Thrusday, December 4th

In class on the 4th we worked with our group members on our final lessons. Our group is doing our lesson on states of matter for 5th grade. We finished our lesson plan and dicussed the activities we decided to include in the lesson. Our activity shows how water can be solid, liquid, and a gas.

Tuesday, December 2nd

I was not in class on the 2nd because of a funeral. My group members started our final lesson plan.

Tuesday, November 25

Today we went to Elk Pointe to judge a fifth through eighth grade science fair. It was really interesting and a lot of fun. I looked at all of the seventh grade biological science projects. I think the most interesting were about crest white strips, infected corn seeds, and plastic wrap. The white strip project was created by two girls. They stained two hard boiled eggs one with coffee and one with coke and then used white strips on them daily to see how well they worked. The plastic wrap was created by two boys. They had five different types of plastic wrap to see which would keep a banana most ripe within five weeks. It was neat because the most expensive wrap that was made for fruits they found to be the least effective where as the cheapes Hy-Vee named brand plastic bags were the best. The most interesting of the top three and one I learned the most from was about infected corn seeds and how a type of treatment could still make them grow. The most infected treated and non-treated didn't grow at all where as both the somewhat infected and non-infected grew both treated and non-treated. I honestly know very little about farming and this girl said she grew up on a farm so she really knew what she was talking about. It was really interesting and taught me a great deal.

November 20, 2008

On Nov. 20th in class we started working on our Final project for class. My group and I are teaching a lesson to fifth grade. We collaborated with the groups teaching sixth and fourth. One group is doing volume and one is doing validity.

Novemeber 13, 2008

Today in class was a workday for our Lesson Plan 2. The lesson plan must be based around a children's book. My partner and I decided to use the book Black Bear Cub and teach a lesson on instincts.

November 4, 2008

In class today we saw one final presentation from Amanda, Katie, and Sara. Their presentation was one the four seasons. They began by asking the class what the four seasons were. We had a discussion about Autumn and Fall being the same. They then showed a video about the seasons. Finally they had a color book of the seasons. After their presentation we went outside as a class to shoot off the bottle rockets from Brittany, Brianna, and Andrea's lesson. We used safety measures when shooting them off such as wearing goggles, aprons, and staying a safe distance away. Some of the rockets flew only a few feet high while others went really high. We tried to decide if shaking the bottle before stepping away made a difference in the height. It seemed that when a bottle was shaken, the rockets did go higher. When we went back inside, we viewed a PowerPoint and took notes about assessments.

Oct. 30, 2008

10/30/08
Adam, Aaron, and Brandon were the first to present their lesson and activity today. Their topic was Laws of Motion dealing with action and reaction. I liked how they handed out a pamphlet each group for us to look at. They explained that for every action, their is an equal and opposite reaction. The experiment was when you tape a balloon to a straw that is on a string and let the balloon go, the air flows out and the balloon shoots across the string. This showed action and reaction because when you let go of the balloon (action) it flew across the string (reaction). Ashley and Carrie presented their lesson about taste buds. I really found this lesson interesting because I didn't know about the different sections on the tongue. It was really neat. They had a good worksheet to show the taste buds and the tongue and by allowing us to eat a jelly bean that was very distinct in each taste, we were able to identify those spots on our tongue. Their video was also very clever. It didn't go with the taste bud lesson, but it taught alot of great points about what not to do when performing an experiment. Tessa and Shauna taught their lesson and showed a video about safety during tornadoes. Their experiment was really fun as well because we got to make a tornado and see it swirl and make a vortex ourselves. Erika and Natalie taught a lesson about light and heat sources. This lesson was very creative I thought and they had such great examples of what gives off heat, light, or both. My partner Ryan and I also presented our lesson today. We taught about solid, liquid, and suspension. Our experiment was to mix cornstarch and water which causes a suspension which allowed for the students to see how one thing could be a solid and a liquid. I think this is a cool lesson because students can kind of get dirty with a hands on experiment, but learn new concepts like suspension.

Oct. 28, 2008

October 28, 2008

This Tuesday in class we continued with the presentations. Maddy and McKenzy taught a lesson on chemcial reaction. They taught reactants and products. Their experiment was a mix of hydrogen peroxide, dawn, active yeast, and water. The yeast catalyzed the decomposition and caused it to foam over the bottle top. The next lesson and activity was by Breanna and Brittany. They did bottle rockets. With a mix of vinegar, and a drop of baking soda, a bottle rocket is formed. This activity was really neat, I didn't know that is what would happen. This could be a very dangerous activity so the safety concerns were included in a great way. We had to wear goggles, an apron, and then step away. Nate and Ashley went next and presented a lesson about oil spills. I really enjoyed this lesson because it talked about a real life situation. Oil spills can effect animals lives and this was really neat how they talked about it and showed it.I learned that water on feathers just comes off, but oil sticks. That is why animals are threatened when these spills happen. The last lesson and activity of the day was Eli and Louree. They did OOblak, which is a mixture of cornstarch and water. I liked the way they started off the presentation with dividing the groups up with colored cards. This is very effective for class and splitting groups up to have different jobs. I think I will for sure use that strategy in class.

October 23, 2008

Today in class we started the presentations of our Midterm video lesson plans. Catie and Becca were first to present their Mixture lesson. They started out by asking the class about mixtures such as sand, gravel, jello, ect. They had us make a mixture of jello. This activity was hands on, and we learned about mixtures and how to make a mixture. We also got to eat a sample of jello, which is always fun! Lindsey and Melanie were next with a presentation on Habitats. They showed us an example of a paper habitat that was made in a shoe box. I remember doing this exact same activity in Middle School. It was an ongoing activity, in which each day we added something new. For example we started with what the terrain was like, then what kind of plant like, and finished learning about what kind of animals lived in the habitats. Lindsey and Melanie explained their lesson with very similar focus as what I remember doing. The next group to present was Kelli and Angie. Their lesson was on sinking and floating objects. We had to predict whether or not random household items would sink or float in a small bucket of water. A few things that surprised me were that a pencil and a crayon both float. We found that a pin would sink as well as paper clips, beans, pennies,and grapes. This was a great way to teach children about predictions and the different properties of objects in which cause them to sink or float. Megan and Brooke also presented their lesson about mixing water and oil. It was a neat activity in which we mixed the two and then added food coloring. It was very cool to watch the mixture because the oil did not turn colors because of the food coloring only the water and the bubbles of the oil did. It looked somewhat like a lava lamp. The last presentation of the day was Whitney and Danielle.Their lesson was about living and nonliving things and what made them different. It was a good lesson with a very entertaining and cute safety video to go along with it.

Oct. 21, 2008

October 21, 2008
Today we went over the Reading Module for RSS ch. 5-6. We learned about talk moves,talk formats, and classroom talk and argument. Talk moves are things such as revoiceing, student restate, applying reasoning to other students reasoning, teacher prompting, and allowing time. These talk moves are ways to generate further discussion of ideas. Teachers do not always need to be the only voice heard in the classroom it should be a balance of teacher and student led discussion. We also talked about modeling, and learning progressions. We concluded class with the Leaping Egg activity. We put a ping pong ball in one cup and blew on it trying to jump it into another. We discussed why the ball flew the direction it did, based on where we blew, as well as the strength of the current.

Oct. 16, 2008

October 16, 2008

Today in class we just worked on our midterm video projects some more. My partner and I finished our lesson plan and developed some fun ideas for our presentation. I think our experiment is really unique and it would be so fun to do in a classroom because the students actually get to hold things in their hands and get a little dirty!

Oct. 14, 2008

10/14/08
Today we discussed our Midterm projects. We talked about what is required, the rubric, and the video. We got with our partners and worked on a lesson plan that was pretty much planned already by our outlines. Dr. E showed us a video on youtube.com on how to make a video. I have learned throughout my college career that youtube, is a great website. It has fun animated videos that would work for a classroom, as well as informational videos such as the one we watched in class. I have used youtube videos in a few lesson plans I have had to present in school and I know as a teacher I will use it more.

Oct. 9, 2008

Oct. 9, 2008
We did not have class this day but had an online assignment. We were assigned a midterm project and had to create an outline for it. For our midterm project, my partner and I chose a third grade standard that states "Students are able to demonstrate how a different substance can be made by combining two or more substances." In our video, we will be performing an experiment that third graders will be able to perform and discuss safety issues during the experiment.

Oct. 7, 2008

Oct. 7, 2008
On this day in class we took notes and looked at a PowerPoint about Safety in the classroom. I learned that as a teacher we need to be organized to help things run smoothly. By being organized, I will be able to keep track of the students, and what is going on in class during lab. We also did a mirror writing activity. It was a really fun activity. We had to try and write our name using the mirror reflection. It was actually very difficult to write without seeing your hand.

Jessica Murphy

Web Seminar

I wish I could have experienced the actual web seminar but I wasn’t able to due to work. But I certainly still did learn a great deal from seeing the presentation and looking through the PowerPoint. Some things I learned are that stars are primarily made up of mostly Hydrogen which makes them glowing balls of gas. Mass is the main factor that plays a part in how a star is formed and eventually dies. I guess I have never thought about a star “dying” before. Really it means that the star died in an energetic explosion, if it is high mass, engulf planets losing outer layers and becoming a white dwarf if it is medium mass, or just puffing out and becoming a white dwarfs if it is small mass. Some more information I learned is that high mass stars are bright and have short lives where as low mass stars are less bright and have much longer lives. I find this really interesting because though a high mass star’s life is considered short, it is still hundreds of millions of years long! I know I don’t know a great deal about astronomy, but this seminar taught me some fun facts about stars. They are great big balls of gas that live millions-billions of years fully of hydrogen and helium.

Oct. 2, 2008

October 2, 2008
This day in class I was gone because I was at the Rosebud Indian Reservation observing for a different class. In class though, we discussed Ch. 3 and 4 PowerPoint and did a Mystery Box experiment like Ms. Winter's from chapter 4.

The PowerPoint talks about how all young children think of the domains of science similar. An example used in the PowerPoint is that Biology is basically species living or non-living. All children get this core idea. Children also understand cause and effect based on their observations. Children are such observers when they are young, they realize that things are connected. Children, being observers, don't always conceive things as they actually are. Children are misled about things, but because they are active explorers, young children are able to adjust their thinking. Elementary and Middle School years can completely change a child's thoughts about a aspect of science. Children also learn organization skills and when they are able to organize their knowledge, they are able to organize principles of science. To help students learn the organizational skills to apply to knowledge, research shows that building on core concepts over a long period of time is effective. To achieve this goal, teachers must work cooperatively and work to help students gain a deeper understanding of scientific concepts.

Sept. 30, 2008

Sept. 30, 2008
We did not meet in class on this Tuesday but we did a Module 2 Reading Guide over ch. 3 and 4 of Ready, Set, Science. The reading in these chapters discusses helping students become critical thinkers. We should not just teach children facts about science, we need to help them expand on the ideas of science. Young children are observers of the world, and chapter two discusses how we can help students grow from misconceptions they had from simple observation. Chapter 4 discusses teaching over a long period of time. I like this idea because the students become life-long critical thinkers, and the content of science can be looked into much deeper. This chapter did a good job at explaining this idea through the case studies. In Ms. Winter's class, she did a Mystery Box experiment. This taught the young children about wood, metal, and plastic, as well as listening skills. They also learned reasoning skills by taking educated guesses about what was in the box. As the grades progressed, the material was more difficult and in depth, but student had a framework on which to add more information.

Sept 23, 2008

Sept. 23, 2008
In class today we learned about acids and did an acid testing lab. We found that when you slowly squirt 5ml of vinegar into a cup with 1ml of baking soda, a reaction happens which causes bubbles. When the same experiment is tried in a bottle that has an air tight stopper, we saw the syringe raise up due to carbon dioxide gas rising. It was really interesting to see the syringe move all the way out becuase of the reaction that was caused by the vinegar and baking soda. I learned today in class that baking soda is an indicator of the presence of acid. That is why vinegar reacted and let off carbon dioxide gas. Because baking soda is an indicator we used it to mix with different fruit juices to see how acidic they were. We found that lime was the most acidic of lemon, orange, and grapefruit juice. All four juices bubbled a bit, but lime was by far the juice that reacted most.

Sept. 18, 2008

Sept 18, 2008
During class today we went to a different classroom that gave us access to technology and we used an interactive website to learn about nutrition. This website was very colorful, interactive, and useful. It would be a great site to use with students while teaching a lesson about health or calories. The internet is full of great websites like this one in order to get students engaged in science and do a hands on activity. I think science is a content area that is learned effectively with hands on experiments. Using technology is a great hands on tool to keep children interested and engaged in the information they are learning.

Sept. 16, 2008

In class today we discussed chapter 2 of Ready, Set, Science. This chapter discusses the four strands of science. 1) Understanding scientific explanation, 2) Generating scientific evidence, 3) Reflecting on scientific knowledge, and 4) Participating productively in science. These four strands are the skills we hope our students eventually acquire. I learned that in order to be proficient, we need to view science as a body of knowledge as wells as an evidence based enterprise.

In class we also discussed classroom and lab safety. We made a Safety Game Activity that would be fun to play with students in the first week or two of school to help them learn all of the safety rules while in the classroom.

Sept. 11

Sept. 11.2008
We were introduced to the Ready, Set, Science text. We were given a lot of information on the reason science is so important. It can be the foundation for language, logic, and problem solving skills. Science is also extremely important to help us as citizens understand what is going on in our community and world. We also learned about the new vision of science education. We as teachers need to look at our students and realize they could be future scientist. We need to guide them through science instruction and help them understand all of the different strands of science. By helping our students realize science is not just mixing chemicals in a lab, but also about things such as plants, animals, and the human body, we may help them realize they want to be doctors or veterinarians. Science has endless possibilities and when teaching young children, we need to help them see all the things science can offer.

-Jessica Murphy-

Sept. 9

Sept. 9, 2008
We did the Temperature Probe Response Time experiment. Within our groups of 4, we used the Easy Temp Probe and the TI-84 graphing calculator to test the amount of time it took for the probe to reach it's maximum heat when being placed in ice cold water then hot water. After placing the probe in ice water for 20 seconds, then moving it to hot water, the temperature jumped from 45.3 degrees Fahrenheit to 94 degrees Fahrenheit. We found that the relapse time (the time it took to reach max heat which was 94 degrees) was 29 seconds.
This lab was a great lab because the directions were pretty easy to follow and it required us to work with technology as well. The TI-84 graphing calculator graphed a chart of what our temp X time looked like. Our graph shot up right away and then leveled off at the 94 degrees.


-Jessica Murphy-