11/25

I was not able to attend the science fair judging experience. I heard it was a great time and a wonderful learning experience in so many ways. Danielle, Elly, and I are working together to come up with an exciting activity to make up the hours we missed for the science fair judging. The three of us and Dr. E meet briefly before Thanksgiving break to talk about our upcoming event. We are planning an event at the Vermillion Public Library to celebrate the Year of Science. We are hoping to get squared away with the time and location so that we can get started on the activity. Danielle had a couple good ideas and she said she was going to talk to the manager at the library to get the details we need to get started. I think this experience will be fun and exciting for the children. I’m looking forward to next semester when we actually get to get involved a little bit more.

11/20

Today was another work day for Science Methods. Today we were introduced to the Final Project in which i think sounds really neat. I like Dr. E’s idea of tying all the groups and lessons together. My group members are Megan, Brooke, Natalie, and myself. We picked 3rd grade unit on measurement to focus on final project on. Our group has been working together over the course of the last 2 weeks to complete and turn in our final project! Boy does it feel good to get towards the end of the semester with all our final projects. We should be done with our final lesson soon!

11/18

Today class was canceled due to circumstances out of Dr. E’s control. We were given an extension on our lesson plan and quiz at this time. The timing for the extension was helpful because of the stress load this week. I hope things turn around for Dr. E and her family…. Thinking of you.

11/13

Today in class we had time to work on our lesson plan #2. I thought this was really nice of Dr. E to provide us classtime to work on our lesson plan because our cohort has been overwhelmed with homework lately. Any extra time that we get to work on our assignments really help the stress level! So thank you Dr. E and I look forward to presenting another lesson plan. I really enjoy presenting our lesson plans because our class works wonderfully with whoever is presenting.

Assessment Cont....

Over the course of the last couple weeks we have been talking so much about assessment. I am currently enrolled in the EDER 415, Educational Assessment, and we just had an exam over Performance Based tests on Monday. What I have learned in EDER 415 correlates well with our discussion topic for this week in Science Methods. The question asked, what is the “Key” to designing a successful performance assessment? I answered this question like this: I believe making decisions about scoring is “key” to a successful performance assessment. When creating performance assessments it is very important to decide what scoring tools are appropriate for the assessment’s purpose. Creating and implementing rubrics are great for performance assessments. As a teacher you should hand out the rubric before the assessment is given therefore students are able to see what is expected of them. If you engage students in the scoring process, they become more aware of the criteria and how that criterion is used to assess their work. I like how I can relate what I already learned in another class and carry it over to science methods. I like being able to make connections when I learn and I have done so here!

Assessment Powerpoint

Today in class we learned about assessments that are used in the elementary and middle school classrooms. Dr. E presented a PowerPoint that was very informative about assessments. Some of the information I took from that PowerPoint is that teachers should be flexible while addressing different learning styles. Teachers should also use a variety of assessment types in the classroom. For science related assessments, teachers should focus on performance and authentic assessments. It is understood that science learning is so hands on and that is important to note when deciding how you are going to assess your students.

The 5E Model

Today I am blogging about the new model I learned about called the 5E Model. The 5E Model consists of Engaging, Exploring, Explaining, Elaborating, and Evaluating. Engaging is focusing the student's attention on the context and concepts of the material being presented. Exploring provides numerous opportunities for students to explore through experiences and experiments. Explaining covers the language, terms, and models in the unit. Elaborating allows students to apply and extend their ideas to new framework and situations. Evaluating encourages students to assess their knowledge of the subject matter. The 5E Model is essentially what teachers should use when instructing their students. This model is great because it covers every part of a lesson. From the beginning to the end it is a great model to follow. I hope to follow and incorporate this model when I teach Science in the near future!

We presented our lesson plan today!

10/30
Today Natalie and I were the last group to present our lesson plan! We were given 5 minutes to present our lesson compared to other groups who had 10 to 15 minutes! So with the time that was given we had to run through our lesson plan very quickly. I was a little disappointed that we had to run through it so fast, but we had a lesson that tied in with Halloween and light safety so we wanted to present it during Thursday’s class rather than next Tuesday’s class. Overall I thought our lesson plan was great and covered numerous safety concerns for 1st graders. I really wished we had more time to present our lesson, but what can you do, right?!? I’m looking forward to presenting our next lesson plan!

10/28

10/28
Let’s continue our lesson plan presentations! Yeah! We had a little difficulty getting started today because Dr. E’s computer and overhead did not want to work properly. It took us a half an hour to get booted and squared away, but the wait was well worth it because we got to see and hear more excellent lesson plans. I was hoping that Natalie and I would get to present ours today, but with the mishaps at the beginning of class I guess we have to wait until Thursday. I think our class is so talented! We have had so many great lesson plans and presentations it makes me really excited to get out in the field and teach!! Whoo Hoo!

10/23

10/23
Today in class we started our lesson plan presentations! I was really excited to come to class today because I always enjoy hearing and listening to other group’s lessons. We have presented lesson plans in other classes and I have nothing but good things to say about it. I think presenting lessons in front of the class is way better than just handing our lessons into the teacher. This way all our classmates are able to listen to new ideas and maybe use them in the future. Some of the highlights from today were the mixture presentations done by Becca and Catie and also Brooke and Megan. During these presentations we got to physically mix together different mixtures. It was neat to see that oil and water don’t mix ! Even though I already knew this it was great to enforce it! During class today, we didn’t get through very many presentations so we are going to have to continue Tuesday of next week! Can’t wait to present ours!!!

10/21

We started off today's class period finalizing and asking more questions about our midterm lessons and presentations. Dr. E made it clear that we must include every component on our grading rubrics to ensure the best grade possible Also in class we all wrote down our tshirt sizes for the upcoming science fair judging experience on Novemeber 25th. I was unsure if I needed to sign up for a tshirt because I will not be able to attend the science fair. I decided that even though I will not be able to attend the fair I am still going to purchase the tshirt. The tshirts that we picked out sound super cute. They are going to be teal with white lettering and they are going to say, "USD Literacy Team!" I can always use more tshirts!! They are so comfy and lightweight!
After discussion about our midterms we moved onto talk about chapter 5 and 6. We briefly covered the chapters and then moved on to our activity for the day. Our activity was called, " The Leaping Egg". This activity was fun. It was very easy and simple to follow. We concluded from our experiement that the force of the air out of our mouths made the ping pong ball jump out of the first glass. We noted that the stronger the air force the further the ball moved. We also concluded that it depends on where you blow on the ball. If you blow on top compared on the bottom the ping pong ball with travel at different distances.

10/16

Today in class we did an activity on Internet safety. To introduce the activity Dr. E handed out an internet safety worksheet that we all filled out. The worksheet covered topics including what we should and shouldn’t do when we are using and surfing the internet. It is important to remember to never agree to meet someone you meet in a chat room or online in general. Also NEVER USE CAPITAL LETTERS WHEN WRITING ON THE INTERNET OR IN EMAIL. It can get to be very annoying! As you can tell from the sentence above it gets to be too much to handle when you write in all caps! The next activity we did in class was to color in the safety stars and write down three important safety tips. I wrote down bullies, emergency, and animal safety. I visited all three of these websites and read the important safety tips each link had to offer! Kids would love this activity!

10/14

Midterm Projects

It’s that time again for a midterm project! On Tuesday the 14th in class we discussed more about our midterm lesson plans. Dr. E was able to get us all on the same page about what is due and what should be included in our presentations. Natalie and I are working on our lesson plan and should be set to go next week! We are really excited about our lesson plan for 1st graders about light sources and shadows! Wish us luck J

Cyberbee

The interactive website Cyberbee is a great resource for teachers. I logged onto this site and clicked around on all the different links and hyperlinks. The link on treasure hunts was by far the coolest one. In order to complete the web treasure hunt you had to use the different websites listed to discover more awesome websites. The first internet hunt I clicked on had you answer questions. The questions were not questions that you would normally know off the top of your head so in order to find the answers you had to use the hints they provided and work your way around the internet to find the answers. I completed the hunt and got the score of a CYBERNUT! I must know my way around the internet! J As for the classroom, the students would get a kick out of internet hunts! You could get the students really interested and have them race to see who can find all the answers the fastest!

Web Seminar

-The National Science Digital Library presented Dr. Cathy Ezrailson and Dr. Susana Deustua in a very interesting web seminar covering astronomy and star formation. The two presenters were very excited to get started and to share their hard work and dedication to the seminar. It was evident that Dr. Ezrailson has conducted a web seminar before. As for Dr. Denustua, it took her a little bit to get warmed up to the presentation, but both did such a great job! The content of this seminar has helped me establish more background knowledge about star formations. I feel by watching and listening to this seminar, I have added to my prior knowledge and built upon what I already knew about stars, astronomy, and star formations. The two professors researched and conducted this web seminar were fantastic. They created such a relaxed and causal atmosphere for the participants. Even though this was an informal presentation, I thought it was such a neat set up. I thought it was really neat that students, colleagues, and other guests could log on and interact with each other and the presenters. Not only were there students and participants from South Dakota, but from nearly ten other states. My favorite part about the presentation was the interaction. As a participant in the web seminar you were asked to answer questions and voice opinions. I thought the live interaction between presenters and participants was so cool! The way technology can connect people is so incredible! I thought overall this was a great learning experience.

Mystery Box

What a fun activity this was! We pretended to be detectives and solve the mystery of what was in the boxes. Our professor passed around four black closed boxes to each group and asked us to find out what was going on in the box. Each box was sealed close so we couldn’t peak inside. Each box was the same shape and same color. I guess my group didn’t pay close enough attention to the directions because we guessed what was in the mystery boxes. We each started with our own closed boxes and tried to guess what was in the inside. The hard part about this activity is that all the boxes seemed to have the same item inside. If we would have listened a little more carefully we would have known that each box had the same item. We also discovered that each box had different barriers on the inside. This threw our group off track because we thought that each box had a marble inside of it and indeed each box did, but each box also had different sizes and shapes of cardboard put inside of them causing the marble to move in different directions inside the box. Once we knew about the cardboard pieces inside the boxes we tried this activity again and drew pictures of where we though the cardboard was inside the boxes. We were right about three of them and missed the location of the cardboard on one of them. I really enjoyed this activity because I’m so use to being able to open things and look at them if I want to. This activity made me think outside of my comfort zone and use my listening skills to be able to locate the cardboard inside the boxes. Dr. E also posted a link to a really neat website dealing with the same type of activity! Check it out!

No Class Sept. 30th

On September 30th we were all excused from class because our professor had prior religious obligations to she had to attend. Instead of meeting face to face for class, we had an alternative assignment online. Our assignment online was to complete a reading guide for chapter three and four. On this reading guide there were nine in-depth questions over the chapter readings. The questions included in this reading guide were not yes or no questions, but were more like short essay questions. I thought this assignment was very time consuming and somewhat difficult. I spend almost three hours on this assignment. I first read the chapters then completed the questions. I wanted to make sure that I answered each question to my best ability since our professor, Dr. E, looks for specific connections from the reading. Looking back on this online assignment I much rather would have gone to class. It seems as though we get more homework when we don’t meet face to face then if we do meet as a whole class. I really enjoy going to class and interacting with my peers. I also enjoy doing the different lab activities and discussing different scientific topics with my professor and class. When we have online assignments I stare at a computer screen and don’t interact with anyone.

Amazing Food Detective

The Amazing Food Detective is a great interactive website. This website looks into the lives of animated children facing health problems. With each child there is a health mystery and it is your duty to review the case and help find a solution to children’s health problems. While working my way around this website, I choose three different children from the lineup. Emily was the first child I choose. She has a good diet, but eats too much. Her problem is her portion control. I helped her by reducing the amount of food she eats in one place setting. The next child I helped was Matthew. Matthew needs to build and work on his endurance. The solution to his problem is for him to workout at a faster rate. He can do this by getting his heart rate up and keeping it up for a longer period of time. The last child I worked with on this website was Enrique. Enrique needs more calcium in his diet. I decided that Enrique needs healthier bones and teeth. He needs to eat high calcium foods like milk, cheese, and orange juice. I really enjoyed playing on this website and I think my students would as well. I also like how after each case they give you options to print activities you can do without a computer! Awesome!

The Acid Test

Last week in class we performed an Acid Test lab. The purpose of this lab was to observe that acid and baking soda react with one another. We used acid from various fruits juices and fruits and tested the acid amount compared to regular vinegar. During our lab, we discovered that out of the seven different controls: lime juice, vinegar, and white grape juice rounded out the top three and reacted the most with the baking soda. We noticed that the fruit juices fizzed the most because they are more concentrated than fruit itself. It is very easy to read the results with the two graphs I created. One graph showed the acids in the juices and the other showed the acids in the fruit pieces. Creating these graphs made it easier to see the results. I came across some complications with this lab because the instructions were too vague. I found it hard to follow these directions and I would rewrite the instructions if I were to use this lab in my classroom. If I had troubles following directions with this lab I believe my students would as well. With this lab, I learned how to understand pattern, interaction and change.

Four Strands of Learning

Today in Science Methods we learned about the four learning strands of science. I think these strands will be very important to note for the rest of the semester and into my teaching career. The four strands include: understanding Scientific explanations, generating scientific evidence, reflecting scientific knowledge, and particpating productively in science. I forecast that we will be going back to these four learning strands throughout the semester so I better commit these to memory.

Nutrition

Nutrition is an important topic to cover with elementary students. I really liked the activity we did in class today(9/18) linking nutrition and the importance of eating healthy, remembering not too consume too many carbs or fat in one's daily diet. We had to fill out a worksheet about calcuating carbs and fat in different foods we eat on a regular basis. My friend Natalie and I took this a step further. We logged onto the Burger King, McDonalds, and Taco Johns nutritional websites and looked at the facts. We were blown away with the amount of calories and grams of fat there is in fast food. We all enjoy eating out from time to time, but after looking at these three websites it has changed my views about whoppers and burritos! Generally speaking I eat over 1000 calories per meal at these locations! That is just crazy!

D2L

2nd blog! During class on 9/8 we cleared up some confusion about D2L and other assingments. I would have to agree with a majority of the class that D2L is hard to navigate around. I know that as I become more and more familiar and comfortable with D2L I will enjoy using it. I thought that WebCT was a great resource. Using D2L is great for students and teachers alike because it gives us the opportunity to have content, quizzes, and other resources all on one page. Having all the course materials in one location is very convenient and I'm looking forward to working with and learning more about D2L through this course.

First day of blogging!

Yes, I was finally able to log on and blog for the first time today! With my first blog I would like to comment on K-8 Science Methods and what I expect out of this class to help prepare me for teaching on my own. I am hoping to get alot out of this class over the course of the semester. My main goal for this class is to learn how to teach science effectively to my students. I believe that one way to teach science effectively is to create a good science enviornment and I belive incorportating labs I also would like to learn a bunch of different fun labs elementary students would enjoy. It sounds like we are going to be doing hands-on activities and labs each time we meet as a class so I should be able to keep the labs and refer back to them in the future.