Ask a Scientist

I found this site interesting.  I was unable to get a immediate response from the website.  I have still not recieved an email about my question.  I do think this website is great for my students.  They always have a million questions and some of which I cannot always answer! I did get some answers from my peers in the discussion post.

Web 2.0 pres tools

The presentation tools I researched were Prezi and SlideSix.  I found both presentation tools easy to use.  Prezi was interesting becasue it was good for being very creative.  SlideSix is easy to use beacuse you could upload almost anything to it.  In SlideSix, you can add your voice into a slide as well.  I am interested in trying both as well as showing them to my colleagues.  i would recommend both of these presentation tools to try out.

Week 6 Post

Physical Science
Matter- Comparing Matter

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/grade_level_help/physical_science_second_2nd_grade_science.htm

The following website came from internet 4 classrooms.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/materials/changing_states/play.shtml

"Internet 4 classrooms is a free web portal designed to assist anyone who wants to find high-quality, free Internet resources to use in classroom instruction, developing project ideas, reinforcing specific subject matter areas both in the class and at home and even for online technology tutorials." (internet4classrooms.com)

http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/mnstep/activities/26393.html

This is a good lesson on matter.  the activity on Internet 4 Classrooms could be incorporated into the lesson.

As I shared on one of my discussion posts, I think the Oobleck activity is excellent.  After the students have done the experiement, they could then use a computer to answer questions that have been premade by the teacher as well as write a summary of the experiment.  Almost everything you can think of in todays time is operated by some kind of technology.  The students have to know how to operate computers in order to work these days. 

Cant you take the heat?

I can, it is already in the 80s in south Georgia!

For the heat transfer experiment, I chose tin foil, plastic wrap, a cotton t-shirt, and a ziploc bag. I hypothesized that the tin foil would hold in the most heat.  After heatingt my water on the stove and leaving it for 30 minutes, the temperature was still too hot to measure a difference.  I let it sit for another 20 minutes.  The mug with the tin foil over it did stay the hottest.  If I were to use a different material, I would have used styrofoam.  I had a piece, but it would not fit over the mug all of the way.

SOLAR OVEN!

http://www.seia.org

http://www.she-inc.org/

These were the sites I visited during discussion of week 3.

Guided Inquiry Week 2

This week, I chose the question "How do different surfaces affect the momentum of marbles?"  I tried 5 different surfaces.  Cement proved to provide the marbles to go the farthest, and thick carpet the shortest. I was going to try grass.  I tried it about 5 or 6 times.  With my yard as uneven as it is, nothing worked well! That is when I decided to change it to the asphalt slope coming from the road into the yard.  This was different from my other floor choices seeing how it was sloped and thge rest were flat.  One thing that was a problem for the surfaces inside my house was the objects and amount of space to roll the marble. My students would be able to do this experiement, but being second graders, they would definitely need more specific steps to follow as far as directions go.  (That way there is less confusion and trouble!)
~8-O  
Believe me, second graders like to talk instead of listen and then ask 12 times what they are supposed to do! I think a more guided experiment would be better for them. However, the students would have a much better understanding of momentum and friction by doing the experiment than memorizing definitions.

Falling Bodies and Motion

This week I explored motion in my day to day schedule.  There is a lot of motion, especially with 2nd graders! The falling bodies experiement was a short, easy hands-on activity that would engage the students in learning about motion andhow air affects the speed of a falling object.  Step 1: The loose paper floated down and the book fell straight to the ground.  Step 2: With the paper on top of the book, they fell at the same rate, the paper did not come off the book.  Step 3: The loose ball of paper fell slightly slower than the book.  Step 4: The tightly wadded ball of paper fell at the same rate as the book.