Mallory Lange- Elementary Science Methods I

      This week, I learned more about why ice melts faster on metal than it does on wood. This is because the particles for ice moves faster on metal than it does on wood. When you look at wood from a microscopic view, you see that the wood has spaces within in. The metal does not. The microscopic view of metal almost has a more smooth look. It takes less time for the ice to melt on metal because it is able to hit ice from all sides, instead of the wood that contains the holes/spaces which causes the process to slow down.      At first, the concept of this all did not make sense to me. It was confusing because I did not originally understand why the metal caused the ice to melt faster than wood. After looking at the microscopic views and doing the simulations, this all became more clear. The metal is more smooth while the wood is not, which causes the particles to move faster on the metal than it does on the wood.    ...

    This week I learned more about why different substances have different densities. In my group, we discussed that the densities are different because the atoms/molecules in the substances are different. When an object is more dense, the atoms are more tightly packed together. When the object is less dense, the atoms are more spread apart. Other things that play apart is the size and mass that the object has. In lab, we experimented with M&Ms and how fast their color dissolves in room temperature, ice cold, piping hot, and sugary water.      What I find to be confusing is the fact that I am going to have to teach and explain this to children. This makes me nervous because I do not feel that I am able to come up with these conclusions without my classmates at my table. What would I do if I were to experience this lack of knowledge in front of my students? I would just be honest with my students, but my goal for this class is to become mo...

    This week I learned about different properties and what they can/cannot do throughout different experiments. The properties used were- marbles, aluminum foil, chalk, play doh, candles, and paperclips. There was both a small and big one that we used on each property. The different experiments that we tested were if they sink or float, mass, volume, electricity, and magnetic. What I came to learn from these different tests is that they show properties of substances and properties of objects. This was all fairly new to me, and doing these activities helped me put more of a why to why some things do what they do and why somethings don't.      I feel that this lab helped me relate to what I learned from last week's lab. Last week, I was confused as to how I was going to explain anything about matter and properties to my future students. Conducting these activities and furthering my knowledge with them this week helped me make a better connecti...

I learned this week about how to get students engaged into a science lesson. The key to this is starting off with them confused! If you introduce them into a topic and they leave confused, that is what you are wanting. This confusion will turn into curiosity to these young learners because they are going to want to understand and know more about the topic at hand. I also learned more about matter through the experiments we did, but I also learned that I would not be able to describe what is going on in those different experiments to someone else, it just all seems like common sense to me. That mindset is something I am going to have to fix so that I do not harm my students by not trying to explain concepts about questions they ask.  The experiments (some are pictured below) are what came off as both clear and confusing to me. I was able to understand what was going on, but I was confused as to why or how I would explain this to someone else. Today, we were put into position as stud...

    This week we learned about natural selection and evolution. The drivers for evolution are- natural selection, gene drift, migration, and mutation. Natural selection is  s a process by which certain traits become more or less common in a population over time. When learning about natural selection, we went through it a couple of different ways. We looked at standards as a class and broke them down to begin with. Following that, we completed an activity with beans (which are shown below) that displayed evolution. We all started out with different silverware to pick up the beans with- fork, spoon, knife. We then did three different rounds of 30 seconds and each time someone lost they got to pick a new utensil to use, representing evolution. The fork was the best one to have. At the end of class, we did a simulation about moths and how they camouflage themselves.       I have learned about evolution and natural selection before, so learning that in...

       This week, I learned about mutations and was introduced to the topic of codons. Codon is involved in both DNA and RNA. Within that, codons are a  sequence of three nucleotides that encode a particular amino acid. To the right of this paragraph is a codon chart that shows all of the different elements, start and stop motions, and all of the DNA and RNA strands. I found this chart to be extremely helpful, along with examples that were given in class. Mutations is a topic that I have been familiar with, but not a master at. I did not realize how many effects that mutations can have:  The majority mutations are neutral!  There are beneficial or harmful mutations.  New Versions of proteins help organisms adapt to their environment increasing an organism’s chances of surviving or reproducing (example: bacteria mutations in the presence of antibiotic drugs). A genetic disease syndrome, or other abnormal condition caused by a mutation in one o...