Science Methods II - Lauren Hird

     In Monday's lab, we discussed in more detail the ideas discussed in Week 12 about how agriculture is affected by climate change and higher precipitation levels. We talked about how Iowa has a longer growing season, wetter spring, more simmer precipitation, higher humidity, and drier autumns. We then moved back to the idea on the key question: how does climate change affect the sea level? We came to the conclusion that land glaciers will cause sea levels to rise because water runoff will enter the ocean, but sea ice will not cause it to rise because the volume in the water is already accounted for. We then debated how melting impacts further melting. We learned that as white ice becomes blue water, it absorbs more sunlight and melts faster. Once there is no ice left, the ocean will no longer be a convection cell and nutrients will no longer be able to be distributed between the poles and the equator. We then moved into the specifics of the Paris Climate Agreement abou...

 In Monday's lab, we began by reviewing the idea that climate is a 30-year average of weather. We then discussed how best to teach climate change to elementary students, especially students in the Midwest. A big consequence of climate change is ice melting and causing sea levels to rise, but since we are not coastal, it does not hit home for children in the Midwest. We brainstormed and came up with an idea that could motivate students to learn about climate change: how agriculture is affected. We then discussed the Paris Climate Agreement that we learned about in the movie Before the Flood  and came up with some different topics were were interested in learning more about. We finished lab with exploring precipitation levels in different areas throughout Iowa and how climate change has caused Iowa to receive more precipitation. We connected it to flooding and soil runoff and how that damages our environment here in Iowa. My group explored Northeast Iowa and discovered that the ...

      In lab this week, we began by discussing pedagogy and the article "Teaching for Conceptual Change: Confronting Children's Experience. We talked about the different aspects of student exploration such as when we should allow it, how long we should allow it, and the barriers preconceptions have for learning. We then moved on to looking at different forms of sand through microscopes to see more closely their characteristics. Here is what my lab group found:  Original Sample: rough to touch, multicolored, mixture of smooth and rigid rocks Sample 1: rough to touch, rigid edges, mostly earthly colors with some clear Sample 2: soft to touch, smooth edges, mostly shiny and clear Sample 3: beady to touch, rough pointy edges, shiny black, look cracked/speckled Sample 4: smells like ocean, smooth to touch, contains shell particles, fine grained besides shell particles, crystal-like White Lid Sample: extremely fine grained, white/yellow, soft to touch, small particles, cry...

      We begun Monday's lab by discussing what makes a rock a rock. While we sat on this question, we discussed the Activitymania article and how inquiry is long-term and process-oriented with the goal of student-led investigations, which is the opposite of what the Activiamania is. Turning towards assessment, we discussed the idea of grading based on growth instead of final understanding. Students should be rewarded for the effort they put in. Those students who understand enough often don't try to learn more, so they check out and make no progress. While this is not always a realistic way to assess students, it should definitely be taken into consideration.      When then bounced back to our inquiry of what makes a rock a rock. We discussed the three forms of rocks: igneous (melted then cooled), metamorphic (heated and pressed together), and sedimentary (cemented and compacted together). We used starbursts, a knife, tin foil, and a small blow torch to cre...

      This week in lab, the main questions we were answering were about the relationship in time between when each part of the Earth was created. We talked about things such as human life, plant life, animal life, pangea, the moon, the great oxygenation, and many others. The point of this is to understand how relatively small things are in compared to the time the universe has existed, and many things happened longer ago then we have comprehended in the past.      We ended discussing the idea of convection and were assigned a video project to see how convection works. 

     In lab this week, we heard our peers give presentations on six different topics: origin of the universe; life cycles of stars' origin of the Earth and Moon; past, present, and future of space travel including Mars; and black holes. Our peers included this information along with preconceptions, misconceptions, historical version, and cool facts about their topics. Each group had a review at the end with three quiz questions to check for comprehension.      In Thursday's lecture, we discussed the main points of each of the six topics to further our understanding of what we learned. It included some details that needed to be stressed as well as some things that were left out by our peers that students in other sections may have included. Specifically, we discussed some of the alternative theories to the origin of the universe such as Steady-State Universe, Eternal Inflation - Level II Multiverse, Oscillating Universe, and a few other theories. We als...

      The main idea for this week's lab was discovering how big the solar system actually is when created to scale. My group used playdough to create the size for the planets and a cut out piece of paper for the sun. The diameter of the sun was 160 mm, which made Mercury 0.5mm, Venus 1.3mm, Earth 1.4mm, Mars 0.4mm, and the Moon 0.35mm. In relation to the sun, Mercury was 6.66m away, Venus was 12.4m away, Earth was 17.2 m away, and Mars was 26.2m away. Compared to the Earth, the moon was 26.6mm away. Here were our planets in size relation to the sun.  Sun: paper Mercury: red Venus: yellow Earth: green Moon: blue Mars: pink     In Thursday's lecture, we discussed the phases of the moon and how the rotation of the earth effects shadows. We talked about the Tropic of Cancer, Equator, and Tropic of Capricorn and how depending on where on the planet someone is located, his or her shadow will either be North, South, or directly above them at exactly noon. We finis...