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.