Aleah Tenpas: Elementary Science Method Blog

What did you learn this week? In lab this week we just worked on the States of Matter and looked out for specific characteristics that they bring up being important in noticing. My group visually showed different characteristics that represented solids, liquids, and gases. We also learned this week how to set up a particle model to make sense of all the items . How can you apply what you've learned to your teaching in the future? From lab, I am able to take away the success of implementing different forms of instruction by using things like online simulations to get ideas across. Through doing this, I personally developed a better understanding by visually seeing what occurs then we also talked through what the process means verbally as well to gather a better understanding. What are new or remaining questions? * How can we help our students to understand the different diagrams we show across to our students related to matter? Sometimes, it can be harder to make sense of.   Are yo...

What did you learn this week ? This week we talked all about the densities of different subjects and items of a material. For example, on a whiteboard we drew a different substance and compared the different densities. We started with drawing aluminum out and used bigger circles to represent Aluminum being a less dense substance. Then, when we got to drawing copper, we drew a bunch of smaller circles to represent copper being more dense then aluminum. Out of this I took away this week that various different substances will always have different densities. It was a good reminder this week just how the weight and mass of an object also dictates and explains whether a given object will float or if it will sink. How can you apply what you've learned to your teaching in the future? Once again , we did hands on activities today which helped to deepen overall understanding on key concepts like density and matter to see how this dictated and differed things like colors of m&m's. By...

 What did you learn this week?  This week we looked into and and talked more about matter and mass. We learned about and compared the different properties of matter that makes up an object. The key properties that we touched on in lab was did it sink or float, what was the volume (by using the water displacement method), measured the mass, do the objects conduct electricity, and was it attracted to a magnet. We learned to think like elementary students and carry out some investigations like they would. There are a lot of similarities I took away across the objects, but I learned just how many properties there really are to mass that makes them unique and different to all objects around them without even realizing it always . How can you apply what you've learned to your teaching in the future? I can apply what we learned today to my future teachings by taking in these concepts we discussed but then finding ways and applying more specific examples of how to make easier sense of...

What did you learn this week? This week we did a fun new type of lab day. It was very much so hands on learning which I found both fun, interactive and engaging. I took away that by switching up style of instruction you can keep things entertaining and fun! We did 6 main experiments in lab today so I will write a little about all of them and my takeaways. I will talk about a few and my takeaways. 1. Plunger Push : This activity was where you stuck the plunger to different surfaces and see if it is easier or harder to pull off of the differing ones. On the table top table it was by far the hardest to get off, we think because the air was trapped in plunger and pressure was higher so harder to pull off. One of the easiest places to pull off was off a chair with holes in it. For the chair, it really did not stick at all. We thought this because air goes right through holes so no pressure is able to build up! 2. Ice Test : the activity for this experiment was to grab two ice cubs and put o...

1. What did you learn this week? This week , touched all on the concepts of mutation and evolution. The main things that stood out to me specifically were when we touched on the specific drivers of evolution itself. There are a lot of things to it that make up science world. I learned about all the variations of genes and everything that goes into affecting what occurs on the environment processes itself as well. 2. Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already knew? I always knew what evolution was , and that is just looking at and considering all the different kinds of plants, animals and so on. In lab though I learned about the 4 main drivers for evolution. The four main ones I learned, were Natural Selection, gene drift, migration, and mutation. We looked at all of these and compared how they relate to each other and the main ideas of all that make up what they are and who and what ideas they encompass.   3. How can you apply what you've learned to your teaching ...