Sept 30 Class

Instead of having class face to face today, we had to look at a website that had weights and springs on it that measured the kinetic energy, potential energy, thermal energy and the total energy. It was a very fun activity becuase you were able to hang different amount of weights onto the springs. You were also able change the gravity level as it would be on earth, jupiter, the moon and planet x. That was interesting to see becuase you were able to compare the gravity of the planets without actually being on the planet. You could also change the friction and the softness of the different springs. Also, you could vary the time of the springs to to real time, 1/4 time, 1/16 time and pause. I thought this activity was a great learning tool and something that I could use in my classroom to show my students varying levels of gravity.

Web Seminar

Instead of class on Thursday, we enrolled in a web seminar about Astrology on NSTA. It was a really great experience because we used Elluminate technology and I have never dones that before. It was interesting becuase our whole class was on there at the same time and we were able to use a lot of different features and ask many questions at the same time. During the seminar we were able to communicate with the presenters and our classmates. It was a great opportunity to learn with people who were from different areas of the United States as well as from different countries other than the United States. This session was about Astrology and I found it really interesting and learned a lot about stars that I did not previously known. The pictures were really cool about how stars form, high and low mass stars and videos of the stars. It was great to answer questions during the seminar because I generally did not know many of the answers and that was a great learning experience. It was gret to have a list of we resources that we are able to use when we become teachers. Thank you for this opportunity and I can't wait to attend more of these!

Tuesday, 9/23/08

Today's class was very informative. We went over the reading guide for the first reading quiz that we are taking today. I find it important to talk about the concepts that are going to be on the quiz because it prepares myself for the quiz. I think it is important to give students a reading guide like that so they can feel prepared and it enables them to be successful. Also, I find it important to give students quizzes because they need to be held acountable for his or her learning through assessments.

Graphing Your Motion- 9/18/08

The acitivty that we did today was very educational. It was interesting to see how velocity changes on the Motion Detector. You could see the changes between how fast you walked and how slow you walked on the screen and it was a great learning experience. Also, it was great to learn about the position and how that changes.

Activity 9/16/08

I was not in class today so I could not participate in the activity. After talking to a few of my classmates it sounds like it was rather exciting. Working with technology is such an important part of the classroom in todays world. Children are working with technology more and more and it is important that as teachers, we are keeping up with that technology. I will be looking forward to figuring out how to do the activity!

Moving Man

The Moving Man website was so much fun! There was so much information located on the website that could be used to show and explain to students how velocity and acceleration are related. I thought it was very fun to move the man around and see how the acceleration, velocity and position are all related to the man. I like how there is a tree and a house located and you can move the man back and forth from there. It is a great tool to show how science works! All age levels could enjoy this!

The Science of a Kiss: Measurement, Mass and Energy

After completing the experienment "The Science of a Kiss: Measurement, Mass and Energy" I thought it was a great way to introduce mass and energy to any grade level. I think it is a great example of how mathematics and science are so related. In the experiment, we were able to use science by understanding mass, measurement and the GPJ, gravitational potential energy; we were also able to use mathematics in realtion to science by plugging the information into a formula. This is a great activity to use at all age levels and a great way to relate math to science for students who understand one subject more than the other.