Developing Scientifically-literate Citizens

When I think about how I can help to develop more scientifically literate and compassionate citizens through the study of current, and past, natural disasters, I think back to last year's Earthquake and Tsunami crisis in Japan.  My 7th grade students were learning about seismic waves, Earthquakes, Earthquake safety and tsunamis.  They were very interested in the power that the Earth's plates hold as well as how they can power a major wave that can travel faster than a Boeing 747.  After a long discussion of the effects that came about due to a large Earthquake in the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day of 2006, students were asked to research tsunami safety as well as ways that science is helping people to stay safe from tsunamis.  They were asked to research Tsunami warning systems and write an essay about it, clearly stating how science and technology are involved and how effective these systems are.  After students had handed in their essays and we discussed these warning systems, chaos struck Japan.  My students were shocked. They knew exactly what happened within the crust, and how the tsunami was created.  I remember the day after we got the news of the Earthquake/Tsunami incident, my students said to me, "Mrs. Medenica, you should never assign us essays about natural disasters." They were very much freaked out by the incident, but were also able to sympathize with the people of Japan because they understood the science behind it.  They could question why the warning systems did not work, or the levy's.  They took action immediately by creating a sleepover marathon in the school gymnasium and raised money to send to help those victims in Japan.  There were multiple campaigns happening around Belgrade which we were able to donate the money through.  Connecting students to community organizations to learn about relief efforts is a little more difficult here than in the U.S. Most efforts are to help against hunger, homelessness, poverty, etc...  However, there were multiple online communities which students can go to in order to learn about relief efforts in certain areas.

This is just one incident from my past teaching experience that I can share about the importance of teaching such material.  The beautiful part about the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program where I teach is that we have a Criteria called One World and this is very specific to science, society, and the world as a whole and how they interact together.  For each unit that we study, we always try to link these three things together.  At the moment, this year's 7th graders are studying waves and I plan to teach them about ocean waves, hurricanes, tsunamis, and Earthquakes and how science is involved in the prediction of these forms of natural disasters, as well as how to stay safe in the case of an Earthquake here in Belgrade.

Another thing that I do with my 6, 7, and 8th grade students is current events.  Each week, they select a news article that relates to what we are studying in class. They read it, summarize it, and review it. Then, they post it to their science blogs.  This gets students active in reading about what is happening around them and around the world.  They also are encouraged to read other classmates blogs and to respond to the articles they had written a review on.  

Ask a Scientist Review

For week 2 of the course, we were asked to investigate the website called “Ask a Scientist” developed by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  




After spending some time on the website, I had asked several questions about cells and how they work ranging from body cells to brain cells to cancerous cells.  I found out an abundance of interesting information. I enjoyed the fact that I could ask a question and several answers popped up which I could choose from. These answers led me to more questions about cells and how scientists were able to find out so many things about such small living things that they cannot actually see.  The questions that I asked were not answered by a scientist because it was not until I went back to the website or the third and fourth time when I realized that if I selected the phrase “No, not quite! Don’t worry, we can still get you an answer” that it would ask me for my email and the scientist would respond to me through email.  I do not know why I did not see that before. 


I thought this was so cool that a scientist or other expert would answer my question the best they could.  So, once I found this out, I asked three more questions which I did not get immediate answers to before.  However, I thought it was great that there was already an answer in the database about how the brain stores memories both in long term and short term, but it is still being researched by scientists how brain cells or the lobes are able to do this. 

I found the whole experience very casual, but informative which is sometimes a very good thing because the World Wide Web can be so overwhelming when seeking an answer on Answers.com and other websites like it.  Most of the responses that I got when asking several questions were simple enough that I could understand more complex ideas and this led me to even more questions.  I began with one question about how long cells lived and how long it takes a cancer cell to develop into a tumor and learned so many new things that I had not thought about, like mitochondria DNA which is passed down by mothers to their children.

I envision utilizing this website in a variety of ways for my students. I think it is an invaluable tool for students who ask a lot of questions, for differentiating instruction and challenging my gifted students in their thinking.  I also think that I will be able to use this website as an extension activity during literature circles with non-fiction text.  The discussion director is supposed to come up with questions before the discussion about the part of the text they read and they will be encouraged to enter their question into the Ask a Scientist section of the website so they can understand the answer. This may empower them to lead their group into further discussions and a deeper understanding of the content they are reading about.

References:

Howard Hughes Medical Institute. (2012, March 7). Ask a Scientist: Rich Sherwood.

Retrieved from: http://www.askascientist.org/askascientist/answers/20080912-

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Evaluating Web 2.0 Presentation Tools

This week I explored multiple presentation tools which I could possibly use for my presentation on sturgeons. There were many that I viewed but some were very limited in their tutorials and use and some did not exist anymore.  The three that I will most likely choose from are Youblisher, Slideboom, or Prezi.

Youblisher is very good because it is so easy to use. Basically it is a publishing website which converts your presentations and all other pdf documents into publications with flippable pages. Your presentation comes up looking like an ebook with pages. You even get the page turning sound. One thing that I really liked about it was that you could just click on the page numbers to go ahead or go back, page numbers were located in the bottom. Just a double click on any image on the page would zoom in and you can scroll up and down.  There is a video tutorial both in English and Spanish and you can view samples of recent publications. You can share four different ways. Once you upload your document or take a pdf from an internet source, you will get a url which you can put into your website or blog. You will also get an embed code with a small or large cover preview of your presentation.  I would recommend Youblisher for those who wish to create a more traditional form of presentation, such as a book or magazine article about their topic.  It looks very nice when uploaded from the pdf format once complete. You cannot have videos or animations and it is much less interactive. However, it is in the form of a book with flipping pages which is a nice way to present sometimes.

Slideboom is also very good but it a bit more interactive than Youblisher. It is still the same principle because you are uploading something that you have created in PowerPoint.  Basically, it transforms your PowerPoint into something that can be shared on the web. You can also colect feedback from presentation viewers. There are a wide variety of presentations already created as samples in 100+ lanaguages and 30+ topics such as education, nature, and science.  You can share your presentation either privately or publically. One thing that I thought was an excellent feature is that it keeps all of the animations and transitions as well as any audio narrations that you made in your PowerPoint presentation when creating it. Another really nice element that would be effective when presenting on a whiteboard is that you can write or draw on your slides with a marker and save them with slideboom. I would recommend this to someone who wants to use PowerPoint for their presentation, but also who wants to present their ideas to their web by publishing to their blog.

Prezi is the third presentation tool that I explored. I have been teaching science for four years now and some of my students prefer using this tool over PowerPoint. I find their presentations so fascinating and I love how they can work together on the presentation at the same time either in class or at home. This makes it an excellent collaboration tool.  The tutorials and sample Prezis are exceptionally helpful over any other program that I have explored. However, I do not think that it is as easy to understand or use at the beginning, but once you get the hang of it, it is an amazing tool for presenting.  You can embed videos, images, zoom in, zoom out, you can also type text within text and zoom.  It is very effective and keeps the attention of the audience.  One thing that I like as well about Prezi is that it is more of a webbing tool for gathering information about your topic and then in the end you just choose a path which you want your presentation to flow in.  I would recommend this program for its variety of resources and prezis, the ease of collaboration, and the functionality as a whole.

References:

http://prezi.com/
http://www.slideboom.com
http://youblisher.com/

21st Century Tools to use for Forces and Motion

The topic in the physical world that I chose to research this week is forces.  I have taught this topic for three years now to grade 6 students and it is a perfect topic to teach with Web 2.0 tools and real world applications.  I usually focus on forces (unbalanced forces as well as friction forces) and how they create movement in objects, which then relates to Newton’s Laws of Motion.  Last year my school adopted the one to one laptop program in the middle school and it was amazing what we could do in the science classroom.  Even though I used a few websites last year for students to practice their understanding of the concepts of forces and motion, I found many more today which could be used to develop their understandings even further.  Below is a list of the websites that I found, each one has a different twist on how to use interactive games or slideshows to teach the concepts. 

http://www.learningscience.org/psc2bmotionforces.htm

Motion and Forces website

http://science.pppst.com/motion.html

Force, Motion, & Energy Free PowerPoint Presentation website

http://www.engineeringinteract.org/resources/parkworldplot.htm

Interactive Game: Park World Plot

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/physical_processes/forces/play.shtml

Bitesize: Forces Game

http://www.quarked.org/askmarks/answer5.html

Quarked: Adventures in the Subatomic Universe

http://erinschumacher.com/rcwebquest/part1.html

Raging Roller Coaster Web Quest

http://classroom.jc-schools.net/sci-units/force.htm#8

Science Online: Force lesson plans and interactive games

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/Science/physical.htm

Science Zone: Forces and Magnets

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/10_11/forces_action.shtml

Forces in Action Clip

I do not believe that I would use all of these websites during the unit on forces and motion, but they are a very good selection of quality programs.  Along with interactive games and simulations, other programs that would be possible to use in the classroom during lab investigations would be Google Documents.  Students are able to collaborate on data as well as on data analysis.  They can access the lab report and data both from school and at home and they do not have to work on it at the same time either.  What is great is that I can track who does the work on these documents by looking at the editing history.  Other Web 2.0 tools that students may use are their science classroom blogs they set up at the beginning of the year to write reflections about their lab investigations and they upload photos or videos as well.  They are encouraged to visit at least two or three other student blogs and respond to their ideas.  This is really great for students who are shy to speak in class, their ideas are heard online.  Cell phones are becoming more common in the science classrooms because of all the apps they have on them including a timer, camera, and video as well as others.  I believe the webquest website is well organized and would really help my students to review main concepts of motion and forces, and it guides them through the roller coaster design process.   Through the use of various collaborative, interactive, and internet based research tools, students become more scientifically literate as well as 21^st century literate.  Students learn by doing and learn to make choices quickly when using internet based programs.  I believe that by using this website:  http://erinschumacher.com/rcwebquest/part1.html

Raging Roller Coaster Web Quest, students will be more engaged in learning about forces and motion concepts because they can relate this to their own lives. Most children in my classroom have been on a roller coaster and this will be a great way to reinforce what they know.  Also, they are supposed to design a roller coaster for the park and this is the most exciting part for my students in the past.  This really sparks their interest and they are very energetic about getting it right. 

Challenges around this webquest would be if some of the links do not work.  Also, I have to be innovative because some of the worksheets are not available to me and so I need to create my own for my students.  So, I would probably only use some of this website and then once students are engaged move them towards the design process with a small group on their own.  Time constraints and materials are always a challenge, but should be fine with this project. 

The Heat Is On

This week I completed an investigation about heat transfer.  I used four cups of the same size as well as four different materials (aluminum foil, wax paper, plastic sandwich bag, and newspaper).  The objective of this was to find out about their insulation abilities and how well they keep conduction from occurring.

 

 The heat transfer method that the materials I used were trying to discourage was conduction.  I know this because "anytime there is a temperature difference, there is a natural transfer of heat from the region of higher temperature (in the cup) to the region of lower temperature (outside the cup)" (Tillery, Enger, & Ross, 2011, p. 86).


However, convection was occurring within the cup. "Molecules with higher kinetic energy are moved from one place to another, creating a cycle as one cools and one warms" (Tillery, Enger, & Ross, 2011, p. 87).

I believe that both are occurring during this experiment.  "Conduction occurs primarily in solids, but convection happens only in liquids and gases, where fluid motion can carry molecules with higher kinetic energy over a distance" (Tillery, Enger, & Ross, 2011, p. 87).  However, during this experiment I placed a solid between the two bodies of gases. 

Other materials that I may have chosen for this experiment would be cotton wool, styrofoam, or sponge.  "Most insulating materials are good insulators because they contain many small air spaces" (Tillery, Enger, & Ross, 2011, p. 87).  Even though I found that the aluminum foil was the best insulator out of all the materials that I tried, I believe that adding styrofoam between the aluminum foil would be a really good insulator because of it's air spaces.

 Other items that I would like to try are corn on the cob.  It seems to radiate heat for a long period of time and it would be interesting to see what could keep it warm the longest.  I would also like to try keeping ice as cold as possible, so to try the reverse, to keep the heat from getting in to it.

If I were to set this experiment up for my students, I would probably use the same approach.  I like how there was some structure, for example, we had to use four of the same cups and cover the top with a material that we chose and seal with a rubber band.  However, I would encourage more research about good insulation materials.  Perhaps I would not limit them to only covering the top, but also leave it to them to decide if they cover the whole thing or just the top.

In order to make it fun for them, I would make it into an engineering project instead of an investigation.  Like the lesson plan in this week's resources for students to create ice cream containers, my students could do something similar.

Heat is a relevant topic to students lives.  One way that I could make it even more so would be to discuss with them about leaving car windows up in the summer and how the heat continues to grow in there.  The car windows and interior serve as insulators, not allowing the sun's heat to leave the car. We would discuss the dangers of leaving children and animals in a car during hot weather.  Another thing we could discuss is food containers and cooking which is something every child likes to discuss.  If I were teaching a class on energy, I may discuss with students about energy efficiency in the home with heating.  Students could design an energy efficient home with insulated windows, walls, etc...

I would like my students to understand at the end of this lesson that heat is an energy transfer between two bodies and that it can be transferred three ways.  Not only can it be transferred, but there are ways to keep the heat from being transferred when it is needed where it is. 

References:
Tillery, B. W., Enger, E. D., & Ross, F. C. (2008). Integrated science (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Engaging in Guided Inquiry

          I have been on a trip with my family and have been away from home, so a lot of improvisation had to occur in order for me to complete this assignment.  It just goes to show that guided inquiry does not have to be complex, not all the materials need to be provided for you in a kit, and you need to be innovative. Inquiry does not have to be expensive, but it does have to be engaging.  After thinking about the list of questions, the situation I was in, and what would be the most interesting to me, I finally selected one: How do different surfaces affect the momentum of marbles?

            Now, in the hotel room, I did not have a meter stick so I used the palm of my hand for measurement, which I knew was pretty close to 10 centimeters and my pinkie nail, which is 1 cm exactly.  I set up the ironing board against a bureau in the room and propped it against the desk. I also placed the ironing board at a 30 degree angle so it would be able to gain velocity consistently with the large and small marble before it went across the testing materials.  Then, I took the idea from the video I watched this week and I put the hotel resource binder as a barrier at the one meter point from the end of the runway for the marble to hit.  I also thought about what types of surfaces I could use from the hotel room.  I selected a sheet, a wooden desk, newspapers, and a towel.  These were four very good materials of different textures, even though the newspapers didn’t really work that well.  My hypothesis at the beginning of the experiment was: I think that the bumpier surface will slow the marbles down faster, but the smaller marble will be affected by the surface the most.  When I released each marble, I watched to see how many times it would hit point 1 (the barrier) and point 2 (the ironing board).  If it didn’t reach, I would measure the best I could, and even though it was not a meter stick, I could still see a pattern in my data.

What went well during the experiment?  What did not work well?  The ironing board was slightly bent so it made the marble go to the right a bit and so I had to compensate by setting the marble over more to the left.  The newspaper did not work as well as I had thought because of the creases in the middle affecting the momentum of the marble.  The towel worked really well and so did the sheet and desktop.  The data I collected was reliable and accurate.  I found that the towel stopped the large marble faster than any other surface and the large marble travelled further on the smooth surface of the desk as well.  I also found the small marble got slowed down by the surfaces much faster.  I would say that this was a very successful experiment and it helped me to answer the question well.  I wish I had other materials to try, but I am confident that the outcomes would stay the same.

What modifications would you make to this experiment to get a different or modified result?   I would like to try more materials like sandpaper or wax paper.  I would also make sure that I had a meter stick and perhaps more space so that there does not have to be a barrier to stop the marbles.  

How might you set up this or a similar experiment for students in your classroom?  How could you make this experiment more fun, interesting, or engaging for your students?  How might you design this experiment so that it is relevant to students' lives?  I might actually set up this experiment for students differently, but still I would have an incline for them to use with the marbles.  What I did this year with my students to test how the mass and size of an object affects the speed. I may continue to use this experiment question, but frame it around momentum instead of speed. They would use tennis balls, ping pong balls, styrofoam balls, large marbles and small marbles.  This would allow them multiple opportunities to test many sizes and masses because they often think the bigger it is, the faster it will go, but what about the large styrofoam ball?  It would really get them to think.  To relate this to students' lives, I would have them investigate the affects of larger massed vehicles versus smaller massed vehicles in car accidents, and how much stopping time they both need in order to make a safe stop.  
What specifically would you like students to learn from this experiment?  Did you achieve this goal? I would like my students to learn that the larger the mass, the more the momentum.  The faster an object, the more the momentum as well.  I would also like them to apply it to their own lives when playing sports, riding in automobiles, riding bikes in order to stay safe. 

Reflection on Student Learning

Here is a bit of background about the lesson I gave this past week.  My lesson was designed for my Grade 7 class of 32 students.  We have been studying several aspects of Earth, the moon, and the sun this month including seasons, tides, and phases of the moon.  After watching Magnificent Desolation, narrated by Tom Hanks, students were really interested in how the moon got so bumpy.  So, I designed this week's lesson on impact craters taking them from a historical perspective of what people used to think about the moon and how they once thought it was smooth until the invention of the telescope.  Students looked at images of craters on the moon and discussed the relationships they could see on each.  

The structured inquiry part of the lesson was all about: What affects the appearance of a crater?  

Here are a few images from this week's lesson: Grade 7 scientists at work.  

The students fully enjoyed this week's lesson on impact craters and you will see multiple links below which show the outcome of the lesson within their science blog posts.  Students learned about the importance of following instructions the most as well as making sure that each test was done the exact same way. 

 Students also learned this week that the dropping height affects the velocity of the 5 gram marble which is a direct relation to the depth of the impact site into the flour as well as the crater diameter.  Students learned how to measure diameter of the crater as well as depth which was not an easy task in delicate flour. 

 

Students also learned throughout the week that, just one investigation that is structured is just one example of how scientists can investigate a hypothesis or research question.  They all came up with a variety of further inquiries they could test after this initial structured inquiry.  

Below are student work samples which you can find by following the links to their blogs.  You will see the data, the graphs, and their data analysis, conclusions, and further inquiries.  In some you will see that they have included images from Google Earth as well. 

http://adrianscience.blogspot.com/ (Fully fluent in English)

http://ergiscience.blogspot.com/  (EAL STUDENT-The name of his lab is Marble Dropping Lab below the reflection)

http://jovanasblog-jojo.blogspot.com/  (Student with language support-speaks three languages)

http://blaisesscienceblog.blogspot.com/ (Fully fluent in English)

http://mariasamazinglyweirdscienceblog.blogspot.com/ (Fully fluent in English)

http://teodorasblog.blogspot.com/ (An exceptional bilingual science student)

http://judes7ablog.blogspot.com/ (Another bilingual student with two mother tongues)