Using Technology to Teach Science!

Physical science lends itself to active, hands-on learning, and students also can use technology to learn more about physical science concepts. One key area of physical science deals with the concept of light. The core concept of light is that “light is electromagnetic radiation – energy – that interacts with matter” (Tillery, Enger, & Ross, 2008, p. 154). Light is a concept that is important to teach to students, as it is something that affects everyone in their daily lives. Light is also a key curricular standard in third grade for California students. The central concept for the standard is that students will know that “light has a source and travels in a direction” (California State Board of Education, 2003, p 17). Teaching students about light can be a challenging yet motivating instructional component of a classroom’s science curriculum.
One engaging website that I frequently use as an anticipatory set for my students is Brainpop. This website has numerous videos and interactive learning activities for many curricular areas as well as grade levels. I located several Brainpop lessons on light, and these lessons can be accessed at http://www.brainpop.com/search/search.weml?keyword=light. From this site, teachers can engage their students and access background knowledge about light. There is a subscription fee, which can be costly as it is $195.00 for one classroom; however, if alternate funding can be utilized to provide Brainpop for an entire school, which costs $995.00, it is a very worthwhile site for educators. Brainpop is a comprehensive site that can be used for formative assessment via its interactive quizzes. It also is visually appealing to students and has colorful videos and graphics, which can help support learning for students who are learning English as well as for students who need information presented in a variety of modalities.
Another site that has proven to be very popular with my students is How Stuff Works, and some interesting information about light can be accessed via the link http://www.how
stuffworks.com/light/htm. There are visual representations of light spectrums as well as kid-friendly information about light. Videos and links to other light-related sites make this site a well-rounded, well-researched site for students who need information for science experiments or reports. It also includes interesting facts about how glow-in-the-dark materials work and how a light bulb is manufactured, as well as information on lasers and light sticks. By using this site, students can learn how to research information and utilize the Internet to access data for scientific learning.
In order to create hands-on learning activities for students, teachers need access to ideas for experiments and investigations. One online site that I have found to be very helpful is the website called “Kids’ Science Experiments” which can be accessed via the link http://www.
kids-science-experiments.com/index.html. There are numerous categories of experiments and within the light category I have found two that are particularly fun and engaging for my students. One is about bending light and can be located at http://www.kids-science-experiments.com/
bendinglightinthedark.html. The other experiment focuses on reflecting light and can be found at http://www.kids-science-experiments.com/bouncingspotlight.html. Both experiments utilize simple, everyday materials and yet convey important scientific concepts to students in a way that helps them gain a better understanding of light.
Another website that has a collection of experiments for students is called “Science Kids: Bringing Science and Technology Together” which can be found at http://www.sciencekids.co.
nz/experiments/lightcolorheat.html. It provides teachers with numerous activities that can easily be done in a classroom and it also has experiments which can be adapted to lead to more inquiry-based instruction. For example, an experiment on light absorption instructs students to wrap a piece of white paper and a piece of black paper over jars of water to see which one shows the greatest increase in temperature. This experiment could be extended via the use of questioning techniques and then using the questions generated by students to lead them to a more in-depth exploration of the concept of light.
Another website that combines scientific information about light with hands-on activities to reinforce learning is called “Teachers’ Lab: The Science of Light” and is available at http://
www.learner.org/teacherslab/science/light/index.html. The site’s segment on light begins with an introduction about the basic concepts of light and then proceeds to discuss the role of light in color as well as the laws of light. Each section has correlating hands-on activities to try, either online or in the classroom. Students can read about the information and then use the activities to reinforce and graphically represent what they have learned.
I plan on doing several of these experiments with my third-graders this year. I also want to do an activity that I learned about from a colleague who uses lasers and fog machines to reinforce the idea of reflection. Students try to create “pathways” using lasers and mirrors, and the fog machines allow them to easily see the path of the laser.
It might be challenging to do some of these activities in my classroom because I am going to have 27 regular ed students along with 2 special ed students who are integrated into my class for science instruction. Ensuring sufficient materials as well as supervising for safety procedures could be difficult. I will start with relatively easy hands-on activities in order to reinforce proper behavior and expectations at the beginning of the school year.

References
Brainpop (2010). Brainpop search. Retrieved on August 6, 2010 from http://www.brainpop.
com/search/search.weml?keyword=light
Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: Essentials of classroom practice. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Freudenrich, Ph.D., Craig (2000). How light works. HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved on August
7, 2010 from http://www.howstuffworks.com/light.htm
Kids’ Science Experiments (2008). Retrieved from http://www.kids-science-experiments.
com/index.html
State of California (2003). California State Board of Education. Science content standards for
California public schools: Kindergarten through grade twelve. Retrieved from http://
www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/sciencestnd/pdf
Teachers’ Lab (2010). The science of light. Annenberg Media. Retrieved from http://www.
learner.org/teacherslab/science/light/index.html.
Tillery, B., Enger, E., & Ross. F. (2008). Integrated science (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Heat Transfer Investigation`

The heat transfer inquiry activity gave me the opportunity to manipulate different variables based on what I thought would be effective heat insulators. The experiment involved predicting which material would function to keep water in a mug hot longer than other materials (Laureate Education Inc., 2010). To choose my materials, I first brainstormed what might or might not be useful as an insulator. Part of this brainstorming involved activating my prior knowledge of heat energy, mainly from my numerous preparations of family meals and what I had used to keep food warm. I also knew from reading the textbook that “heat is a measure of the internal energy that has been absorbed or transferred from one body to another” (Tillery, Enger, & Ross, 2008, p. 83). I predicted that the best insulators would be materials that would absorb the least amount of heat from the water. The four materials that I chose were a thick hand towel, a pair of rubber gloves (so four layers of rubber material), four sheets of paper towels, and four layers of folded aluminum foil. My expectation was that the aluminum foil would act as the best insulator, since whenever I have to wrap up hot food to keep it hot for a period of time, I wrap it in aluminum foil. My eleven-year-old son predicted that the rubber gloves would keep the water hot better than the other materials because he had observed me using rubber gloves to wash dishes in hot water, so he surmised that the rubber material resisted absorbing heat. My eight-year-old daughter predicted the hand towel would work as the best insulator because it was thick and she thought it would prevent air from entering the mug to cool off the water.

To begin the investigation, I selected four mugs that were the same size. I then filled each mug with 150 milliliters of hot water. This part was challenging for me because I wanted to ensure that each mug had the same volume of water in order to have accurate data. If I were to repeat this experiment, I would attempt to procure a liquid measuring device that was more accurate than a kitchen measuring cup. My next step was to measure the temperature of each mug and record that information. The first mug had a temperature reading of 46 degrees Celsius, the second mug measured 40 degrees Celsius, the third mug was at 38 degrees Celsius, and the fourth mug had water at a temperature of 36 degrees Celsius. I then covered each mug with its corresponding material, and set my timer for thirty minutes. After the time had elapsed, I removed the materials and again measured the temperature of the water. The first mug had been covered with a towel, and the water temperature had decreased to 34 degrees Celsius, for a difference of 12 degrees. The second mug, covered with rubber gloves, had decreased from 40 degrees to 34 degrees Celsius, a difference of six degrees. The third mug had been covered with paper towels, and its temperature had decreased four degrees to 34 degrees Celsius. The fourth mug (with the aluminum foil covering) was more challenging to measure because on the thermometer, it appeared to have only decreased slightly below 36 degrees, and I could not get an accurate reading using Celsius. The indicator was lined up at 96 degrees Fahrenheit, so I then converted that temperature to Celsius for a reading of 35.56 degrees Celsius, which reflected a decrease of only 1.56 degrees.

After analyzing the data, I confirmed that my prediction was correct; the aluminum foil functioned as the best insulator by keeping the water temperature from decreasing the least amount during the thirty minute. I was intrigued by this experiment, and I am planning to repeat this activity in my classroom. It would be a highly engaging guided inquiry investigation, and my students would enjoy selecting their materials and discussing why they think their materials would function as an effective insulator. This activity also lends itself to further inquiry investigations, such as seeing what happens when the water is left longer than thirty minutes, or what might happen if the water is placed in a different container than a mug. Finally, this investigation correlates with an activity from the third-grade textbook called “Hot Ice” (Harcourt, 2000, p. 93) in which students design an experiment to see which environment will make an ice cube melt the fastest.

In conclusion, having the opportunity to perform a guided inquiry activity was a benefit to me as an educator. It was illuminating to see how engaging and appealing it was to have the chance to think about and choose my own variables to the investigation. Students enjoy having a choice, and guided inquiry allows our learners to create and conduct their own investigations to answer a research question. Such in-depth learning is an advantage to our students as it helps them to become more proficient at scientific concepts. “Science literacy involves more than just what students know. It is also concerned with how they think and how they do things” (Harcourt, 2000, p. T13). Guided inquiry is an effective strategy for creating such scientifically literate students, and it is a valuable part of any science curriculum.

Harcourt science (California ed.). (2000). Orlando, FL: Harcourt School Publishers.

Laureate Education, Inc., (2010). Application: Exploring Heat Transfer [Lecture notes].

Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4253094

&Survey=1&47=6420842&ClientNodeID=403157&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Newton’s Amusement Land: Heat Street.

Exploring the physical world [Video recording]. Los Angeles: Author.

Tillery, B., Enger, E., & Ross. F. (2008). Integrated science (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Tomecek, S. (2006). Sandwich bag science: 25 easy, hands-on activities that teach key concepts

in physical, earth, and life sciences - and meet the science standards. New York, NY:

Scholastic Inc.

Engaging in Guided Inquiry

Question: How does the steepness of a slope and mass affect a collision outcome?

Prediction: The steeper the slope, the harder the collision. The greater the mass, the harder the collision.

Procedure: We constructed a ramp with two thick books, a cardboard ramp, and two planks of wood to create a track. The three toy cars were the same; one was the collision car, one was the control car, and one was the car with heavier mass. We used pennies to make the car heavier.

Results:
Control car with ramp at 2 3/16": collision car traveled an average of 29 inches.
Control car with ramp at 4 1/4": collision car traveled an average of 68 inches.

Weighted car with ramp at 2 3/16": collision car traveled an average of 40.5 inches.
Weighted car with ramp at 4 1/4" : collision car traveled an average of 68 inches.

Our prediction was correct! The steepness of the slope and/or the mass of the vehicle will cause a harder collision.

Doing this experiment with my 11 year old son and 8 year old daughter was a lot of fun - we were all engaged in the learning experience. By doing the hands-on activity, it reinforced for us the concepts of mass, momentum, velocity, and Newton's second law of motion.

I think that doing this in a classroom would be a worthwhile endeavor; however, I think that I would first be sure to do plenty of activities based on confirmation inquiry and structured inquiry. This would give my students the foundational skills needed to facilitate a guided inquiry experiment.

This experiment would relate to my students' daily lives because of their familiarity with cars and car accidents. They could also apply this knowledge to something less dangerous - the slides! The steeper the slide, the greater their momentum, which would explain why most students go a lot slower on the spiral slide than the straight slide.

Providing students with inquiry-based instruction, and gradually increasing student involvement in the experiments and investigations, will help our students become better at problem solving, critical thinking, and observation.

Click here for a link to my video of the experiment - I hope you enjoy it!

Structured Inquiry Lesson

I have found that involving students through active questioning is a great way to pique students' interest and stimulate their analytical thinking skills. Structured inquiry lessons encourage students to generate their own hypotheses based on their observations and experimentation; however, they are supported by questioning from the teacher.
I conducted a scientific investigation into the polarity concept of magnets. I found the lesson in an AIMS book called "Mostly Magnets" (AIMS, 1991). The activity is designed to allow students to experiment and observe the repelling and attracting behaviors of magnets. To trigger prior knowledge, I first created a magnet center in which the students could explore with a variety of magnets. Then, after a questioning session to focus the students' investigation, they each received a pencil and several O-ring magnets. They experimented with using two or three magnets; they then worked with their desk partners to use more magnets on one pencil. The students quickly realized that sometimes the magnets would repel each other and sometimes they would stick together; they also discovered that if they stuck two or more magnets together and then put another magnet with the same polarity, it would bounce higher and "float" higher than if it was put above just one magnet.
As extension activities and as a method of differentiation, I gave my students a list of assignments that they can do to represent their knowledge of magnets. Some examples are - Powerpoint presentations, schematic drawings, an essay, a video, or a photo journal entry.
One thing that I discovered was that most of my students understood the concept of repelling and attracting; however, the concept of polarity was still unclear for a few students. Next year, I plan to do a "jigsaw" type of cooperative learning activity using the science textbook to enhance the students' understanding of polarity before beginning the actual science experiment.


AIMS Education Foundation. (1991). Mostly magnets. AIMS Education Foundation.

Iceberg Experiment

Global Warming Experiment
For this week’s assignment, I had to conduct an experiment with ice cubes. First, I put some ice cubes into a bowl and let them sit in the freezer overnight. Then, I filled up the bowl with water, all the way to the top, and left it until the ice melted. My prediction was that the bowl would not overflow with water, since the melted water from the ice would simply replace the amount of space taken up by the ice cubes.
That being said, the world’s glaciers are not actually immersed in the water but rather rise above it; therefore, if a glacier melts, it would in fact be adding water to the oceans. Global warming can have severe repercussions for every continent, and it may not be as far in the future as people might think. “Seventy-five percent of the world's fresh water is stored in glaciers, but scientists predict climate change will cause some of the world's largest glaciers to completely melt by 2030” (NOW on PBS, 2010).
Scientists have predicted widespread flooding if the world’s icecaps melt and “even a modest rise in sea levels could cause flooding problems for low-lying coastal areas…[and] if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt and collapse into the sea, it would push sea levels up more than 32 feet” (Strickland & Grabianowski, 2005). One fact that I did not know about is that the oceans’ waters would actually expand if warmed, therefore causing more flooding on top of the glacial melting. In fact, “thermal expansion has already raised the oceans 4 to 8 inches” (Lovgren, 2004). Additionally, global warming could proceed at a faster pace because there would be less ice to reflect the sun’s rays.
As I conducted this experiment, I wondered about a couple of things related to global warming:
1 – Is global warming a natural phenomena that has been “helped along” by pollution and disregard for the environment?
2 – So many ice caps have already collapsed, and clearly it is happening at a faster and faster pace so it begs the question of if this is a problem that can be repaired, or are the wheels already in motion?
3 – Would changing variables change the outcome of the experiment, and how? For example, if I aimed a fan at the bowl of water and ice and/or increased or decreased the temperature of the water, would those actions have an effect on the experiment?
Although there are some naysayers who believe that global warming is simply overstated hysteria, it seems clear to me based on scientific research and data that we have a significant event occurring on this planet. If it is at all possible to rectify the problem, all of us are duty-bound to do whatever it takes to reverse this global warming and its catastrophic effects.

References:
Lovgren, S. (2004). Warming to Cause Catastrophic Rise in Sea Level? National Geographic News. Retrieved on May 20, 2010 from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0420_040420_earthday.html
Strickland, Jonathan, and Ed Grabianowski. "How Global Warming Works." 21 April 2005. HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved from on May 23, 2010.

STEM Lesson

Creating a science lesson based on STEM - science, technology, engineering, and math - was more challenging than I thought it would be. I decided to use a lesson on plants that I've used with my second-graders. The lesson actually takes place over several weeks, as we experimented with what happens to plants when exposed to different conditions - no light versus light, on the side versus right-side up, etc. The students work as a whole class, individually, and in small groups as they learn about plants, make predictions, and observe the changes that take place. They also record measurement data in their science journals for future analysis during math time. The students create a Power Point about the experiments as a final project.
The lesson plan template provided by Walden helped with planning the lesson, and I definitely was more thoughtful and intentional in my approach to the curriculum. Thinking about the 5 E's was beneficial as I had to plan the steps of engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation. Since I usually just plan out my lessons based on what I want the students to learn, this step of using the template did take more time than I am used to, but I felt that the lesson was more rigorous and addressed more learning styles (along with more cooperative learning, which the students really enjoyed!).
I had difficulty integrating engineering into my lesson and I hope to do some more research into this aspect of STEM. I'd also love to solicit comments and suggestions from my fellow bloggers!

Happy Mother's Day!
One great way to add some science into a Mother's Day art project is to have your students plant flowers in a pot that they have decorated. I start a plant unit in April by reading plant books, bringing in extra plants for the students to look at, and doing several experiments with plants. We also plant a seed into the Mother's Day pot and put the pots in a sunny windowsill so that they can be just about ready to bloom in time for Mother's Day.
Each student gets a plant packet with diagrams of plant anatomy, descriptions of the plant life cycle, and scientist observation logs. The students draw pictures of their plants every few days so that they can see the changes that the plants undergo as they grow. We also make a plant book where I will bring in enough flowers so that every student gets one. They "dissect" the plant and tape each part - stem, leaf, petal, etc. onto separate pages and write a description underneath the plant part. On the cover of the plant book they draw and color a picture of their flower.
The flower book, the plant packet, and of course the Mother's Day flower pot are always a big hit with the kids and their parents!

My First Blog

Greetings! I am a second-grade teacher in San Diego, CA. I am taking a course, Nature of Science, for my master's degree, and I will be blogging here about teaching, and of course science.
For me, science is one of the most motivating subjects to teach. My students love doing experiments and working in groups with hands-on activities. Teaching about life cycles really opens their eyes to the wonders of nature, and my students develop a greater sense of respect for their environment.
One science unit that is always a big hit with my students is what I call "Bugology." First, I let the students explore a variety of nonfiction books about insects. Then I will read several books to them, and we'll discuss what makes an insect an insect. After my students have a good solid foundation in insect anatomy, life cycles, eating habits, etc. they get to invent their own bug! The new bug has to have correct insect anatomy with the mouthparts matching what they eat. For example, if a student invents a bug that sips puddle water, the mouthparts have to have a sipping apparatus instead of jaws designed for chewing leaves. Also, the anatomy has to match the bug's habitat (to show understanding of adaptation) and the size has to be representative of typical insects - no giganto bugs that are the size of people, although my students would LOVE to do that, trust me!
For a writing assignment, the students will write paragraphs - one paragraph describes the physical appearance of the bug, the next paragraph will describe the bug's life cycle, another paragraph will describe the eating habits, and so on. They will put their writing assignment next to a drawing of their bug and voila - an awesome display for a science bulletin board!

I am looking forward to sharing more science lessons and ideas on my new blog!