Science in the News

Fish who live in the deep ocean may say the world in a way we could never imagine. They have never seen sunlight so they see the world as no other animal in the world does. While scientists have usually understood that fish who live in the deep ocean do not require color vision, however a study involving 101 different fish proved that the silver spinyfish has more genes for discriminating dull light than any other vertebrate on the planet. These genes make it possible to see the whole range of residual daylight and the full spectrum of bioluminescense in the deep sea. Nothing has ever been seen like this before from vertebrate fishes. This completely goes against what we believed regarding the evolution of visual systems. Looking more closely at 101 genomes, they found that thee different lineages of deep sea fish had extra copies of genes for seeing dim light. These fish may use their extra genes for detecting subtle differences and see the world in shades of blue and green we can't even imagine. It's also possible that these fish may not utilize all this extra power. I selected this article because I have always enjoyed fishing, and I find fish very interesting. When I saw the New York Times published this article it was the one I wanted to review. I would be able to use this in a classroom by alluding to the fact that things are constantly being discovered, and we should continue to test things in order to make these discoveries. Much of the world is unknown, and through science we can learn new things.

Final Blog Post

Science Methods class has come to an end and I have learned a lot about science and myself as a teacher. For the last class everyone shared their efolios and discussed how this class furthered their knowledge to become a better science teacher. When I got to the front of the classroom to show the rest of the class my efolio I began to reflect on how I've come since I walked into class the first day of last semester for Social Studies methods. I was unsure of myself, and wasn't confident that I would be a good teacher. As I was talking about how my knowledge grew throughout my time in Dr. Smirnova's class I realized that I am a lot more comfortable talking in front of a classroom. One area I have always been concerned about is classroom management. Through practice and repetition I feel I am ready for student teaching. I was extremely nervous that I did not have what it took to be a teacher, but thanks to this experience I know I will be a good teacher who will do whatever it takes to do what is best for my students.

Earth in Action Project

We recently worked on an exploring weather project in Science Methods class. The first thing we had to do was watch a video on severe weather and come up with 3 things we learned and 3 things we wondered. The 3 things I learned were that wind speeds can reach up to 300 mph during tornadoes, floods happen when bodies of water overflow, and extreme weather can reshape the geosphere. The 3 things I wondered were what kinds of weather is able to reshape the geosphere and how much does it take, how fast are winds during an average tornado, and where on Earth do mudslides usually occur.

After I watched the video I looked at a bunch of pictures of different kinds of extreme weather, and had to come up with 4 questions I had on the pictures. The 4 questions I had were what happened in picture 4, why do tornadoes occur, why were all those people driving if that much snow was an option, and how far in advance are experts able to predict an avalanche will occur.

I then had to say how these pictures made me feel. I stated how these pictures made me never want to have to deal with these extreme weather conditions, and it made me feel sympathy for people who do have to deal with these conditions.

After I did all of this I picked one of the pictures to learn about more in depth. I chose floods because I am from Queens and I remember after Hurricane Sandy many of my friends experienced flooding in their homes, and many more people including one of my teachers lost their homes.

I watched a video and said 3 things that I learned. The 3 things I learned from watching the video were floods used to be seen as a positive by farmers who used to use an irrigation system to grow crops, floods can occur due to many different reasons, and 56,000 homes were flooded or destroyed in Mississippi during the Great Flood of 1993.

I then read an article and found 3 things I learned about floods from the article. The 3 things I learned from the article were water droplets form from warm air, the speed raindrops fall depends on the size of the raindrop, and flash floods when floodwaters rise rapidly with no warning within several hours of intense rain.

I then read a beautiful poem about natural disasters, and in the end the final line was Earth is restored.

I then wrote my own poem on Floods based on the information I learned.

My Poem

Floods occur when too high is water

If it happens to you protect your sons and daughters

Floods are seen as a big harm

But they used to be used to help the farm

If flash floods are expected I'll get an alarm

2 feet of water can tip over your car

Floods are awful because they destroy peoples' homes

During Hurricane Katrina people found safety at the Mercedes Benz Super-Dome

While floods are created by terrible weather

Many times they bring the community together.

Nature of Being A Scientist

I recently watched a video for Science Methods class which was a talk by Neil deGrasse Tyson on the nature of being a scientist. I found this video to be very intriguing and intellectually stimulating. During this talk, someone asks him what is the greatest science news in the universe. He responded that 85% of all the gravity in the cosmos has no known origin. We call it dark matter but it may not be matter at all. He then stated that 74% of the energy that drives the universe has an origin we know nothing about. We call it dark energy but we don't know what that is either. The point he is trying to make is the greatest news in the universe is that there is so much left to discover. I agree with him. This creates a sense of wonder which inspires people to hope for answers. He also goes on to say if you are a scientist and you are not befuddled every day you're not in the game. Scientists are constantly in a state of ignorance which he loves because that is where wonder comes from. This video really made me think about how little we truly know about the universe. If we are able to create this sense of wonder and exploration that Neil has in our students maybe one day they will attempt to figure these answers out too.

My Groups Inquiry Lesson Plan

It was time for my group to conduct our inquiry based learning lesson plan. For our inquiry lesson plan we wanted the students to create leprechaun traps using simple machines. We chose leprechauns because St. Patrick's Day was that weekend, and we thought it would be a fun theme.

Before we started the lesson we reviewed the Vocabulary words simple machine, complex machine, inclined plane, wedge, and screw. After we reviewed our Vocabulary, we showed the kids the simple machines song again. The students all began dancing and singing along to the song. Part of the challenge we gave the students was they could use as many simple machines as they want, however they had to include screws, wedges, and inclined planes in their leprechaun traps.

Before we let the students begin working on their leprechaun traps we went over the steps of inquiry.

Steps of Inquiry

1) Identify the problem and formulate a question

2) Form a hypothesis

3) Collect Data

4) Study Data

5) Draw Conclusion

We put up a timer of 20 minutes and let the students start working in their groups. My group members and I walked around the class and tried to guide the groups into making a successful leprechaun trap. The students came up with many impressive ideas. 20 minutes was not enough time for all the groups to finish so we let them have 5 more minutes.

Once all the groups had finished it was time to present. Before the students came up and presented we went over what we expected from each group when they presented as well as what we expected from the audience. We asked the groups to tell us the name of their leprechaun trap, their hypothesis, and to explain their trap. We also wanted each group to show the rest of their class the picture of their trap. I was very excited when all the groups did an excellent job of presenting their ideas. They were all very creative.

For our independent practice we asked the students to write a postcard to the principal of Bishop Dunn. They each had to write 2-3 sentences naming all the simple machines they used and the object from the classroom they used. 

My time teaching was finished for Science Methods and I was happy about how it went. This experience helped me become a better teacher, and I am looking forward to student teaching.

My Groups Direct Instruction Lesson Plan

After weeks of planning and going over what we wanted to do the day was finally here. It was my groups turn to teach the fourth grade students about simple machines. Our first lesson was a direct lesson plan meaning that it was teacher oriented. The three simple machines my group had to teach about were the inclined plane, screw, and wedge. I was really excited. I did not like the way my direct lesson plan went in Social Studies Methods and I was glad to have a chance to redeem myself.

We began the lesson by reviewing the classroom rules, and the check for understanding. After we reviewed these we had to test the students' prior knowledge. We showed them pictures of simple machines and asked them what were some things that came to mind. We used choral responses to teach the students the Vocabulary words simple machine, complex machine, force, and friction. After we went over these key terms we showed the students an extremely catchy song that will be stuck in my head forever about simple machines. The students seemed to really enjoy this song, and wanted to hear it again.

We went over our note sheet before we started teaching about our simple machines. After we went over the note sheet I had to teach the class all about inclined planes. I began by going over the definition using choral responses. I demonstrated to the class that if the incline is more steep there were will be less distance to travel, but it will take more effort to reach the top, and if there is a less steep incline there will be more distance to travel but less effort will be needed.

   

I then showed the students a video on inclined planes. I asked them to write down 2 examples of inclined planes that they see in their everyday life. After I showed them the video I asked them to share some of their examples. The students gave great examples and I was excited they understood what I was teaching.

I then showed them four examples of inclined planes which were a wheelchair ramp, stairs, a hill, and a slide. The students then had to draw an example in the space provided in their note sheet. 

The last thing I did to teach about about inclined planes was a choral response rap. 

Inclined Plane Rap

When moving an object from low to high

The inclined plane is your guide

Although the distance does increase 

It takes less effort to move the beast.

After I reviewed inclined planes my group members did an excellent job teaching about screws and wedges.

When we finished going over our three simple machines, it was time for the guided practice. For our guided practice we had questions on the smart board with a word bank. One question at a time the students had to give us the correct answer from the word bank. I was happy when the students got all the answers correct. 

For our independent practice we asked the students to take either a pink, yellow, or blue index card. If the student had a Think question they had to write it on a pink index card. If the student had a Thin question they needed to write it on a yellow index card. If the student had a Wonder question they were supposed to write it on a blue index card. When the students were finished we asked them to tape their index cards on a poster board under their category.

I was happy the way our Direct Instruction lesson plan went. I felt like the students understood the material, and we were set up great for our Inquiry lesson plan. 

Group 1 Inquiry Lesson Plan

Group 1 began their lesson by telling the students they were going to be engineers today. They then reviewed the Vocabulary from their direct lesson plan on simple machines. 

The teachers came up with a really interesting problem for the students to solve using the inquiry method. They started by saying the Circus is coming to Newburgh. The train the circus was taking fell off the track and the elephant is off the track. The students had to figure out a way to get the elephants back on the train using 2 simple machines. Before the students began working in groups one of the teachers went over the steps of inquiry with the students. The teachers walked group to group making sure the students stayed on track. I thought all the teachers did an excellent job of guiding the students towards solutions without actually giving them the answer. This helps them become better problem solvers.

When the timer the teachers set went off, that meant it was time to present for the students. The students presented their solutions to the problem answering one question at a time. They had to tell the class what simple machines they used, how they used the, their hypothesis, conclusion, and had to draw a picture of their simple machine. All of the presentations were interesting. It was great to see how creative all the students were.

For the independent practice the students had to write a letter. In the letter they had to include several different things. They had to explain to the class how their complex machine worked, what simple machines they used, and if it affected the environment. They used a rubric to explain exactly what they wanted from the students. This was an excellent inquiry lesson plan. The students all seemed to enjoy using the inquiry method, and did a great job with their presentations.

Group 1 Direct Instruction Lesson Plan

It was the first day of teaching for group 1, and I was a little nervous for them, but I knew they would do a great job. They began the class by reviewing the class rules. This was so the students knew exactly what was expected of them. They also went over the check for understanding. If they understood what was being taught to them they were supposed to hold up a thumbs up, if they didn't they had to put up a thumbs down, if they were a little confused they should put their thumbs sideways. 

The Vocabulary words were introduced to the students using word art which I thought was fun. The teachers also handed out a note sheet to every student. The teachers taught the vocabulary words and would stop at certain times to tell the students where to write the word on their note sheets. After teaching the words the teachers did a stop and think to test if the students understood what was being taught to them. The students all seemed engaged in the lesson. I felt the teachers did a great job of not only explaining what each simple machine was, but also explained how they worked, and gave examples of each one. At one point a student didn't know an answer so the teacher picked a name written on a Popsicle stick. This was a good way to keep the student's attention, and all the students thought it was fun.

For the guided practice the teachers played a matching game where the students had to match the simple machine term with it's definition. The teachers also asked the students true or false questions on simple machines.

For the closure the students worked on a simple machines learning page. The teachers allowed the students to use their note sheets and walked around the class to help anyone who needed it. For group 1's independent practice they had the students write comments on different color post it notes. They then had the students put their post its on a poster board. My mine takeaway from the lesson was how good all the teachers' class management skills were, and how engaged all the students were in learning simple machines.

First Day of Fieldwork

After all the preparing my group did the wait was finally over. It was the first day of fieldwork and I was excited and a little nervous to meet the fourth grade students we would teach all about simple machines. It was the first day so we didn't have to teach yet. All we had to do was conduct our Getting to Know You Activity with the groups. For our activity we chose to play a Jenga game with the students. This however, was not an ordinary game of Jenga. Each Jenga piece had a number written on it from 1-30. Every member of our group had a question sheet on the side that contained both getting to know you questions as well as questions on the 3 simple machines we had to teach about which were the screw, wedge, and inclined plane. These questions were numbered and we asked the questions based on what number was on the Jenga piece selected. This was a fun way to get to know a little about the students while at the same time assess their prior knowledge on simple machines. I feel like the activity went very well. The students were all excited to play a game in class, and they even knew more about the simple machines than I thought they would. The class seemed very excited to learn new things, and I couldn't wait to have the opportunity to teach them in a couple of weeks.

Simple Machines

The class was assigned a project all about simple machines. This project was broken up using the 5 E's of inquiry.

5 E's of Inquiry
1) Engage
2) Explore
3) Explain
4) Elaborate
5) Evaluate

The Engage part of the lesson was an example sheet of all different kinds of simple machines. The simple machines that were used as an example were an inclined plane, wedge, screw, lever, wheel and axel, and pulley. The paper talked about how each example was a simple machine and explained what they did.

inclined plane

The explore part of the lesson was a 3-2-1 activity based a video from Bill Nye the Science Guy. I had to think of 3 things I discovered, 2 interesting facts, and 1 question I still have. This was thought-provoking and kept me more engaged in the video as I was watching it. 

The explain part had me draw a picture using google drawings of a simple machine. I chose to draw a lever. I drew two people on a see-saw. Google drawing was a useful tool I had never used before this project. 

Here is the link to my drawing.

The elaborate part of the lesson was a simple machines robot game online. This game was entertaining and made me think about how simple machines play a large role in how everything works.

For evaluate, we had to fill out a form stating how we felt about the project. I thought it was engaging and educational, and thought-provoking.