Maggie Conrad's Elementary Science Methods Blog

   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,           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?       I was not in the lab this week, but by looking at the PowerPoint, they talked about our assignment of interviewing an elder. I loved this assignment. I talked to my dad, and it was nice having a conversation about climate change. I learned that my parents are getting solar panels installed. My dad is very passionate and excited about getting them. He pulled out the pictures of what we are getting, where they are being installed, and what their plans are for the future for them. Also, in the lab, they looked a...

     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,           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, we went over our assignments and our test. We talked about the Goldfinch investigation and talked about how there is more flooding, which is destroying their food, so they are having to move. We then did an investigation of climate change. We had four different groups of two, and we all looked into five different articles. We looked for data to support that climate change is happening. We then thought of different questions from these articles and answered them. We also created...

    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,           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, we discussed the movie Before the Flood in groups. We discussed the primary points, major issues, questions we want to be taught, and how we'd like to be taught. We then moved into NASA images of climate change happening. It would show us a before and after picture. We went over our formative assessment data. Our driving question for this lab was, "Is the Goldfinch, Iowa's state bird, in danger, and how do we know?  We looked into the mapping of precipitation in Iowa. My group got North East ...

   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?         This week in the lab, we talked about the assignment on the sweater article. We then moved into the layers of the earth and what layer is older and newer. The bottom layer of rock is going to be older than the top layer because more sediment is being added to the top layer. With this, we looked at different visuals and discussed what we thought was older/younger. However, there were different factors like faults and dykes. We talked about how these affected the different layers. We then moved...

   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?         I wasn't in the lab this week, but by looking at the PowerPoint, we were asked the question, "What is a rock?" We then looked over our Activitymania assignment. They discussed our assessment. They went over the dangers of comparison and went over some questions from the test. Then, they shifted to the layers of the earth, and we watched our videos about convection currents. They then did an investigation using a starburst, a torch, aluminum foil, and a knife/cheese grater. They created sedimentary...

  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, we talked about when certain events happened. We talked about humans appearing, dinosaurs ruling the earth, the first land plants, the first land animals, and when the moon was created. We placed these on a timeline as to when we thought they occurred. We then looked into the formative assessment results. We then worked in groups and looked into a certain billion years. We looked into different important events during that time. We wrote it on a sticky note and then placed i...

  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 lab this week we presented on our different topics. My group presented on the origin of the Earth. We heard about the origin of the universe, the lifecycles of stars, galaxies, black holes, and the exploration of space: past, present, and future. I learned more about how the earth is constantly shifting due to plate tectonics. I also learned that the shifting of the plates can cause different things like earthquakes, mountains, and trenches.  I also learned that there are 2 trillion different galaxies...

 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, ...

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, we were given some questions to think about without googling. They were "How do the phases of the moon occur?" "What causes the seasons?" "What causes a lunar eclipse?" We got to think and jot down our ideas before we got to discuss them with groups. I had an easier time thinking of the first and the last questions, but the one about seasons was a bit more challenging for me.        My answer to the first question was "The sun causes only one part of the moon to be shown." I...

  The big question addressed in the lab, and a description of what you did. A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture. Answer questions about the weekly textbook reading: What did you learn? What was most helpful? What do you need more information on? What questions/concerns/comments do you have?        The question that we addressed in the lab was "How can we design a safe and durable playground surface?" Our challenge for this lab was to prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from a height of 1 meter. Our groups got to pick what materials we got to use. My group decided to use plastic wrap, sand, and straw. We started with the sand at the bottom of the bowl and then topped it with a heavier layer of straw. We then put the plastic wrap surrounding the top of the bowl. We then dropped the egg from 1 meter. The egg ended up bouncing out of the bowl and cracking. We looked at our video and noticed it hit a weird spot on the bowl too. We decided we...

  The big question addressed in the lab, and a description of what you did. A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture. Answer questions about the weekly textbook reading: What did you learn? What was most helpful? What do you need more information on? What questions/concerns/comments do you have?   The big question that was addressed in the lab was "What affects how long it takes for a swing to go back and forth." We looked into this question by doing an experiment on whether a rider's position affects how fast a swing goes back and forth.  Our question was "Does the position of a rider affect how fast a swing goes back and forth in 10 swings."  Our hypothesis was "If a rider is leaning back they will swing faster, but they will not go back and forth as much as someone who is fitting straight up.  We used a string, washers, a small pencil lead container, and a binder clip. We tested our question by using the washer at different spots in th...

  The big question addressed in the lab, and a description of what you did. A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture. Answer questions about the weekly textbook reading: What did you learn? What was most helpful? What do you need more information on? What questions/concerns/comments do you have?  In the lab this week, we did an experiment about how certain variables affect how fast you go down a slide. You could choose from the clothing you wear, the steepness, rider weight, rider height, surface, and rain or sunshine. You were to work in your group and choose one variable to test. My group chose to test the steepness of the slide.       Our question to figure out was, "Does the steepness of a slide affect how fast a rider goes down the slide?"      We did five different tests all at different steepnesses. The tests were done at 0.55 meters, 0.75 meters, 1.0 meters, 1.7 meters, and 2.1 meters. We laid the "slide" on each part o...

  The big question addressed in the lab, and a description of what you did. A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture. Answer questions about the weekly textbook reading: What did you learn? What was most helpful? What do you need more information on? What questions/concerns/comments do you have?  The big question that we addressed in the lab was "How can we ensure that a race is exciting by having them finish at about the same time?"        My group discussed how we could model the race to make sure it was fun but also fair for each student. We decided having a one-legged race would be fun but also challenging for each student because it would be more difficult to jump on one leg compared to running normally. It could increase the chances of both students finishing around the same time. We created an 8-foot course and each started on one end. We wanted to compare our times to see how fast each one of us went to determine the head start t...

This week we got to design our own learning activity. With this we got to pose a question that could frame students investigations, describe how we could engage students' curiosity and activate their initial ideas, describe how our students should collect their data, and how they would use evidence to answer the question. My group decided to look at what would happen to the weight once the baking soda and vinegar were mixed. We filled a flask with vinegar and then added 1/2tsp of baking soda to a balloon. We weighed each of these to get their weight in grams. We then pulled the balloon over the flask and shook it so they would mix. We observed that the carbon dioxide made the balloon fill and it got cold. We then weighed the flask with the balloon on it. We saw that there was a change in the weight. I can apply what I learned today to my future teaching by thinking about experiments that I will create in my future teaching, and the thought process that goes behind it.    ...

 This week, my group looked into the question of why do cold drinks get water droplets on the outside? With this we looked at three different simulations. They showed us particle attraction and temperature, hot and cold objects touching, and H2O heating and cooling. With this activity, we had to create a flip video showing what we discovered and answering the question we were given. In my future teaching I would use the use of flip videos because I think it would be a fun way for students to learn and teach others about their findings.          

 This week we continued talking about density. With this, we were asked the question Why do different substances have different densities? My group wanted to show the equation density= mass/volume. With this we wanted to show that the volume and mass of an object determines the density. We decided to draw two cups of water to show the volume. One has more water so it take up more space. The glass with less water has less space. For mass we drew to circles. One is filled in to show it is heavier. The other circle is not filled in showing it's hollow showing it's lighter.   The next activity we did was an M&M investigation. We did the same activity from a few weeks ago. This time we wanted to see if certain colors spread faster than others. The first round we didn't have instruction, and then we got to talk about what we noticed and what we could do differently. We decided that we needed to spread the M&Ms out to be able to tell which one would spread faster. The ne...