Blog Reviews

Where do I start when reviewing others' blogs? I suppose it can be summed up in one word: WOW! I am amazed at all of the things that other people in the course were able to accomplish. I was also secretly pleased throughout the course to read about challenges that classmates had with posting pictures, getting headers to stretch (I still never figured that one out), and so on because I had so many frustrations myself.

There were so many good blogs that I looked at and had to quickly look away from because they were so amazing and complex that I found myself feeling so unworthy, and well, simply jealous (whew, I finally said it for all the world to see)! There were a few in particular that I kept looking back to for various reasons, and they are listed in more detail below.

First, was Geo Intergrations because of the positive, uplifting attitude towards science and the lack of available educational opportunities for elementary teachers in the science area. I was amazed that she is a K-5 science coach, and was not aware that positions like that even existed! Sure, my district has a science department and one elementary and one secondary support teacher for the ENTIRE district, and we are the largest district in the state... So to see some of the resources Jennifer has posted on her site (which by the way I have borrowed the idea and made my own listing of links, thanks Jennifer!) as well as her excited, engaging attitude towards improving the opportunities for elementary teachers of science - it was appealing.

Secondly, Dan's Alaska Connections because of the uncluttered layout and organization of pictures and overall easy-to-read-ness. His writing is succinct and gets to the point, with some strong analysis and reflection. I especially liked his blog reviews (both the positives and the negatives), but I especially agreed with this statement he made: "A few things that I personally was not fond of included harsh color schemes, especially when used with text, small fonts, poor grammar, multiple typos, and photos of large, dead, big game animals (not that they weren't cool photos, they just seem out of context to the subject at hand)." Need I say more?

Thirdly, even though Tundra Teacher got a late start like me, I loved reading about the stories of the people in her community as well as her Yupik Immersion school. I only wish that I had stories and experiences to tell of from my everyday life like she did. Thank you for sharing ;)

Woven Ideas and Practices was one of my favorite ones to read because of her direct and honest writing. I often read hers over telling myself that if I could just figure out how to "talk" to the reader like she did much of my blogging would flow more naturally. One of the other things that resonated with me while reading hers was her attitude about making positive changes in her life: "I am proud to say that I am going to make some positive changes in my life to be part of the growing movement to know more about the products that I use and purchase. I understand that the changes that I make in my household will encourage my children to have the same patterns that I do about recycling. This is an important lesson that we can not only admire but try to emulate from our indigenous cultures." Way to drive the point home! She also was amazed at all that she had learned, and I would have to say that I share that sentiment. Lastly, I noticed that many of the photo credits on her
website were for bing.com, so I went ahead and checked it out and found a large amount of high quality images - only wish I had found out about this sooner! (Green Earth Photo Credit: you guessed it, bing.com!)

Lastly, the Life in Alaska had some very nice high quality pictures, that end up being quite powerful in helping to drive whatever points he was making home, such as: the arctic haze caused by factory pollution, very popular political president slam (one of my personal favorites out of every blog!), arctic sea ice and the cute jumping polar bear, volcano crater with fumarole activity, and last all the way back to the cute magazine cover of St. George Island. Inspirational.

Module X - Final Project

About six months ago I found out about a Wordle, which is a free internet based application that lets you make "word clouds." I made one for my mom for Christmas last year, and judging by her reaction I think it was hands down one of the best presents she had ever received. Because I am a highly visual person and because it is just amazing, I had to post a science wordle on my last blog. To find more information on Wordles you can visit an article on the NSTA I found about them. Here is one more good article that for me brought to mind huge implications for using a Wordle for science vocabulary introduction, acquisition, and review.

Final Project - Background & Goals

I teach third grade, so a lot of the science in this course was a bit higher than what third graders would normally be expected to comprehend (that is not to say that we should never teacher high-er and show students a variety of resources that will engage and pull them into the sciences, just that sometimes it can be too far reaching for it to be relevant). I am also a newer teacher, so I am still learning quite a few things myself as I master the core curriculum (Reading, Writing, and Math) at my grade level. However, I am also a huge fan of utilizing teachable moments, such as last year when Mt. Redoubt erupted and everyone was buying face masks - and my students were scared. Even though volcanoes have nothing to do with our curriculum, I found the Alaska Volcano Observatory's Redoubt site and we looked into what was going on in an attempt to hopefully teach my students a few things while also easing their fears.

Now back to my final project. I have had some training on the science Learning Cycle model, and I believe that especially in the elementary level students need as many opportunities as possible to explore and experiment first and foremost to generate excitement, but mostly higher level thinking about science. Thus I have (but I couldn't figure out how to attach it so I attached screen shots at pictures...) made a lesson about the changes of phases in a powerpoint style PDF so that I can have it up on my Promethean Board so students may have a good visual image to guide them while we are doing the lesson. I did this because a large part of my goal for this project was to get students excited, engaged, and to want to know more.

GLEs Addressed

Science Content GLE
[3] SB3.1 The student demonstrates an understanding of the interactions between matter and energy and the effects of these interactions on systems by recognizing that temperature changes cause changes in phases of substances (e.g., ice changing to liquid, water changing to water vapor, and vice versa).

Science Process GLE
[3] SA1.1 The student demonstrates an understanding of the processes of science by asking questions, predicting, observing, describing, measuring, classifying, making generalizations, inferring, and communicating.

Writing GLE
[3] W1.2.2 The student writes for a variety of purposes and audiences by using expressive language when responding to literature or producing text (e.g., journals, pictures supported by text or poetry) (L)

Alaska Native GLE

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Science Concept: Temperature changes cause phase changes.

Objectives: The student will

• Describe how a change in temperature causes a substance to change phase
• Predict and infer about phase changes of a substance
• Discuss how Alaska Native ways of knowing have been around for centuries as effective methods of understanding the world around them
  

Assessment Task With your knowledge of phase changes, you will write a journal entry that describes how a change in temperature causes a popsicle to change from a solid to a liquid. You must make at least one prediction and one inference about how the temperature will have an effect on the popsicle. This entry must include at least two sentences, an illustration, and at least two labels.

Materials Keynote Presentation (or Chart Paper)
3 Markers of Assorted Colors Zippered Bags, Quart Size (one bag per student pair)
Ice (one piece of ice per student pair)
Student Worksheet/The Great Race Student Worksheet/Assessment Task 1
Popsicle (optional)
Goldish, Meish. “Ice” 101 Science Poems & Songs for Young Learners. New York: Scholastic Professional Books, 1996. Page 80.

Vocabulary Phase/State of Matter - One of the conditions in which matter exists. The three states of matter are solid, liquid, and gas.

Teacher Background Vocabulary
Matter - Something that occupies space, has mass, and exists as a solid, liquid, or gas.

Solid - 1. One of the three basic forms of matter. Solids are made up of molecules that can vibrate back and forth but can’t move to change places with other molecules. Solids have both a set volume and a set shape. 2. A shape that has three dimensions. Cubes and spheres are solids.

Liquid - One of three basic forms of matter. Liquids are made up of molecules that can move short distances. Unlike solids, liquids do not have a set shape and take on the shape of the container they are in. Unlike gases, liquids have a set volume.

All definitions from: The American heritage children’s science dictionary. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Activity Preparation Purchase or make enough ice cubes for the class in advance. (You will need to write the vocabulary definitions, directions, and poems on a piece of chart paper or board if you do not have access to a computer/interactive whiteboard). Optional: Prepare one popsicle or other substance for the assessment task.

Day 1:

Gear Up Process Skills: Making generalizations, describing, communicating Have students complete an entrance slip either on a piece of paper or in their science notebooks. Share student responses as a group. Display “Ice” and “Icicles” poetry from keynote presentation. Read poems whole group, then chorally.


Ask students/guide discussion with the following prompts:

• What is going on in these poems?
• What is happening to the water?
• What is happening to the ice?
• What is causing these changes in the water and ice?
• Does anybody know what is it called when these changes happen with water (freezing, melting)?

Explore Process Skills: Investigating, predicting, observing, communicating
Explain to students that they will receive a bag to put an ice cube in and try to get the ice cube to change from a solid to a liquid as quickly as possible. Tell students to:


Generalize Process Skills: Inferring, describing, making generalizations, communicating
Whole group discussion:



Apply Process Skills: Predicting, inferring, describing, making generalizations
• With a partner (or whole group), students may make a list of all the things that they might find in their home that could change from a solid to a liquid.
• With your partner discuss what would happen to chocolate left outside on a very hot, sunny day.

Extend

For the extend part of this lesson I will utilize some online resources. While some people may not be able to access the resource BrainPOP, they can still check out what it is like by looking at the free featured videos of the week from BrainPOP Jr. or BrainPOP. For this lesson, I will utilize a few different BrainPOP Jr. videos (below). Of course I think it would be beneficial for students to also do the quiz at the end whole group and some of the activities below.

Solids, Liquids, and Gases

Changing States of Matter

Matter Changing States (BrainPOP)

Websites I would also like to either review these websites with students, however I wonder if it would be better to allow students to explore them on their own.

Changing States of Matter (Phase Changes)

Solids

Liquids

States of Matter

Games (borrowed from BrainPOP Jr.'s Solids, Liquid's, and Gases Activities)

Shapes Matter

Remind your students that liquids take the shape of their containers. Experiment pouring liquids into containers of different shapes and sizes. Then have students pour the same amount of liquid into each container. How do the shapes change? Why do some containers appear to have more liquid than others?

As an extension, help students blow air into balloons to make different shapes. Balloons can be small, large, tube-shaped etc. Encourage students to make balloon animals to show how gas can be moved and contained. Compare how liquids and gases fill their containers.

Mass Mania

Review with your students that mass is the amount of matter in an object. Explain that some objects may seem very large but have little mass. For example, a balloon is bigger than a key, but the balloon has less mass. A foot of yarn is longer than a marble, but the marble has more mass. Brainstorm different examples. If possible, have small groups use balance scales and gram measurements to compare the masses of different objects.

Property Game

Discuss different properties of objects, such as color, texture, smell, etc. Then have students choose objects and write riddles that describe their properties. Encourage your students to write riddles for solids, liquids, and gases. Have students read their riddles and invite volunteers to guess the object. For example, a student might say: “What is solid, wooden, tall and attached to our wall?” Encourage students to think about how the objects are alike and different from each other.

Day 2-3:

For the second part of this lesson I would like students to watch some TD videos about some of the different groups of Alaska Native people and how their subsitence lifestyle is being affected by climate change. Part of the third grade social studies curriculum is Alaska Studies, and so I definitely think my students would enjoy watching the short videos on the groups of people that they have been studying all year. It is important to note that while most of these resources are for grades 6-12, I still think that my students will benefit from the videos with some well facilitated discussion (or cooperative learning activities) because it is relevant to them and their studies.

Living from the Land and Sea

Discussion Questions:

• Explain why you think sharing of fish, wildlife, and other subsistence foods is a critical value among the indigenous Alaska Native peoples.
• What are some ways in which Alaska Native worldviews are the same as those in your community? What are some ways in which they differ?
• Does Western science seem compatible or incompatible with the Alaska Native ways of life described in this video? What about modern technology? Explain.
• Discuss with other students how global warming could impact the predictive knowledge that indigenous Alaska Native peoples apply when engaging in subsistence activities.

People of the Arctic

Discussion Questions:

• The speaker talks about the loss of independence of the Alaska Native peoples. In what ways have Alaska Native peoples become dependent on other institutions and resources?
• For people who depend on wild foods for their nutrition, ways of life, culture, health, and well-being, what choices are they facing?
• In what ways is the Arctic environment a barometer or indicator for the health of the environment worldwide?
• "Keep us on the land, hunting and fishing, and we will guard it not only for us, but for the rest of the world." Does it seem important to you that this land be guarded? Explain.

A Subsistence Culture Impacted by Climate Change





Discussion Questions:

• Make a list of changes in the environment that have been identified by the Athabaskans in this video. How have plant and animal species been affected? Identify some of the species that have already been impacted, or are predicted to be impacted, by the current change in climate.
• What are the implications of these changes to the Athabaskan subsistence culture and way of life?
• What is happening to the rivers that negatively impacts salmon?
• In addition to the Alaska Native peoples, what animals depend on the salmon run for their existence?

The Spirit of Subsistence Living

Discussion Questions:

• What do you think the visitors hope to gain from their visit with the Cup'ik people? Explain your reasoning.
• Why do many Alaska Native peoples live near water? List some of the natural things in the environment and describe how the Cup'ik people use them. Are these materials still available in abundance? What has changed?
• This video describes a world perspective in which "everything is connected." What is meant by that?
• How would you compare the way in which the Cup'ik people and Western scientists view the natural world? What are the similarities and differences?
• For millennia, Alaska Native peoples have been observing the changes in their environment. How can technology help Western science make use of such data?

Alaska Native Pilots

Discussion Questions:

• What does it mean to read the landscape and the weather compared to simply observing the landscape and the weather? What are some of the important observations—referred to as signmakers—that Alaska Native pilots use to read the landscape and the weather?
• Natural signmakers—or sensemakers—as well as aircraft instruments and technology are all useful tools that pilots in Alaska can use to fly their planes safely. Do you think one is more important than the other under certain conditions? In Alaska? In other places? In different circumstances?
• Dr. Oscar Kawagley, a Yup'ik, talks about the kinds of things Alaska Native peoples look for in reading the weather. How experienced and knowledgeable must a person be to observe and accurately read all these factors?
• Consider a typical summer day on Ninilchik Beach. What weather patterns might you expect? Use this information to plan a safer and better fishing trip.

Hunters Navigate Warming Arctic

Discussion Questions:

• What are some specific examples from this video that show that changing patterns of nature are threatening the traditional ways of life and cultural survival in the Arctic?
• The usefulness of traditional knowledge of the environment is compromised because of the unpredictable and rapid changes in the environment. What are the observable changes and what are the causes of these changes?
• In what ways has modern technology been a help to the Alaska Native hunter?
• How can traditional knowledge of the Arctic be used by Western science to document change and predict future trends?
• What are some specific examples from this video that show that changing patterns of nature are threatening the traditional ways of life and cultural survival in the Arctic?
• The usefulness of traditional knowledge of the environment is compromised because of the unpredictable and rapid changes in the environment. What are the observable changes and what are the causes of these changes?
• In what ways has modern technology been a help to the Alaska Native hunter?
• How can traditional knowledge of the Arctic be used by Western science to document change and predict future trends?

I also think my students might enjoy seeing some of the TD videos of Alaska Native scientists (image at right) living and working in Alaska, as well as what kind of other careers exist for real scientists.

Side Note: I wanted to do 3-4 lessons on completely different things that relate to the third grade ASD science curriculum (Weather, Observing Alaskan Plants, and Changes) utilizing many TD video resources - but I had a hard time finding K-6 resources that related to these things. I also wanted to tie in global warming, conservation and recycling because I knew it would be relevant to my students - but I wasn't sure how with the resources that I had available to me. I am still thinking about how to work in different TD videos from now until the end of the year that will connect to or extend lessons that we are doing. Wish me luck!