Science Humor

SAVE FRED!

(from an NSTA Convention presentation by Marlene Their from California)

Introduction
We all solve problems every day – from little problems like what to wear to a dance, to bigger problems like which high school should I attend. Different kinds of problems require different problem-solving approaches.

One problem can often be solved in more than one way. What do you do when you are faced with a problem?

Challenge
How can you and your partner solve a problem?

Materials
For each pair: 1 gummy worm, 1 gummy life preserver, 1 plastic cup, 4 paper clips

Save Fred!

Poor Fred! He was sailing along on a boat (your plastic cup) when a strong wind blew it upside down. Fred (your gummy worm) ended up on top of the upside-down boat. Unfortunately for Fred, his life preserver (your gummy life preserver) is still trapped under the boat. Your job is to place the life preserver firmly around Fred’s body, but you must obey three rules:

1. Fred may not fall into the “sea” (onto the table) more than two times; if he does, Fred “drowns”.

2. You may not injure him in any way.

3. You may use only the four paper clips to move Fred, the boat, and the life preserver. You may not touch anything except the paper clips.

First, you and your partner need to work out a plan.

Write your plan here as a procedure:
Did you make any changes to your plans?

Write your changes here:

Be ready to share with the group how you saved Fred!!!!

Songs for Physics Newton's Laws of Motion Friction Songs for Astronomy Planets

Chapter 7

Make a list of the sequence of skills necessary for ultimate mastery of the content of your lesson through a constructivist approach.

Which of these learning activities/skills lend themselves to student’s individual or group construction? How might you structure learning activities that lead students to discover these skills/these principles?

I plan to use a large amount of authentic activities through a constructivist approach in my classroom. For instance when approaching the subject material of Newton's laws of motion there is a large amount of hands on experiments I could do in my class room. If I decide to use the egg drop with parachute design the students can observe first what happens to the egg without the parachute. Then when provided with the materials they can set forth to design their very own structure (with some guidance depending on the grade level) and then we can set forth to test these structures. The students can record their data and any flaws that are discovered can then be redesigned. Students will be able to learn what forces are applied on the object and structure. Another activity dealing with Newton's laws of motion can help students understand why people wear set belts. Students can make a figure out of clay and place this on a little cart that will represent a modern day car. Students can record their findings for this experiment with different variables such as ramp (hill) incline and velocity. Students can view how the figure is unseated in different styles depending on the speed of the car at the point of the collision. Students will then be able to learn about the coefficient of friction. Maybe my students will use the information they have learned from these authentic activities to go into the field of science and engineering or maybe it will just supply them with a better understanding of how things work in the real world. For younger students this simple experiment may even help them understand why their parents ask them to wear a helmet when ever they go horseback riding, bicycling or when playing contact sports. A large number of life lessons can be taken from a few well thought out science experiments.  

Chapter 6

What are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning? 

I really want my students to be able to come away from my class with a large number of cognitive processes that they can pick and choose from in order to have the best access to all materials. Good memory skills will help them build a foundation upon which they can begin building the structure of their knowledge which they will be able to place into storage. I would be sure to experiment to see which different methods would allow for my students to retain the materials better. Whether using acronyms, mnemonics or basic memorization a student should be able to find a style that works best for them. I remember reading an article years ago that had stated what ever type of environment that you study for an exam in should be the same state of environment in which you should take the exam. During the presentation the other day when we were discussing the drivers ability to access material acquired and produced in a range of environments it really made me think of this older article. Also I hope to be able to have my student using some critical thinking skills. If they can learn to take what they have learned and apply it in another setting then I think I have done a fair portion of my job.

How might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional decisions?

I plan on doing my best to keep all of my material presented in a fun and interesting fashion. As long as I can keep the students interest in the material and provide them with different methods in order to remember the processes then we can work toward applying this processes to real world problems. I will be sure to provide a large amount of visual aids along with physical interactions. I strongly believe that any time a student can physical take part in an experiment or some portion of the material being covered then they will have a greater chance of retaining that information for access on another day.

On a side note lets see how your mind thinks. . .

http://www.perthnow.com.au/fun-games/left-brain-vs-right-brain/story-e6frg46u-1111114517613

Chapter 15

Turn to p. 559 in Ormrod’s text. Now, imagine that you are meeting with Ingrid’s grandmother today to explain her scores on the recent standardized achievement test pictured at the bottom of p. 559. What will you tell her about Ingrid’s performance? her strengths? her weaknesses?

If grandmother asks you what she could be doing at home to help strengthen Ingrid’s skills, what will you suggest?

I would want to be sure to point out how well Ingrid is doing in her reading comprehension and science course material. She really is excelling with above average scores with these two subject areas. I would then move toward pointing out how Ingrid does need to work a little harder in her spelling and with her math computation, but I would be sure to point out that she is doing pretty well in her ability to understand the concepts in her math course material. Ingrid also is showing some great skills in her social studies courses and is once again excelling to an above average range. I just feel that even though you are talking to the grandparent's, parents, guardian or the student you never want to apply a steady stream of focus on one end of the spectrum and you really never want to start out with all the focus on a negative directed content. I think by starting off with the excellent work she has been able to do that I can then have a good relationship started with the individual (parent/grandparent etc) so they will start off with good positive thoughts which can open the atmosphere in order to go into greater detail about what subjects we really do want to work on. I also do feel like we need to use the sandwich effect. Start with the good and a little bit of tart filling and then finish it back off with some additional good things. I never like to force negative items but reenforce positive items. Therefore I would move from the areas that need work and move back to another good area that she can perform very well in. This shows that even though she needs work in some areas she has all of these great skills that she can be proud of and with a little bit of extra focus on the rougher areas then she will be able to feel as comfortable with those subjects as well as the others she has already mastered.

I actually love the idea of “Mind Mapping”. Mind Mapping was a concept that I was introduced to by St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf through one of their wonderful online webinars (which I highly suggest for any individuals that would like to focus their classes on students with any type of disability, whether deaf and hard of hearing or another disability category as I feel this topics can be altered for other students). With Mind Mapping you would sit down with the student one to two times a year (what ever works best with your classroom goals) and point out areas that the student can preform well in as well as the areas that they need to work on. You present the material in a drawing with the students picture with directions coming off to “things I am good at” and then “things I need work on”. You talk to the student about how they feel on these topics that you have included on both ends of the spectrum and you also ask for their input on to what they feel like they are good on and what they could use more work on as well. I really think that having this Mind Mapping with a parent/grandparent/guardian could also help all of those involved in the students learning process see what areas need additional focus and what areas they can feel good about themselves.

Now with planning certain tasks for what they can do together at home I would first like to find out what type of time they currently spend on helping her with her homework. There is a very good chance that maybe the person that is helping her at home either doesn't have time or does not feel capable of being able to help her with the areas she is having trouble with the material. Maybe no one at home is a good speller. If this is the case then I would point out that if they have access to the internet at home then they could use an online spelling game such as http://www.kidsspell.com/ or similar in order to allow her additional support. If they do not have access to the internet then I could send home spelling sheets and game cards so that whoever is helping her can see how the letters are arranged in the word and check her spelling. With the math computations I would suggest the same format. There are wonderful free online games that can be found at http://www.softschools.com/math/games/ and any time learning can be made fun I really think students are going to put a lot more effort into the work of studying and practicing.           

Chapter 14

(14.1) Think of a lesson plan from your licensure area (feel free to use the same topic you used for Chapter 6, 9 & 10). Knowing that assessment is an integral part of teaching, explain at least four informal and formal assessments that you will use in your lesson plan to provide you with feedback and involve the students in assessing their own learning.


(14.2) Consider norm referenced assessment and criterion referenced assessment. Are there advantages to both? Are their disadvantages?

In my opinion both tests would have disadvantages to my students. Since my students will be deaf and hard of hearing the norm referenced assessment may try to compare them to hearing individuals which will of course be able to perform better on tests that are presented in written English format. I truly cannot see the advantages to either since the criterion referenced assessment would have probably been giving in written English and even if not compared to the students peers as the norm referenced test the criterion referenced may not take into consideration that the student may not know what the written word truly means, but when the word is signed to the student they can tell you everything about that word. So for my students their test results may actually come back with scoring that does not truly reflect what they have learned in my classroom.

Chapter 14

As I reflect upon the question regarding information on what four informal assessments I would use in my classroom the only thing that comes to mind is “SweeTart’s”. You may wonder why in the world “SweeTart’s” would even come to mind in any question regarding what my classroom assessments are, but if you really think about what an informal assessment truly is then the oxymoron such as “SweeTart’s” will fit perfectly into your train of thought. Since informal assessments are the results of a teacher’s spontaneous reaction in their classroom setting made by the daily observation of how their students preform over day to day processes. Now if I were to ponder and imagine that I am currently in a classroom setting with my students and we have been covering a certain material for a few days then I may think up a very practical way to let the students show me how much they have learned so far on the subject material. Say we are working on gravity and acceleration . . . maybe I would surprise them with a group competition. Maybe I would break them up into four small groups and hand them supplies to make an egg parachute and cradle. . . or if we are working on thermodynamics maybe I would let them team up into groups and attempt to build a container that would “keep the heat” and the best preforming container for either project would win some type of reward whether an extra 15 minutes of free time, bonus points for the test or the chance to drop Newton’s Apple which could be set up like plinko. Maybe I could even do a pop quiz and call it the “Whiz Quiz” or even have some type of mini game show activity and call it “Archimedes Challenge”. Then again if I had all of this planned and organized would it really fall into the category of being an informal assessment? “The world may never know”


Well I am sure I have rattled on enough about informal assessments and I should really start to focus on what types of formal assessments I would use in my classroom. Since formal assessments are preplanned I will be sure that my students can clearly understand what is required of them and when these events will take place during class. I always remember one teacher I had in elementary school that always wore a pair of red suspenders on test days. Even though he told you in advance of when the test was he would make sure to wear the suspenders in order to remind you before class that it was in deed “test day”. I always remember this being a fun and interesting way to interact with the class. Since I will be working with deaf and hard of hearing students I am going to plan on offering a few different types of formal assessments. Of course I will have the regular written tests but if a student has trouble reading written English I would be available to sign the questions to those students. I also plan to have a hand’s on lab type assessment. This will not be the normal do your experiment and write down your results since some students may have issues with the written English language. I would like to set this up where students can learn to write lab papers but also present the results in a class presentation type of format. This will allow the student to sign their results in their native language. I would also like to arrange a science bowl format interaction for students to go up against their classmates on the current material. Once a week I would like to have the students pick a vocabulary word from the class material on a Monday and then on Thursday explain to the class what the term means and how it is used in our class. This will be very helpful since English will mostly be their second language and even though they have a good language base these terms will be new words that they have never been exposed to before entering my classroom.