarily just on discussion, maybe bring more full class collaboration into my labs.
Jasper: To be honest I have worked so hard the last couple years on improving class discussion that by the end of the year I might want to shift my focus somewhere else
Jasper: OVER
Megan: Off the subject, but I am a fool... I just realized why you kept saying over....I need to get more sleep, that is sad.
Jasper: 10-4 good buddy
Jasper: another CB radio reference
Megan: haha thank you! That would make sense to switch the focus though. What are you thinking for full class collaboration?
Jasper: I am thinking of having my students post their lab reports on one wiki page for the whole class. Then have each student comment on at least two other lab reports. The owners of those individual lab reports would respond to those comments and make necessary changes to the reports. We could show the changes made in the second draft thanks to the students' comments on one another's lab reports.
Jasper: does that make sense?
Jasper: This is the idea I get the biggest kick out of, but I always think that Action Research has to be changes made to me, not the kids...of course Walt mentioned that we didn't have to be so rigid
Jasper: OVER
Megan: Yes, definitely. I could definitely see quite a few benefits to doing that. What would your main goal be? See in my opinion I don't think action research has to be you changing yourself always, it could be as simply as you changing your way or doing something.
Megan: I think it is a really good idea. OVER :)
Jasper: Cultivate deeper understanding of lab techniques, the purpose behind investigations, construct better conclusions, better graphs, better data tables, all by allowing them to collaborate and evaluate one another's work critically.
Jasper: sorry had to start the kids in a bath
Jasper: So maybe we limit me at this point and get some interviewing the other direction on paper, we have two pages already...
Megan: That's fine, but I defintely think, if I were you, I would go with your last idea.
Jasper: OVER
Jasper: you think I gotta winner?
Megan: I think you could definitely write a good action statement and research questions using the last paragraph you wrote...For example, what impact does full class collaboration have on student understanding? Yes definitely a winner.
After reading the interview again I made a list of what the major themes were in this interview.
technology
discussion
student class involvement
classroom management
use of a science journal
The fairly dominant theme of where I have been thinking has been in the realm of technology use. I really think the idea of integrating a free internet technology such as blogging and wikis. I kind of would like to help my students create lab reports online using a blog. I also use the internet a lot and have found improvements whenever I have added the use of internet and computers. I have some programs I have used with students with decent results on average, with some really successful ideas, and some that were not much better than the activities they replaced. The wiki my students and I work together to maintain has been moderately successful.
I had kind of a different idea just this moment, a notion that I could do a reverse AR project where I compare lecture with powerpoint to the current content delivery where I have students journal at the beginning of class followed by a class discussion, with some guided instruction. That really isn't that good of an idea if I want to always move forward ever improving. I know that moving away from powerpoint, accept for in little chunks, has been an improvement for the science content delivery in my classroom. I basically have my objectives that are covered in a unit and I come up with a good prompt that relates to that objective. After giving students time to respond, which often involves referring to their textbook or earlier lessons in their notebooks, I call on different students to share. After quick feedback to the student that shared, based on a students response I will either ask a question of the student or that is open to the whole class to direct the discussion, or call on another student to read what they wrote. I can usually deliver several powerpoint slides worth of material in a sit down discussion with my class. I couldn't imagine that going back to direct instruction (lecturing) will improve my students learning, so to do that type of action research would not be what I think of as action research.
I am always trying to find a way to get my students more involved. In the interview I mentioned that it was like pulling teeth to get them to participate some days. “Jasper: Discussion is a very regular part of my classes. It is like pulling teeth at times but I usually get a majority of my classes buying in and participating. I could always improve on this”... I have been thinking about how to get students more “into it.” It seems like getting them to journal has been a bit of a challenge at times. When they don't work as hard during the warm-up period of class when the students are supposed to be responding to the question of the day, they aren't as productive in the discussion. I have thought about putting the discussion into some sort of online computer based discussion model. If students are more into the discussion then they are more involved in what's going on. My second and third issue are tied together, and my first bullet might hold the key to improving both.
I did mention my seating arrangement change.
“Jasper: I made a modification of the desks in my classroom last week
Megan: Really? What did you do?
Jasper: I made them into a horseshoe shape two rows deep
Jasper: I moved my podium right into the middle of the two horseshoes
Megan: Wow. Did you see any changes with the new set up?”
I did see some changes, in fact I believe that the new arrangement and the results of using it could be made into an action research project. There is much more to seating arrangement than many give credit for. I have taken a quick survey of my school building and out of twenty classrooms, there are fifteen that the desks set up in in straight rows facing the front. If I really want my classroom to be less lecture geared and more discussion driven it was natural to move the setup so that the students are all facing in the direction that they can see each other and myself. I believe that I could gather data and conduct a good action research project on the effects of seating arrangement with student success in a discussion setting.
I currently use a science journal. It is my second year of having my students keep a journal, but the process was simply called the warm-up notebook. This year it is referred to as a journal and used for more than just answering the warm-up question. This year I have been having students use the journal more and more prominently in the lab as the year has worn on to this point. I also have students make notes in their notebooks to be used on homework assignments, and specific things I tell them to jot down in there in short pieces of direct instruction. As was mentioned earlier, there is much more discussion than direct instruction, and when I do use direct instruction I keep it under fifteen minutes at a time without changing gears to more discussion or an activity.
I have had to do most of this without aid of much analytical discourse but the due date for this assignment is measured to this time right now with minutes.
“Jasper: I am thinking of having my students post their lab reports on one wiki page for the whole class. Then have each student comment on at least two other lab reports. The owners of those individual lab reports would respond to those comments and make necessary changes to the reports. We could show the changes made in the second draft thanks to the students' comments on one another's lab reports.”
Thursday of this next week I will be giving my idea a test run. I had students conduct a lab starting Wednesday of last week. They had some pre-lab questions they needed to answer so they had a good understanding of what chromatography was before they began the lab. They also needed to explore what type of solvent of the solvents available to them would be the best solvent. I encouraged students to use the ideas of electronegativity and polarity to explain their prediction. This information was recorded in the students' lab notebooks. They then conducted the lab, which came in two parts, the exploration of four different liquids and see which one did the best job of separating the pigments in a black Expo wet erase marker. The second part of the lab was to look at different colors of wet erase markers and test them against each other in the same solvent. Students were guided through the lab, and asked to transfer all information into their journals. I also had students make drawings in their lab journals of the lab setup and the results. Using a digital camera students took photographs of their lab setups and results.
I hope to have students do a full writeup for this lab, then post the write up, scans of their journal pages, and digital photos to a blog. I want to then have students view their classmates blogs and make comments on a number of them. Students then can go back and read the comments left for them by their classmates. The students will then go back and make revisions to their lab report blog and make their own comments in response to the feedback they were given. I am hoping that this experience is greeted with a percentage of the optimism I have for this project by the students.
I hope to “Jasper: Cultivate deeper understanding of lab techniques, the purpose behind investigations, construct better conclusions, better graphs, better data tables, all by allowing them to collaborate and evaluate one another's work critically.” If this first run makes it and I don't find it necessary to scrap the whole idea I hope that I can perhaps measure the effectiveness of this new technique to make students better at labs, and make labs a more valuable experience. I think that often in the race to the standards, perhaps we don't take the time to look back and really reflect enough on the work. Students could hopefully benefit as much as I find myself benefiting when I look back at my work. Perhaps such a long term project could allow students to begin to look more long term at the science classroom. Kids in my science classroom will know that keeping a journal and keeping up with the discussion will pay off after completion of a multi-step process like this. By looking at their fellow students' work they hopefully can understand better what the goals of labs were, and there is also some ownership with putting ideas out there for others to read. All this could be accomplished while using a free resource such as blogging, not including the computers and the internet connection.
My project idea actually covers this checklist almost in it's entirety!
Special Assignment 2
Jasper Howell
Foundations of Action Research
I chose to look over the Lua Olsen capstone. I met her in two of my summer classes and I was impressed with her on many levels, especially her compassion for her students, and the note (note: This capstone was checked by a committee and viewed as a model capstone in terms of formatting, etc). If I want to do it correctly this is the one to look at.
overall purpose
The effects of differentiated instruction in individual and group work settings in seventh grade Earth Science. (Primary question) Just the title of her study shows that her main study question is actually two questions, the effects of differentiated instruction on individual work setting and on the group work setting. She was also interested in student attitudes about group work, and if they were changed after she applied her treatment. Specifically did attitudes change when group work was differentiated for learning profile. Did attitudes change when individual work was differentiated for readiness. Of course she wanted to see if grades improved. (secondary questions)
reasons provided by the author for this study.
In Lua's school it was made a goal by the whole school (staff and administration) to become a differentiated school. They voted as a group to “gradually become a differentiated school by redesigning curriculum and instruction to better meet the needs of individual students, thereby maximizing their learning.” Lua served on a committee to set this up at her school and she felt it was important. She really felt that this approach would benefit her student because of the mix of strengths she had in her heterogeneous group of students at her school. This would benefit Lua tremendously as this was an undertaking her school was committed to, and she would be spending countless extra hours on this undertaking, so why not work it into her master's program. That part made perfect sense. No doubt that this helped other faculty at her school as she certainly did a lot of the ground-work for this venture. The administration must have certainly benefited by having a faculty member completely on board with such and undertaking, and the benefit of someone with extra vested interest in this process working out, and of course more data, administrators love data. For students having a good teacher involved in the changes as well as the students helps the students with the transition.
conceptual framework
The five classroom elements were focused upon; content, process, product, learning environment, and affect. Content refers to what is taught and how it is taught. Process is the means by which the students learn the content, whereas product is akin to summative assessment. Learning environment focuses on how time, space, and materials are utilized, and affect is a focus on student attitudes. In here obvious literature review she focused a lot on publications that had the name “Tomlinson.” I understand that Tomlinson is a leading authority on differentiated instruction after reading through her literature review which was headed the “Conceptual Framework”. She used Tomlinson's guiding principles of differentiated instruction to frame her treatments. She had a number of concepts as her guide, and she explored each with a solid paragraph where she clearly and coherently lined these ideas/finding/theories out. The basic ideas were an understanding of learning style, intelligence, and culture. What she covered in the order in which she did is: worthiness of group activities compared with those being replaced, promoting positive interdependence, team-building activities, reflection, assessing similarities and differences, assigning competences, multiple abilities through use of heterogeneous grouping, triarchic theory of intelligence, and a concise summary of what differentiation is.
treatment
The use of scaffolding involves the teacher modeling the desired learning strategy or task, then gradually shifting responsibility to the students. She focused on the use of learning profiles, which focuses on the six areas; sensory, perceptual, cognitive, personality, and personal talents to help give every member in group work settings value. She used student readiness to guide her research and decision making in setting up groups and giving individual help when needed. After finding the strengths and weakness of her students she went ot arranging heterogeneous groups around competences. She focused on the transition between group and individual work where student were encouraged to identify their own unique strengths. She used flexible grouping where where students work in groups that have both shared and varied learning profiles.
In doing here homework so thoroughly I think she did an excellent job of using a nice variety of techniques to bring her students to a great group work setting. The idea was to use group work to improve the learning of all. Using so many introspective techniques with students allows them to better understand themselves and that is a skill they will use long after their school years. The fact that they probably did better in science class that year seems like almost a side note to me, as they were probably better people after this experience.
data collection method(s)
She used her direct observation and kept a journal during the whole process and reflected upon it often. She also used student interviews, attitude surveys, and journals as well as her sources of data. Whe did a wonderful job of arranging her data in a Triangulation Matrix with displayed three sources of data for each of her primary and secondary questions. For her primary question she used direct observation and journaling for one data source, student interviews as her second, and attitude surveys coupled with student journals and reflections as her third. For the first secondary question related to attitudes about group work, she used student interviews, pre and posttreatment attitude surveys, and student journals for her data. In the second secondary question pertaining to students attitudes about individual work, she used instructor observations and journaling, pre and posttreatemetn attitude surveys, student interviews. For the question about the increase of student grades (secondary research question three) she was able to compare lab grades on the same unit from year to year. Because of her questions being about attitudes her use of attitude surveys was, I think, very effective. In any research there is a question about the validity of data when we have high hopes for a certain outcome. I wonder about using scores on a lab graded by you to measure the effects of changes you put in to improve grades. Was it the improved instructional techniques that produced the grades or just a better presentation of material that led to the increase? Could some defining features matrixes have been used as data collection tools at any point in this, and would the data have been useful?
key findings
Lua found that the techniques she used did contribute to positive group learning experience. Student attitudes did become friendlier towards group work as a whole. Some students that had a poor attitude towards group work early on had positive comments at certain points later in the study. She found overwhelmingly positive results in attitudes following all of the team building activities. The emphasis on her strategies led her to conclude that many students did better in the individual work portions of their school day as well. Two out of three of the projects that were to be looked at for grades showed an increased average score, but that means in one unit the scores went down. She found some great areas to improve on to better build groups in the future among students. I loved that there was a section on interpretation and conclusion, but also a section called value. She was more at length in the value section of her write up, as she found out a lot about herself as a science teacher, and that is where we are hoping to gain the most with this experience.
"next steps"
The obvious road ahead is for a continued look at the areas that she found to be weaknesses. The data collection should stay just as it is if time allows. As always in teaching we want to throw out the things that were a waste of our and our students' time. Obviously there was some hard numbers that showed a decrease in scores on some lessons. Finding out what might have gone wrong, what was missed, and inevitably what can be done to help students score better the next time around. There are very few specific next steps, but the process must never end. As long as improvement happens while “standing put” never sets in, we will always be better the next year than we were the year before. Action research is not really a means to an end, but an open door to become better and better at our craft every year. In Lua's class she needs to continue with what she is up to, these students no doubt became more self-aware as a result of her efforts and early adolescents just can not become more self-aware fast enough. I would love to see what other primary teachers saw from year to year (those who will teach the same kids in the next couple years that she taught this year during this study) and see if performance improves for years to come as a result of the training they received as 7th graders.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Advanced Astrobiology for Teachers II
notes from our exploration of Voyages Through Time TM
ethics of a second genesis
early hominid evolution
This will tie in a bit with the life in extreme environments course I blogged in Summer 2009
week 1 discussion:
Discussion 1
Rubrics
I use rubrics in my classroom for any sort of long term project. I especially prefer to have a rubric in place when students are to present a powerpoint or poster for an activity they performed. I also use them for some lab activities. My problem with using rubrics for lab activities is that I am in the process of changing the way labs are done in my classroom. In this transition to more inquiry type labs I have had a hard time predicting what the finished product will look like. I have had luck working with a generic rubric of what is expected in student lab reports.
The rubric obviously communicates what the expectations are on a given task. There seems to be a fine line between making a project meaningful in terms of students doing some thinking for themselves, and a project being too lined out and being borderline “cookbook”. I have found that other teachers that put information out on the web help a lot. I try to share my lessons and ideas for lessons in the virtual world myself. I find this with rubrics. Sometimes a rubric that I find online can be modified a bit and used in my classroom. Those changes can be communicated to the teacher that originally shared the resource and perhaps they can use it with the changes. Collaboration is important in the classroom for students to have a more meaningful authentic learning experience, and the collaboration among teachers can make individual lessons better, and perhaps contribute to an overall improvement of American schools in the long run. Hopefully that is why we are all here.
What is Life?
Our understanding of what is and isn't alive has changed some, but the part of biology that is the most eye-opening to me is where it turns out we are finding life. In the last 30 years we have discovered life at the bottom of the ocean where pressures were thought to be uninhabitable. But life has been discovered in extreme pressures. We had thought that life would not exist where radiation levels were high, but there are organisms that have evolved ways to deal with the mutations that would make life impossible to propagate. Extreme temperatures once thought to deny life, have yielded new forms of life, and we've found bacteria in the center of a salt crystal where the extreme salinity was thought to be impossible to shelter life. Where will we find life? The answer to that question has certainly changed in the last 30 years.
Response to James
“In a general biology classroom we typically would define things as alive that exhibit all of the following criteria:
· containing one or more cells
· a tendency towards homeostasis
· obtaining and using energy from their environment
· responding to stimuli
· growing and developing
· containing genetic information
·the ability for reproduction “
I actually appreciate the list...
“other times we create our own rubrics in our professional learning communities with collaboratively with colleagues during meetings. “
Response to Theresa
“My question is though, are there really any right or wrong answers in deciding which are the true life characteristics?”
The characteristics of life seems like a great subject for flushing out student Misconceptions about what is and isn't alive. A detailed look at viruses especially can get the wheels turning about what is and isn't alive. You will find students at all levels grappling with whether or not viruses are alive. Viruses are entirely composed of a single strand of genetic information encased within a protein capsule. Is this enough to call them alive? No most say. Viruses lack most of the internal structure and machinery which characterize 'life'. So part of our answer needs of what is alive needs to address organization, and viruses do not have the biosynthetic machinery that is necessary for reproduction. In order for a virus to replicate it must infect a suitable host cell. They can't do it alone. In the end viruses do a lot that is similar to life, but they do not contain “cells”. Do viruses use energy though?
So Theresa I would argue that there aren't any right or wrong answers but many of them will uncover some misconceptions that can be addressed in a very “teachable moment”
week 2 discussion:
How do studies of DNA sequences allow us to reconstruct the evolutionary history of life?
The study of Nucleic acids has allowed us to construct the “relatedness” of organisms, and assign them to phylogeny that they belong to. Species that were once thought to be closely related to to one another have often been found to be not as related as we might have thought. The Phylogenetic trees that many scientists drew thirty years ago are now obsolete.
How far back in time do we find evidence of life on earth?
We are limited in our fossil record, in that the earth's rocks are continually scoured of evidence of life in the endless cycle of melting, deformation, and erosional forces that we call the rock cycle. But scientists have been able to study what chemicals have been present for billions of year. Some of those chemicals are signature chemicals from eukaryote metabolism that goes back as far as 2.7 billion years.
The question about guaging how easily life arose, makes my forehead wrinkle a bit. I really don't think arose easily at all. I think it took Billions of years and the perfect recipe. I know there is life all over this planet that we never expected to find, and in conditions that just don't seem to be suitable for life, but that does not mean it was easy. It was like that perfect game when everything went right, the story of this planet and it's life that is. Do I smell the “Drake Equation” somewhere in the distant or near future in this course???
So if only half of it is left, where did the other half go? I enjoyed that question from a kid in class this December. We just finished half life problems the week before Christmas break in chemistry class. I have found that giving them a table that has the number of half lives, the fraction remaining , and the decimal equivalent is very helpful. First we actually build one together then the next day I give them a very pretty printed one. On the back I also put the graph of stable nuclei so that we can discuss the ratio of protons to neutrons, and how that relates to stability.
When does the half-life start? Holy cow, that is a very good question, does the half life process start when the isotopes are formed in stars and supernovas? When these elements form out of molten lava does the half-life restart? Great now I am struggling to understand a bit...
week 3 discussion post:
Sorry I am late posting, I will be honest, I turned 33 on Thursday, and spent the last couple days in Whitefish Montana celebrating, I did not do any homework :)
I will make some replies soon on the content but my initial post will be all pedagogical discussions.
In reference to the video, which was viewed after reading of the NOS article, there have been some very interesting misconceptions that have actually been solidified by teachers in my school district. This small rural community in NW Montana is home to a questionably mortally wounded economy. Formerly the location of a large mine and at one point the largest lumber mill in the Northwest Libby made a lot of successful loggers that worked hard and made a great living. All of those economic supports are gone and the economy of this community was poor before the recent downturn of the nations economy. With all that being said one could understand that there is a large citizenry of this town that reject with fervor any environmental efforts and the science behind them. It does go as far as rejecting global warming, as we have staff that make comments in class about global warming, evolution, and other scientific theories. "Just a theory" is the big misconception that we have to work toward eliminating in our schools. The process of evaluating hypotheses is very difficult with the social influences that can be present. I know some of you have mentioned similar situations. What are some constructive, positive ways to work through these misconceptions with social roots that you have discovered?
The NOS article notes the sixth aspect of NOS is that science is socially and culturally embedded, and so is bad science. Out of the article I really found it helpful to see the restructuring of a lesson to incorporate more NOS. It was noted that carefully constructed discussion is effective for incorporation. How do you feel about your discussion skills as a classroom manager?
"Theories do not mature into laws" I would say that this is a very rampant misconception and I believe many teachers would agree that "theories mature into laws" if you took an informal poll. Someone should do that and report back on their results. We know what my hypothesis would be about this right?
After doing the origin of life timeline, one can see that the very simplest organisms existed for a very long time before the more advanced organisms began to proliferate. I find this to be captivating to think that the first organisms could have been seeded here from another planet. When we look at the ability of rotifers to survive, and the bacteria that made it to the moon and back ready to "rock and roll". I also don't have a problem beleiving that simple life forms could exist in space, when I see how they survive in the most brutal environments on this planet/
week 4 discussion:
Initial post
Analogies:
I have long used the anthropomorphism of the elements to help students understand the behavior of different elements in different groups and periods. When we talk about periodic trends I like to use the metaphoric quality of elements “acting” a certain way. There are elements such as fluorine that act as bullies, and there are the alkali metals that are wimps when it comes down to stealing or giving up their lunch money (electrons)
When I have taught evolution and natural selection, we also personify organisms at all level from single celled on up to the most complex organisms. We talk about how animals think in terms of evolutionary success, even though they are not consciously thinking about what the best behavioral choice might be in terms of evolution and survival of the fittest.
Content:
It has been nearly five years since I taught a biology course, but when looking at the phases of mitosis, I reflected a bit at how much I enjoyed having my students make detailed color drawings of all the phases. Helping students improve their technical drawing skills is as important as many other scientific skills. I viewed an EO Wilson video on youtube : lord of the ants
and it is a great example of where great drawings aid in new discoveries. As cells come together to make colonies, and then perhaps we had multicellularity, then multicelled organisms become these colonies of organisms, what then???
There was a question in our prompts for the week that asked if evolution is a necessary feature of live. In our reading it stated that prokaryotes and endosymbiosis let to the eukaryotes, which then became progressively more complex and larger. The process of evolution drove this process as new niches are showing up and disappearing as the geologic fearures of our planet were ever changing. Not just for life as we know it, but for any life to make it through even 500 million years needs evolution.
My daughter was offended by her brother on our two hour journey to Hot Springs today to soak. Her brother told her to zip her lip and made the zipper motion across his mouth and made the 'zippp' noise. She stated that she did NOT have a zipper on her mouth. She is three and still does not understand the deep meaning of the analogy. Kids we teach are at different developmental levels, but we must all know where our students are developmentally and choose appropriate analogies and metaphors.
Post 2
We stopped at McGregor lake resort today on our way to Hot Springs from Libby. This is one of the most gorgeous drives in America. The drive starts in a termperate forest, steep and dotted with many lakes ranging from small little 5 acre ponds to McGregor Lake which is over seven miles long and over 300 feet deep in parts of it. The drive is only 105 miles, but is kind of a long drive because the shortcut we take is about 25 miles of graveled mountain road that goes from tunneling through old growth until it spits us on to the south-facing bare grassy slopes on the other end of the mountain range. The views...
The McGregor lake Marina is a place that we went to have breakfast one day that we were camping with my brother, my kids favorite uncle. My son noticed that we had been here when we were camping the summer before. We went in to use the bathroom. As we went in my son said, “dad, there are no mosquitoes when there is snow on the ground” I said, “ How do you know that?” He said, “because the last time we were here we tried to eat outside and there were so many mosquitoes.“ He is five and I was impressed. He is 5 years old, where along the way is this natural inference drawing ability lost? Has the traditional education system made kids afraid to be wrong?
Post 3
Some content 'light bulbs' I would like to share
A good look at ribosomal RNA and mitochondrial DNA is a great way to help kids look at evolution, and this done while taking a look at real data. We can actually look at data, and draw some conclusions, using our inferring skills to get a better look at the process of evolution. They can better see that it is not some inexact science based on one person's opinion and faith, but a very quantified theory.
Reminder that elodea are a must have in an aquarium in a science classroom. I forgot how much fun we used to have with these giant celled aquatic plants that can be easily grown in your own classrooms.
Discussion of sponges are great way to help students understand that we do indeed have a number of organisms like sponges that show how life gets progressively more complex.
I would thank that some sort of inquiry based research project involving increasingly more complex colonial organisms would lead to students coming up with their own solid sound understandings of how multi-celled organisms might have came to be.
A moon with life?
funny:
"The hardest part will be deciding if an odd smelling atmosphere is the work of flatulent cows or volcanism."
thoughts:
Also here the comment at the bottom states "But Europa is at the bottom of a killer gravity well in the middle of a nasty radiation field, thus it truly is isolated. " I wonder, would that really stop life?
Oh and this was from either this week's stuff or the project material, not sure it is all dribbling together!
second genesis
The hardest part will be deciding if an odd smelling atmosphere is the work of flatulent cows or volcanism.
Also here the comment at the bottom states “But Europa is at the bottom of a killer gravity well in the middle of a nasty radiation field, thus it truly is isolated. “ I wonder, would that really stop life?
Barry
“May be I am missing the point but I do not understand the religious, ethical dilemmas that this research is supposedly producing.“
Obviously there are many religious folks that believe in their religious texts creation story. If science proves how indeed all life was created down to the very first chemical reaction there would be a dilemma for some. What if alien life is discovered? Perhaps humans are not the center of the universe, and the focus of all of God's creative energy? I think people might get their wires crossed up a bit and assume the aliens we discover are actually intelligent, communicative, bipeds with two eyes and a mouth and a religion of their own. We are starting to discover that is probably not going to be the case any time soon, but perhaps in the next ten years we will discover an alien life-form somewhere. It may be a place we thought we already looked or perhaps thought they could never live, and they may be in a form that we would never have imagined. But Barry, that is the problem, many religious folks are afraid of the possibilities that their faith will not hold up if they find that we are not alone and that there is indeed life on other spheres in the universe. Others feel like discovering the very beginning of life and the whole story of life's evolution would be a challenge to their faith. I personally am a committed Christian and gleefully anticipatory of the next discovery that will bring us closer to an understanding of how life began. 2-4 thousand years ago would middle Easterners have understood if God had told them the whole story of how man came to be?
Now there are some religions that believe we were seeded here by aliens, so they certainly wouldn't be so bummed if/when we discover common ancestors from somewhere else in the universe. It's all about perspective.
In reference to a second genesis:
“Thankfully, the intense blast of ultraviolet radiation from the sun would kill of any Earth hitchhiking microbes sneaking off a contaminated lander. “ This fellow was a very interesting writer, but I think he is also being shortsighted in thinking that there may be a type of life that may indeed be able to survive that intense blast of UV radiation. The deeper we dive into the world of life in extreme environments and begin to apply our findings there to astrobiology it becomes easier to imagine a broader definition of the requirements of life."
primordial soup
self replicating RNA
RNA timeline
Week 6:
project based learning
Buck institute for project based learning
ethics of a second genesis
early hominid evolution
This will tie in a bit with the life in extreme environments course I blogged in Summer 2009
week 1 discussion:
Discussion 1
Rubrics
I use rubrics in my classroom for any sort of long term project. I especially prefer to have a rubric in place when students are to present a powerpoint or poster for an activity they performed. I also use them for some lab activities. My problem with using rubrics for lab activities is that I am in the process of changing the way labs are done in my classroom. In this transition to more inquiry type labs I have had a hard time predicting what the finished product will look like. I have had luck working with a generic rubric of what is expected in student lab reports.
The rubric obviously communicates what the expectations are on a given task. There seems to be a fine line between making a project meaningful in terms of students doing some thinking for themselves, and a project being too lined out and being borderline “cookbook”. I have found that other teachers that put information out on the web help a lot. I try to share my lessons and ideas for lessons in the virtual world myself. I find this with rubrics. Sometimes a rubric that I find online can be modified a bit and used in my classroom. Those changes can be communicated to the teacher that originally shared the resource and perhaps they can use it with the changes. Collaboration is important in the classroom for students to have a more meaningful authentic learning experience, and the collaboration among teachers can make individual lessons better, and perhaps contribute to an overall improvement of American schools in the long run. Hopefully that is why we are all here.
What is Life?
Our understanding of what is and isn't alive has changed some, but the part of biology that is the most eye-opening to me is where it turns out we are finding life. In the last 30 years we have discovered life at the bottom of the ocean where pressures were thought to be uninhabitable. But life has been discovered in extreme pressures. We had thought that life would not exist where radiation levels were high, but there are organisms that have evolved ways to deal with the mutations that would make life impossible to propagate. Extreme temperatures once thought to deny life, have yielded new forms of life, and we've found bacteria in the center of a salt crystal where the extreme salinity was thought to be impossible to shelter life. Where will we find life? The answer to that question has certainly changed in the last 30 years.
Response to James
“In a general biology classroom we typically would define things as alive that exhibit all of the following criteria:
· containing one or more cells
· a tendency towards homeostasis
· obtaining and using energy from their environment
· responding to stimuli
· growing and developing
· containing genetic information
·the ability for reproduction “
I actually appreciate the list...
“other times we create our own rubrics in our professional learning communities with collaboratively with colleagues during meetings. “
Response to Theresa
“My question is though, are there really any right or wrong answers in deciding which are the true life characteristics?”
The characteristics of life seems like a great subject for flushing out student Misconceptions about what is and isn't alive. A detailed look at viruses especially can get the wheels turning about what is and isn't alive. You will find students at all levels grappling with whether or not viruses are alive. Viruses are entirely composed of a single strand of genetic information encased within a protein capsule. Is this enough to call them alive? No most say. Viruses lack most of the internal structure and machinery which characterize 'life'. So part of our answer needs of what is alive needs to address organization, and viruses do not have the biosynthetic machinery that is necessary for reproduction. In order for a virus to replicate it must infect a suitable host cell. They can't do it alone. In the end viruses do a lot that is similar to life, but they do not contain “cells”. Do viruses use energy though?
So Theresa I would argue that there aren't any right or wrong answers but many of them will uncover some misconceptions that can be addressed in a very “teachable moment”
week 2 discussion:
How do studies of DNA sequences allow us to reconstruct the evolutionary history of life?
The study of Nucleic acids has allowed us to construct the “relatedness” of organisms, and assign them to phylogeny that they belong to. Species that were once thought to be closely related to to one another have often been found to be not as related as we might have thought. The Phylogenetic trees that many scientists drew thirty years ago are now obsolete.
How far back in time do we find evidence of life on earth?
We are limited in our fossil record, in that the earth's rocks are continually scoured of evidence of life in the endless cycle of melting, deformation, and erosional forces that we call the rock cycle. But scientists have been able to study what chemicals have been present for billions of year. Some of those chemicals are signature chemicals from eukaryote metabolism that goes back as far as 2.7 billion years.
The question about guaging how easily life arose, makes my forehead wrinkle a bit. I really don't think arose easily at all. I think it took Billions of years and the perfect recipe. I know there is life all over this planet that we never expected to find, and in conditions that just don't seem to be suitable for life, but that does not mean it was easy. It was like that perfect game when everything went right, the story of this planet and it's life that is. Do I smell the “Drake Equation” somewhere in the distant or near future in this course???
So if only half of it is left, where did the other half go? I enjoyed that question from a kid in class this December. We just finished half life problems the week before Christmas break in chemistry class. I have found that giving them a table that has the number of half lives, the fraction remaining , and the decimal equivalent is very helpful. First we actually build one together then the next day I give them a very pretty printed one. On the back I also put the graph of stable nuclei so that we can discuss the ratio of protons to neutrons, and how that relates to stability.
When does the half-life start? Holy cow, that is a very good question, does the half life process start when the isotopes are formed in stars and supernovas? When these elements form out of molten lava does the half-life restart? Great now I am struggling to understand a bit...
week 3 discussion post:
Sorry I am late posting, I will be honest, I turned 33 on Thursday, and spent the last couple days in Whitefish Montana celebrating, I did not do any homework :)
I will make some replies soon on the content but my initial post will be all pedagogical discussions.
In reference to the video, which was viewed after reading of the NOS article, there have been some very interesting misconceptions that have actually been solidified by teachers in my school district. This small rural community in NW Montana is home to a questionably mortally wounded economy. Formerly the location of a large mine and at one point the largest lumber mill in the Northwest Libby made a lot of successful loggers that worked hard and made a great living. All of those economic supports are gone and the economy of this community was poor before the recent downturn of the nations economy. With all that being said one could understand that there is a large citizenry of this town that reject with fervor any environmental efforts and the science behind them. It does go as far as rejecting global warming, as we have staff that make comments in class about global warming, evolution, and other scientific theories. "Just a theory" is the big misconception that we have to work toward eliminating in our schools. The process of evaluating hypotheses is very difficult with the social influences that can be present. I know some of you have mentioned similar situations. What are some constructive, positive ways to work through these misconceptions with social roots that you have discovered?
The NOS article notes the sixth aspect of NOS is that science is socially and culturally embedded, and so is bad science. Out of the article I really found it helpful to see the restructuring of a lesson to incorporate more NOS. It was noted that carefully constructed discussion is effective for incorporation. How do you feel about your discussion skills as a classroom manager?
"Theories do not mature into laws" I would say that this is a very rampant misconception and I believe many teachers would agree that "theories mature into laws" if you took an informal poll. Someone should do that and report back on their results. We know what my hypothesis would be about this right?
After doing the origin of life timeline, one can see that the very simplest organisms existed for a very long time before the more advanced organisms began to proliferate. I find this to be captivating to think that the first organisms could have been seeded here from another planet. When we look at the ability of rotifers to survive, and the bacteria that made it to the moon and back ready to "rock and roll". I also don't have a problem beleiving that simple life forms could exist in space, when I see how they survive in the most brutal environments on this planet/
week 4 discussion:
Initial post
Analogies:
I have long used the anthropomorphism of the elements to help students understand the behavior of different elements in different groups and periods. When we talk about periodic trends I like to use the metaphoric quality of elements “acting” a certain way. There are elements such as fluorine that act as bullies, and there are the alkali metals that are wimps when it comes down to stealing or giving up their lunch money (electrons)
When I have taught evolution and natural selection, we also personify organisms at all level from single celled on up to the most complex organisms. We talk about how animals think in terms of evolutionary success, even though they are not consciously thinking about what the best behavioral choice might be in terms of evolution and survival of the fittest.
Content:
It has been nearly five years since I taught a biology course, but when looking at the phases of mitosis, I reflected a bit at how much I enjoyed having my students make detailed color drawings of all the phases. Helping students improve their technical drawing skills is as important as many other scientific skills. I viewed an EO Wilson video on youtube : lord of the ants
and it is a great example of where great drawings aid in new discoveries. As cells come together to make colonies, and then perhaps we had multicellularity, then multicelled organisms become these colonies of organisms, what then???
There was a question in our prompts for the week that asked if evolution is a necessary feature of live. In our reading it stated that prokaryotes and endosymbiosis let to the eukaryotes, which then became progressively more complex and larger. The process of evolution drove this process as new niches are showing up and disappearing as the geologic fearures of our planet were ever changing. Not just for life as we know it, but for any life to make it through even 500 million years needs evolution.
My daughter was offended by her brother on our two hour journey to Hot Springs today to soak. Her brother told her to zip her lip and made the zipper motion across his mouth and made the 'zippp' noise. She stated that she did NOT have a zipper on her mouth. She is three and still does not understand the deep meaning of the analogy. Kids we teach are at different developmental levels, but we must all know where our students are developmentally and choose appropriate analogies and metaphors.
Post 2
We stopped at McGregor lake resort today on our way to Hot Springs from Libby. This is one of the most gorgeous drives in America. The drive starts in a termperate forest, steep and dotted with many lakes ranging from small little 5 acre ponds to McGregor Lake which is over seven miles long and over 300 feet deep in parts of it. The drive is only 105 miles, but is kind of a long drive because the shortcut we take is about 25 miles of graveled mountain road that goes from tunneling through old growth until it spits us on to the south-facing bare grassy slopes on the other end of the mountain range. The views...
The McGregor lake Marina is a place that we went to have breakfast one day that we were camping with my brother, my kids favorite uncle. My son noticed that we had been here when we were camping the summer before. We went in to use the bathroom. As we went in my son said, “dad, there are no mosquitoes when there is snow on the ground” I said, “ How do you know that?” He said, “because the last time we were here we tried to eat outside and there were so many mosquitoes.“ He is five and I was impressed. He is 5 years old, where along the way is this natural inference drawing ability lost? Has the traditional education system made kids afraid to be wrong?
Post 3
Some content 'light bulbs' I would like to share
A good look at ribosomal RNA and mitochondrial DNA is a great way to help kids look at evolution, and this done while taking a look at real data. We can actually look at data, and draw some conclusions, using our inferring skills to get a better look at the process of evolution. They can better see that it is not some inexact science based on one person's opinion and faith, but a very quantified theory.
Reminder that elodea are a must have in an aquarium in a science classroom. I forgot how much fun we used to have with these giant celled aquatic plants that can be easily grown in your own classrooms.
Discussion of sponges are great way to help students understand that we do indeed have a number of organisms like sponges that show how life gets progressively more complex.
I would thank that some sort of inquiry based research project involving increasingly more complex colonial organisms would lead to students coming up with their own solid sound understandings of how multi-celled organisms might have came to be.
A moon with life?
funny:
"The hardest part will be deciding if an odd smelling atmosphere is the work of flatulent cows or volcanism."
thoughts:
Also here the comment at the bottom states "But Europa is at the bottom of a killer gravity well in the middle of a nasty radiation field, thus it truly is isolated. " I wonder, would that really stop life?
Oh and this was from either this week's stuff or the project material, not sure it is all dribbling together!
second genesis
The hardest part will be deciding if an odd smelling atmosphere is the work of flatulent cows or volcanism.
Also here the comment at the bottom states “But Europa is at the bottom of a killer gravity well in the middle of a nasty radiation field, thus it truly is isolated. “ I wonder, would that really stop life?
Barry
“May be I am missing the point but I do not understand the religious, ethical dilemmas that this research is supposedly producing.“
Obviously there are many religious folks that believe in their religious texts creation story. If science proves how indeed all life was created down to the very first chemical reaction there would be a dilemma for some. What if alien life is discovered? Perhaps humans are not the center of the universe, and the focus of all of God's creative energy? I think people might get their wires crossed up a bit and assume the aliens we discover are actually intelligent, communicative, bipeds with two eyes and a mouth and a religion of their own. We are starting to discover that is probably not going to be the case any time soon, but perhaps in the next ten years we will discover an alien life-form somewhere. It may be a place we thought we already looked or perhaps thought they could never live, and they may be in a form that we would never have imagined. But Barry, that is the problem, many religious folks are afraid of the possibilities that their faith will not hold up if they find that we are not alone and that there is indeed life on other spheres in the universe. Others feel like discovering the very beginning of life and the whole story of life's evolution would be a challenge to their faith. I personally am a committed Christian and gleefully anticipatory of the next discovery that will bring us closer to an understanding of how life began. 2-4 thousand years ago would middle Easterners have understood if God had told them the whole story of how man came to be?
Now there are some religions that believe we were seeded here by aliens, so they certainly wouldn't be so bummed if/when we discover common ancestors from somewhere else in the universe. It's all about perspective.
In reference to a second genesis:
“Thankfully, the intense blast of ultraviolet radiation from the sun would kill of any Earth hitchhiking microbes sneaking off a contaminated lander. “ This fellow was a very interesting writer, but I think he is also being shortsighted in thinking that there may be a type of life that may indeed be able to survive that intense blast of UV radiation. The deeper we dive into the world of life in extreme environments and begin to apply our findings there to astrobiology it becomes easier to imagine a broader definition of the requirements of life."
primordial soup
self replicating RNA
RNA timeline
Week 6:
project based learning
Buck institute for project based learning
ten extinct beasts that could roam the earth again
ten extinct beasts that could roam the earth again
this is a great reference article to use in the science classroom. Genetics, ecology, biotech, ethics, Great stuff
this is a great reference article to use in the science classroom. Genetics, ecology, biotech, ethics, Great stuff
Friday, January 15, 2010
about time
even if everything has not gone as smooth as we thought, this is worth it!
we want our money back and we're gonna get it!
we want our money back and we're gonna get it!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
The Water We Drink
Purpose:
Objectives:
Extra resources:
A Biography of water
To drink or not to drink bottled water
dehydration
Although this assignment was designed to have us do a presentation that would take one class period, this will take several class periods, unless one had about a 130 minute block period then it would be one.
I will outline my lesson using the powerpoint as a guide...
Page 2- intro questions
-students get into small groups 2-4 depending on personal preference or class dynamics
-notes on discussion should be made in science journals, Why do all living things love/need water?
-after 2-4 minutes have students share in a class discussion what they came up with in groups... write on white board (I will refer to this process from here on out as pair and share)
-water taste test, have students do a blind taste test of bottled, tap, and filtered water (outlined on page 195 of text)
-pair and share
page 3- terms
- have students write down key terms from page 3 of the powerpoint
page4- global water distribution
-have students view the pie chart, class discussion
- discussion questions: Is most water on planet earth potable, why or why not? Where is most freshwater found? How much of the fresh water is actually is accessible? Of the accessable water what can we actually drink?
-encourage students to come up with questions as well for discussion....
*at this point we have established what we need to know before we move on to details*
page 5- terms
-have students write down key terms from page 5 of the powerpoint
- minerals at this point do a DEMO-
Demo extracting copper from copper sulfate, similarities and differences of this method and mining methods
page 6- pile of plastic water bottles
- have students view the pile of plastic water bottles, class discussion
-discussion questions: How are water bottles made, plastic? Where do they go? Landfill? Recycling? Where can we recycle here?
-encourage students to come up with questions as well for discussion....
page7- alternatives to bottled water
- Pose the question and pair and share...
page 8- what about water makes it so essential
- group discussion, hopefully key ideas come up
- some direction might be needed, why do sidewalks crack around here? is water sticky? etc...
- explain image of frozen water
-click link attached to polarity...animation and tutorial will run through polarity of different molecules and introduce the idea
page 9- terms and demo on molarity
-have students write down key terms from page 9 of the powerpoint
-as students are writing down terms grab materials to prepare .5 L of 1 M HCl solution
- explain what is happening as I prepare a half liter of 1M hydrochloric acid solution
Page 10- electronegativity
- class discussion
Why are the atoms on the right side of the periodic table more electronegative than those on left? Identify the trend? electron shielding, effective nuclear charge, oxidation states, ionization energy
Bend water with a comb and a balloon demo
Static electricity does more than shock you when you go to open a door, or attract dust and pet hair to your furniture and clothes. It can actually bend a stream of water. This is a good science demonstration for kids because it shows how an electrically charged object attracts some things with a neutral charge.
page 11- polarity
- refer back to animation used for slide 8
page 12- discussion about characteristics of water that make it a great coolant for us
-specific heat
page 13- forces
-discuss forces in water molecules
lab:
can be found at this link
- an understanding of how important water is to life on this planet, for us, and for the physical world around us.
Objectives:
- Describe the desirable properties of drinking water
- Explain some of the reasons why bottled water is so popular
- recognize the sources and distribution of water
- describe the factors involved in providing pure drinking water
- Discuss why water is such an excellent solvent for some ionic and some covalent compounds
- Use concentration units: percent, ppm, ppb, and molarity
- Discuss the relationship between the properties of water and its molecular structure
- describe the specific heat of water and compare it with that of other substances
- Understand how electronegativity and bond polarity are related to the structure of water
- describe hydrogen bonding and its importance to the properties of water
- describe how the densities of ice and water are related to the structure of the water molecule
Extra resources:
A Biography of water
To drink or not to drink bottled water
dehydration
Although this assignment was designed to have us do a presentation that would take one class period, this will take several class periods, unless one had about a 130 minute block period then it would be one.
I will outline my lesson using the powerpoint as a guide...
Page 2- intro questions
-students get into small groups 2-4 depending on personal preference or class dynamics
-notes on discussion should be made in science journals, Why do all living things love/need water?
-after 2-4 minutes have students share in a class discussion what they came up with in groups... write on white board (I will refer to this process from here on out as pair and share)
-water taste test, have students do a blind taste test of bottled, tap, and filtered water (outlined on page 195 of text)
-pair and share
page 3- terms
- have students write down key terms from page 3 of the powerpoint
page4- global water distribution
-have students view the pie chart, class discussion
- discussion questions: Is most water on planet earth potable, why or why not? Where is most freshwater found? How much of the fresh water is actually is accessible? Of the accessable water what can we actually drink?
-encourage students to come up with questions as well for discussion....
*at this point we have established what we need to know before we move on to details*
page 5- terms
-have students write down key terms from page 5 of the powerpoint
- minerals at this point do a DEMO-
Demo extracting copper from copper sulfate, similarities and differences of this method and mining methods
Materials:
Beaker
Copper II Sulfate powder
NaCl
Aluminum foil
Distilled H2O
In the beaker mix a spoonful of copper sulfate into a 400 mL beaker with approximately 250 mL of distilled H2O.
Then mix in a spoonful of NaCl
Then loosly crumple a 20cm by 20 cm square piece of foil and place it into the solution
Within minutes copper will form on the outside of the aluminum foil ball
page 6- pile of plastic water bottles
- have students view the pile of plastic water bottles, class discussion
-discussion questions: How are water bottles made, plastic? Where do they go? Landfill? Recycling? Where can we recycle here?
-encourage students to come up with questions as well for discussion....
page7- alternatives to bottled water
- Pose the question and pair and share...
page 8- what about water makes it so essential
- group discussion, hopefully key ideas come up
- some direction might be needed, why do sidewalks crack around here? is water sticky? etc...
- explain image of frozen water
-click link attached to polarity...animation and tutorial will run through polarity of different molecules and introduce the idea
page 9- terms and demo on molarity
-have students write down key terms from page 9 of the powerpoint
-as students are writing down terms grab materials to prepare .5 L of 1 M HCl solution
- explain what is happening as I prepare a half liter of 1M hydrochloric acid solution
Page 10- electronegativity
- class discussion
Why are the atoms on the right side of the periodic table more electronegative than those on left? Identify the trend? electron shielding, effective nuclear charge, oxidation states, ionization energy
Bend water with a comb and a balloon demo
Static electricity does more than shock you when you go to open a door, or attract dust and pet hair to your furniture and clothes. It can actually bend a stream of water. This is a good science demonstration for kids because it shows how an electrically charged object attracts some things with a neutral charge.
Steps
Take a dry (preferably nylon) comb and run it through your hair about 10 times. Your hair must be dry as well.
Take a plastic spoon or a balloon and rub it vigorously against nylon, acrylic, or fur.
1 Charge an object. What you're doing here is collecting electrons on the object. Electrons give the object a negative charge.
2 Turn on your faucet. Only let a very thin stream of water flow. It needs to be a smooth stream, not one that breaks up.
3 Place the object right next to the stream of water without touching it. If you are doing it correctly, you can see the water moving towards the object.
page 11- polarity
- refer back to animation used for slide 8
page 12- discussion about characteristics of water that make it a great coolant for us
-specific heat
page 13- forces
-discuss forces in water molecules
lab:
can be found at this link
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Moon journal, online companion Geology of the moon
October 3rd
October 4th
October 5th
October 6th
October 7th
October 8th
October 9th
more lcross
October 10th
October 11th
October 12th
October 13th 2008
October 14th
October 15th
October 16th
October 17th
October 18th
October 19th
October 20th
October 21th
October 22nd
October 23rd
October 24th
October 25th
October 26th
October 27th
October 28th
October 29th
October 30TH
October 31st Happy Halloween - perfect moon for it!
Moon phases
Moon rise and set
Weather calendar
ALTA loan opportunity
Moon Giant phases for days and times
October 4th
October 5th
October 6th
October 7th
October 8th
October 9th
more lcross
October 10th
October 11th
October 12th
October 13th 2008
October 14th
October 15th
October 16th
October 17th
October 18th
October 19th
October 20th
October 21th
October 22nd
October 23rd
October 24th
October 25th
October 26th
October 27th
October 28th
October 29th
October 30TH
October 31st Happy Halloween - perfect moon for it!
Moon phases
Moon rise and set
Weather calendar
ALTA loan opportunity
Moon Giant phases for days and times
Monday, August 3, 2009
Final Projects
Lab report wikis:
Podcasts:
I think that we are in a new era of education. I know every kid doesn't have the internet at home and not every kid has an ipod with video capabilities, but we are close. There is access to the internet all over the place, as I found out this summer as I camped and did school work online. I think the idea of putting extra lectures out there will help use time in class more wisely. The podcasts can be five to ten minute clips to help kids tie together what we have been learning in the classroom.
interacive syllabus:
My interactive syllabus will have an outline of what we are studying and when. There will be links to assignments to help with make-up work. I will have links to podcast, videos, news articles, simulations, and any other web based materials that can help my students. Check in as my classes begin to wind down, I will be expanding this interactive syllabus so it is "turn-key" once the school year starts.
Lab report Wiki:
have a new plan I have put together this summer for closure on various explorations throughout the year. I plan to have one wiki page set up where each cooperative learning group (lab group) has a login name and a password, which gives them access to the wiki page. A wiki page simply put is a web page that all members are able to create content, post comments, and make changes. Using our standard format for lab reports, that the students will be very familiar with at this point in the year, to post the lab reports on the lab wiki page. In the lab reports there should be at least one photo from the lab as well. The students will then be required to read three other reports from other groups, leaving suggestions for improvement, comments about what they liked, and other related appropriate comments. Most importantly there should be questions left by groups as they read other reports for further experimentation. The students should also give a score based on a rubric for their own and three other groups’ labs. I will also score each group based on the same rubric and the score they get will be based on a combination of self-assessment, classmates, and my grade.
Podcasts:
I think that we are in a new era of education. I know every kid doesn't have the internet at home and not every kid has an ipod with video capabilities, but we are close. There is access to the internet all over the place, as I found out this summer as I camped and did school work online. I think the idea of putting extra lectures out there will help use time in class more wisely. The podcasts can be five to ten minute clips to help kids tie together what we have been learning in the classroom.
interacive syllabus:
My interactive syllabus will have an outline of what we are studying and when. There will be links to assignments to help with make-up work. I will have links to podcast, videos, news articles, simulations, and any other web based materials that can help my students. Check in as my classes begin to wind down, I will be expanding this interactive syllabus so it is "turn-key" once the school year starts.
Lab report Wiki:
have a new plan I have put together this summer for closure on various explorations throughout the year. I plan to have one wiki page set up where each cooperative learning group (lab group) has a login name and a password, which gives them access to the wiki page. A wiki page simply put is a web page that all members are able to create content, post comments, and make changes. Using our standard format for lab reports, that the students will be very familiar with at this point in the year, to post the lab reports on the lab wiki page. In the lab reports there should be at least one photo from the lab as well. The students will then be required to read three other reports from other groups, leaving suggestions for improvement, comments about what they liked, and other related appropriate comments. Most importantly there should be questions left by groups as they read other reports for further experimentation. The students should also give a score based on a rubric for their own and three other groups’ labs. I will also score each group based on the same rubric and the score they get will be based on a combination of self-assessment, classmates, and my grade.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)