Abby Borth- Elementary Science Methods

  What did you do in lab today? In lab this week, we explored the concept of greenhouse gases and how they contribute to a greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is essentially when solar radiation enters our atmosphere and either gets absorbed or reflected by the Earth. When this solar radiation is reflected, it will reflect off of the Earth, and go back into space. Other times, this solar radiation will be absorbed by the darked colored surfaces on Earth. The solar radiation is then transformed into infrared radiation and released. But, this infrared radiation cannot escape the atmosphere easily and can get caught in our atmosphere which then warms the Earth up. There are certain gas molecules that trap the infrared light and heat in our atmosphere, these are called greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases include Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Water Vapor, and Nitrous Oxide. The more greenhouse gases, the more the atmosphere will warm because that means that infrared radiation can stay in...

  What did you do in lab today? In lab, we looked at various graphs of different climate change. We found from the measurement of different variables that climate is overall warming in our area. These graphs showcased a longer growing season, wetter spring, more summer precipitation, wetter springs and summers, higher humidity, and drier autumns. We also looked at how climate change has affected the growth locations of different plant species.  What was the big question? How is climate change specifically happening in Iowa? What did you learn in Thursday's discussion? In lecture, I learned why some regions have a hot climate while others have cold. I learned that one of the factors that plays a role is latitude and that places closer to the North and South poles will have colder temperatures while places near the equator will have warmer temperatures. As well as this, the temperature of an ocean current will affect the temperature of the air that passes over it. Elevation also...

  What did you do in lab today? This week in lab, we looked at weather and climate. I was able to learn the difference between these. Climate is a 30 year average of weather, while weather is the daily stuff we see. We found that climate change is happening and 99.99% of scientists agree that this is human caused. We looked at how climate change is happening by looking at NASA images of change. Following this, each group chose a different section of Iowa and picked three cities to gather data for. We looked at how heavy rainfall has changed over time. Our group did the region that was labeled Iowa State University. We found that there was an increase in heavy rainfall in each of these regions. This is directly caused by climate change. As temperature increases, humidity increases (water in the air), as humidity increases, precipitation increases. We concluded that the Goldfinch could be in danger due to these changes. It is possible that floods could increase and because of this th...

What did you do in lab today? In lab, we first looked at the law of superposition. I learned that this law says that rock layers closer to the surface are younger than rock layers at the bottom. This is the way geologists find the relative dates and ages of different rocks around the globe. We looked at several visuals that showed the law of superposition and determined the oldest to youngest order of the rocks. Through this, I learned that an intrusion or igneous dyke, which was showed in many of the visuals, has to be younger than all the things it's going through. This is because the rocks had to be there before the intrusion went through them. We also reviewed erosion and sand. We had the opportunity to view several different sands under a microscope and learned where each was form.  What was the big question? What is the Law of Superposition? What did you learn in Thursday's discussion? In lab, we examined water displacement/buoyancy. I learned that buoyancy is the ability...

  What did you do in lab today? In lab, we first looked at what a rock is and found that a rock is any solid mass of mineral or mineral-like matter that occurs naturally as part of our planet.  These will not be human-made materials.  We then explored rock cycles through an activity with Starbursts. We created two different sedimentary rocks, igneous rocks, and metamorphic rocks. We learned that a sedimentary rock is one that is cemented and compacted together, an igneous rock is melted and then cooled, and a metamorphic rock is heat (not enough to melt) and pressure. The top two rocks represent igneous rocks, the middle two represent metamorphic rocks, and the bottom two represent sedimentary rocks. We created our igneous and metamorphic rocks by using heat and created the sedimentary rocks by compacting them together and changing our pressure and color.  What was the big question? It it a rock? What are the differences between sedimentary, igneous, and me...

What did you do in lab today? In lab, we looked at geological time using an earthviewer. We learned how geology can have an affect on many events such as the 2008 presidential election. We then hypothesized where these events fell on a timeline of earth: humans appeared, dinosaurs ruled the earth, first land plants, first land animals, and moon was created. We then placed these on a timeline. After this, we explored significant events in the history of earth using an earthviewer. Each team worked in the range of a billion years and placed these on our timeline as well. We found that humans have not been around very long compared to the other events of earth.  In order, here are some of the highlights of Earth's history:     1. Earth and moon formed ~4.5 billion years ago (bya)   2. Oxygen begins to persist in the atmosphere (2.4 bya)   3. Origin of Chloroplast (1.6 bya)   4. Cambrian explosion, huge diversity in types of life on Earth, not land animals like...

1. What did you do in lab today? In lab, each group presented on their chosen concept such as origin of the universe, life cycles of stars, origin of the earth, galaxies, space travel, and black holes. My group did origin of the earth. These presentations included preconceptions, current science understanding, and other information. It was interesting to hear all of the preconceptions. I found that a lot of understandings come from religious or cultural beliefs. While these are known beliefs, they are not proven by science. It was also interesting to hear how we are continually learning more and these theories continue to change each day.  2. What was the big question? What are the preconceptions and current science understanding of various space topics? 3. What did you learn in Thursday's discussion? In lecture, I learned more about the origin of the universe. The current theory is the Big Bang Theory. We looked at how subatomic particles inflated to unimaginably huge size in a fr...

1. What did you do in lab today? In lab, we built a scale model of the sun and the 4 inner planets, as well as our moon. This had to be in scale in size and in distance. We learned that the solar system is really big in both distance and size. Planets are much farther away than we can ever imagine. We found that quite a few illustrations of this are inaccurate.  2. What was the big question? How big is the Solar System? 3. What did you learn in Thursday's discussion? In lecture, I learned about the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Tropic of Cancer is the northernmost point of direct sunlight (Northern Hemisphere). Tropic of Capricorn is the southernmost point of direct sunlight (Southern Hemisphere). I also learned that for every one revolution, the moon does one rotation, so it spins on an axis similar to how the earth does but much slower. I also learned the most supported theory of where the moon came from. A protoplanet crashed into Earth after Earth had formed and...

  1. What did you do in lab today? This week in lab, we explored the questions below by using a light as the sun and having models of the earth and moon at our tables. We looked at how the earth rotates on its own axis, producing the 24- hour day. We learned that the earth's axis is also the cause of the seasons. When the earth's axis points towards the sun, it is summer for that hemisphere. When the earth's axis points away, winter can be expected. Earth also orbits around the sun, producing the 365- day year. The moon takes about one month to orbit earth. The moon spins on its axis once each time it orbits the earth. Because of this, people on Earth only ever see one side of the Moon. The phases of the moon occur as the moon orbits the earth, this changes the way the sun shines on it and reflects different phases of the moon.  2. What was the big question? What are your best understandings about How the phases of the moon occur? What causes the seasons? What causes a luna...

  1. This week in lab, we continued to look at the question, how can we support play that is exciting but not dangerous? For this we looked at the specific question, how can we design a safe and durable playground surface? For this, we modeled a child's fall with an egg. Our challenge was to prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from a height of 1-meter. Our surface could not be any thicker than our bowl. We were able to choose from various materials to place in the bowl. We had options such as rubber, hay, saran wrap, and sand. We chose to try the rubber. This worked at 1-meter. The egg did bounce when it hit the rubber, but it did not crack. We then tried 2-meters and it bounced then cracked even after adding hay and saran wrap. In this lab, we learned that too much force will break an egg. But the more gradually the egg slows down, the smaller the force.  2. We did not have lecture this week.  3. Pendulums and Energy  I learned that energy can take many differ...

  1. This week in lab we continued to explore the question, how can we support play that is exciting but not dangerous? This week we investigated swings with the question, what affects how long it takes a swing to go back and forth? My group investigated the variable weight. Our question was, how does weight affect how long it takes a swing to go back and forth four times? We did three trials with three different weights. We did this by adding weights to a string that was connected to a stick. We made sure that we started the string in the same position each time. We timed each trial then calculated an average. We found that weight did not impact how long it would take a swing to go back and forth. There was not a large enough time difference to make it meaningful.  2. In lecture, we learned what forces acted on a child on a swing. We found that the force of the rope does and the force of gravity, and possibly air drag. The force of gravity pulls straight down and the rope pul...

  The big question addressed in lab, and a description of what you did. In lab we continued to look at the big question, how can we support play that is exciting but not dangerous? We investigated slides and different variables to keep in mind. Our group investigated the question, how does the weight of a rider affect the speed down the slide? Our independent variable was the weight of the rider and our dependent variable was the speed. We did four trials of four different weighted blocks. We found that there was not a significant change of speed depending on the weight of the block so we found our evidence to not be meaningful. We found the claim that the weight of a rider does not affect the speed down a slide. We predicted that we may find different results if the weights differed more from each other.  A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture. In Thursday's lecture we revisited the variables that could affect the speed of a rider down a slide. We l...

  The big question addressed in lab, and a description of what you did. The big question that was addressed in lab this week was, why should elementary students learn about science? Another was, how should elementary students learn about science? After discussing these questions, we watched a video of students playing on a playground and noted what we noticed and wondered. Following this, we explored how we can support play that is exciting but not dangerous. To explore this question more, we did an experiment on how to make a race exciting by ensuring the racers will cross the finish line close to each other. To do this, we measured the distance of our race and the time it took us to walk this distance. After figuring this out, we were able to determine how much time one racer should start before the other to make the race close.  A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture. In Thursday's lecture we looked at the SEPS, DCI, and CCCs that are in 3-PS2-2. ...

  1. This week in lab, we designed a learning activity that looked at what happens when you mix vinegar and baking soda. We learned how to develop a question, describe how students might collect and analyze data, and how students should use evidence collected in their investigation to answer the question. The question that we asked students was, does the baking soda completely disappear when you add the vinegar? Where does it go? I learned that it is important to use plan language questions. We figured out the ratio of 1:2 with the baking soda and vinegar to make sure the baking soda completely dissolves. This way, students will be curious to see if the mass stays the same and why this is. The mass will stay the same.  4. I can apply what I have learned to my teaching in the future. I would like to use a similar experiment with future students where they investigate if mass stays the same during a chemical reaction. I will make a few changes to our experiment by making sure no...

  1. This week in lab we went over what matter and properties are again and added particles. My group defined particles as atoms or molecules. Following this, we did the plunger push again. This time we focused on what is happening to the particles as we suction the plunger to the surface. We learned that when we push the plunger down, it creates a vacuum. This means that some particles are trapped inside while others escape and this is why it sticks. We were removing air from a space. After this, we did simulations online on how particles move depending on the temperature they are at and how they react with other particles depending on this. I learned that you can determine what state of matter something is in depending on the amount of bonds and how spread out the particles are. We determined that as they spread out more they transition for a solid, liquid, to a gas. We also made two flip books where we learned about condensation as well as insulators and conductors.  4. I c...