After performing the melting icebergs experiment I can conclude that if the icebergs melt the water level will rise. How much it will rise and how fast will depend on many factors. Some factors to consider are, how much of the icebergs are melting each day? What is the total percentage of ice that currently exists? Are the oceans and seas at maximum capacity or does it have room to raise if the icebergs melt?
After performing this experiment I had three main questions that I wanted to further investigate. The first question was what would happen if I repeated the experiment again but this time added more ice to the bowl? Just as I hypothesized, the more ice the quicker and easier the water flowed out of the bowl. The next question that I had was what would happen if there were strong gusts of wind for a long period of time? Sure enough, when I blew onto the water it pushed the water out of the confinement of the bowl. The last question I had was what would happen if there was a long period of rain? Any additional water that was added to the bowl overflowed, which showed how quickly lands could become flooded. I also observed through my experimentation that if the icebergs quickly shifted as a unit or one iceberg slide off of another it caused a wave like effect and the water overflowed.
Sometimes the biggest mistakes turn out to be the greatest inventions!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Week 2 Reflection of my STEM Lesson
The STEM lesson that I chose to do was on viruses and germs. The science portion of the lesson was a lab activity. Every student is given a Petri dish filled with flour except one person has baking soda in their Petri dish. This person will represent the person with the contagious cooties virus. They pretend that they are at an end of the year pool party and begin sharing their "drinks" (Petri dishes) with each other. To share drinks the student’s combined the substances in their Petri dish and then divide it back up. They share their drink with a total of three people. The students then go back to their seat and are given an eye dropper filled with baking soda. If their Petri dish fizzes they caught the virus. They are then placed in cooperative learning groups to answer the question and analysis portion of the lesson and try to trace the path of the virus.
The technology (and engineering) portion of the lesson involves displaying their group’s virus path map on the video flex. They also have an extension project with their collaborative group where they have to research the historical perspective on current sanitary practices. The students can create a model or experiment for their project.
The math portion of the lesson has the students trying to figure out how many people would be infected in certain situations. For example: If two people are infected and they each share their drinks with two people and then those two people share with two people, how many total people are now infected?
The 5 E's strategy was very helpful in planning my lesson however, the lesson format was very time consuming. If this was how my district required lesson plans to be done I feel like I would spend all my time writing lesson plans and no time practicing and preparing. With that being said, I do feel like I should be familiar with other lesson formats so I am glad that I am being exposed to it now.
If I were to implement this lesson, I believe that it would run very smoothly, the only portion that would require extra thought is the extension project. This would require a large portion of class time and the students would also have to dedicate a large portion of their own time to the project.
The technology (and engineering) portion of the lesson involves displaying their group’s virus path map on the video flex. They also have an extension project with their collaborative group where they have to research the historical perspective on current sanitary practices. The students can create a model or experiment for their project.
The math portion of the lesson has the students trying to figure out how many people would be infected in certain situations. For example: If two people are infected and they each share their drinks with two people and then those two people share with two people, how many total people are now infected?
The 5 E's strategy was very helpful in planning my lesson however, the lesson format was very time consuming. If this was how my district required lesson plans to be done I feel like I would spend all my time writing lesson plans and no time practicing and preparing. With that being said, I do feel like I should be familiar with other lesson formats so I am glad that I am being exposed to it now.
If I were to implement this lesson, I believe that it would run very smoothly, the only portion that would require extra thought is the extension project. This would require a large portion of class time and the students would also have to dedicate a large portion of their own time to the project.
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