Thursday, OCT 30

Today in class we gave our presentation about our lesson plan!! I think it went very well. Our lesson plan was about simple machines and we took apart a clock. We had a worksheet that says "this makes... this move" and we passed it out to all the tables and had them look at it and then we we passed around the clock that we dissected. We explained how safety was incorporated into our lesson plan and we also explained the objectives and standards that were met. The other lesson plans were interesting as well. One lesson plan was about mixing colors, the differences between a gas solid and liquid. I can see how defining the differences between a solid liquid and gas would be something that students need to understand because it can be confusing to some students. I really enjoyed class today!

Tuesday, OCT 28

Today in class some of our groups went through their mid-term projects. I enjoyed this class period because it was interesting to hear about different lesson plans related to physical science and how to use them in different grade levels. The first lesson was on magnets and it was directed towards second grade. I really thought the board with the safety rules was a good example for second graders. The second lesson was on the Strength of An Ordinary Egg Experiment, it was interesting because it was something that I didn't know... It took 59 books to crack an egg. The third lesson was about how to crack a can by using hot and colder water. The experiement did not work during classtime but I could see how it was an interesting to learn. The fourth lesson was on liquid and solids... I found this to be interesting as well because students were able to make their own assumptions on different solids and liquids.

Thursday, OCT 23

In class today, we learned about pressure and area. We did an activity about how pressure is related to the amount of area. In our small groups, we had to find out how much area creates the highest amount of pressure. We were given a large sheet of paper and had to trace around the area that we thought would have the highest amount of pressure. Our group decided that if we stood on one foot, that would create the highest amount of pressure. Other groups used their whole body. In the end, it was the area that was the smallest that had the highest amount of pressure. I thought this activity would be fun to use in the classroom because it gives students the chance to make a hypothesis and test it. Also, students could relate this activity to things related to their life.

Tuesday, OCT 21

Today in class we did a project called "The Leading Egg (of Ping Pong Ball)." I thought this activity was pretty interesting becuase we learned about force and pressure and how certain amounts of force and pressure can make certain things move. In this activity, you can also use eggs, but we used ping pong balls because that is what was available. The other materials that were needed were 2 identical glasses, tape and a funnel. I could find this activity very entertaining for young students because they would get the opportunity to see how far they can make their ping pong ball go just by blowing on it. They are also learning about the pressure and force and how it is affected by the area. It would be interesting to see how the students interpret the information by making a graph to show how when the force when up then the distance of the ball went further.

Thursday, oct 16- MIDTERM project

Today in class, we got together with our partners to work on our Midterm project. Our midterm project has to be a lesson plan related to physical science with some aspect of safety involved. My partner and I created a lesson plan focused on Newton's Law of Motion; our lesson plan focuses on the uses of simple machines, for example the clock. Our lesson plan is centered towards sixth graders but could easily be used with fourth and fifth graders. We chose to have a clock as an example of our simple machine and have groups of students deconstruct a clock and make hypothesis as to what they think makes a clock work. They will be given safety goggles and tiny screwdrivers to complete their activity. As a form of assessment, the students will complete a worksheet about "this makes... this move." I feel as though this lesson plan gives students the ability to explore Newton's Law of Motion in a enjoyable manner.

Tuesday October 14

In class today, we discussed our Reading Guide for Chapters 3, 4 and 5. I found this class period very informing as I had a lot of questions that got answered. I enjoyed the demonstration with the marker to demonstrate vertical incline. I thought this was interesting becuase that is a hard concept for me to understand. Work is the energy that we put in that gives us work. Also, the deomonstration on the board of what happens to Potentional and Kenetic Energy when one goes up and vice versa. When the potential energy and kenetic energy are in the middle, then they are equal. When the height gets less, then the potential energy gets less. In Kenetic energy, when the r goes up then the kenetic energy goes up. In potential energy, when the high goes up then the potential energy goes up.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Today for class, we didn't have a face to face class, we had to look at the Kepler's Law simulation on the internet. I found this simulation very interesting because it was neat to see how the things can change by clicking on the buttons to change the value on the semi-major axis and the eccentrincity. Also, the simulation shows the unit of earth-year. I think this simulation would be nice to use in the classroom becuase it shows kids how Kepler's law can be implied and it is a good interactive activity.

Tuesday, October 7

In class today, we dicussed our project for the Midterm exam. We are to come up with a project about safety with an experiement. I think this will be a great opportunity to explore certain projects that, as future educators, we will be able to use in the classroom. It will be a great learning opportunity to learn about how to integrate certain topics and experiements in the classroom once I start teaching. Also, we discussed our reading guide two. I had a few questions from the reading guide that I did not know and found out the answers in class. It was interesting to learn about how if you were to get into an accident with a truck and you were driving a small car that the since the truck has more mass then the truck will have more momentum. We are not able to change the mass but we are able to change the moment and velocity of an object.

Thursday, October 2

Today in class, we learned about Newton's second and third laws. It was very interesting to learn the formuals and how they are represented in science and throughout our environment. If you apply more force then there will be more acceleration. The acceleration due to gravity on Earth is 9.8 m/s squared. The closer that two objects are together, the higher the force will be between those two objects. We looked on the internet at an activity of the Inverse Square Law, the formula for that is 1/r squared. It was interesting to see what angle would shoot the cannon the furtherest. The angle that made the cannon go the furthest was 45 degree's. I thought this internet activity was very interesting and it could be something really fun to use in the classroom. The students could create a hypothesis about what they think the angle would be to create the greatest distance and then be able to test that hypothesis on the computer and see the outcome right away.