Pride

Photo from http://www.astronomynotes.com/gravappl/s2.htm#A1.2

This past week the seventh grade science students have been learning about Newton’s Laws of Motion. Although easy to test and see in the lab, Newton’s second law can be incredibly difficult for students to grasp from a mathematical point of view. Using the formula F = ma to understand practical scenarios requires students to integrate their knowledge of written English, algebra, and science. I was very apprehensive about teaching Newton’s second law, and honestly I was not optimistic about having much success with my students.

All my doubts were put to rest by my three seventh grade science classes. The students completely blew me away with their ability to grapple and solve the various story problems I presented them with. Needless to say I am so incredibly proud of all of the North Daviess seventh grade students. Their problem-solving skills and perseverance is absolutely amazing and I am thrilled by all that they have accomplished this week. They have shown that they are capable of tackling complex problems and working together to reach a solution. Days like this remind me why I became a teacher. J

Its been a while

The school year has been flying by and it has been very difficult to update the blog lately. I will be making a more conscious effort to log on and update everyone on a regular basis.


Seventh Grade Update: Seventh grade science students are just finishing up our unit on Life Science. We have explored the cell cycle, mitosis, meiosis, DNA replication, and protein synthesis. The students had a lot of fun building 3D models out of candy, pipecleaners, and other materials last week. The models turned out great, but unfortunately my digital camera is currently decommissioned so I have no way to take pictures of their masterpieces.

Eighth Grade Update: Eighth grade students have completed our unit on Physical Science. This unit allowed students to explore chemical and physical reactions in a laboratory based setting. Lots of exploring and discovery occurred while students experimented with different substances in the lab. Now we are moving on to a new unit on Weather. This unit is new to the Indiana Science 8 curriculum, and without a textbook it is proving to be quite a challenge to find age-appropriate resources for the students. We have begun with an overview of the atmosphere and are now beginning to explore the effects of Global Warming. We have been watching the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" to introduce the  concept and this week we will be delving further into the details of how global warming happens and what it means for life on Earth.

In other news, Twitter is turning out to be a wonderful resource for information about current events. Just last week I stumbled across an AP article about this years atmospheric CO2 levels. I shared the article with my students to help them understand that this is a very real issue that is still affecting the world they live in. I've found that helping students relate to the material we are learning makes them much more motivated to learn. Twitter provides us with an instant resource to news and information related to our classroom topics. Although students are reluctant to use Twitter (its obviously not as cool as Facebook) I'm hoping with time and exposure they will warm up to its use.

Science for dummies - now with more poop

Science for dummies - now with more poop

Great blog post by one of my favorite science writers. Enjoy!

Getting into the swing of things

With the school year well underway, things have gotten very busy. Both 7^th and 8^th grade students have completed their first unit “Becoming a Scientist” and experienced their first experimental lab. Students are also becoming more comfortable with all the new technology we have this year. The class has been very excited about using My Big Campus to communicate and collaborate with one another. This year I have also introduced students to the Khan Academy library of educational videos. Narrated by Salman Khan, the videos provide students with easy to understand lectures about just about any topic they desire to learn about. Something I would like to eventually do with my students this year is to “flip” the classroom. What this means is that notes will be taken at home by watching lectures like those provided by the Khan Academy. This will free up class time for more engaging activities, collaborative student work, and laboratory experiments.  Since many students don’t have Internet access at home, I’m still trying to figure out how to make this work. Despite this obstacle I’m optimistic that with the help of the tech department I’ll be able to find some way to have students download videos onto their laptops so that they can watch them without Internet access.

In the video below, Salman Khan describes his vision for how educational videos can help us revolutionize the way we teach students. Enjoy! 

Blogging With Students

This year we will be integrating many of the National Educational Technology Standards with our Indiana State Science Curriculum. To help students become more aware of current scientific discoveries and to improve their technological skills, each student maintains an online blog at My Big Campus about “Science in the News.” Below are some of the exceptional blog entries written by my seventh and eighth grade students:

Science News #1 by by Garrett C.

The Future Of Brain Transplants

Author: Peter Tyson

08.26.10 Nova Beta

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/brain-transplants.html

Brain transplants! You might lose your personality but your still alive!

This is a really strange but amazing article about how scientists can grow artificial tissue(s) now that can be transplanted onto living people.

Already full organs have been grown in a tray and transplanted, just ask Dorris Taylor who has grown over 70 livers and transplanted them.

But the idea of having a full brain transplant, or even a full body transplant! Science-fiction or near future facts?

Dr. Robert White got plenty of attention after having the idea of a full body transplant (Full brain transplant)

If a quadriplegic had the money to get a full body transplant they could undergo an entire brain transplant into an artificially grown body that was fully functional and carry on in life normally.

That leads us to the next question, could we grow entire human brains? Read more about it in the link at the top of the page!

The topic interests me because of all the ideas I could use it for in writing. I thought it would be cool to write a story about someone who undergoes the surgery and loses all of his memories. That's as far as I've gotten but hey It is a WIP!

Tagged with brain, transplant, body

Science news blog #1 by Rachel W.

Title: Pachyderm Problem Solver 

Author: Tim Wall, Fri Aug 19, 2011 01:20 PM

Source: Discovery News

Website: http://news.discovery.com/animals/pachyderm-problem-solver-110819.html

Main topic: Scientists have found sensors in elephant trunks that help them solve problems.

Summary: In earlier studies elephants were known to be very intelligent animals but no study could prove that they could solve problems like apes & other monkeys do. But in recent studies a sensory in the elephant’s trunk proves to help them solve problems but they elephant must have something in their trunks to trigger the sensors. In one study the elephant was given a stick & a movable cube. Delicious fruit was hung on the trees on the top of the elephant enclosure. Once the tool was in the elephant’s trunk he knew to move the cube under the trees and reach for the fruit.

Why this topic is important to you?? This topic is important to me because I love animals and I think its cool to see how smart animals actually are.

Science News #1 By Taylor S.

Title of the Article: Microbes in the Music

Author: Stephen Ornes

Source: Science News for Kids, June 7, 2011

URL: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2011/06/microbes-in-the-music/ 

What is the main topic of the article? A new discovery found that little-tiny organisms- that will cause diseases- can and will most possible live on your instrument a long time after you play.

Summary: Biologists from Tufts University took a close look at 20 various instruments and found a new germ that will cause health issues. This study shown that this germ can live up to three days in saxophones and clarinets. If this germ were to live in a flute it wouldn't live as long. As research continued they found that playing someone else’s instrument you won’t become sick instantly.

Why is this topic important to you? I find this topic interesting only because I enjoy listening to and playing music. 

What is Science?

Last Friday the seventh and eighth grade students created posters to answer the question “What is Science?” I like to ask my students this question at the beginning of every school year to see what comes to mind when they think of science. The posters turned out beautifully, and the students gave a wide variety of answers. Science is weather, experiments, volcanoes, dinosaurs, nature, space, and so much more. Based on the diversity of the answers, we saw that science is everywhere!

The Scientific Method

With the start of the school year, one of my biggest priorities is making sure all the students understand the nature of science. We will be spending the next few weeks learning about the scientific method, which is a process used to search for objective knowledge. It is a simple and straightforward formula used to analyze information and come to sound conclusions. Here is a fun video developed by NASA about the scientific method:

First Day of School

 Welcome to the first day of science class! After quite a hectic summer, I am very ready to begin teaching again, and I hope all my students are happy to be here as well! The first week of school serves as an introduction for both seventh and eighth grade students, so both classes will be completing the same activities. We will be discussing classroom rules, procedures, and general guidelines for success in science class.

Where the magic happens

For those of you who haven't had a chance to visit my classroom yet, I've decided to post a few photos. We are lucky enough to have a double classroom with both instructional space and lab space. These photos are from last year, so things have changed a bit since then. Most importantly I like plastering every bit of wall space with student work so the walls don't look so bland and students can be proud of all that they have accomplished. I'm looking forward to redecorating as soon as the school year begins :)

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

After watching this video, I've been thinking a lot about how I can help encourage creativity in my classroom. Robinson is spot on when he says that "our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth: for a particular commodity." We spend so much time focusing on standards and testing, that we seem to be failing to focus on what really matters. We need to focus on the students, their interests, their needs. Intelligence is dynamic and we need to meet the needs of all students, not just those who are planning on enrolling in college. Science is all about exploration, experimentation, and discovery; so I hope throughout this school year I can provide every student with opportunities to learn about what matters to them.

Twitter

Mrs. Glade is now on Twitter! Follow @MrsGlade

Twitter is a social media network that allows users to send and receive short messages called "tweets." I enjoy using Twitter to share interesting science articles and news stories.

Introduction

Hello students, parents, and fellow teachers! Welcome to Mrs. Glade's science class. I will be using this blog throughout the school year to keep everyone up to date with homework assignments, classroom projects, and interesting science news. I look forward to learning and exploring with you all.