Sunday, December 12, 2010

21 Century Topics and Tools: Physical vs. Chemical Changes in Matter

The topic that I chose to investigate is the difference between a physical and chemical changes.  Students are constantly exposed to these types of changes in matter in their everyday lives.  It is important that they learn to be aware of how these changes differ as well as how these changes can benefit us in the real world.

There are many 21st century learning tools that we as teachers need to be sure to expose our students to using. Perhaps one of the most pertinent tools is the effective use of a computer.  Through my searching, I have found numerous websites that engage the students in the inquiry process, as well as enhance the understanding of the difference between a physical and chemical change.  These websites can be used in a whole class setting or on an individual basis.  Either way, the sites are created to empower the students to solve a problem or answer questions related to changes in matter.  The interactive features are important for that instant feedback and are necessary to motivate the students to want to explore more.

The first website that I found to enhance the 21st Century skills is   Physical and chemical changes. It includes a lesson plan with a link to a very informative PowerPoint that can be displayed to the students on a SMARTBoard. The PowerPoint focuses on the difference between physical and chemical changes and then poses examples at the end for students to distinguish between the real world things that are happening. By going beyond the textbook and involving technology, the students' interests will be piqued and they will be encouraged to synthesize happenings that occur all around them.

Another really good website is Chem4Kids.com: Matter: Chemical vs. Physical Changes. This website contains information on chemical and physical changes and it is presented in a magazine like format.  It would be a great way to give the kids some background on these two types of changes before the formal lesson is taught.  It would support the understanding as well as add to the students' technology skills.  You could have the students type in the web address and read about changes in matter.  To further develop their technology skills, you could have them open a Microsoft Word document and make a bulleted list of five things that were learned while reading.  This would help them to relate when the actual lesson is taught.     
  
As far as a follow-up activity to the topic of chemical and physical changes, I found a terrific interactive website that the students could explore individually.  It includes a quick review of the types of changes, as well as a practice quiz where the students click on the type of change that is occurring.  The site is  Physical and Chemical Changes. There is also a writing activity at the end where the students put the difference between a physical and chemical change into their own words. This tool will allow the students to analyze their own thinking and make connections to the experiences that they have personally had with chemical and physical changes.  Also, the students will be looking at common changes and will be able to relate to these happenings in a safe and structured environment of a computer-generated question.

Finally, the best website that I found for the enhancement of scientific literacy and 21st century skills was BBC - Schools Science Clips - Reversible and irreversible changes. This is a virtual laboratory where the students are able to investigate and discover how different changes are reversible, as well as which changes cannot be undone. This tool encompasses all that 21st century skills demand.  It requires them to have the basic technology skills to operate a computer, as well as to have the scientific method basis that is needed to successfully discover if a change is chemical or physical.  The items that are tested are everyday household items and the situations are relevant to the students' lives. By allowing the students to design their own experiment in order to construct personal meaning of the two types of changes, they will be more prepared for future scientific inquiry activities.

In my classroom, we investigate the difference between chemical and physical changes.  I definitely plan on using the virtual laboratory tool described above. Using this tool aids understanding of the concept in many ways.  First, there is not a dangerous experiment that I need to be worried about. Some of the setups featured on this website involve heating and cooling of different items.  This can be a safety concern in the elementary classroom.  Second, the students have many more opportunities to explore with different situations. It would not be feasible to set up all of these discovery stations in an hour science lab. The students can quickly pose questions and answer them using this virtual laboratory. Time is a huge factor and many of the investigations featured on this website would take a long period of time to conduct in real life.  Due to the power of the digital world, changes can be sped up.  This allows the students to explore many more types of changes in a shorter period of time.  The benefits of using this website are plentiful. The students will be thoroughly engaged due to the fact that they are controlling their own personal learning.

The main challenge that I think I would face in integrating this tool is that there is only one computer lab in my school.  I would have to make sure to schedule the use of that lab in advance to ensure that I could have access to a computer for each of my students.  If I was really in a pinch, I could use the SMARTBoard and conduct this as a whole class activity, however it would not be near as meaningful because the students would not be given the freedom to explore to their individual curiosities.

Science is best taught and learned when meaningful connections can be made. All of the sites listed above foster an engaging and motivating presentation of chemical versus physical changes. This physical science concept can seem very abstract if the students are not given a way to synthesize the information and construct meaning that it relevant to their personal lives. Using 21st century tools helps to bridge the gap between conveying information and challenging the students. With the Internet, the possibilities abound!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Heat Is On!

For this week's experiment with heat transfer, I chose the following four materials to investigate as insulators: paper (paper towel), plastic (baggie), cloth (cotton dishrag), and aluminum foil. These materials were selected because of their different makeup of particles.  For example, the paper towel and cloth had tiny holes where air and heat could have escaped during the experiment.  The plastic had a very solid particle makeup, along with the aluminum foil.  I thought that the plastic would be the best insulator because it seemed to be able to create the tightest seal over the hot water. Upon conducting this experiment, I found that the aluminum foil worked as the best insulator to keep the water the warmest.  My hypothesis, the plastic baggie, came in second place.  The experiment's results made perfect sense because the whole purpose behind using aluminum foil is to keep hot foods warm and cold foods cool.

If I were to conduct this experiment again, I think that I would like to test out saran wrap as an insulator.  I think that it would be a good choice because it is used along the same lines as aluminum foil.  I also think that it would help to trap the heat and keep the water warm.  Another material that would be interesting to test would be rubber.  I have a rubber glove that I use to do dishes.  I wonder if the rubber would be a better insulator than the aluminum foil.  My hypothesis would be that the rubber is the thickest of the other insulators and would have more material to help insulate the hot water.  This would be an interesting extension to this lesson.

If I were to set this experiment up in my classroom, I would gather a bunch of materials that could potentially be used to test as insulators. I would set up the parameters the same, however I would introduce the experiment the day before and show the students the materials that I planned on providing.  To make this activity a little more fun and exciting, I would turn it into a competition telling the students that the group that can keep the water the hottest after thirty minutes will receive a prize.  Also, to engage them further, I would allow the students to bring in any insulating material that they have at home to use for the experiment.  This would provide the opportunity for those that are especially intrigued to go home and hunt for additional materials to test out.  Another way that I would make this relevant to the students' lives would be to set a purpose for the experiment.  I would type up a scenario that explains that reason for wanted to keep this water hot as long as possible.  A real world reason could include the delivery of soup to a sick person's house or even the delivery of a top secret liquid to a special science laboratory that is thirty minutes away.  As the liquid cools, it loses important enzymes and the students would need to deliver it as warm as possible.  These would be two possible situations that would give the students a purpose in this activity that has meaning.

From doing this activity, the students would learn what materials make good insulators, as well as the different ways that heat transfer occurs. More specifically, I would hope that the students would be able to apply this knowledge to their personal lives when needing to keep something hot. I also want to provide the students with hands on experiences that they can draw from when they are confronted with questions about conduction, convection current, radiation, insulators and conductors.  If the students can form these mental connections, the chances are greater that they will internalize the material and perform better on tests. We are just finishing up a study on heat transfer and I really think that my students have learned a lot because of the experiments and inquiry that have been done in the classroom.  For example, we checked different materials of hats to find the best insulator for your head.  This is a great extension to the above activity, especially to see if the material that insulates a mug the best is the same material that insulates your head most effectively.

In conclusion, this experiment taught me first-hand the insulating potential of different material.  It also intrigued me to ask questions and to make further extensions based on the initial inquiry.  Finally, it was easier for me to make connections when reading the definitions of conduction, convection current and radiation because I had seen some of the heat transfers in this experiment, especially conduction and the convection current. What a simple activity to produce so many additional discoveries and questions!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Guided Inquiry: Which pendulum will come to rest more quickly?

This week I investigated the question of what size pendulum will come to rest more quickly.  To perform this experiment, I collected all of the materials.  This included two different sized washers (one small and one large), string, a ruler, a desk, a timer, and a pencil.  The setup included measuring out 30 centimeters of string and tying one end onto a pencil that is taped off of the edge of a desk.  The other end of the string was tied to a paperclip that was engineered into a hook.  This initial setup made it very easy to attach the different washers without having to worry about the length of the string varying.

During the experiment, I tested each different size by timing how long the pendulum took to stop swinging.  Each time I would make the string taut and raise the washer to the edge of the desk.  I would then let the string go and start the timer to see how long it would take to stop moving.  I repeated this test with each size washer three times.  After I collected all of my data, I averaged the results to find the answer to the question of if a large or small washer would come to rest more quickly.  My results were that the smaller washer came to rest a lot faster than the larger washer.  This was my initial hypothesis based on my knowledge of momentum and that fact that the larger washer had more mass.  I know that momentum is the product of velocity and mass, so with more mass there would have to be more momentum.  My hypothesis was supported in that the smaller washer stopped swinging faster than the larger washer.

While I was conducting the experiment, everything went well and it was easy to conduct and record my results.  I initially had two different pendulums, one with the smaller washer and a different one with the larger washer.  It was very hard to make sure that the string was the same length.  That was when I decided to use one string and a paperclip to help keep that variable the same.  It was frustrating when I was trying to tie on the separate washers.  I had the same length of string measured out, but my knots were not identical.  When I revamped my initial setup, I had on problems during the experiment.  Also, I was going to use a ruler to see how high to drop the pendulum, but I decided to simplify that by going from the edge of the desk.  This was a great choice because I know that not having to measure to a certain height each time would be easier for my fourth graders. All they have to do is pull the string tight and raise it to the desk and let go.  The simpler the better.

Based on my past experience with scientific inquiry, a modification to get a different result could be to focus on the length of the string.  If I were to stay with the same size washer and just change the string length, we could investigate if the length of the string affects the amount of time that the pendulum swings.  This would be a different variable to test.  We could also keep the length and the washer the same and change the height from which we start the pendulum.  That would also produce different results.  The children would find out the at the greater the potential energy stored, the more kinetic energy will be released.  That would be a great connection between momentum and potential versus kinetic energy.

I would set this experiment up in my classroom in the exact manner that I did the experiment.  I had my students in mind when I designed the guided inquiry activity because I always like to make things relevant to the fourth graders that I teach.  I think that it would be fun to try three different washers:  small, medium and large, and collect data on all three.  I also think that it would be fun for the kids to measure the mass of the washers using a triple beam balance before they conduct the experiment.  This way they would also get practice manipulating this very important scientific tool.  After answering the initial question, it would be really neat to propose to the student the challenge of creating a pendulum that will swing the longest and having a class competition.  They love to be challenged and really like working towards a goal.  I would set it up as if they were designing a new amusement park ride and the people that were hiring them wanted to get the longest ride possible from the initial drop.  All of the students have schema related to an amusement park and this would engage them.  The only catch would be that the experiment would have to be able to be replicated numerous times in front of the class.  This would encourage them to record their data.  I plan on using this activity when we do our lesson on forces in the spring.

Specifically, I would like the students to understand that the more mass an object has the more momentum it will produce.  I would also like them to see that energy can be stored and released.  I achieved this goal through my discovery during the experiment.  I am certain that my students will see the results as well.  I especially would encourage the use of a balance to measure the mass of the washers prior to the experiment.  I know that the students can see that one has more mass, but I really would like to reinforce the use of the triple beam balance as well.  Hopefully, upon completion of this activity, the students will bring momentum to life and will be reminded of the science behind rides the next time they get on a pirate ship at an amusement park.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Learning Liftoff! Structured Inquiry Success!

In implementing the structured inquiry lesson, it became very evident that my students learning was positively impacted.  Learning was demonstrated clearly through the samples below. 

The first student sample is the data page that each student collected throughout the experiment.  The students had to use measuring skills with a stopwatch for the time and a trundle wheel for distance.  The students also had to master the mathematical skill of rounding when finding the mean of the data.  It is clear that the student, Cole, in the first link, had a good base knowledge of measuring and averaging.  His data mostly makes sense and he really did a thorough job.  The only critique is that he did not write in my example for distance.  This is a minor detail, but did not have an impact on my evaluation of his personal data collection skills.

In the next student sample , I love how the student mentioned in number 10 that the student energy is saved.  His conclusion tells me that he has mastered the concept in number 11.  He states that the more potential energy you have, the more kinetic energy you release.  This is a solid example of his understanding.

I love that in this next sample, this student identified that the energy comes from the pilot in number 2.  This student also hypothesized that the potential energy was recognized after spinning the propeller.  This student proved to me that he knew the relationship between potential and kinetic energy in the answers to numbers 7 and 9.  He states that the more you spin it (propeller), the longer and farther it will go.  I was so impressed at the connections the students were making.

Finally, the last sample link represents a deeper thinking student.  This student claimed that the energy for the plane to move was provided by the rubberband and the propeller and that the potential energy is stored in the rubberband when you hold it.  This was an interesting perspective because no credit was given to the person who was actually winding the plane.  This was one of the only papers where the student did not look at the energy that was being put into the propeller, but only at the outcome of the stored energy and the result.  After talking to this student during the experiment, she realized that energy was not being created and that the pilot was actually putting a lot of energy into the spinning.  I love how kid friendly the final relationship is stated in answer to number 11.  The more potential you have stored up, the more kinetic you get back.  The end result for this student resulted in a deeper understanding overall.

It was awesome to have the students conduct this experiment at their own speed following the guidelines and procedures that I outlined at the beginning of class.  It was a wonderful feeling to walk around and witness the self-discovery that was taking place. It is amazing to see what students can do with a bit of guidance and direction.  This structured inquiry was the perfect way to teach potential and kinetic energy.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Melting Icebergs Extended Questions

After doing tons of research, I am really concerned about global warming, but not so much the melting of the polar ice caps and going underwater.  I originally thought before my research that if global warming occurred and the ice caps melted, the US would be underwater.  I was happy to learn that would not be the case.  When asking what would happen if they were to melt, it would first have to be identified as to which polar ice caps.  According to the experiment, if it was the northern ice caps, nothing would happen with flooding because it is all ice floating above the water and due to displacement, there is no overflow.  However, if it is the sourthen ice caps, the majority of those are on land and that would add to the rising of the sea level.  When people discuss global warming, they often do not consider the difference between the two areas of ice caps.  Also, I learned that global warming is way more than ice caps melting.  It has an impact on our weather, the water cycle, and many other areas of the environment.  This was truly a learning experience to me. The most interesting fact:  Cows contribute to global warming by burping methane!  The lesson:  Eat less beef!

I had a couple questions after the experiment, some specific and others in general:

What are some reliable Internet sources that I could use with my fourth graders to have them get an accurate view on the varying viewpoints of global warming?

How can we make more people in our society more award of the situation with global warming and how to help?

Due to the limited time for a science class, could you continue an inquiry experience over the course of a few days? (Not this particular one, but a lengthier experiment)

I did not notice a direction for conclusions of this experiment. Is this normally a part of a Science Inquiry Experience? (Meaning where students refer back to the hypothesis that was formed.)

Monday, September 13, 2010

5 E's Lesson Planning

The planning process that I used to create my STEM strategies lesson is actually one that I am quite familiar with using.  I was trained in college to use the 5 E's and am really used to organizing my teaching in this manner.  I always try to engage my students at the beginning of the lessons.  A good hook is really important.  I also am a strong proponent of having a guided exploration of the science topic before letting the students go on their own.  The explanation piece is my favorite part because that is when I get to ask probing questions to see exactly what the students learned from the lesson.  I love taking the data that they collected and helping them to realize the patterns that are developing, along with how to best organize the data.  During or after this step of questioning, I also love to see the light bulbs going off when students realize a connection to their life or to something that they can relate to.  Another part of my science lesson planning is to include a time at the end of class where the students can talk about ways to go further with the current investigation or even ways to do the experiment using different variables.  My evaluations often vary from being the traditional pencil and paper to journal entries, demonstrations of knowledge, and even the use of technology in the form of a game.  I love that as a teacher, I have many options to assess the learning of my students.  I also believe that assessment should be ongoing throughout the lesson and reteaching needs to be taken advantage of as soon as the situation presents itself. 
If I were to implement this lesson, which I actually have, the most important practical issue is to have the groups divided up ahead of time and know who you are going to match with each other.  Also, you do need to have a brief talk on "flight rules" in the classroom.  The lesson involves dropping paper helicopters. It is very important that the students understand that if they drop the helicopter (accidentally or on purpose) before the Air Traffic Controller (teacher) says that it is okay, the helicopter will be taken directly to the trash heap (trash can).  The student will not get it back and will still need to record the data like everyone else.  This must be strictly enforced to have a productive investigation.  The other logistical issue is to have each group in an assigned area of the room so that there is enough space and so that the groups can focus on their experiment and not be distracted by others.
This STEM based lesson is so much fun that the students hardly realize all the learning that is taken place!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

First Post

This is my first time having a personal blog.  I am super excited about the possibilities with this technology.