I found a few sites that I thought were resourcful for educators and for students. The topic I chose to research was force and motion. The following sites are great places to find classroom resources and lesson plans to use in the classroom that promote 21st century skills while covering science content.
http://www.tryengineering.org/home.php
http://www.scilinks.org/
http://store.discoveryeducation.com/?di=40588027&ti=9000003&ps=739953
At these three websites, there is a plethora of lesson plans and activities that provide content along with promoting the use of 21st century skills. All of the activities include using technology, problem solving, collaboration, and communication skills. My favorite is a lesson from Try Engineering where students use hand held GPS units do explore the idea of position and motion. In this lesson, students explore the technology that makes GPS possible and use GPS units to find cache. Students work in teams to brainstorm recommendations for applying GPS technology to meet the needs of a global society, and present their proposals to the class (Try Technology, 2010).
The next links are resources I found for students to use and explore concepts, while using inquiry skills to solve problems, predict outcomes, and use technology to further explore ideas.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/galileo/media/experiments.swf?which_exp=1
http://www.learner.org/interactives/parkphysics/coaster/
http://prezi.com/
http://www.wikispaces.com
The last two sites can be used for students to collaborate together inside and outside of school (wikis)along with creating awesome presentations (prezi)that are innovative and allows students to show off their creativity while using technology. Prezi's are a great alternative to Power Point presentations.
One activity that I will be implementing this week is using the GPS units. I am currently teaching motion to my 8th grade class and we have been discussing postition, velocity, vectors, and interpreting graphs of motion. For a follow up lesson before the test, we are going to go Geocaching with the GPS units. I think this will be an excellent way to engage students in the lesson along with giving them a true real world experience to further explore and expand the content.
My only reservation with this investigation is getting it to work (I have had issues in the past with the GPS units) and with getting creative when creating the cache.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
The Heat is On Investigation
The four materials I chose to use for the investigation were aluminum foil, a cotton towel, waxed paper, and plastic wrap. I hypothesized that the aluminum foil would work the best to keep the temperature of the water the warmest. I choose aluminum foil only for the fact that I have always used it during food preparation to keep foods warm. Although, after reading the text this week, I was not sure why aluminum foil is used for that purpose since aluminum is a metal and considered a conductor not an insulator.
Upon completion of the investigation, the results showed that the cotton towel was the best insulator with the highest temperature reading of 104°F. Waxed paper was second at 102°F, then foil at 101°F, and finally plastic wrap at 100°F. Conduction is the transfer of heat energy from one molecule to another. I learned this week that materials such as wood, glass, cotton, and wool contain small air spaces. These air spaces keep molecules farther apart making it more difficult for the heat energy to move by conduction from molecule to molecule. Based on my understanding of the resources this week, I believe, the cotton towel was the best insulator due to the fact that there are small air spaces within the fabric, slowing the flow of heat energy and keeping it contained within the mug. I did not expect the cotton towel to be the best insulator and was surprised when reading the resources for this week’s assignment. Based on my own prior experiences, I thought for sure the aluminum foil would have been the material that worked the best. I am guessing that most students would also believe the same.
The only challenge that I encountered is that I had to do a lot of additional reading on the Internet to understand why aluminum foil keeps substances warm or cold. I knew that metals were good conductors of heat but never really thought about the reason of why a conductor would be a good insulator. I found a few websites that stated that the shiny side of aluminum foil reflects heat. So if you want to keep something cold put the shiny side out to reflect the heat. If you want to keep something warm, keep the shiny side in and the heat from the food reflects back inside. I cannot say for sure that this is a scientific fact because I could not find any reputable sources. However, those ideas make sense to me. I plan on doing some more inquiry investigations along with some research to try and find an explanation. Does anyone have an explanation on this issue?
I thought of an ideas while I was doing this investigation. I wanted to use wool, but did not have a sample to use in my house. However, while searching for materials, I thought of a fun experiment to use in the classroom. I would have students test different types of materials used to make socks. Specifically, socks that are marketed for winter sports to keep your feet warm. I would create a scenario where students worked for a sporting goods store or athletic clothing designer and are required to perform tests to decide which material would keep feet the warmest. Students would then create a sales pitch/poster to sell the socks based on the outcome of the experiment. It may need a little more thought but I thought it would be a fun, real-world application for students to investigate.
Upon completion of the investigation, the results showed that the cotton towel was the best insulator with the highest temperature reading of 104°F. Waxed paper was second at 102°F, then foil at 101°F, and finally plastic wrap at 100°F. Conduction is the transfer of heat energy from one molecule to another. I learned this week that materials such as wood, glass, cotton, and wool contain small air spaces. These air spaces keep molecules farther apart making it more difficult for the heat energy to move by conduction from molecule to molecule. Based on my understanding of the resources this week, I believe, the cotton towel was the best insulator due to the fact that there are small air spaces within the fabric, slowing the flow of heat energy and keeping it contained within the mug. I did not expect the cotton towel to be the best insulator and was surprised when reading the resources for this week’s assignment. Based on my own prior experiences, I thought for sure the aluminum foil would have been the material that worked the best. I am guessing that most students would also believe the same.
The only challenge that I encountered is that I had to do a lot of additional reading on the Internet to understand why aluminum foil keeps substances warm or cold. I knew that metals were good conductors of heat but never really thought about the reason of why a conductor would be a good insulator. I found a few websites that stated that the shiny side of aluminum foil reflects heat. So if you want to keep something cold put the shiny side out to reflect the heat. If you want to keep something warm, keep the shiny side in and the heat from the food reflects back inside. I cannot say for sure that this is a scientific fact because I could not find any reputable sources. However, those ideas make sense to me. I plan on doing some more inquiry investigations along with some research to try and find an explanation. Does anyone have an explanation on this issue?
I thought of an ideas while I was doing this investigation. I wanted to use wool, but did not have a sample to use in my house. However, while searching for materials, I thought of a fun experiment to use in the classroom. I would have students test different types of materials used to make socks. Specifically, socks that are marketed for winter sports to keep your feet warm. I would create a scenario where students worked for a sporting goods store or athletic clothing designer and are required to perform tests to decide which material would keep feet the warmest. Students would then create a sales pitch/poster to sell the socks based on the outcome of the experiment. It may need a little more thought but I thought it would be a fun, real-world application for students to investigate.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)