Increasing Science Instruction

To really inspire students to enter the field of science, I believe that they must experience science outside of the school day.  In previous years, I ran a program called “Club Invention” that was aimed at getting girls excited about STEM education.  We met weekly (for 16 weeks) after school from 3 to 4:30.  This program allowed the girls to work together to solve a science related problem.  They would have to design and build something and then test it to see if they met the presented problem.  For example, one class had to build a boat that could hold the most weight.  They worked with their team members to study the concept of buoyancy and then design a boat.  The girls were always excited about each task and could not wait to come back each week.  I even had two girls rearrange their schedule so they could miss their softball practices every Wednesday.  I was so amazed that they would rather be in school than playing the sport that they loved.  I hope one day they come back and tell me that the Club Invention program helped to inspire them to enter the field of STEM. 

The problem that our district faces is creating continuity across all grade levels.  The high school teachers expect labs to be done one way, while the middle school teachers do it another way.  We have even had students come back and say they do the same labs at the high school.  To me this is a HUGE problem because the work should be increasing in difficulty as they progress throughout the grades.  To solve this problem, we met and created a lab write up for all of the grade levels.  We also discussed which labs should be moved to the high school level and which should stay at the middle school level.  Since establishing these new guidelines, I feel as if our science curriculum has improved.    

My reaction to the article “What’s Our Sputnik?”

Although I was a little taken back by the author’s brutal honesty, I have to agree that I am also worried about the future of the United States.  I think one of the main problems with today’s society is the lack of motivation with the younger generations.  My students would rather spend their free time social networking than studying.  They also idolize people like Snookie and Paulie D and think that they are going to get rich from being a reality star.  Kids need to know that 99.9 percent of the world works hard for what they have. 

I think that a Sputnik-like event might spark attention and make science education in the forefront but I do not feel that the younger generations will be affected by this event.  We need to find ways to inspire students in the field of science.  This means that teachers must be 100 percent committed to their students.  They must find a way to make science enjoyable and capture the attention of all their students.  In order to accomplish this I think the government and state officials need to provide more money to the sciences.  Teachers need to be trained in the areas of STEM and inquiry science.    

Modeling Earth Science Instructional Plan

For my lesson plan, I focused on modeling the three types of plate boundaries; convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries.  This was something that I discussed in my week 4 post.  I was originally going to do the activity that I found at:  https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1340776_1%26url%3D but decided to try something a little more engaging.  I chose a similar lesson except the students used graham crackers and honey to model the three boundaries.  After they modeled the boundary with the graham crackers, they had to determine what type of geological event would occur at this boundary.  This information was given in the background information and was also discussed during the introductory PowerPoint.  The graham cracker model effectively demonstrated mountain building at convergent boundaries and volcano building at divergent boundaries.  If you did not recall the information learned in the background section, you would not know what geological event was occurring at the transform boundary though.  I had to remind the girl that I was working with to refer to the front of the lab for additional help. 

Has anyone ever performed this activity before?  If so, how did you effectively demonstrate a transform boundary?     

Below I added a few pictures and a brief description of the lesson:

 

Modeling a Divergent Boundary:  First the student had to hold the graham crackers (tectonic plates) next to each other on top of the honey (asthenosphere).  As she pulled the graham crackers apart, the “magma” filled in the gap and eventually cooled and harden forming a volcano.  

 Modeling a Convergent Boundary:  With a new set of materials, the student had to take the graham crackers and push them together.   As the graham crackers met, they began to buckle up and form a mountain. 

Modeling a Transform Boundary:  Once again, the student had to gather a new set of supplies.  This time she placed the graham crackers (tectonic plates) next to each other and had to slide them past each other.  This geological event was not as obvious as the others, but she eventually figured out that she created an earthquake.  

Investigating the Earth and Beyond: Showing Compassion for Others

In this week’s discussion post, I touched on the importance of having compassion for others when natural disasters strike.  When the tsunami hit Japan last year, many of my students felt unaffected by this event.  They could not imagine why anyone from the United States would help out this country.  The response that I heard from numerous students was, “why should we help out others when we have so many homeless people in our own country?”  This question really threw me off because in my mind people are people and we should all help each other out.  My students did not view it this way.  That night I went home and created a PowerPoint on the tsunami in Japan.  I started out the presentation by explaining what a tsunami is and how they form.  I then discussed the events of this particular tsunami.  They were shocked to learn how high the waves were and how much of the coast it covered.  Giving them the specific mileage meant nothing, I had to actually compare it to something they knew.  When I did this, I could see their hearts open up to these people.  Next, I showed them pictures and video clips of the event.  That night, a large number of my students went home and looked up ways they could help.  At the time, one organization was donating a dollar for every origami bird they received.  The following week, I had about 500 origami birds on my desk all done by my students.  In the middle school, students are still very egocentric and need to be reminded of the world beyond their eyes.  I believe that small things, such as taking a day out of the curriculum to have a teachable moment, can be life changing.                 

Ask a Scientist!

I wanted to learn more about the reproductive system of the Indiana Bat and wondered if it is possible for them to have twins.  So far I have not heard back but I am hopeful that I will learn more by the end of this class. 

Even though it takes a while to hear back from the scientists, I think this tool would be great to teach my students.  My students are so curious and ask me everything under the sun.  Sometimes they will even email me at all hours of the night saying, "I couldn't sleep because I was thinking about..." and actually expect me to answer them immediately! (They are so funny) Now any time they have a question they can pose it to an actual scientist and share the answer with the class.  The only down fall is that by the time they hear back they might not be interested in the topic anymore.   

Exploring the Presentation Tools!

This week I viewed the online tutorial for “Prezi.”  My initial reaction was that this presentation tool was absolutely amazing!  When I viewed the video on layering and grouping, I realized it might not be as simple as the tutorial video made it seem and I began to feel a little nervous about it.  My fear is that my presentation will look like the one that had no layering or grouping.  When I was viewed this video, it made me very dizzy and I felt as if there was no logical flow to the presentation.  Even though my fears are getting the best of me, I still think I will experiment with this presentation tool.  I love how you can actually insert a YouTube video right into the presentation.    

The next tool that I looked into was “Animoto.”  This tool allows you to create a presentation video.  It seems very simple and user friendly.  I like how they could add photos and videos into the presentation.  I also liked how they were able to lower the background music when they played the video of the family.  I also love that this site is FREE!  I definitely would recommend this tool to others and think that this is the one that I am going to use for my presentation.