12/2 and 12/4

Classes these days consisted of working on our final project. The final project was a bell ringer project, which means something to get the classes attention and to allow them the get ready for what is going to happen in the lesson. The two days we worked in class in our groups to finish the project.
Although I thought this idea was going to be kind of difficult, it turned out to be fun. For our project we created a quiz for our class to let them have fun while seeing what they know about the subject area before the lesson and what they know after. We thought this would be a fun way to see what the students already know and what might need to be taught a little more clear. The subject we did was the different states of matter. I think doing a quiz before the lesson shows you how well you taught to the students and if you need to change. If they do bad on the quiz after it shows they didn't understand the way you were teaching the area.

11/25

For class today, we quickly went over some questions in the end of the reading guide. After that, we discussed the main ideas for our experiment and got started right away. Our experiment today dealt with a lot of different different objects you use in everyday life. We used objects to see the vibrations and the sounds they made. Some of the objects included things like a tuning fork, telephone (string connected to 2 cups), ping pong balls, and other objects.
While doing the experiment we noticed many different things. When trying to get sound to travel through the string, it had to be tight or the sound wouldn't go through. Also, while we used the tuning fork, when it was put into a cup of water it splashed the water out of the cup, gave a tickling feeling on the cheek, the ping pong ball on a string bounced of the tuner, and sounded like a buzzer on the table.
These little experiments were fun to do, and would help to show the students how sound travels through vibrations.

11/20

Class on 11/20 consisted mostly of going over the reading guide and different ideas people in the class didn't understand. This is a great way to get the point across to everyone. A review day is needed in every classroom to make sure students are understanding the ideas you are going over. Dr. E also showed some mini experiments to allow us to comprehend ideas in the chapters. It showed us that if students are not understanding an idea you can bring in outside objects in the classroom so they understand it more clearly.

11/18

Today was kind of a mix day for us. We did many different things in class including going over our reading guide, and doing some fun experiments. We went over the reading guide, which is always helpful in better understanding the ideas. I think going over students homework allows them to ask questions to you as the teacher, and to hear the idea from someone else, not just reading it. After going over some of the reading guide, we then did an electroscope experiment.
The experiment was a fun one of younger children, and lets the comprehend the idea of electroscope. The experiment was to put clay in a film canister, then drinking straws into the clay. After the straws are stuck in the clay, the experimenter extends the straws in opposite directions, and makes sure the heights are the same. To start the experiment, you tear off two pieces of tape and press them on the table then quickly remove them and stick to one arm of the straw and repeat with 3 other pieces of tape. After doing this, bring the arms close together to see them attract or repeal to each other.

11/13

We finished our bottled up experiment this day. It was a little less rushed, so things actually got accomplished. We set up four different plastic bottles (or glass depending on which you had) we put a different material sock around the bottle (wool, cotton, none, wet cotton) then filled it with hot water. We then put the thermometer in the bottle and took the beginning temperature and then the temperature at the end of three minutes. This experiment showed us that the wool was the sock that kept in the most in the bottle. It was a fun little experiment that could be used in a classroom as long as the classroom has access to hot water. Make sure when working with young children that the water is not too hot, it might be an experiment that would not work for younger children because they won't be able to handle the hot hot water. Always make sure an experiment is appropriate for your age group!!

11/11

We didn't have class this day because of Veteran's Day. It was a nice chance to catch up on some of the things going on outside the classroom. Also, for an elementary teacher always remember to celebrate the holidays but allow for it to please everyone!

11/6

Class on 11/6 was a mixture class. At the beginning we reviewed the reading guide which is always helpful when doing the guide yourself. There are many ideas that might have been missed or misunderstood if we did not go over the reading guide in class. After we quickly reviewed the guide, we set up an experiment about which bottle would keep in the most heat. We had four different bottles hot water and different socks to cover the bottles. We then used the hand-held computers with thermometers attached to get the temperature. The experiment seemed to be a little rushed, which happens, so we didn't get the correct things to happen. The computers were not accepting two different readings, so we had to wait till the next class to do it. This day showed that little things in the classroom can happen, and as the teacher and leader your going to need to know how to fix them. If your having students use something you need to fully understand it first, and Dr. E showed this great knowing how to change the computers to read two different things.

11/4

November 4th class was a review day for us. On this day, we learned about energy and heat. We took a lot of notes, but went over some great ideas. We learned about thermal energy which deals with temperature and heat. The temperature is actually related to the average kinetic energy of particles in a substance, and that we use Kelvin as the measurement for this. Thermal energy is the total of all the kinetic and potential energy of all the particles in a substance, the kinetic energy increases as speed increases. We also learned that heat is always goes from warmer to less warm objects. Specific heat means that some things heat up or cool down faster than others. An example would be sand and water.
Although days where all we do is take notes are not fun, they are very much needed. Doing days like this builds up the experiment days. Without background knowledge on why things work the way they do an experiment would be pointless.

10/30

Again we did the experiments for the class. There were so many more fun experiments throughout the day. We gave our experiment this day and showed the different insulators, and which one would work the best if you were going to have a party and were buying cups. Our experiment went over well, and it was a fun way because I'm sure most students didn't predict that the styrofoam would be the best insulator. On this day, one of the groups had trouble getting their experiment to work. I felt so bad for them, but realized that this probably happens a lot when doing experiments in the classroom. This shows that you really need to do an experiment a couple times before putting it into your classroom to make sure it works. Although they did the experiment prior to class and it worked, they still had some trouble. You need to be prepared for things like this to happen to you, and have many different back up plans to go to.

Class 10/28

Class on Tuesday the 28th was the experiments set up by the students in our class. There were so many different fun and creative experiments for different age levels that were given this day. I think that it gave everyone some good ideas to use in the classroom. One of the experiments that I thought was fun and creative was the smashing egg experiment. They had the different forms of eggs sent around to show how an object can change but be the same. Then they had the class predict how many children's books it would take to smash the egg the was molded in clay. I predicted only around 22 books when really it took around 40-60 I believe. The experiment would be fun to do with children because they would get very excited when the egg finally did crack and would be amazed that it would take that many to crush it. Having this excitement would allow for you to put the concept in their head easily with them being able to remember it.

Class 10/23

During this day, we had a class discussion day. We discussed the difference between density and pressure. Density is m/v, and it can't have a different density of the same material, the ratio is the same. We also learned about pressure. Pressure is: P=fw/a or n/mm squared. I was glad that we discussed this in class and went over the different formulas. They are sometimes confusing on what is really being asked. After reading it in the book then having Dr. E go over makes things become a lot more clear. This showed me that as a teacher I might think the ideas in the book make sense because I really understand them, the students might not. Taking time out of our day to go over what we read will allow for less confusion and more understanding about ideas.

Class 10/21

During class on Tuesday, October 21, we look at a fun website that made us really think and predict. It was called the Bouncy Affect, and what the website did was had an object that weighed so much on the normal surface, and weighed it on the scale while it was under water. I predicted that the scale on top would go to zero when the weight is under water. It will lighten the weight when it hits the water. I was half correct on my prediction. The weight changed when the object touched the water.

Class 10/16

For this class, we mostly went over the study guide or reading guide. Doing this in class is a great way to catch up and terms and ideas that you don't understand. It is sharing ideas about things in the book that other students in the classroom understand better than others and the other way around. Allowing for this to be an open discussion makes the students who don't feel comfortable sharing not have to share and those who do can help run the discussion. Allowing for this open classroom in the classroom every once in awhile allows the students to feel helpful and needed.

Class 10/14

Class for 10/14, we made paper airplanes and experimented with them. We were required to make an airplane before class and bring it in to see which design would fly the longest. There were so many different options and styles of airplanes, I didn't even know you could make it that many different ways. After showing off our different planes, we made new planes from a handout. The handout was neat because it told you different ways to make your airplane fly. It also showed you ways to fix your plane if it was flying a different direction. Some examples would be if it veers left or right: gently bend the vertical part to the left, and throw it again. It told why the plane was doing that too so that was neat. This little "experiment" would be something fun for a classroom, kids like to do things like this and it would give them a chance to have fun with it. Most little boys love building paper airplanes so it would be able to show off their skills!! Also, you have to make sure to tell your class that even though its fun and were doing it in class, outside of the experiment its not allowed in the classroom.

Online Class 10/9

Class for Thursday, October 9, was an online assignment. The website that we went to was a very interactive site that would be good to use in a classroom. I think that being able to go online for some of our classes is a great way to show that science can be fun through technology. It showed us ways of getting our students to be more excited about a science idea by having them guess or predict what will happen on the screen. This site was a website about shooting a cannon. Although it might not be fitting for a classroom environment due to the shooting aspect of the cannon, the idea is great. It showed us the best angle you need to be able to shoot the cannon the farthest (45 degrees). A great way to get them involved would be to have them shout out (nicely of course) which angle they thought would make the cannon go the furthest.

Class Tuesday, Oct. 7

I was actually unable to attend class for this day due to sickness, but I still learned some new things from the students who were at class. We discussed our mid-term project, and got into groups. The mid-term project is to get with a partner and design a lesson plan that you could use in your classroom. The lesson plan will be presented to the class, and must be something to deal with science.

Class Thursday, Oct. 2

Class today consisted of going over the website that we did on our own on Tuesday. Going over this in class allowed me to see better ways of doing the experiment, and more options throughout the website. Showing the website in class allowed me to see what other students were able to figure out themselves, and some ideas that I might be able to use in my own classroom with this website experiment, and some ways to bring technology to my children's eyes in science.
Also in class this day we did the "Paper Airplane" Experiment. The experiment just showed us the proper way to fold a paper airplane to make it fly the farthest. The experiment also gave tips on things you could change on the paper air plane if it was flying a certain way. Ex: If the plane veers left or right. Gently bend the vertical part to the left if the plane veers right and visa verse. We then proceeded to go into the hall and see who's plane would fly the farthest in our group. My unfortunately flew the shortest time only flying for .52 seconds. The other two times in my group were 1.32 seconds and 1.1 seconds. The planes tended to run into the halls of the hallway, so that didn't always allow them to fly the longest they could.
I thought this experiment was a fun way to show science. It allowed us to have fun and learn at the same time.

Online Class for 9/30

Class on Tuesday, September 30th was an online activity. The activity showed weights, that you could attach to springs to see the friction that the weights caused. Putting heavier weights on the spring caused the spring to be more stretched out, and fall down faster. Having lighter weight barely moved the spring. On the website you could also change the softness/hardness of the spring as well as more or less friction. When I changed the softness and hardness of the spring I didn't notice much chance to the way the spring bounced. But, when I change the amount of friction it was very noticeable. If you put it to no friction the spring would bounce a lot, but with lots of friction the spring bounced once but then came to a stop. It was also interesting to see the different changes of the planets. If you changed the button to the weight in Jupiter the spring stretched out a lot. This website would be a fun way to show elementary children the ways of friction. It is a great interactive website.

Web Seminar

Instead of class on 9/25, we were required to attend an online web seminar. This was the first time that I have ever attended an online web seminar. It was a great experience for me, and I learned a lot of things from it. Going online with other teachers gave us a great chance to talk with them about some things that they did for their own class. I thought when someone asked what ways do you do experiments with a little budget was a great question. Some of the teachers had great ideas, like using baby bottles instead of cylinders and so on. I thought the seminar itself went really smoothly. Although, there was technical difficulties with the speaker cutting in and out throughout. Overall it was a very great experience for me. I also thought it was kind of enjoyable to see that professionals who are out in there job are still looking for ways to stay on top of their education. The seminar discussed stars, from their birth to their death. It was an interesting way to go about learning about this.

Class 9/23

Class on 9/23 was just much of the review of the reading guide. I thought that this class was very helpful in review for the quiz that we had to take later that night. It was a nice chance to see other students views on the questions that we were asked to answer, and other ideas that I could put for my own answers.

Class 9/18

Today, we got to do our Graphing Your Motion experiment with the hand held computers. The point of this experiment was to use a motion detector to graph your motion in quick movements and slow movements. We set up our motion detector in the room and used a clip board to have a flat surface on us. First we moved back slowly, causing little movement on our graph. Then, we did the same thing but moved back more quickly. Doing this caused more movement on the graph. Then, we were supposed to try and match the graph that was shown on the computer. To do this, we had to go forward towards the motioon detecotr, back, forward, then back again. I thought this part of the experiment was fun, because it made you really think about how it worked to get the movement correct.

Class 9/16

This class was a rather crazy one. We start an experiment using little hand held computers. After much confusion it was realized that the new technology wasn't misbehaving it was some technical errors. This showed me that things can go wrong when your teaching, so you just have to have some back up plans.

9/11

Class on this Thursday was basically review of our last experiment and took some notes. We found out the equation for kinetic energy which is KE=1/2mv f2. Also we found out that the round container contained more kisses than the tall one, even though all but one group agreed they looked the same. We were told that cilinder objects can hold more with their bubbled out sides than the straight sides of a tall skilly object. Our class notes were about motion. We learned what motion was, the equation for speed, and some graphing skills. Speed=distance/time.

Class 9/9

For class on Tuesday, September 9, we took some notes throughout the class. We went over some general things such as "science is about thinking and doing...", how science is in our lives, and the scientific method. The scientific method is: start with a question, a tentative "guess", a prediction about what would happen if the hypothesis is correct, experemental test, and a statement that ties together the important parts. Also during this class we went over the "Kiss Experiment". It was an experiment that had us finding the energy of a kiss. We also guessed which jar had more, the tall one or the round one.

Class 9/4

Class for our first day was pretty typical. We just went over the sylibus, made name tags, and got to know each other. After this class, it seems as though things throughout this should be pretty fun and interesting.