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].

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

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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

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