Natural Disasters

With the current aftermath of Sandy. We are personally effected.  To help raise awareness with students and the community, the students could host a food drive.  To make it a school wide effort classes can compete to see who brings in the most food.  Additionally, they could start a pennies drive, were students bring pennies in from their home to donate.
To make it more personal, teachers could arrange live webcast with schools that have been displaced from their buildings.  This would make the connection more personal and real to the students.

Evaluating Web 2.0 Presentation Tools

For this activity I explored Prezi and Ahead presentation tools. For Prezi, I watched the tutorial.  This appeared to be user friendly and easy to navigate.  It is easily accessed.  It does limit the ability to collaborate and file share.  There were several capabilities that allowed multi-media, photos, animation, sound, and videos within the presentation.  It was engaging because of the way that Prezi lays out the final presentation.  Unlike power point that appears in a slide show. Prezi uses an interactive board that displays the images and videos in a connection process that is not set up as a slide to slide presentation.  It shows things interconnected. 

Ahead is an interactive program that allows users to share their presentations, move and drag the parts of the presentation.  It has the ability to zoom out and in as you click on various parts of the text with your mouse.   This keeps you on your toes because depending on were you click, will determine what you see.  It also has the ability to present like a slide show.  However, I liked the interactive use of the screen. You can grab the text and move it around. It lacked a tutorial to show how to set it up.

I would recommend prezi since it is more user friendly.  While kids are technology savvy, they have to understand how to navigate the software they are using.  Kids may not have the knowledge to know what software program to use to help design their presentations.  It's helpful to narrow down that list.  They are able to upload videos, pictures, animation, and sound.   

Heat Inquiry

For my guided inquiry, I was able to observe all three forms of heat energy. However, in this guided inquiry lesson, I explored and tested conduction to determine which materials acted as a better insulator. The materials I tested were permeable and non permeable materials. I used tin foil, a paper towel, a cloth, and a plastic bag. The tin foil was the only non permeable material. I expected the tin foil to be the best insulator in comparison to the permeable materials.

This experiment used all three forms of heat energy.  Radiation was used to heat the water, the actual temperature readings involved conduction, and convection was experienced in between thermometer readings. The results amazed me. I decided to take temperature readings every 5 minutes. Although the lesson asked to take a temperature reading after 30 minutes, I wanted to see a collection of data over time so that I would have more results to compare. The tin foil was the best insulator. However, the results from the cloth amazed me. The cloth was the second best insulator at retaining heat loss. Shockingly, the plastic bag did worst than the paper towel. This was insightful to me because when I made my prediction, I felt that the paper towel would be the worst insulator. Over the course of my data, it was amazing to see how the tin foil continued to drop by 5 degrees each time. The cloth, the paper towel, and the plastic dropped by 10 degrees each time.

In the future, I’d like to test other non permeable materials to have a comparison to the tin foil.  Materials like glass, metal, and heavy plastics.  I feel that the metal and glass would act as the best insulators. This is because they would trap the heat unlike the permeable items that allow heat to escape through the material its self.

I’d like to test other food items to determine what materials should be used to keep food warm.  I’d like to also test other types of liquids.  Liquids like hot chocolate, tea, and coffee, since these are liquids we want to keep warm.  I feel that food items like meat would stay warm longer since it’s denser compared to vegetables, rice, or pasta.  The liquids, I’m not sure which would stay warm the longest.  That’s a tough call.  I’d predict the hot chocolate since it is denser than tea and coffee. 

For students in my classroom, I’d give them various types of materials to test for heat retention.  I’d use a Styrofoam cup, a plastic cup, a ceramic cup, and a metal cup.  I’d have students test using a thermometer which cup heats up the fastest.  Then I’d have them test to see which material retains heat the best.  I’d heat the water and have students take initial temperature readings with the 4 cups.  I’d have students take several readings to see which cup stays hotter longer.  Than I’d have them place these cups in another cup with ice and take readings.  This will help them determine which materials are conductors and which are insulators. To make it relevant to the student’s lives, I’d have the students create a product based on their findings that will transport food. They’d have to create a cooler that serves as a dual purpose.  They have to be able to keep food cool and heat food up. The purpose of learning this lesson would be to help students determine what materials act like good insulators and conductors.  As well as arrive at what is the function of an insulator and conductor. I feel that since I achieved this with my own inquiry lesson that the students would also. 

Science Journal

For my Guided Inquiry, I set out to explore how different surfaces affect the momentum of marbles.
The results that I found , I began to ask many questions.

After identifying the problem, I began to brainstorm how I was going to find the answer to this question.  I noticed that the marbles were different masses and wondered if the mass would affect the momentum of the marbles on the different surfaces.

My results were as follows: The larger marble with more mass gained more velocity as it rolled down the
ramp. As it hit the smaller marble at the bottom of the ramp, it transferred more momentum into the smaller marble causing the smaller marble to travel further on both surfaces. The marble traveled the furthest on the smoother surface. However, the smaller marble with less mass did not gain as much velocity down the ramp. When it hit the larger marble with more mass, this marble barely moved on both surfaces. Therefore helping me understanding that the more mass an object has the more velocity it gains and momentum. The less mass an object has the less velocity it gains the less momentum. From this experience, I even discovered the affects that mass has during a collision.

The exploration of this guided inquiry experience allowed me to gain insight on the impacts that different surfaces have on the momentum of objects and how momentum transfers between objects.


Modifications to this lesson would include:  Teaching the components of motion  prior to this lesson.  Design away to keep the force consistent.  Reduce the amount of variables that could be been tested during this guided inquiry. It may be helpful to minimize or control the amount of variables for students.

Students would greatly benefit from the freedom of this exploration activity. However, there needs to be some constraints with variables and the force applied. It would also be beneficial to assign each group a different variable to test. Then establish a cooperative learning environment by allowing the groups to collectively discuss their findings. This collaboration would allow students the ability to interact with their peers and discover the answer collectively as a group.

POLAR ICE CAPS

As the polar ice caps melt there are various impacts that are placed on the delicate ecosystems within this biome. The melting icecaps will cause increased sea levels, temperature increases, and a decrease in salinity levels.   As the ice caps melt, sea levels will rise causing low lying areas to flood.  Additionally, the influx of fresh water from the melting icebergs will decrease the salinity levels, and increase the temperatures of the water.  These slight changes impact ecosystems that are delicately balanced.  Not to mention the loss of habitat space for animals that rely on these sheets of ice.  The impacts go beyond flooding with increased sea levels.

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