End of Semester

Yesterday was the last day for Physical Science for me since my partner Courtney will not be in class tomorrow for the work day because of a commitment for another class so we will meet at another time to finish the project.

Today was a work day and Courtney and I got a lot accomplished with our project. We came up with our idea, did our lesson plan, and now we just have to finish our power point which should go smoothly. We found a great idea to demonstrate solids and liquids by mixing corn starch and water so we are using that as our bell ringer. It will be different this time since we are not actually presenting them, but it will be okay.

Since science is over, I just want to say that I enjoyed this class and I learned very much about being a teacher!!

Class on Tuesday, November 25

Today we started of class by answering any questions. Then we finished going over the reading guide since we ran out of time last Thursday. It was nice to go through the reading guide to clear up any questions I had. Now, I know what Dr. E. is looking for in answers and I can better complete my reading guide. After we went over that we did a fun lab that consisted of different sound activities. I think kids would LOVE this lab. It was so much fun!! We started off by doing the activity called "Tuning Fork" which allowed us to see how the tuning fork reacted in different situations. We stuck it in water, held it on a paper, and held the tuning fork next to a ping pong ball. It was fun to hear it and see what happens. Then, the next activity was called "Sounds Through Air." In this one, we held the tuning fork to our ears and then through a tube to determine the difference. We couldn't really tell a difference between the two, but it was still neat to experiment with different ways. The next lab was called "Sounds Through Water" but we did not get to this one, but with this one, you were supposed to tap your fingers together, then do it again while listening through a stethoscope. After that, you were supposed to tap your fingers underwater. Then you were supposed to tap your fingers underwater listening with the stethoscope underwater. You were supposed to notice the difference of the sound of tapping your fingers together. The last activity that we did complete was called, "The Waterphone." We were to take glass bottles that had water in them and line them up in order of pitch. This was fun because we got to discuss which one we thought would go where in the line-up. I think kids would love this!! I think they would love all of these activities--it was a great way to learn about sound. Overall, I thought today went very well and I enjoyed class!! Thursday we do not have class due to Thanksgiving and then next week, Tuesday and Thursday will both be work days for our final project! I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Class on Thursday, November 20

Today we started off class by confirming what is due and also some impotant dates to remember before the semester is over. Dr. E. reminded us of the online simulations and told us to be sure to complete them and then blog about them, which I already have! :) For once, I actually have something done before I am reminded aobut it!! Just kidding! --but I am really bad at procrastinating!! After we talked about the online simulations, we discussed our bell ringer projects that we will complete with a partner. Courtney and I are doing our bell ringer together, but we are not sure what we are doing yet. Once we do figure it out, it should go okay since we will have a work day next week to get things going on that project. After we discussed the final project, Dr. E. asked us if we had any questions. After that, we started to go over the reading guide module 4, but like always, we ran out of time during that but oh well, because the section we did go over helped because the answers were very in-depth. We stopped where we did on that because we had an activity to do. It was called "Electroscope." It was very interesting and I think kids would love this activity! It is a great activity to do because the kids can actually build their own electroscope, which is a device that detects electrical charge. It was very simple to do too!! You just take two film containers with clay in each of them to hold two straws in each one. Then you stick tape on the table and then on each straw to see the pieces of tape repel. Then, you stick the tape to each other and then on the straws and you see the tape attract to each other. Then, you take a balloon and rub a wool cloth on it and hold the balloon by the pieces of tape. Then, you see that the balloon repels the piece of tape whose smooth side was in the middle of the "sandwich" when we stuck the tape to each other and the balloon attracts the tape whose sticky side was in the middle. And when we held the balloon by the tapes pulled from the table, the balloon repelled both tapes. This activity would be a great way to teach students about electrical charges!

Online Simulations for Tuesday, November 18

Today, since we do not have face-to-face class, we are to complete the online simulations and then blog about them. I went to the two websites to do the simulations and I thought they were very interesting. The first one was about magnets and electromagnets. With this simulation, there was a magnet and a compass and you could move them around to see how the movement affected the magnetic field. I think kids would love this interactive way to see how magnets work. The second simulation was called Electric Circuit Construction Kit. I think kids would love this one, too. This one was a little more complicated than the first one so I think the kids would need to have detailed instructions given to them before they started. It was neat, though, because you are able to build any kind of circuit that you want. I think kids would enjoy this because they are able to do whatever they want. Both of the online simulations would be great tools to use in the classroom to teach the kids about magnets, electromagnets, and circuits.

Class on Thursday, November 13

Today, we started off by getting any questions we had answered by Dr. E. After that, Dr. E. reminded us of the changes she made to the calendar. Then, we talked about the final project again to clear up any confusion. After we were done with all of this, we restarted the lab we started last week, since we were rushed and ran out of time last Thursday. The lab was called "A Good Sock" and it was to demonstrate that insulation slows the flow of heat. It compared the insulation effects of socks, using a dry cotton sock, a wet cotton sock, and a wool sock. We used Lab Quests for this activity, and surprise, surprise..........ours didn't work!! The temperature probes were not working correctly, so we used the data from the group next to us. Our Lab Quest was the only one not working, but then eventually Dr. E. got it to work, but it was too late to start over so we just continued with using the data from the other group. It was interesting to see the results from this lab. We concluded as a class that wool is the best insulator out of the three socks. This would be a fun experiment to do with my class someday. I would probably only do it if I feel more comfortable with Lab Quests because right now I am not very good with technology but it was fun to use it today for this lab.

No Class Tuesday

On Tuesday, November 11, we did not meet due to Veteran's Day. That is why there is not a entry for that class period.

Class on Thursday, November 6

Today we started off class by asking any questions we had so we got to hear a little bit about our final presentations that we will have to do in December. Dr. E. will explain our projects in more depth later. After asking questions, we went on to go over our reading guides. Since we had a lot to do today, we went through the questions pretty fast, but that was okay since we got through all of them anyway. It was nice to go through these as a class since we have a quiz online today that is due at midnight tomorrow so I feel like this helped me refresh my mind. After we got done going over the reading guide, we started a lab. It was called "A Good Sock." We ran out of time so we are going to start it over next week. The purpose of it was to demonstrate how insulation slows the flow of heat. We had two water bottles, and one was covered in a sock. We were to use Lab Quest computers with two temperature probes to calculate the temperature of the two bottles. We will do the activity in more depth next week since we barely had any time to figure it out.