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.