Nov. 25th

Today we ventured to Elk Point to their annual science fair. We were graciously asked to judge the science fair projects. The ages ranged from 5th grade to 8th grade. There were many amazing projects; some that even blew me out of the water. It was very rewarding to see how engaged and active the students were in their projects. They all put much time and effort into these projects and were proud of showing them off. Many projects went over my head, and I could not fathum the fact that 7th and 8th graders were doing these projects. This was a great learning experience that will help me as a teacher. It made me get invoved with the students, ask questions, and see where different cognitive levels of students were at. In all, today was really fun, and it was something different from the ususal meeting in the classroom. We always like field trips!!!!

Five Assessment Types

1. Formative Assessment: It occurs during instruction. Its purpose is to provide feedback to teachers (and students) as students engage in the leanring process.

2. Summative Assessment: It provides documentation of student learning at particular points in time, most typically at the end of a unit of study. The information is often the basis of reports to students,parents, and school administraots.

3. Norm-referenced Assessment: When assessment data for a given students are compared against a group of other students for the purpose of a score or a grade, that is considered nor-referencing.

4. Informal Assessment: These are often embedded in instruction and sometimes are not scored or graded.

5. Formal Assessment: These are typically announced to students, as such, are schored, and graded. Tests and final presentations are examples of formal assessment.

Nov. 20th

Today in class, we worked on group projects. We found out that our theme for our lesson plans was "measurement." As a group, we decided to go with Kindergarten and focus our lesson plan on having chidlren use unifex cubes and measure something that is related to them, like their stuffed animals. Being able to do this allows chidren to learn the sense of measurement and being able to know tallest from shortest. This lesson that we are planning is very developmentally appropraite and sets the stage for more progression in the later years in both math and science! Good Day! We accomplished alot!

Nov. 13th

We did not have class the 11th of November due to Veteran's Day. Today in class, the 13th, we had a working day. We first started class as usual by asking questions. There were many questions being asked, and I think the majority of them were answered. We then spilt up in our groups for our lesson plan. Danielle and I had finished our lesson plan last week, because we had so much homework this week, we just wanted to get it done. We did however, make a few slight changes to the format and added in some text. In all, today we efficeient and productive. (I left early, due to an appointment)

Nov. 6th

Today in class we went through the 5E's; Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. As a group, we went through the potato lab and did our phase on the Explore portion of the activity. We did not notice however, what each potato was suppose to do with or without the salt water. Dr. E informed us that the cup with the high mixture of salt and water made the potato float, as the other two cups did not have a floating potato. It was somewhat hard to try to write out the phase for the Explore portion because we did not notice that the potato was floating. We handed in our documentation of the phase and the activity and class was over.

Five E's

The 5 E model contains the following: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. To be able to first engage students, teachers must initiate students's prior knowledge and activate old connections in order to make new knowledge and new connections. As soon as the students have been engaged, we need to move on to the Exploration part of the model. As teachers, we will be able to present our students to work directly and actively with the materials or topic of discussion. This allows students to be able to interpret their knowledge about what the objective is about, which in turn is the explain portion of this model. After this stage is successful, teachers need to move on to the elaboration students will be exploring if their knowledge of previous thought preconceptions has been tested and is tried and true, or if they have made new connections that could possibly change their views. Evaluate is the last part of the model, this is where the teacher will assess the students knowledge and gauge to see if they have learned anything new in this process. This model is essential for instruction in the classroom because it allows an environment that fosters students in each stage. These points to a Constructivist theory where previous knowledge is scaffold and is built upon in order to make newer connections. It is up to the teacher to facilitate the constructivistic learning process. The structure of the learning environment should promote opportunities and events that encourage and support the building of understanding.

Nov. 3rd

Today in class we went outside and did the rocket activity. It was fun as a class to be able to go outside and do the activity. It was interesting to see that other rockets made it different heights when essentially, they all had the same amount of mixtures in the bottles. After the rocket activty, we went inside and asked questions pertaining to the upcoming weeks. There were MANY questions surrounding the lesson plan, powerpoint presentations, quiz, reading guide. Most of the questions were answered, but these next few weeks will be certainly REALLY busy! Dr. E then discussed assessment and how to i nteract with children when it comes to circumstances under assessment. In all, today was very productive.

Oct. 29th

Today in class we started out with the discussion about questions. I asked about the powerpoint presentations and what we needed to do for the presentation and when it was due. The powerpoint presentations will be due November 13. We then went into the class midterm presentations. All of the presentations were educational. I learned alot again, and would be able to bring into any classroom! These presentations make me realize that as a Elementary school teacher, my students would be SO excited to have ANY presentations/lesson taught to them in this way! I really would like it if as a class, we could put togther a portfolio of these lesson plans and activities so we can use them for future reference!

Oct. 28th

Today in class, we started out by asking questions on the assignments due and other questions pertaining to the midterm and the powerpoint presentation due next week. We will be discussing the powerpoint presentation on Thursday, so we are able to know what we need in order to have the assignment done. We then began with my colleagues Midterm presentations. They had difficulty with the technology, but we also leanred the leasson that when it comes to technology, a teacher should always be prepared for back up number one, and keep the classtime flowing. They did however, after a while get the computer running, and they went on to discuss their topic of chemical solutions. After they were done, we had a project on oil and water, and oil spills. The third group went, and they talked about mixtures of corn starch and water to make a gooey stubstance. This activity was interesting because they allowed us as a class to watch a video about how these two scienctists made this substance but in a much larger scale and they could actually walk on water. At the end of the class period, we had a group go up and demonstrtae bottle rockets. In all, this class time gave me many more ideas on how to bring science to life in my classroom and they activities we all enaging towards the students!

Oct. 23rd

Today in class, we started our midterm projects. Many people had to go up today, but only five groups went. I thought that all of my colleagues projects and presentations were fantastic. They all had excellent content pertaining to their specific lesson they were teaching. I also had to demonstrate my lesson plan. It went well, but we were the last group to go, so we were very much crammed for time. In all, the presentations that were given today gave me GREAT ideas to teach in my classroom. I hope that we each get everyone's lesson plan to put in our science portfolio so we are able to use them for future references! I can't wait till next Tuesday to see what my othe colleagues have conjured up!

Oct. 21st

Today in class we discussed several questions pertaining to the midterm project. We also went through questions pertaining D2L. We then discussed the Reading Module for chapters five and six. We went through a few questions that would help us answer them for next Monday when it was due. We also did an activity "The Leaping Egg." As a group, we discussed the questions like, "What makes the egg jump out of the first glass?" and "Why would the egg not go toward the one that blows." We did the activity and came up with the conclusions that the air and it's pressure that the person who blew it, is an exerted force. We also concluded that the angle and direction of air does matter, and that air current under pressure is resulted by the creation of air flow. I thought that this activity had many different objectives that a teacher could teach in science. It was fun to do and we learned alot in such a short amount of time.

Oct. 16th

Today in Science, we discussed the importance of lab safety. We did a worksheet on staying safe online. There were many important questions about being safe online. For instance, it asked questions about "Do you tell your real name, phone number, hometown, etc.) online to people you don't know? It also had questions like, "Do you open e-mail from people you don't know? Do you use capital letters when your e-mail, blog, or anything else?" We also did a safety scavenger hunt, which pertained to the book, "Officer Buckle and Gloria." We went to a link on D2L and looked at different tips for safety for instance, a link on strangers, bullie, and calling 9-1-1. The last thing we did, was find our own web link on safety in the science classroom.

Oct. 14th

Today in class, we all read aloud a science dicussion and experiment through the eyes of a teacher. It was interesting to make the simplest form of science intriguing to students, like making scrambled eggs and talking about solid, liquids, and gases. We also then had the rest of the class period to talk with our partners about our midterm project. We discussed our outline and what needs to be done with the project. We also found out that we could use youtube.com to take safety vidoes, which was a huge relief. In all, today was a productive day.

Oct. 9th-Online Class (Cyberbee)

Today, I went to the content, and cyberbee.com came up. I again, looked through the module for cyberbee and went through more of the website. There were many websites, sources, curriculum themes, and science fair preparations and judging. In all, the twenty results that came up for "science" they were all very interesting and came up with great sources for science content.

CyberBee Website

I went to the website CyberBee.com and browsed around the site. I found that this site had many tools to offer. Such tools consisted of curriculum ideas, web links, research tools, and web projects. I went to the link curriculum ideas and saw that they had many ideas for teachers. This site is useful, fun and interesting. It contains all content areas from science to language arts. In all, this was a great site to visit to be able to know where I can find more tools for teaching.

Mystery Box

I went to the website: http://www.fossweb.com/modules3-6/ModelsandDesigns/activities/blackbox.html. This activity took shapes of little boxes and asked me to make specific bigger shapes like squares, and triangles, ect. It was interesting to try to make the shapes that the website asked. At sometimes, I thought it was hard to be able to create those shapes. But in all, it was a great activity!

Oct. 7th

Today in class, we discussed safety in the classroom. We began to talk about safety considerations, which teacher should explain the need for protecting clothing, eyes, use of safety equipment. Teachers also need to model correct procedures, most important is don't leave the classroom when experiment is in progress. We must learn safety through organization. We also talked about example rules for teaching science and safety. After the powerpoint discussion, we talked about the science fair and read a few pages of how to judge fairly on a science fair project. There was eight steps to follow to judge fairly. Also in the examples, these was tips and warnings, and an attached rubric.
We then did the activity, "mirror writing" The investigation helps students learn a skills which is enhanced by repetition. Also, the sensory input that results in the most effective memory retention is different in different people. Other content objectives involved with this investigation is memory is enhanced by active first hand experience multiple senses and emotional engagement. Dr. E introduced the leanring, the mirror writing, the demonstrastion of the setup and explained the task and distribution of materials.

NSTA Web Seminar

Since I was unable to attend the web seminar, I visted the link. In the web seminar powerpoint, it began with the investigations of the birth of the star and how it formed, stellar classification, star spectra, planet information, and when stars die. We began to start with a pre-test to test our knowledge and see what stars are made of. Stars are actually made of mostly hydrogen, a little of helium, and some metals. It went on to explain the definitions of stars and talked about the equilibriumm, gravity and pressure that produces the energy of its nuclear fusion in their cores. The powerpoint went on to again ask the question, what physical factors do I think most influence how stars are formed. I was asked to consider the mass of the intitial gas cloud, the temperature of the gas, and the speed of cloud roatation. But come to find out, the most important factor in how a star evolves and eventually dies is its initail mass. The next slide went on to talk about how a star is born and how its initial mass determines its life. The next couple of slides explained how to classify stars. It classified stars based on their spectra, which provides scientists with information on: temperature, composistion, brightness, and in some cases distance. More of the slides went on the talk about light and energy in a star. It gave a graph about light and energy and stars and a absorbsion and emission spectrum. The next of many slides, gave more graphs, color spectrumed graphs, and questions about stars. It also explained about how planets form around stars. In ll, the powerpoint gave many resources in the information of stars and gave much insight to how stars are born, die and what is contained inside of each star.

October 2nd

Today in class, we discussed the powerpoint over how children's minds develop. It explained questions like, how does one recognize the knowledge that chidlren bring to school? Also we talked about identifying a shared base understanding in young children. Young children tend to think about their experiences in regard to each domain in similar ways, regardless of their culture, so one can expect that nearly all children will learn. Also we talked about the four domains of knowledge and questions children ask. Young children lbegin school with rich knowledge of the natural world and the ability to research. We also did the activity called, "Platos Allegory of the Cave." We watched a movie explaining about this theory and then made the connection to the activity. Our group was given four black boxes. As individuals we had to try guess through our senses to guess what was in the box. We each made individual predictions of all four of the boxes, and then came together as a group to discuss what we thought as a whole. Our conclusiohns as a group were that all the boxes had marbles, but somehow something was blocking some sections of the box. It was interesting to find out what ACTUALLy was in the box, and through our investigations, we concluded that the boxes were filled with marbles and that there was wood blocking some angles of the box.

September 30th: Online Class Today!

Today in class we had an online assignment. We discussed and answered several questions pertaining to Chapters 3 & 4. I found the case studies interesting in the chapters because teachers were helping children formulate their own misconceptions and be able to take those misconceptions and produce new knowledge from what they previuosly thought. For example, the air pressure case study was interesting to me because the teacher was able to bring in models and materials from around the home, to be able to help her students connect with their lives. She also asked questions that helped foster their skills and knowledge about air pressure. She was giving the students a chance to be able to predict, test and then formulate a answer on what actually happened to the paper towel and water pressure with the air.

The Amazing Food Detective

I checked out The Amazing Food Detective game! I think this is a great way for students in the elementary level to enjoy games, but learn something at the same time. This game, is supportive of technology used in the classroom that helps enhance health and good nutrition. This was interesting, fun and enjoyable to do, and it helped me see that health class and/or science can be fun! It involves the children, which means they are doing! Which means they are LEARNING!!!!

Sept. 23rd

Today's discussion in class pertained to the lab, "The Acid Test." In the overview, we learned that baking soda and acid react to form carbon dioxide and that baking soda can be used as an indicator of the presence of acid. We found that last weeks discussion about healthy foods and diets correlated with this weeks lab because we discussed the acid content in some foods like oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruits.

Sept. 18th, 2008

Class today was very interesting and engaging. We discussed the topic of health and nutrition. We went on this site which helped students pick out healthy food for breakfast. The site would then calcaulate if we had picked a healthy choice or an unhealthy choice. It showed the calories, fat, grams of fat, grams of carbohydrates, and grams of protein. It was very suprising to see the amount of calories and grams of carbs, fats, and protien in a single serivng of food. What was also interesting was the amount of calories one child was suppose to take in. I thought it was less, but suprisingly enough, for a young girl it was 2200 calories. We also discussed in class, the quiz and what we needed to study for chapters 1 & 2. But overall, today was a fun day to be able to be interactive with the class and do an interesting topic where everyone seemed to be enjoying the day's activity!

Sept. 16th

Today in Science we discussed the powerpoint over Chapters 1 and 2. What I thought was fun was that we discussed that safety in the classroom, when it comes to science, is very important for students to be knowledgeable about. Dr. E gave us a couple of different sets of pages that went together as a game that discussed Safety. The game was called "The Safety Game" and we all decorated and played the game. I thought that this was a great method in teaching the importance in safety in the Science classroom!

Week 1-2nd Blog

Today, September 11th, as a class we discussed the usage of the term "theory." We also went through the powerpoints and talked about scientific theories and the process it takes to get to a theory. As a class, we also discussed the importance of teaching science and using the methods that can help refine student's knowledge of science. We also went through the steps of how to make a theory. The definitions that take to make a theory a theory are: evidence, scientific claims, hypothesis and facts.

September 9th, 2008 Blog

Today in Science Methods we discussed and started two labs. The first lab that we started was Temperature Probe Response Time. The reason for this lab was to investigate the response time of the EasyTemp temperature probe, and to learn more about the EasyData program.
We took the probe from cold to hot water and watched to see what the response time for the temperature to level out. My group came to the conclusion from our data that it took the water to reach room temperature in 58 seconds.
This lab helped our group to learn more about the EasyData program and the EasyTemp probe, by following the directions and figuring out how to use the techonology at hand. Because of this lab, we are able to take home some knowledge of both the EasyDate and EasyTemp probe and be able to use it for future labs.