Final Vision Statement

After reviewing my initial vision statement I have discovered that my ideas for how to teach science in the classroom wasn’t that far off.  I had the idea that the students should have many hands on activities the only part that was missing is that it should be inquiry based.  Classrooms usually support the activity or kit portion of the science experience.  Though during this experience students are told the hypothesis where in inquiry based the hypothesis comes from the students questions (Shifting pg. 15).

Through this inquiry based classroom the learner should be fully engaged by the scientific questions.  These scientific questions can be generated by the teacher or by the students.  While the students are doing the tests they are making observations and gathering evidence to use to develop their explanations to the questions. Students then evaluate their explanations by comparing them to other outcomes that occurred in similar labs.  The students then communicate their answers to their peers.  In the communicate portion the students must use logic and reasoning to back up their explanations. 

I also believe that for the students to thrive in the classroom they need to know that they are safe to share their ideas with confidence and without ridicule.  The students need to view themselves as a community of learners working for the answers and not just as individuals trying to pass a class.  This environment starts on day one where the class starts to work as a community instead of individuals.

I believe that the students need a place to write down their explanations and observations and science notebooks are the place for that writing.  “Various forms of expository writing—procedural writing, narrative writing, descriptive writing, labeling, and other styles” occur in the science notebooks (Gilbert 30).  These notebooks help students with their writing skills in many different areas.  It is an outlet that has many purposes and one that I will use in my classroom.

I believe that teacher must discover the prior knowledge and misconceptions that the students have about the topic being discussed.  The teacher must break down the misconceptions to be able to provide the students with accurate knowledge (Stepans).   If the teacher does not break down the misconceptions the student may file the new knowledge in with the previous misconceptions and come out with a false account of the concept (Watson). 

I believe that students learn best in an inquiry based classroom, where they are engaged in the topic.  I would make my classroom inquiry based and have the students use the science notebooks to help aid in their learning process.  I will discover their misconceptions and bring them to the student’s attention to be able to convey the accurate information.

Quotes:

“Various forms of expository writing—procedural writing, narrative writing, descriptive writing, labeling, and other styles…”  Gilbert, Joan and Marleen Kotelma. “Five good Reasons to Use Science notebooks in the classroom.”

“Teachers can take steps to prove misconceptions or to break them down after they have formed.”  Stepans, Beiswenger, and Dyche. Misconceptions Die Hard. 

“If alternative views of scientific principles are not addressed, they can coexist with “what the teacher told us” and crease a mishmash of fact and fiction.”  Watson and Konicek.  (Sweater Article). Teaching for Conceptual Change: Confronting Children’s Experience.

“…the working hypothesis is clearly defined by the teacher prior to experimentation while in inquiry, it arises from the student’s questions and is based on their experiences.” Moscovici and Nelson. “Shifting from Activitymania to Inquiry.” 1998. 

Science Teaching Reflection

Day 1:

I went into the day feeling prepared for the part I was teaching for the day.  I was still a bit nervous since this was my first actually experience of teaching a lesson to Elementary aged students.  Once we started teaching I was really into the topic and engaged with the students.  The students were engaged and enjoyed the oobleck very much.  I found it very easy to tie back to the vocabulary terms they have been using.  There are a couple of things I would improve on.   First off I would make sure every group member knew what was going on during the oobleck demonstration I was leading.   I also wish I would have done more to get to know the students before today because I felt like I did an okay job connecting with them but it would have been better to know more about them so I knew which students needed the extra challenge.

Day 2:

Our lesson plan that we wrote was very similar to the Foss Kit. We decided to go with the Foss kit on this day since the students had already observed the powders from the kit during a previous lab with their teacher.  Their data would be supported by the observations they recorded while just writing notes about the physical observations using their five senses.  I severely underestimated how long it would take to get all the materials set up from the kit. I wish I had more to prepare the stations so the students would have not had to wait so long from when we got there to actually start the lab.  We had the students sit in groups of six since we were working with six different powders.  The group I was working with, each student worked with one powder and recorded the results from the four liquids mixed.  We let the groups decide how they wanted to test the powders, if each person take a powder or if each person works with one liquid and test all the powders.  The groups then had to communicate their results to the rest of the group to be able to compare their observations.  While walking around I saw students talking with their tablemates on how they would describe the reaction that occurred.  They were really working together to fill out there charts. 

The students met our learning performance goals.  They were able to verbally express the difference between physical and chemical reactions.  They also worked through their definitions of the two while working on the lab on day two.   Also they discovered in the oobleck experiment, that there are some exceptions to most rules. They discovered that oobleck was both a solid and a liquid.

On both days I felt like time was flying by so fast and the steps were taking longer than we had expected.   We stayed longer than we were scheduled to on both days, but our cooperating teacher didn’t mind one bit.  We didn’t accurately account for how much time the students would need to be able to write in their science journals about the differences between chemical and physical.  I also didn’t think about added support some students might need in the area of spelling.  It didn’t even cross my mind that it might be important to write the words they were working with on the board.  The students were very engaged while working on both days.  They were enthusiastic about learning science, and that was such an awesome feeling.

I have learned so much through this experience and am excited to get to teaching as my career.  I now understand that is some extra work to have an inquiry-oriented science classroom.  I put in a ton of effort to prepare for the first day with all the oobleck.  The reaction from the students is what made the whole experience worth all the hard work.  They expressed how they never thought science could be this much fun. I personally like the lesson and wouldn’t modify much except maybe allowing the students more time with the powders that they worked with on day two.  I would want to give students time to research about oobleck to be able to know more about it.  I would connect the oobleck cross curricular with using it in reading and math so that the students have it in all subject areas. 

Pendulum quiz question

What is their swinging experience and why.

The experience will be that the motion of the swing will be at the same angle as the bar the ropes are connected to. Since the length of the ropes are not the same length the person will be at an angle due to the angle of the post the ropes areconnected to.

October 6th

October 6,2011
Evaluate 
peer to peer.  
students show teacher what they think they have and teacher ccomments on it
use the internet
bring in an electrical expert
wirer a house...model house

Pendulums:
Found: Add more mass swing does not change

Can test:
String length
Angles
Force
Huge variety in mass
Resistance
Can the pendulum go all the way around.
Different types of string

Pendulums

1. Personal experience with swinging on anything.
Swinging on a swing set. Swinging on the top bar or the swing set. Being on a ride that swings back and forth. monkey bars.

2. What applications to "real life" do swinging objects have.
Pendulums swinging back and forth.

3.What is your prediction about what will happen if two people are on one trapeze and only one is on the other and then one switches to the other. Explain (in terms of mass)
The trapeze who receives a person would gain more mass and it would cause it to be harder to gain more momentum since there is more mass whereas the swing who losses a person has less mass which is easier to gain momentum. It is a transfer of energy from the one with to to the one with just one.

4. What science understanding do you have about things that swing back and forth.
Gravity tends to slow down objects that are swinging back and forth at a rate.
Speed of the swinging objects travels at a specific rate


Predictions:
The more washers you add the slower the rate of swings made within the 10 seconds.
The weight would cause the momentum to slow down to not be able to make a full swing.
One washer: 12
Two washers: 11
Three washers: 10
Four washers: 8

Moving Beyond the Science Kit: Explorations of Electricity and Atoms

When I first started reading Ms. Stone section I was bored out of my mind.  I wanted to tell her that these are fourth-graders and don't need the labels to figure out how the wires should go, if students were truly having a problem with this she could give helpful hints.  As the teacher she should challenge her students to figure out how to construct a circuit or if she likes giving step by step instructions she should have at least let her students guess what circuit they made by the definitions on the board.  Not all students were engaged in this activity since there were not enough supplies for them to work in groups smaller than four.

Ms. Travis used an engaging question to discover her students’ misconceptions about the topic of electricity.  During this questioning time she is asking the students to give reasoning and proof from their thinking process instead of just accepting their answer.  Doing this requires students to think about their thinking.  She also used an attention getting, hands on activity on the first day that allowed the students to explore.  Their homework was based off of what they encountered and making rules to fix what they saw.  Their homework also prepared them who the next day. I really liked that Ms. Travis didn’t use the kit on the, I feel that when using the kits most people take the easy way out like Ms. Stone did. They do exactly what the instructions say instead of pushing the students to discover for themselves by posing questions to guide the students exploration. I really liked that Ms. Travis did extended lessons off of the kit that would make it more relevant for her students’ lives. She kept the students engaged throughout the days of learning about electricity and all of the activities that went along with it.  This article really showed how far a teacher may have to go to make sure their students are in a rich learning environment.  Ms. Stone requested that flashlights be bought so that the students could take them apart and manipulate them to explore the fine details of a light bulb.  By doing this it lead the students to ask more questions and really become involved in the learning process instead of sitting on the sidelines and being instructed on what to do. 

It was very interesting to see a teacher use the kits in a more inquiry-based way instead of teaching straight from the instructions.  I am going to use this as references to model my teaching after because it shows it is okay to use kits if you use them in the right way. 

Batteries, Bulbs, & Wires

What is the smallest number of wire strips Kirsten needs to make the build light up?
B. Two strips of wire. Because the has to be a full circuit for the electricity to be conducted through to the lightbulbs.

________________________________________________
Can light a lightbulb with one wire, one battery and one light bulb light?

Yes it can

Series Circuit:

Parallel Circuit:

Simple Circuit:

Pink sheet:
Strengths: Lets the students explore more. Challenges the students to use the minimal amount of supplies to make a circuit. It allows students to keep trying.
Weakneseses: May not discover the different types of circuits (simple, series, Parallel)

Yellow sheet:
Strenghts: Very structured.
weaknesses: Students don't get to explore on their own and figure out for themselves.

Physical Science
Content standard B: Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism.
Benachmark: Electricity in circuits can produce light. Electrical circuits require a complete loop through which an electrical current can pass.

Leanring goals: what students should know?

• Electricity should be in some sort of a circuit.
• Electricity produces light. 

Learning performances: What do you want students to do to show they know?

• Create their own circuits to produce as much light as possible.
• Show multiple ways to make a circuit.
• explain the difference between simple, series, and parallel circuits. 

Magnets

1. what are some "real life" applications of magnetism?
Picking up dropped nails on construction sites so no one steps on them. Fridge at home to hang stuff up. Screwdrivers have magnets on them to attract end. Clothing censors. MRIs. Phones have things to do with magnets. Credit cards. roller coasters

2. what experiences have you had with magnets in your life?
Using magnets to push/attract mables. Picking up nails when fixing a roof.

3. What ideas do you have about science of magnets?
With magnets polar opposites attract. Posivitve and negative attracts. Positive/ positive and negative/negative repel.

4 types of magnetic elements
1. Iron
2. cobalt
3. nickel
4. B

Can pick up paper clips when holding a magnet without the paper clipls touching the magnets because they are within the magnetic field.

Can connect three papers together to a magnet then pull them off as a group and they will stay magnetized (aligning the electrons)

Post: How do the results compare with your predictions? How do you explain this?
 The results really conveyed my misconceptions about magnets.  I predicted that a lot more things wouldn't break the field that actually did. I got caught up thinking that if it conducted electricity that it had some sort of magnetic field.  I don't know where that came from but it was in my brain that way.  I remember magnetics from freshman year of high school.  Though I couldn't remember the specifics. I totally blanked on the questions my mind just wasn't prepared for this topic.

Post: "Play around" with the magnet and paperclip activity materials and see what interest you about them. What questions you come up with? What would you like to explore next? What don't you understand?

Questions: Why isn't the magnetic field broken once the magnet is pulled away from the paper clip? Does the magnetic field wear away after a certain time and how long does it take? Why do same poles repel?

I would like to explore how other magnetic fields last in other items compared to paper clips. I would also like to explore how electromagnets would because they sound interesting.

I understand that opposite poles attract and same poles repel but is the reason they repel have to do with the fact that the magnet works like a circuit and that putting an opposite pole at the end would just continue the circuit whereas putting the same pole would reverse the circuit? The force starts in the north pole and continues to the south pole and the force of both south poles against each other is enough to make them repel.

Why do some magnets look like this? Looks like it repels some of the filaments but it attracts others?

When other magnets have this effect on iron filaments.

The maglev train:
The guideway is the magnetized coil running along the track that repels the large magnets on the train.  Levitation occurs from this repelling process. The electric current is what pushes and pulls the train.  This current is what allows the train to reach up to 310 mph.  These trains can be found in Japan and China. The United states are trying to make a slightly slower version. This would train would have it's own specialized track which would cut down on train crossings.


learning block:
Physical Science: Content Standard B:
Light, Heat, Electricity, and Magnetism
Benchmarks: Magnets attract and repel each other and certain kinds of other materials.

Learning goals:

• there are four types of magnetic elements.
• Only the things containing the four types of elements can break the magnetic fields.

Learning performances:

• compare their predictions to the data they collected
• categorize objects based on if they contain magnetic elements or not (which would break the magnetic field).

September 20, 2011

September 20, 2011

activity mania  
In order to promote inquiry, teachers should clearly define conceptual goals and the relationships to students' lives and interests prior to selecting classroom activities
One result that is expected.
inquiry classroom takes time. 

INQUIRY:
engaged
evidence
explanations
evaluate: reassessing what was previously stated. Look for errors that could arise. It would look like discussions, bringing in experts.
communicate: decide where to go from here

Feature of classroom Inquiry

Learners are engaged by scientifically oriented questions:

1. The why and how are important for this feature. This feature also needs to have questions that the students want to know and they are able to figure out on their own that isn't too broad. Teacher guides the identification of questions coming from students. This allows the students to experience both interersting and productive investigations. questions posed by the teacher must be meaningful and relevant to the students.

2. The teacher needs to make an atmoshpere where the students feel comfortable to ask questions to help further their understanding. By doing this would allow the students to access their prior knowledge to answer their questions to figure out an answer. Without this the students wouldn't feel comfortable to do inquiry. When they answer these questions they need to use reliable resources to back up their claims. This is the initial hook for students to inquiry.

3. In a classroom the teacher proposing a topic and the students ask questions related to this topic. The questions refer to the hows of a topic. The teacher is the facilitator of the questions the students ask. It is oaky for the teacher to pose the questions because students and teachers take a joint role in the learning process.

4. The teacher is posing questions, but is rejecting questions from students because they are not answering the teachers specific questions. Technically the teacher had the students engaged by the questions though we were offended that he wasn't able to be flexible with students questions.

September 15

September 15th 2011
Homework INSES chapter 1 and 2, activity mania article: new post reflection on each


What should they know is often handed to us as teachers
What they do to show what they know (learning performance):
give students control and give them innovative way that gives them choices'
 diorama
 youtube video 
test

standards/benchmarks NSES
  science as inquiry as the fallback for telling your principal
Standard A: 121
        Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry 
        Understanding about scientific inquiry
It will be one of the two bullets on the test!! 

benchmarks 122
        Ask a questions about objects, organisms, and events in the environment.  Fine tune goal is a part of the black explanation of the benchmark
Understanding about scientific inquiry:
        123 one of the bullets is the benchmark

written in box it is the standard 

Learning performances table
        as we go left to right it gets more in depth
        as we go down it gets more complex
        this is how we differentiate our instruction
                some kids we would give an A+ for just conquer the first box others we have to more them over and down to benefit their learning.
        *use this as a tool

Domain: remember 
to recall something from memory 
Example: Astronomy
Factual Knowledge
        Knowledge of details and facts
                Students list the names of the planets
Conceptual Knowledge
        Knowledge of interrelationships, principles, theories and models
                Students write the planets in order, closest to farthest, from the sun
Procedural Knowledge
        Knowledge about how to do something, conduct inquiry, or use a skill
                Students will identify the parts of a telescope
Meta-cognitive Knowledge
        Self-knowledge, knowledge of ones own cognition
                Students will recognize the vastness of space is hard to comprehend

slide of Deriving learning performance from standards 
class example will be on the test. midterm will have one column is 

# of content goals should be very limited!! 

learning performance what they are actually going to do
midterm 

LTI: conclusion
Hypothesis: 15 ML would end up having the most mold coverage per square

New experiment:
PH levels and mold growth
Hypothesis:
        More neutral ones will produce the most mold. followed by the more acidic ones and lastly the basic ones will have the least mold. 
 procedure: 
        used gloves and dishes to cut out bread circles. and places in dishes
        the bread sat on a paper towel. 
        we tested the Ph levels of all of our solutions we chose five of them:
                Control: Water
                being tested
                        olive oil
                        lemon juice
                        windex
                        diet coke

        use only 5 ml because our previous experiment showed that too much water is hard to gauge 
        poured the 5 ml so it would stay in the square.
        
kept them at room temperature 
starting temperature: 25 degrees celcius 

INSES Chap 1 and 2

This article really shows that inquiry can come from a real life situation and that questions that are posed come from this real life situation.  It would show that the students can really problem solve by being the ones that pose the questions to the problems.  

Activitymania

inquiry arises from students questions and is based on their experiences.

I think it is a good idea that kits are prepared and are available to teachers however I feel that they need to build on each other.  The kits are just used as a fun way to gets students involved however they are not truly inquiry based activities.  The activities are very short and are pre-planned whereas inquiry is felxible in its planning and the student's pose the questions. I think it would be hard to incorporate the kits on their own I would much rather use them in conjunction with inquiry based learning.

Long-term Investigations

Long-term investigations
 
Make sure you label things - CLEARLY
 
1.Collect final materials – qualitative and quantitative
2.Construct bar and line graphs
3.Complete conclusion and address earlier prediction
4.CLEAN UP YOUR MATERIALS!!!
5.Develop plan for new experiment
1.What do you want to test?

2.What new materials will you need?

3.Who will be responsible
 
***YOU WILL INCLUDE THIS DATA AND INFORMATION IN YOUR FINAL
   LTI POWERPOINT PRESENTATION
Must be reproducible!!!!

Challenge Me

How is your view of science teaching changing as a result of viewing the “Challenge Me” videos and thinking/making posters about National Science Education Standards about teaching?

I not sure that my view of how science should be taught has changed much from these things.  I have thought of many activities that I want to incorporate into my classroom because of learning about the standards and seeing the "Challenge Me" videos. I feel as all my classes area overlapping and discussing how inquiry is the best way to teach students. The students should pose questions and work through them by problem solving and figuring out new ways when they get stuck. Students should keep questioning for further understanding and experiments that could be done.  I feel like none of this occurred in my science education.  We had a set hypothesis we were testing and once we found the answer that was it, we weren't allowed to ask further questions.  There are labs I did that I feel like the teacher showed me the answers and didn't give me the hints that could of allowed me to the discover the answers from my own reasoning. I have learned that there should be adequate time for the students to ask questions and work through their answers to full understanding.  I agree that topics should be taught for depth ad understanding.  It is more beneficial for the students if you start from what they bring to the table and then cover the topics in depth instead of relearning all the concepts every year.

School of the Wild Reflection

On September 9th, 2011, I had the opportunity of volunteering my time at the School of the Wild.  As my day started I was filled with a nervous anticipation because I had no idea what to expect from this experience.  The second I stepped out of my car I was at ease because the scenery was breathtaking.  I was ready to learn.  Meredith informed us before the students got there that these sixth graders were having some trouble being a community.  The students would get along with the teachers however they had many issues getting along with each other.  So Meredith switched to having community building activities throughout the day to help the students build their community.  When the students got there every student received a card that had an animal (there were six different animals).  Once they put their backpacks down they were instructed to find others with the same animal by just doing actions and not showing anyone their cards or talking.  It was challenging for the students to not be able communicate and some of them didn’t follow the rules however for the most part it was very effective. 

I was with Jason in the Prairie group.  We spent the morning in the garden and it was an eye opening experience.  As we got to the garden Jason pointed out this small plant and how it protects itself from predators.  Whenever this plant leaves get touched they close up so that they don’t look appetizing to the predator.  The leaves stretch back out within a half an hour or so.  The students were fascinated by it, as was I, it was a prime example of how plants adapt to the environment to protect themselves. We started off our adventure by playing the game name that plant.  The kids were very engaged in this activity even the students who seemed quiet and distant when we first got into our groups. This experience allowed the students to think more critically and creatively just like the article discussed. Our fun task for the morning was to make a snack for us to have.  The students tired to guess what they might be making while we played the name that plant.  Many students were having side conversations as to what they might be making.  The students were really engaged in the environment, which is a great learning environment to have. The most engaging part was making our own pesto dip.  It was an amazing experience to pick fresh herbs and grind them to make a nice dip.  It really showed the students how their hard work and dedication can really pay off.

During this experience, I truly got a feel for how classroom management really changes things. I was in a group where the students were very cliquey.  However Jason worked his magic and got them to work together as a group and not leave anyone out.  The group I was with had a different environment then some of the other groups because I was in a group with one chaperone and no teacher.  She was working on setting the ground rules to earn the students respect, which wasn’t going over well.  I felt that the students responded better to me since I was closer to their age one of the girls was talking to me about Jersey Shore.  I also got to work on my classroom management skills and how proximity really works to gain the students attention again.  I was unable to actually give my lesson plan because we ran out of time though Jason talked with the group how worms really help out.

Another point from the article is that it is good for the students to get out of the classroom so the don’t lose touch with the world around them.  I feel students get so caught up in the technology around them that they forget what a wonderful it is outside.  This weeklong experience is a great way for students to explore the natural environment around them.  For me it was such an amazing experience that I will carry with me throughout my whole teaching career.

Lesson Plan:

Read: Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin

Reason: I chose this because I thought it had an interesting twist on how even small worms are helping the Earth out by doing their part.  It shows how important Earth is and that we always need to remember that it is important.  In the book it shows Earth’s importance by talking about it on the first page and then again on the last page.

Questions:

·      What is one thing you enjoyed about this book?

·      If you were a worm, what would you see if you were wiggling on the ground and under the earth’s surface? (write what you would see or draw a picture)

·      Worm’s do their part but what can we do to help Earth out? (pick up our trash, walk or bike instead of drive, plant plants and trees.)

Iowa Core

The Iowa Core incorporates the key concepts that need to be implemented into the curriculum that all students in the state of Iowa need to be taught. This concepts are to better the students and prepare them for college and their career.  I was intrigued that for the core subjects there were anchor standards that would help the students for college and their career.  I thought they could have easily put it as making students into a well rounded person, because these skills are needed in any life a student would choose. The website also discusses skills that all students


With each passing grade they are asking you to build on prior knowledge that your students have gained throughout the years. Therefore, they are saying the the foundations is learned in kindergarten and built on every year.  It isn't taking in to account what the students are bringing to the table.

September 8 2011

pre formative: adds depth and gives enough data to be able to get an overall understanding of the concepts. Have low, medium, and high questions
Formative: Main purpose to use to guide your instruction.

moodle activity
Can send it home over the summer and have the kids do it before school starts to be able to jump in an go.

Mosart Response

I thought it was a really eye opening experience going through these tutorials.  It amazed me how students so young already have these extravagant explanations about a topic even though it is the first time they have learned the topic (the heart video).  I know that we saw this during the Stanford video as well that people make up the details to help them comprehend what they don't understand.  The students are constructing reality by filling in the holes.  I thought it was crazy that the actual average of questions right on the misconceptions was around 50% instead of the 80%. I think you need to cover what your students lack instead of everything they already know.  You may want to lightly touch on the concepts but don't spend too much time if they are already understanding it.

Environmental Education in the Schools Response

I enjoyed this article and thought it was empowering to "light a spark" in the students and the community they live in.  It is important to teach the students to think and problem solve for themselves.

Keeley Article Response

I'm becoming unsure with how to truly deal with these misconceptions that students form before they learn about a concept or idea.  I know that it is good to bring these misconceptions to the surface to be able to know what needs to be address throughout the unit.  However I don't think giving a multiple choice test where the students pick the best answer will truly show that the misconceptions have been addressed and the students now understand the concept in the proper way. I truly believe that all multiple choice test really show is who is good at guessing or who can use deductive reasoning to figure out the two best ones then going with your gut.  It doesn't really show what the students understand and what they don't quite grasp yet.  I feel like it would be better to simple have the students explain to you what they know about the topic being discussed.  A KWL chart can be made or they can simply write in their notebooks what they know about the topic and what they are unsure about dealing with the topic. This would allow the students to get their thoughts and questions out in the open so that they can be addressed when discussing this topic. It would also allow them to reflect during and at the end of what they know now and what they are still unsure about regarding the topic.

Sweater Article Response

I was thrilled when reading this article that Mrs. O'Brien allowed her students to figure out for themselves that the conceptions about heat weren't always true. She could have simple stated that sweaters don't produce heat that they only help sustain heat but that wouldn't prove to the children that what she was saying was actually true.  She made sure the students would understand by letting them test their knowledge about sweaters giving off heat.  I also liked that she allowed more than one test and didn't just cut her students learning off after the first test.  The students were able to test other questions or reason as to why the sweaters weren't changing the temperature on the thermometer.
I also liked the term the "construction zone" as the area where students prior knowledge can be connected to new terms and concepts that are relevant to the students learning.  That making predictions adds to the students willingness to accept the outcome even if it shows that they are wrong.  I find that to be a huge thing in giving the students the right tools to be able to accept their misconceptions and be willing to change them based on new discoveries and knowledge.

Crash Course

hello centric: the sun is in the middle.
geocentric: everything goes around the earth

helio centric that the sun is fixed (just for our talk, to look at our own solar system)
stars wander and we always tilt pointing towards the north star
one day: a rotation
one year: an orbit
23.5 degrees from the sun

earths tilt away from the sun, we receive more indirect sunlight and that is what causes winter.
tropic of capricorn:
tropic of cancer: points on the earth as the sun gets the farthest to the south/north that receive direct sunlight from the sun.
prime meridian
equator
equanox: equal day of sunlight and darkness. 12 hours each

phases of the moon:
full moon: when the moon is on the other side of the earth from the sun.
moon and sun always stay opposite of it.
new moon: when moon is on the same side of the sun.
quarter moon:

lunar eclipse: Moon is on furthest from the sun and all three (sun, earth, moon)are in a line
has to be in the right place based on the orbit of the moon.

Once in a blue moon: two full moons in the same month

Sun and eight planets (plane of the ecliptic) are all in the same plane and all lined up. whereas the moon is not in the plane of the ecliptic, the moon dives in and out on its own orbit.

solar eclipse:
If it happens in Iowa it does not happen in the reverse side of the Earth.

Private Universe

What are your best understanding about.

1. How the phases of the moon occur?
The phases of the moon start off with a new moon, then a crescent is formed, the a half, then a 3/4 moon, these all occur in the waxing stage. Then there is a full moon and then the moon goes into the waning stage where it does the reverse order of the waxing stage.

2. What causes the seasons?
Earths orbit around the sun and the tilt of earth on it's axis.

3. What causes a lunar eclipse?
A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth moves between the sun and the moon causing the moon to disappear.

Peters Article Response

"We also need to keep in mind that reality is something children construct from their own actions (pg 29)."

This article reaffirmed all that I had previously thought about how many subjects should be taught in a social constructivist way.  That the students learn best through doing and that their stage of development needs to be taken into account but that shouldn't hinder allowing the students to construct their reality. The quote above really spoke to me about the topic that students bring so much to the table that wouldn't be known if we just used a teacher-centered approach and didn't let the students show us by doing.  That they is no right or wrong answer, that the best way for students to learn is to simple expand their minds and challenge their reasoning.  It is huge to have students reflect on what they have learned and how it differs from their preconceived knowledge about the topic at hand.  All I remember from school is that the teacher lectured, we read the textbook and we took the test.  We either knew the stuff or we didn't and we didn't really grasp the topics in an experience way.  The topics I learned in school only sat on the surface they didn't come close to being deeply rooted in our development and learning process. I did learn some strategies that I could use but I was told about them and I was never allowed to practice them in real world situations until those situation occurred to me in real life.

Krajcik response

"Tell me, and I forget
Show me, and I remember
Involve me, and I understand"

Social constructivist model has many aspects that I would include in my teaching methods.  The goal of all teachers should be to actively engage their students in the tasks at hand.  It involves spinning a not so interesting topic, that must be taught,  in a way that all students would actively be engaged.  It seems like an  impossible task because all students are different but this is where knowing your students comes into play.  This model focuses on learning as a social interaction, that students need to be able to ask questions and bounce their questions off others around them.  By bouncing their questions off others they are able to mold their understandings to explain a concept.  A way to actively engage the students is by doing hands on activities. I know that all of the things I remember from growing up involves activities that I physically manipulated.  I don't remember all the worksheets that I did even though I know that there were a ton of them.  Students need to have multiple means of how to represent their work and findings.  It isn't as easy to assess these multiple ways as a teacher but it shows more than a number from a test.  Students know so much more than what the test is testing them over.

Misconceptions Response

It was interesting while reading this article that high school and college students had trouble labeling how the objects would fair in water.  It never occurred to me that students who should be taught the same concepts in each grade would have misconceptions about that concept.  It was also interesting that students who have been taught the concepts over and over again skill have the same misconceptions about the concept.  My only reasoning for this is that once the students learn it once and hear it again they automatically refer back to their previous knowledge and if it doesn't confirm what they know then they reject it.  I personally feel that a ton of the misconceptions people have about a concept has to deal with the way in which they learned the concept.  I feel that if the student was lectured on and did not have an opportunity to engage in what was being taught then they have a higher probability of storing the information wrong.  This article helped confirm my belief that we have to always keep in mind what the students bring to the table instead of where they are projected to be at.  As teachers we have to uncover the misconceptions that the students might have stored into their memory.

Rising to Greatness

This article really frustrated me because it was purely focused on test scores.  This sends a bad message to students that all they are is just a number on a standardized test and that all the teacher needs to focus on is rising that students number.  It does not take into account the growth that a student makes throughout the year.  There is more to being a person than scoring highest on a test; more focus should be put on actually retaining the information to be able to recall it in the future. Another thing that bothered me was that they talked about how are scores were around the national average and said that was pretty much awful since we were once at the top.  However, they didn't mention what the highest states had done to raise their scores that could help Iowa raise it's scores as well if we mimic their strategies.  They wrote the article as if Iowa had dramatically dropped in scores when in all reality we have reached a plateau with no means to climb higher.  I would be more interested in reading an article of what we can do instead of how bad we are.

Five Good Reasons to Use Science Notebooks

When reading this article I was taken back to my summer in block A where we discussed and investigated how students can greatly learn from keeping a writers notebook.  I believe the same is true for science notebooks.  When keeping a writers notebook the students learned the concepts by doing and trying them out, not from being lectured on them. I believe science needs to be learned in the same way.  The science notebook are an important way to give the students a space to get their ideas/questions/observations down, where they can go back and review when doing inquiry to see if they answered the questions they were after.  It also gets them to think deeper of how to answer these questions.  Meta-cognition is a huge aspect for students to understand so they can deepen their thinking and reasoning skills.  Having notebooks would allow the students to constantly review to be able to think about their thinking.  I would have science notebooks in my science classroom for all the benefits listed in this article and some others.  I think having notebooks allows students to use multiple means of representation to be able to get their thoughts out.  Students could draw pictures, sketch graphs, and write sentences as ways to express their ideas and observations.  As the article stated I agree that this is extremely important of ELL students.  Studies show that it is important for students to learn in their first language before they can learn and transfer what they know to a new language.  By using the notebooks they can draw their observations and write in their native language to begin with as they are learning English and all the rules.  

Initial Vision Statement

I have mixed feelings about my experience in science education. When asked about my science education on the first day of class I immediately thought of high school chemistry and how dreadful that class was, though it could have been because the teacher was odd.  We did many hands on labs but they really didn’t expand my on the concepts from the textbook, which caused for much confusion.  Once we all said our experiences in class I started to remember activities that we did in elementary school.  All of the things from elementary school that I remember were activities that we experienced, they weren’t things that we read from the textbook and did worksheets on.  I remember in second grade we did a unit on the rainforest and it was amazing.  We all came to school and the hallway outside of the second grade rooms had transformed into the rainforest.  There were trees in 3-D that spanned the hallway.  However there were no animals at all in our rainforest.  It was a huge attention getter as all of us were eager for science class, which came after lunch.  When class started our teacher had us close our eyes and imagine if we were in the rainforest what would we see.  We then each picked an animal that we saw in the rainforest of our imagination and we had to make that animal to be able to hang in the second grade rainforest.  Another experience I remember was making ice cream and silly putty in fourth grade.  I was always interested in science and nature but when I had chemistry it made me have a bad view of science.  It wasn’t until Biology II where I was reminded of why I liked science so much.  The teacher was amazing and we did many hands on activities that kept the class engaged and active. 

            I believe to receive a quality science education many hands on activities need to occur because students remember more from the experiences that you do instead of the ones they read about.  Using inquiry and the scientific method are key components in an effective science class. Keeping the students engage in the topics being learned is important for their education as a whole.  Keeping them engage doesn’t come from reading the textbook and doing worksheets on it.  This engagement comes from discovering a problem and working through the scientific method to analyze the problem. 

            I would use inquiry to teach science in my classroom.  Many times in life you have to discover why things are occurring in certain ways.  Investigating why things occur drives the society we live in and this should be reflected in school.  I would make this effective for my students to learn by keeping them engaged in the topics.  I would also provide a safe community where the students feel comfortable to express their ideas and thoughts without rejection from their peers.  It needs to be an open environment to be able to have the optimal learning environment for all the students.