Models are Key

Just a peek at the bag of marshmallows on my desk had my students hooked on the lesson before they even knew the subject of it! Once they got over the confusion of why we were doing an activity on earthquakes (which we studied in September) in the middle of our unit on genetics, they focused on the lesson itself. Good thing that once I introduced the actual lesson, they quickly forgot about the inconsistent subject as well as wanting to eat the sugary treats because they were so engaged in the task at hand.

My students loved getting out of their seats to work in cooperative groups, something we do often, yet it never gets old to them. I have an extremely motivated group of students who are eager to learn and tackle new challenges. This lesson in which students had to construct a new building (using toothpicks and marshmallow) to withstand an earthquake was right up their alley. Challenges of building the model included some groups’ difficulty to compromise and agree with each other on the strategies they each wanted to use. One group even started building separate buildings using two different strategies. Once I intervened, they decided to combine the buildings to create an awkward structure that was not successful on the shake table. Groups that brainstormed and created a plan before jumping into construction were typically the most successful.

Despite these challenges as well as the cost and set-up of materials, using models to was an engaging way to show students the destructive properties of earthquakes. Students became invested in their models, so were disappointed if it collapsed on the shake table. Many of the buildings survived the test with little damage. The difference helped students determine what were good or bad construction strategies to use. Students could not have understood this information as well just reading from a textbook. Not only would it not mean as much to them, but they probably would not have remembered it as well. I will incorporate this lesson with earthquake shake table models into my earth science unit (at the appropriate time) next year. I love seeing my students enthused about learning and the models did just this!

A Scientific Appreciation

Studying the history of various natural disasters, especially their impact on human property and life, will help children gain an appreciation for the powerful processes of Earth. In my fifth grade classroom, we learn most about earthquakes and volcanoes. I would start by reading nonfiction excerpts of major earthquakes in the world’s history, for instance the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Then, I will move toward more recent events, such as the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Japan. We will look into the human interest aspect of the earthquake’s effects and how the citizens of these countries worlds were turned upside-down.

To reflect on this even further, students would write a journal entry describing how their own lives would change if there was suddenly a major earthquake in Atlanta. Finally, students in my class would research the needs of children in Haiti and Japan, still today, because of the earthquake. They will organize a school contest under a theme similar to “Change for Change” asking students in all classes to bring in change from their piggy banks or leftover from their Wendy’s drive-thru meal. The winning class will receive a treat, while the money will go either toward purchasing supplies, comfort items (such as new teddy bears), or simply as a monetary donation to the Red Cross supporting countries in the midst of natural disaster rebuilding.

My question has not yet been answered by the Ask a Scientist website.

If the scientists do typically respond in a timely fashion, I would love to use this website with my students. I occasionally get asked higher-level questions that I am unable to answer. This would be a great place for students to go for a resource and then share the information they found with the class. Hopefully I will find that others had better luck receiving an answer to their question!

Cool Tools for School

Wow, I had no idea how many neat Web 2.0 tools were out there! I can't wait to get more familiar with the tools and incorporate them into lessons with my fifth graders. Here are my thoughts on a few I have checked out so far:

Prezi: The tutorial was great, and the program looks easy to use. I like the presentation with pictures and text all visible. The movement of the presentation make it interesting to the viewer and easy to zoom in on the text one wants to see.
http://prezi.com/

Viddix: I like that this tool allows a dual screen: one for video and the other for text or pictures. You have to have a webcam or a video recorder to upload video. I think would be fun for students to give a presentation, but do not prefer it for the course project because I would rather not talk through the information on video. I also thought the website and instructions for the tool were quite complex.
http://www.viddix.com/

Museum Box: I liked the historical aspect of this site. It provides a good visual layout of pictures with the opportunity to add additional text. The thematic part of this tool is great! I think my students would enjoy creating a museum box, but I would use it when pictures are the primary part of your presentation. These look fairly easy to create.
http://museumbox.e2bn.org/

Letterpop: I loved this site. The introduction was simple and instructions were concise and easy. This would be a great way to make a brochure, newsletter, or flyer on a topic. You can then share it using social media sites or email. In fact, I may try to make my next monthly class newsletter on this site! You could present information for the organism project easily.
http://letterpop.com/

Gloggster: An easy to use site where you can create posters of information. I like this idea, but would not choose it for the endangered species project because I feel it might be difficult to arrange the various topics of information in a way that would be easy for the viewer to see.
http://edu.glogster.com/

Keeping Up with the 21st Century

It is crucial that our learners become thinkers. The students we teach today are going to be taking jobs that do not even exist today. Employers will not be looking for a book smart individual who can spout off facts and dates. They will need employees who can think on their feet, collaborate with others, create new solutions, develop new ideas, and problem solve. As teachers, it is our responsibility to mold this type of learner.

With the endless ocean of information at our fingertips through the internet, this is one place that we need to take our students to learn. One engaging science website I found is Steve Spangler's Science Blog. http://www.stevespangler.com/tag/middle-school-science-fair-projects/
On this site, you can even sign up to get an email of the experiment of the week.

A topic that I decided to learn more about is sound. We spent some time during this class focusing on the properties of sound. I found it interesting, but it took a lot of exploring to finally grasp some of the concepts. I started thinking about things my students are interested in but don't know much about. I settled on sound because many of my students play instruments and/or are in our school musical which is quite a production with sound and lights.

Audible.com is a great site where you can download a program on your computer to create different sound bytes. We explored this in one way in class, but it can also be used to create podcasts or other recordings. Students can see the sound waves and create patterns in their recordings. They can also use this in reading to hear how fluid their voice is when reading out loud. Another idea is to use it across the curriculum, such as recording a radio show from the 1920's in social studies.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/activities/10/gasounds.html is an interesting site that helps you create a "sense of place" with sounds. At my house, it would be a mixture of crickets chirping, a dog barking, baby laughing, and cars speeding down the interstate. This is home!

Go to the following site to find out how the pitch and loudness of instruments can be altered. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/changing_sounds.shtml It is animated and fun for kids.

Heat Transfer Investigation

For the weekly experiment exploring heat transfer, I chose to use common materials from my kitchen. The four materials I used were a rubber lid opener, aluminum foil, plastic Saran wrap, and a Bounty paper towel. I have found myself covering food with several of these materials in the past, so I thought it would be interesting to learn more about each of their properties in relation to heat.

After letting water sit in identical mugs, each covered by one of the materials, for thirty minutes, I retested the temperature of the water. The results showed the water in the mug covered by aluminum foil was the warmest by one degree Celsius. This was interesting to me because when I first came up with my hypothesis, I almost wrote foil would have the hottest water. I often use this material to cover food out of the oven to keep it warm until dinnertime. Yet, when I thought harder, I realized that aluminum foil is actually a conductor, not an insulator. This realization made me think that heat would not have been as efficiently held in the water as it would with one of the insulators, rubber, for instance. So much for what I know!

The water covered by foil was the warmest followed by plastic Saran wrap, the rubber lid opener, and the coolest was the paper towel. These results make me believe that foil, plastic, and rubber are good insulators. I might test this experiment again to verify the conclusion.

In addition to repeating my exact experiment, I think it would be fun to try out other variables. For instance, I would like to know if I would get similar results if I changed out the water with a different object. I mentioned previously that I use Saran wrap and aluminum foil to cover meals at home if I want to keep them warm. I might test a chicken breast or tomato soup to see how much heat they lose when covered by the same four materials I used. I would think the rate of heat lost may have something to do with surface area and the properties of the food. I would think that water would lose heat quicker than chicken.

Not only would I try changing the substance being tested, but it would also be interesting to change a different variable such as the type of container in which the water is being held. I would test the original mug, a plastic cup, a tin can, and a Styrofoam cup. I would think the Styrofoam cup would aid in insulating the water and therefore slowing the release of heat. There are endless combinations of variables to try out in relation to heat transfer. I enjoyed this experiment. If you try it, have fun!

How Do Different Surfaces Affect the Momentum of Marbles?

In my experiment, I set up a stack of books six inches high and then connected an additional hardback book as a ramp leaning against the stack. This became the incline which marbles rolled down and the selected surface. Precisely two feet from the bottom of the ramp, a string was laid across the floor surface. The procedure of this experiment was to let go of a marble at the top of the book ramp and record the amount of time it took for the marble to roll down the ramp, across the testable surface, and reach the string. In other words, the velocity of the marble was recorded. In order to capture accurate results, two different marbles (one small and one large) were tested on each of the surfaces. Four different surfaces were used: a smooth laminate countertop, a hard-wood floor, a level, compacted carpet, and a shag rug. Each marble was tested five times on each surface to ensure truthful results.

The mean time (in seconds) of the five tests was calculated and is reported in the results below:

	Small marble	Large marble
Smooth laminate countertop	0.5	0.4
Hardwood floor	0.6	0.5
Compacted carpet	1.0	0.9
Shag rug	Did not reach two feet before stopping	Did not reach two feet before stopping

The speed on both smooth surfaces was nearly half the time it took the marble to reach the two foot marker on the carpet. The conclusion of this experiment is that the more friction a surface area provides against a marble, the less momentum the marble will have. Additionally noted is that the larger the mass of a marble, the greater its speed. These were the results I expected to get based on my knowledge of momentum and friction. I knew that friction works to slow an object down.

The procedure of this experiment went well and provided accurate results. I did have to recruit an assistant (my husband) to help release the marble while I timed it. These jobs were too difficult to perform accurately at the same time.

Changes that could be made to this experiment in order to get different results would be to alter the plane of the ramp, use cars or other rolling objects instead of marbles, and test the procedure on still more various surfaces. I would also be interested to see if the difference in the time of the small and large marbles would increase if the distance to the target or string was increased.

I think my students would have fun setting up this experiment in my classroom. The materials used are all basic classroom supplies. Students could decide on something about the experiment to change and see how the results would be different. In order to make this more engaging for my class, I would have to relate it to something they would be interested in. Maybe, I would have them design a new slide for the playground. Depending on how fast or slow they like going down slides, they would have to determine what kind of material to use to make the slide.

All in all, if my students learn that friction affects the momentum of an object by slowing it down, the goal will have been reached. Truthfully, I would be happy that my students could successfully participate in a guided inquiry experience in which they have to be creative and problem solve!