Polar Ice Caps

What would happen if the polar ice caps melted?

My first thought when thinking about this question was that if the polar ice caps melted then that would create flooding. After completing the experiment I changed my mind on the subject. I saw that the water did not overflow from the bowl. The water just dispersed. I feel that the same thing will happen if the polar ice caps melted. I do not think that it will cause flooding like so many people believe.

I think that this is a good experiment to get the children thinking about this topic. This is something that may very well effect them in the future and I think that is is good for us to introduce these kinds of things to the children. It is also a good way to help the children work on making hypotheses. It may also show them that what they expect to happen in an experiment may not be the results that they get. They need to learn that what they expect to see and what actually happens may be two different things.

One question that I do have is how accurate are the results that we get from this experiment compared to the larger scale of the polar ice caps?

STEM Lesson PLan

This week we were asked to create a lesson plan that focused on STEM strategies for diverse learners. I teach lower elementary and we have been learning about changes of the earth through time. Within that unit the last few weeks we have been focusing on Dinosaurs and their fossils. For this lesson plan I decided to take a deeper look at one of the lessons that I taught this past week in my classroom. The students learned how we can tell what kind of food a dinosaur most likely ate based on what the fossils of of their teeth looked like. They did an experiment to test out their theories. They had a lot of fun with it.

After reading through the resources this week I had a chance to see some of the changes that I would make in that lesson that I taught. I made those changes in the lesson plan that I submitted. Reading about the 5 E's Strategy was helpful when I was thinking of ways that I could improve the lesson. For Example, I decided to add more use of technology into my lesson. I realized that it would be a good idea to have the students start out on the computers looking through some websites that I would have preselected for them. They would look up information and pictures about dinosaurs and there fossils.

Generally I do not write lesson plans in this much detail, so I found it very helpful to go in depth with this one. It helped me think more deeply about every aspect of the lesson. I could see where things needed to be changed and what worked well. It helps to take a step back and look at it from a different angle. That is what this assignment helped me do.

I believe that this lesson went well when I taught it, so I do not anticipate many practical or logistical problems. I feel like I worked any of those out when I taught the lesson the first time. I just have to make sure that the students are careful when they are working on the experiment, so they do not hurt themselves.

References

Hammerman, E. L. (2006). Becoming a better science teacher: 8 steps to high quality instruction and student achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Adventure's in Science

Hello Everybody!
I have never created a blog before, so I am a newbie at this. I look forward to sharing my thoughts and ideas about Science with you all. I also look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas as well!