"What’s Our Sputnik?”

I agree with Thomas Friedman. We had wasted money over wars that I believe that had nothing to do with us. What do we have to show for it? Money spent on wars we could have produced a lot of people that could compete with other countries. We have to prepare our students for the 21st  Century, think about how much money we can  use to prepare the teachers and students.

Science Journal Blog

 I would open up with a classroom discussion about natural disasters. For our students to become 21st century learners in our classrooms, we need to use technology and real life applications in our every day lessons.  In their science journals, I would ask them to research a natural disaster by conducting their own research. They would  have to name the disaster, what happen, if there where any damage, how much it cost, if lives where lost and are there any  relief effort to help rebuild that city or town.
To end this activity, I would ask them to put themselves in other shoes as if it was them that what hit by that natural disaster. Finally, I would give out extra credit for any students that donated to anyone in need or helped out in their community if they could.

Ask A Scientist
I could not get my questioned answered so I am workingon another question.

Which Web 2.0 Presentation Tools Will Be Useful in the Course Project?

I reviewed some of these tools and I was disappointed in some of them. I review a couple of them (Google Do and Prezi).Some of the tools wanted me to feel out a lot of information and one said(Museum Box) it needs to verify my email address and said it will take up to 14 days. I am looking for something I can navigated easily and smoothly. I am not as computer savvy as I want to be, but I am trying to get there. I did try out the following based on ease of use, special features,and the ability to collaborate with other and share files.

Google Docs- this as a collaborative online writing or word processing tool, it also offers a presentation maker. You can upload Power points or Create your own original presentation online then publish them on the web, email them, embed them on your website.

Prezenti - you and your team can work on the presentation at the same time. You can download your presentations and show them even without an Internet connection.
The presentations are web pages (HTML) so you could even edit them manually.

The following tools were fun to play with and easy to navigate.I am looking forward to the course project.

N.Walcott

 

 

Balancing Chemical Equations

This topic was  my favorite part of chemistry. I made sure my students had an understanding and they enjoyed the lesson at the same time. The site I came up to help my students become 21st-century scientifically literate citizen is; http://funbasedlearning.com/chemistry/chembalancer/ . I can video tape them and post it to you tube with the okay first. I will let my students make up their own chemical equation so their peers can solve them. Most of my students are into you-tube,blogging, and facebook.  This will be something they will enjoy because they can relate to it. It would not hurt if you can ask the students what would they like to do and how they would make the lesson more interesting. The only challenge I can see is the time. I would like all students to participate in it.

 

“How does the steepness of a slope and mass affect a collision outcome?”

I used various heights and cars to see if it will affect a collision outcome. One the first try I used 1 book, then 2 books, and next 3 books. With each try I use the small marble to collide with the large marble then I used the large marble to collide with the smaller marble. There was not a different with the masses of the two objects but the height made a different where they rolled after they landed.  I expect when using 3 books, when the larger marble collided with the smaller marble it rolled a longer distance.

The experiment went well for the most part. Finding the right surface was the hardest part. The classroom floors were uneven so I decided to use the carpet instead.

The modifications I would make to this experiment, is releasing the marble from a different height on the ruler to get a different or modified result will be to specify what surface and type of cars to use.

I would use race tracks at different heights and cars with different masses. I will make it more like a race since most students are compative. I will time them to see which car crosses the finish line first.

I would like for my students to understand that force and motion is a part of our daily lives. I would like for them to have an understanding of the Newton’s three laws of motion.

Percents and Populations

I wanted to try some math with this activity.The students at my school do poorly in multiplication and specially decimals. I found this activity and wanted to try it with them. The students have a case and they had to come up with an answer to the problem. I only had six students and I split them up in two groups. Question they had to do. Suppose a doctor is treating a group of people who have the disease hemophilia.The group has 400 people. About how many individuals would you expect to have hemophilia A?
Team A (hemophilia A)
1)Write percent as a decimal.
80%= .80 (some students can not change percents to decimals)
2)Multiply the decimal number by the total population.
.80 X 400= 320.00 (if what they were suppose to get)
3) Be sure the answer has the same number of decimals place.
Team B (hemophilia B)
1)Write percent as a decimal.
12%= .12 (some students can not change percents to decimals)
2)Multiply the decimal number by the total population.
.12 X 400= 48.0 (if what they were suppose to get)
3) Be sure the answer has the same number of decimals place
(The Challenge: The part that made them think)
Write a fraction in simplest terms equal to each percentage: 80, 30, 12, 3.
Question: When you multiply these fractions by 400, do you get the same or different results as when you multiply 400 by the percentages? Explain why the results may be different.