Science Change Beyond the Classroom

The passion for teaching science starts in the classroom.  Once I have triggered the desire in my students to learn more about the sciences, it is my responsibility to ignite the passion among my colleagues.  As a third grade team, I am the one that creates the science lessons.  My fellow colleagues trust my experiences to delivery high inquiry bases lessons.  Thus far, the only changes that I have made have been with my students and team mates.  I need to be bolder and bring STEM issues to my principal.  Over the summer, I addressed my desire to start an afterschool program with grades 3-5 to focus on the sciences.  However, my principal felt that at this time, we as a school need to focus on our reading and mathematical way of teaching.  Once he sees that my students are striving in these two areas, he will consider me in promoting the sciences. 

Sputnik

Like many Americans, I am thankful that I am an American citizen.  I am thankful for the many men and women that fight for my freedom on a daily basis. There is still one thing that I question about our government, why is it that we (as a country) act like everyone else’s big brother? 

In the article “What’s our Sputnik?” it stressed that since we are embarking on the war on terror, other countries, like China are continuing to surpass our technological advances.  Honestly, Friedman did bring up a great point.  I understand that the United States wants to keep its allies.  It does seem that somehow through helping others, we have lost our passion to be leaders in technology, science, engineering, and mathematics.  Where has our passion gone? 

The economy across the states has dropped.  In Michigan, we were definitely hit due to the state’s income focusing mainly on the auto industry.  Finally, Michiganders are beginning to see some economic climb, thanks to the engineers designing more vehicles that are geared toward hybrids.  Is this the end to our struggles?  As a state, the government needs to come up with more outlets that can create more jobs in the STEM areas. 

If at a national level, the government can reevaluate the passion that drives its’ people, there could be a huge push to promote global competition.  In the classroom, we are promoting STEM lessons, so it is up to the government to promote it across the nation. 

Resources

Friedman, T. L. (2010, January 17). What’s our Sputnik? [Op-Ed]. The New York Times [Late Edition (East Coast)], p. WK.8.

Sedimentary Rock

This week I was inspired by my nieces and nephew to create some kind of edible earth science.  With a little bit of research, I came across a recipe that allowed my "students" to measure and create layers of minerals that will melt and produce one solid rock.  The model encouraged my students to use their math skills and measure each ingredient.  They discussed what they think would happen to the minerals, one thought was that it was going to completely melt and become one solid color.  Once all the minerals were added, I place the rock into the oven.  After the rock came out of the oven and cooled, we cut into it.  My students realized that the minerals were still visible.  The layers were a little hard to see, but it was visible that this was an example of a sedimentary rock. 

Natural Disasters

I teach in Southfield, Michigan which is a suburb of Detroit.  Many of my students live in Detroit, but commute to Southfield.  Detroit is only 16 miles from Southfield.  Many of my students find it amusing when we have to practice a tornado drill.  I then have to remind them about the tornado that hit Hamtramck and Highland Park in 1997.  There were 13 tornadoes that hit Southeastern Michigan, which Southfield is apart. 

Many of my students receive free or reduce lunch (90%).  This means that I teach many students that are considered to be living in poverty.  Because of the high percentage of poverty that I teach, some of my students have trouble grasping concepts that are not currently happening to them.

Even though we recently haven’t had tornadoes rip through Southeast Michigan, there have been many storms that contributed to power outages and electrical fires.  When a storm like this occurs, it could potential put people out of their homes.  I think a great agency for students and parents to become involved with is Habitat for Humanity. 

            Ultimately, if a family or students can volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, their current situation doesn’t seem as much as a loss.  When a person feels like they are helping out, they start feeling better and are more willing to seek ways to get out of a current situation that could be bringing them down.

Resources

1997 Southeast Michigan Tornado outbreak.  (2011). Retrieved from

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Southeast_Michigan_tornado_outbreak

Habitat for Humanity http://www.habitat.org/getinv/volunteer_programs.aspx

Ask A Scientist

The question that I was hoping to get a response is:  "What are that chances that my future child would be color blind, when my husband is?" 

I am curious about the response because we are continuing to talk more and more about starting a family.  My husband said that being color blind is not a big deal.  It does not affect his health.  I personally would like to know what are the chances so then I could prepare.  I have been conducting my own research in how color-blindness works. My main source has been my husband, he simple put it, we won't know if our child is color blind until they are recognizing colors.  I would like to know if there is a way for this to be determined prior to a child being able to talk.

Once I receive the answer to my question, I will post it here on my blog.

SCIE-6662S-1--The Best 2.0 Web Presentation Sites

After playing with a few sites, I found 280slides.com to be more user friendly.  This is very similar to a PowerPoint presentation, without having to use Microsoft.  You are able to log on for free and navigate with ease.  


I also checked out prezi.com.  This site is also interesting, but I did not like how touchy it made my mouse on the computer.  It kind of made me feel like I was on a roller coaster.  


The third site I played on was ahead.com.  This is a great site for those with more of a graphic design edge.  Very cool graphics.  


All three of these sites were free and claimed to allow you access from any computer.  They also claimed that files can easily be shared. 

SCIE-6661S-1 WK 6-Sound (21st Century)

This week I am introducing the concept of sound to my 3rd grade students.  In order for them to first get engaged, I am going to use the website: The Sound Site http://www.smm.org/sound/nocss/top.html. 
I will play some sounds to have the students try to figure out what object is producing that sound.  Following this introduction, I will ask the students why do they think they are able to hear that specific noise.  By asking them this question, they will start to brainstorm a hypothesis of what creates sound. 

SCIE-6661S-1-Wk 4: Heat

This week I tested the transfer of heat through convection using a mug with no cover, a mug with aluminum foil, a mug with bubble wrap, and a mug with a cotton cloth.  The experiment used convection because, the heat in the water turned into gas molecules that were trying to escape from the cup.  The mug with nothing on it obviously got the coldest in the 30 minutes.  The mug with the aluminum foil stayed the hottest.  The aluminum foil acted as a insulator to keep the heat-gas molecules inside the mug. 

	Nothing on Mug		Aluminum Foil on Mug		Bubble Wrap on Mug		Cotton Cloth on Mug
Start:  50 °C   122 °F	Start	End	Start	End	Start	End	Start	End
Wait time:               30 min	50 °C   122 °F	22 °C 71°F	50 °C   122 °F	29°C 84°F	50 °C   122 °F	27 °C 80°F	50 °C   122 °F	25 °C 77°F

SCIE-6661S-1 Exploring the Physical World---Wk 2 Guided Inquiry---Surface affects Momentum

In my own guided inquiry I wanted to figure out how do different surfaces affect the momentum of a marble.  My hypothesis is that due to the texture of the hardwood floor, I predict that the momentum of the marble would be faster and go further on it.  In order to do this experiment I used the two marbles that were in our kit (one large and one small), two rulers, and then I experimented on three different flooring in my house (the carpeted living room, the hardwood dining room, and the linoleum kitchen).  For each experiment I did, I made sure to test it three times and then averaged the results.  In order to make sure the results were not tampered, I placed tape on the floor between my shooter marble (the larger one) and the hit marble (the smaller one).  I made sure the distance between the marbles was 10 centimeters.  My results were as follows:  on the carpeted floor the average distance was 9 centimeters or 3 inches, on the hardwood floor the average distance was 29 centimeters or 11 inches, and on the linoleum the average distance was 44 centimeters or 17 inches.  I knew that the carpet would have caused the most friction and therefore would result in the slowest speed and distance.  I was pleasantly surprised that the linoleum made the marble have less friction which caused it to move with more momentum.  Just by looking at the floors, the linoleum looks rougher in comparison to the hardwood.  Some challenges that I encountered was that the marble started rolling back toward me.  Luckily, my husband stepped in and placed a piece of tape down.  I was then able to measure from the one marker to the other.  One thought that I had after completing this exercise is that I could have made it easier by creating some sort of track.  If I taped rulers together and then placed the marble inside of it, I wonder how my results would have differed.