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.