The Many Moods of the Moon

Tonight, Dr. Kat showed us an illustration of the phases of the moon "God's Eye View" that I have never seen before. I have only ever seen the moon phases from the view we have here on Earth and so at first, I was finding it a bit hard to follow.

What made the connection for me was when we used the styrofoam ball, the pencil, and the flashlights. What a wonderful (and not to mention affordable) illustration to show the phases of the moon!

Everyone learns in different ways and I think that by having several different strategies for one particular lessons, that you reach more students.

I can't wait to see what else Dr. Kat has rolled up her sleeve for us to take with us to our future classrooms.

One of my favorite views of the moon, from the airplane.  :)
Photo: Linsley Langley

Life Cycles: Pinterest Edition

As we all know, Pinterest is a wonderful resource for teachers. I looked up life cycles and saw so many resources that could be used in my future classroom.

I think that this would be fun for the younger grades. Anything to be active in the classroom while learning is something the children will remember when they go home at the end of the day.

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This activity is a way to visualize what each life stage looks like:

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I think that the activity using the pasta and the beans would be cool to ask the students which came first and what pasta they would use. While the students are constructing it, the teacher could read from the textbook or another book about the life cycle of the butterfly.

Again for the younger grades, I found this frog hat that illustrated the life cycle of a frog around the hat. I think that for younger learners, it would help them remember the lesson because they made it themselves and then got to wear it.

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While there are many activities that can be done with all of the different life cycles that have to be covered, I thought these ideas were a great start to get the children interested.

Lessons From Thin Air

"Science is about making predictions, not about explaining, just because you can explain it doesn't mean you understand it." -Lessons From Thin Air

Today I watched the Lessons From Thin Air video and it correlated with the movie we watched on Monday.

The video started with grads from Harvard, Cornell, and Columbia I believe. They were asked how trees were made, and thrived. After many answers, the consensus was that trees thrive through soil, water, and sun.

The video then shows students in a 3rd grade classroom that are learning about photosynthesis. In order for trees to survive, the video tells us we need sun, water and carbon dioxide.

A common misconception is that air doesn't weigh anything. Relating back to the tree and how they produce carbon dioxide, the interviewer asked the 3rd grade student about how much a tree weighed. He said like a newborn, about 5 or 6 pounds. The interviewer asked if he thought gasses have weight, and he said no until she showed him the dry ice where he concluded that air in fact, could have weight.

I really learned a lot in this video because it was stuff I had learned a long time ago and I didn't realize how much I had forgotten.

One of the teachers in the video made a statement that stuck with me, "When you cover so much stuff, students learn very little." This is something we all need to keep in mind as we become teachers. I know tonight we talked about covering the standards and having time to let students adequately learn and I found this quote as a great reminder. We need to keep in mind that as we teach that we need to make it memorable so that children actually learn something rather than teaching as much as we can for an end of the year test.

Thrifty Sites

Before we even thought of becoming a teacher, there is one thing we all knew. Being a teacher means finding creative ways to work on a shoestring budget. 

Tonight I thought I would share a few things that I have found over the past few years that I hope will be helpful to you in your classroom. 

1. Hip2Save This website is a legitimate website, endorsed by The Today Show. Not only does this website tell you where you can use coupons for groceries, office supplies and clothes, but it also tells you about freebies you can sign up for. Throughout my time visiting Hip2Save, I have received free books, learned about cash back, and found great deals on clothes (hey, we have to look nice when we are teachers right?)

2. EBates At first when I heard about this website, I was a bit skeptical...but after I got an actual check, I then believed. Basically, this website links you to a website you were going to buy something on, take Macy's for example, and it opens up a ticket for you. You buy the items you want and then you get a small percentage back which accumulates over time (think 3 month period) and once you reach a certain amount (I believe it is minnimum $10) Ebates will cut you a check. If you are going to buy something online anyway, might as well check out to see if they have an agreement with EBates. 

3. Kellogs Family Rewards with this website, you simply enter codes from your Kellogs brand foods and then redeem them in for a reward or donate them to a school of your choice. I am a huge lover of Cheese-Its and so I get points everytime I buy them. Another way is to get extra points, is to always check hip2save. I know they often are giving away codes to enter.

4. Recycle Bank This is one of my favorites. This website could be used in the classroom, if the kids each had an email address. If not, you could just show them yours. Basically the mission of this website is to promote a clean environment. You take quizes, pledge to recycle certain things, or watch a short video and earn points. Once you recieve points, you can redeem them for magazines, even Starbucks and Target gift cards (while they are in stock) sometimes, I save up my points until the gift cards are back in stock. If you chose to get the Target card for example, it could always be used toward your classroom. While it is only $5, I think that its a free $5 and I learned a lot about recycling than I did before I started so it is a win-win situation!

Those are just a few thrifty sites that can not only be helpful to teachers, but others as well.

Does anyone else know some great websites similar to these?

Magic Tricks? Or balancing of the sticks?

Tonight in class, we focused on misconceptions. I think we all at one point or another felt a little silly, thinking "I should have known that" or "its really simple if you think about it."

One of the topics that came up tonight was the broom trend. Here I am a few years ago, clearly proud of my broom balancing skills:

While there isn't any scholarly research on this matter, it appears the broom is just like the egg and doesn't have anything to do with the equinox or alignment of planets, it is just simply balancing skills. If only a few years ago we would have known this when this tend went viral on Facebook, we may have not jumped on the trend.

I am curious to see other misconceptions I have about science and learn the truth.

What else could we balance that we could "blame" on the equinox?

The Discovery Center

Last week, our teaching science class had the opportunity to meet at the Discovery Center here in Murfreesboro. While we were there, we got certified in Project Wet and Project Wild by Mrs. Bonnie Ervin.

Photo credit: Dr. Kat

Although it was a bit chilly and rainy, we all had a great time. We got to take water samples  from pond water and spring water. My task was to test the temperature. I found that the pond water was about 75/F while the spring water was 60/F. It was funny how close they were together but yet so different in temperature and pH.

One of the neat things about our evening was the game we played. We were given a map of different bodies of water and were assigned to begin at different places where we would read different scenarios and roll a dice telling us which body of water we would go to (or stay) next.

I learned a lot of valuable information for my future classroom and I really enjoyed having class at the Discovery Center.

The Science Quiz

For the science quiz, I scored a 17/25

I found it funny because we had actually discussed some of the questions during tonight's lecture like the misconception about Christopher Columbus and the idea he thought the Earth was flat. Some of the questions that I got wrong that I learned from were:

I didn't realize that the moth larvae are the ones who ate clothes stored in the attic, I always just assumed it was the larvae.

I also learned that the cloud from a pot of boiling water in fact is not steam but rather condensing water vapor.

Back to the moths, I did not realize that they flew according to the pattern of the stars.

I think that this quiz would be a great way to introduce a middle school, high school, or college level class. This would be a fun way to start off the school year and see what students know and open up room for discussion. I think that another activity that would be fun would be to investigate each claim and have students get into groups to do so.