Tyler's Science Methods Blog

  This week we had to create an outline for how we can use the phenomenon of vinegar and baking soda to motivate students to learn about matter and its interactions. We posed a question, described how students could collect data, and described how students could use evidence collected to answer the question. 1.        Why does the balloon blow up when we mix vinegar and baking soda? 2.        Students might look at different properties of each, such as mass, color, and shape before, and compare that to after the experiment 3.        They should guide themselves to the conclusion that the mass stays the same under both situations   This week I got to learn all about creating this model and during it, I learned a lot about what happens when you fill a balloon and how the gas actually makes the mass of the balloon lighter. I found this lab mostly clear, but it was confusing when th...

 Today in class we started by making a model of particles to understand how a plunger works to suck onto a surface like a table, and why it doesn't work on a surface like paper or cardboard.    After discussing the solutions made by different groups, we then transitioned to creating different particle models. Our group made a particle model for why ice melts faster on a pan than on wood. We learned that the wood has more gaps between particles that allow heat to escape, while metal traps heat where it can hit the block of ice. We used our knowledge to make a particle model as a flip book, which we animated and voiced over.   This week I learned about how particles interact through different materials and how the structure of different materials allows molecules to interact differently. For example materials like wood have gaps in their structure allow molecules to get through as compared to metal blocks molecules from getting through. This is how conduction o...

          Today in class we repeated our m&m experiment from weeks ago but with different types of water. We did this to understand how particles spread out and how the different water affects the experiment. We took pictures at regular intervals to understand what was happening during the experiment. I can relate this to what I already knew about the experiment and particles because I knew that particles spread out, but I didn't know how they spread out at different rates in this experiment depending on what pieces we use. I have remaining questions over how the particles actually spread out and what is happening for the color to spread from the m&ms into the water, as I still don't understand why it is that this happens, I can guess that it has something to do with erosion and the water eroding the color. I can apply this lesson to my future teaching through the great examples of science used in class as well as the particle demonstration and checkpoin...

      Today in lab we discussed more about properties of matter and more specifically what makes a property of matter. We then transitioned testing a variety of different materials and their properties. We measured the Mass, Volume, Conductivity, Magnetism, and whether the material would sink or float. We experimented on crayons, marbles, tin foil, and wood. I was not particularly surprised by any of the data, although it was interesting to see the difference in mass and volume of the half-eraser as compared to the full eraser. I was very surprised by how one group's tinfoil sank and how Professor Nordine put tinfoil into water vertically and it sank, while when he put it in horizontally it floated.     I have remaining questions about what properties of tinfoil allow it to float at certain angles and sink at others. I am curious about why it does not just float or sink and what is happening there. I can apply this lesson to my teaching in the future by usi...

Today in lab we did a variety of different stations and made hypothesizes and observations about a variety of different phenomena. I learned about a bunch of different scientific phenomena as well as a new style of activities and how to use fast-activities to get students invested in learning Science. Will an Ice Cube melt faster in a metal pot or on a wood board? Hypothesis: The ice cube will melt faster on the wood because the pan insulates and keeps the cubes cold Observations: The ice melts much faster in the pan How can I explain what happened?     The pan also conducts the heat from outside and traps it because of its bowl shape, melting the ice faster. What questions does this raise?     Why does it melt faster in the pan but our metal water bottles keep things cold for very long? What will happen if we submerge a large Coke, a Large Diet coke, a mini-Coke, and a mini-Diet coke in water? Hypothesis: The smaller sodas will float and the larger ones will sink Ob...

 This week in class we had another continued discussion about evolution and natural selection. We discussed how natural selection works and worked on an activity to create our own children's book about evolution using art generated by the Dall-E 2 artificial intelligence.      Personally this week I learned how far evolution can advance and learned more about natural selection. the biggest thing that I learned was that evolution goes on forever and eventually can create creatures wholly unlike their ancient ancestors (as seen in The Dino and The Chicken) while also being able to stick with the same proven design as seen with Alligators. I can realate what we learned to my knowledge from previous classes about natural selection and how it works to change creatures into becoming more suited to their environment, however my newfound knowledge of mutations helps to fill in my previous gaps of understanding. I think I could apply this lesson to my teaching in the future b...

      This week in class we discussed more about genetic diversity and specifically natural selection. In class we did an activity to see which utensil would gather the most beans and be best suited to the environment. The loser would then adapt and change utensils to become more capable of survival.     I was able to learn about natural selection through examples and some activities. I learned that natural selection is what happens when environmental factors, whether biotic or abiotic, influence the survival of a species and because of that, the species develops certain traits that help them overcome. These traits come in the form of mutations and make themselves known in the species through reproduction and the passing on of those individuals with inferior traits. For example, we played an activity which involved bunnies. We could choose the bunnies to have factors in their environment that would limit their populations, whether they were d...