Week 7 Science Methods 2

 1. What did you do in the lab?   

2. What was the big question? 

3. What did you learn in Thursday's discussion? 

4. Read the online textbook, Chapter 5 

        1. What did you learn? 

        2. What was most helpful? 

        3. What do you need more information on? 

5. What questions, concerns, and/or comments do you have?  

       In the lab this week, I was not in class but talking with my table group and looking at the slides, they did two formative assessments. They also reviewed last week's discussions about the sun and the moon. Then, they talked about our assignment that was due. It was an interview talking to Harvard graduates/staff and also high schoolers. One point that I remember is that if teachers assume that your past teachers taught you, they will just build off of what they assume you were taught. Also, if we push something, the student will miss information. They then did an investigation. They built scale models of the sun and four inner planets and included the moon. They used tape measures, whiteboards, paper, and play dough. The planets they looked into are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. They first built the sun and then based the other planets off of a website. This showed a great representation of how far we are from the sun and also how far we are from other planets. The big question was "How big is the solar system?"   

    In the discussion, we discussed the questions from the formative assessments that were done in the lab. We also worked on questions about the moon phases. The answer was waning gibbous. The next question was about where your shadow would be if you were standing in the Tropic of Cancer, during the summer solstice for the Southern Hemisphere, what direction would your shadow point? How about if you were on the topic of cancer. I answered to the north and that there wouldn't be a shadow.  

    In the reading, I learned that the four inner planets(Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) are rocky planets because they are solid surfaces. The four outer planets(Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) are gaseous planets because they are composed of gases. The most helpful for me was the table of the Measurements of Our Solar System. It helped me to compare each planet by size and the distance from the Sun. So far, I don't need more information on anything. 

    A question that I do have is why did it take till 2006 to decide that Pluto was not a planet. Also, who decided this and why did everyone just agree?