A Day in the Garage

Bubble. Pop. Electric.

Science is around us everyday at all times.
We just have to take the time to notice it.

This week we are doing a Family Science Night at the school we have been placed at this semester.
Family Science Night is a time where parents can come with their children to learn and explore more about science in everyday life.  This night gives families an opportunity to engage in educational fun with one another as well as grow together while building fun and memorable experiences and memories.

Ms. Smith and I are in charge of the Bubbles exhibit.

 

We get to teach the kids how to blow bubbles, and how to know exactly when they will pop.

 

You can tell when the bubbles will pop by watching the colors change in the solution and where the black spots end up throughout this movement.

In the garage where I belong

"As a part of design technology, students plan, research, design and construct solutions that lead to a product or a process," (Koch 282).

Ordinary things can be wonderful representations of science.  The garage is a perfect place to find all sorts of technology and scientific processes that are occurring and we easily forget about it.
Cars have electric currents running through them. Science.
Garage door opens through a pulley system powered by electricity. Science.
The washer and dryer use water, heat, and electricity to run. Science.
The lights have an power source that gets them to shine. Science.
Batteries always have some sort of current running through them, hence how they power so many things in our world. Science.
Bringing these elements into the classroom allows students to practice their critical thinking skills, engage in exploration of unknown scientific processes, and create solutions to the problems at hand.


Shine Bright Like A Diamond

 Today in class we were given a strand of lights and told to light them up.  At first we knew to strip the insulation from the wire to expose the metallic underwire, but we still had no power source.  We were then given a battery to use as a power source.

We tried every which way to try to make the lights turn on but no use.
We decided to stick with one battery and apply both metal tips to either side of the battery to connect the circuit and see what happens.

 

We discovered that we were able to light up the two lights, but both did not shine very bright.  They were dull and dim because the energy had to go to both lights instead of one.  From here we wanted to know if we cut one of the lights out, would the other shine brighter because the energy would no longer be divided?

Our hypothesis was correct!  The light shone brighter when there was only one thing needing the energy on the circuit!  

What other things in the garage can you find that has to do with science?

Take a look around and see what you can find!

Come back next week to see what happens in the great outdoors of the forest!

A Day In The Town

Bright Lights and the Big City

"You can feel the electricity, on in the evening air.."-CLG

It amazes me how far technology and science has come in the world we live in today.  Everything we have and are known to love somehow relates back to our advances in science and technology.  But are they really advances?  Do we actually care about the environment and making the world a better place?  Or are we just exercising our entitlement to convenience?

Ignorance is Bliss, or is it?

In America, citizens are born into convenience at their every whim.  We are so consumed with consumer merchandise that it is very easy to forget the resources we are provided with in the world around us.  The process of learning has depended upon memorization, teacher-fed answers, and slight exploration.  The Common Core Standards are going to work on turning education back into true learning.  While reading Koch the statement "open-ended questions-those that lead to multiple answers-are especially important because they help students think critically about the investigation," (293) really struck me.  At first I didn't like the idea, but then I realized why I had such a personal bias against open ended questions.  The education I have received has taught me content in black and white, it was not until upper level high school and college did I encounter what grey area thinking was in relation to school.  If there is no definitive answer, then that means the student must critically think to explain why they feel the way they do about a certain answer.  These open ended questions provide a way to encourage students to dig deeper in their experiences but also their conversational skills.  This type of thinking teaches students to use the resources they have wisely.

Paper, Plastic, Trees? 

Today we received these awesome books (Thanks Kim!)!  The first thing I noticed was that they entire resource was made from recycled paper and I thought that it was neat!  Project Learning Tree is a educational resource that helps "increase peoples' awareness and knowledge about the environment and related issues."  This group also wants to help children (and adults) "develop skills and expertise to address environmental issues, understand the complexity of our environment, and call an awareness to action."  

  

We did an activity today to help us learn more about the environment.

Did you know that all of this:

Pencils, gum, plastic wrap, cloth, corks, leaves, paper, crayons, and sponges...

All come from this:

Trees.  All of it.  Some of the objects obviously came from trees, but others I had NO idea. 

I found this activity extremely interesting and I would love to recreate it in my classroom.  There were lots of things that I didn't expect to be made from trees and then later found out they were; it got me thinking about what other things are made from the environment that I didn't know about.

Baby Got Back

We also did an experiment today dealing with diapers: How much liquid will they hold? What are they made of?  Are cloth or disposable diapers better? 

Our prediction was that the diaper could hold 2.5 cups of water

 

We discovered the diaper (Stater Bros. Brand) could hold 2.5 cups COMFORTABLY and 3 cups sopping wet.  I never really thought about what is in a diaper to hold the liquid a baby produces.

When we opened up the diaper, we noticed that there was a crystalized gelly substance.  When the diaper was dry we found that those crystals were small, white, and fluffy.  After doing research we found that those crystals are actually super absorbent polymers by the name of sodium polyacrylate.

Back to Your Friendly Neighborhood CVS

"Thank you for calling CVS Mission Viejo, where we offer flu shots 7 days a week, this is Bailey, how can I help you today?"

Convenience at its best.

We have thousands of stores like this one all over the United States. 

All of which sell disposable diapers and paper products.

But is this "convenience" really worth it?

27.4 BILLION Disposable diapers end up in trash dumps per year.

It takes an estimated 250-500 years for ONE diaper to decompose.

Convenient "Science" is killing our environment.  

Convenient Education is hurting our future generations.

I want to promote teaching that doesn't teach the students what to think, but HOW to think.  Inquiry based teaching allows this process to occur.  I want students to realize that science isn't just a subject in school, but that it happens everyday all around us.  I would like to serve as an inspiration for my kids to be aware of what is going on around them in the environment and in their homes.

Come back next week when we get down and dirty in the garage!

A Day In The Ocean

A Drop in the Ocean, A Change in the Weather

The ocean is a place where nothing stays the same.  There is constant motion, bursting life, rushing tides, and much more.  These bodies of water that make up a majority of our planet contain things that we know of, and others that we never could have imagined.  The ocean holds secrets within its nooks and crannies that have never been told.  Mystery calls our name from the bottom of the ocean floor.

  

“There was a magic about the sea. People were drawn to it. People wanted to love by it, swim in it, play in it, look at it. It was a living thing that was as unpredictable as a great stage actor.."-Cecelia Ahern

The ocean is a wonderful representation of what science is.  Science is ever-changing like an ocean's tide.  Everything a child experiences will never be the same twice.  The mystery behind science calls us to want to know more.  I want for my students to have this mindset not just about science, but about every subject.  

I want my students to think.  Inquiry is something that has been lost over the years in teaching and I am so excited that Common Core is beginning to once again bring critical thinking and questioning back into the curriculum.  

While reading Koch I found that there were several pointers I would like to implement in my future classroom.  I really enjoyed reading about process skills.  I think it is a wonderful idea to have journals and circus centers in a classroom; the journals allow students to write down and remember their findings that they will experience within the circus centers of different experiments.  I also LOVED the advice of never discrediting what a child already knows.  A child should build off their prior knowledge and encouraging them to explore (even if they make mistakes) is beneficial because it allows them to grow as a thinker.  Why did this experiment turn out the way it did?  Why wasn't it the same as last time?  How can I change the outcome?  If a student never asks why, then what is the point of learning?

In class we had to draw upon (literally) our prior knowledge of what a sand-dollar was.

Once we had our drawings we were able to explore our sand-dollars, fix our initial thoughts, and pose questions about what we didn't know about the specimen.  We were introduced to technology called a proscope.  I think they are pretty cool!  It's a microscope with a light that hooks up to your computer and allows you to display your findings on the screen.

After viewing our sand-dollar on the screen and with our eyes we researched the questions we had come up with.   The most pressing one for me is how does a sand dollar move.  

Click the link below to see what we found out!

How a Sand-Dollar Moves 

Next we got the lovely experience of dissecting a squid.  Normally I don't have a problem with dissections, but today the smell was too awful for me so it was nice to have the option to stand back with a partner who could do the more hands on part of the experiment.  As you can see, my partner was quite excited to dig into our little squid ward.

 

Again we were able to record our questions in our journal as well as our findings about squid.

Did you know that squid have beaks?

That little black thing in the center is its beak.

I had NO idea.

Our squid was a girl.  

She had little eggs in her when we cut her open.

I also discovered that squid have cartilage.  

It looks like a clear plastic knife, but it is actually the cartilage from inside the squid's body.

And of course, I did know that squid have ink to use for protection. 

We, on the other hand, used it to write our initials.

  

All in all, it was a great experience to explore wildlife from our surroundings.  It made me never want to eat calamari, but I am 100% ok with that.

If the ocean is this much fun, I wonder what will happen in town!

A Day in the Kitchen

Science is a Journey:

I remember liking science in Elementary school, surviving through dissections in Jr. High, and experiencing science first hand in High school.  Science has always been a subject that I have been intrigued by, but the second math enters the premises I automatically feel my attitude beginning to change.  Higher levels of math were a continuous struggle for me and when those struggles overflowed into science I remember liking it less.  Teaching science at first look seems messy, overwhelming, and out of control.  Through my student teaching experience I have learned to loosen the reigns a bit on science experiments.  One of my personal goals is to become fully confident in teaching any subject, even science. 

I Want To Start Their Journey And Continue Mine:

 I want to create a love for science amongst my students so that they will be encouraged to explore and want to know more about the world around them.  I would like to experience more of science myself so that I can be more familiar with the material I will be teaching my kids.  The world that we are a part of is saturated in electronics that occupy and entertain our youth.  Science gives children a chance to learn how to play again, explore, discover, think, and create.  I want to be there when my class learns how to function beyond the social media and expand their minds in the world around them.

For My Students:
The biggest question that the subject of science poses is why?  I want for my students to use the knowledge they have, tools they are given, and experimentation to discover the answers they are looking for.  My goal is for students to stay engaged in the material, explore the experiments and world,  explain to others what they are discovering, elaborate even further for themselves, and evaluate their results.  "Science is a process, a set of ideas, and a way of thinking," (Koch p.4).  I yearn for my students to start thinking outside of the box and step into the world of unknown possibilities and answers; I want for them to walk out that door wanting to know more.

 

Soup's On!

In class today we were able to play and experiment with our own soup.  The ingredients consisted of: raisins, shells, popcorn kernels, a blue liquid substance, a yellowish powder, all poured into a pink liquid.  

Our job was to figure out what the mysterious ingredients were and to see what kind of reactions they could give.  

We tried tasting the powder 

 

and discovered that it was extremely bitter.

When we poured in the blue liquid it changed the color of the soup and made the ingredients fizz.  Popcorn kernels floated up and down.

The soup with all the ingredients had the power to put out a match!

 

Eventually we found out that some of the mystery ingredients were vinegar and baking soda.  When these two ingredients were mixed together it released carbon dioxide.  This reaction took away the oxygen and thus blew out the match.

I really liked this activity--it kept me engaged and it was fun! It taught me that science is a social subject--one can most definitely learn with and from others during experiments.  I can only imagine how it would work in a elementary classroom.  

Stay tuned to see what happens next week!

-Ms. V.

Welcome to SCIENCE!

Hello and Welcome! Bonjour et Bienvenue!  Ciao e Benvenuto!  Hola y Bienvenidos!

If you're looking for a place to talk about, explore, and discover science ideas, then you've come to the right place!

What is science?

By dictionary definition science is the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.

But science is so much more than that!  Science allows children to explore, experience, examine, and enjoy the world around them.  

Science is fun.

Science is ever-changing.

Science is:

Some Cool Ideas Exploring New Concepts Educationally.