Faith Rinehart: Elementary Science Methods 1 Blog

   What did you learn this week?  This week we dove a lot deeper into the topics we have been looking at. We learned that density has a lot to do with what sinks and what does not sink. We talked about the diet coke and coke sinking lab we did a couple of weeks ago. We learned that the diet coke was less dense that the regular coke and that is why it floated. There is less sweetener and that it why it is less dense. We also learned more about the m&m lab we did a couple of weeks ago. We did multiple more experiments to see if certain colors bleed faster. We thought that the red color bleed faster then others. We also did the experiment with hot water, cold water, and salt water. We noticed that the colors bleed faster is hot water. How can you apply what you’ve learned to your teaching in the future? I really liked the coke lab to learn about density. When we did the lab the first time I was really confused why the diet coke floated and the regular coke sank but now t...

  What did you learn this week?  During the lab this week we talked about different properties of matter. We discussed how matter takes up space, has different forms, and how you can't always see matter. We did lots of experiments. During these experiments we looked at volume, mass, electricity, are the objects magnetic, and if the objects sunk or floated. Some of the most surprising observations we made were that the paper clip could sink and float, it just depends on how you put it in the water.  How can you apply what you’ve learned to your teaching in the future? I think that these activities would be a great way to teach students about different properties of matter. I was shocked by some of our results and I think my students would be as well. I also think it would be a great way for students to learn how to calculate the density of these objects. Since we found the volume and mass, we are able to calculate density.  What are new or remaining questions?  I...

 What did you learn this week?  We did so many fun experiments to get us prepared for learning physics. Throughout lab we did 7 experiments,  1. Cold Soda Lab   In this lab we took a soda and water out of a cooler that had ice and observed the condensation. The soda's didn't really have any condensation but the water bottle did.  We also looked our own own drinks and my coffee did have condensation but only were the drink was. So since it was half gone the condensation was only half way up the cup. We can explain the condensation is only were the drink it cold. We wondered why this happens?  2. Plunger Push lab In this lab we put the plunger on different surfaces and pushed it down so it would suction. On some of the surface, like the table, it would suction but on others, like the cardboard, it would not. We determined that the plunger would only suction to flat surfaces. We also discovered that it was harder to pull the plunger straight up but you co...

  1. What did you learn this week?  This week we learned about the drivers for evolution, natural selection and migration. We learned that the four drivers for evolution are natural selection, gene drifts, migration, and mutation. Natural selection means that living organisms will adapt and change to their environment. gene drifts is when there is random fluctuations in the frequency of alleles within a population. We also did a fun bean lab that taught us about natural selection. We each had a different utensil and we were supposed to pick up as many beans (food) as we could in 30 seconds. I started with the popsicle stick and it was so hard to pick up the beans. It would be hard for animals with long beak to pick up their food.  2. Are you able to relate what you learned to what you already knew?  I knew about natural selection and how it was survival of the fittest but I liked being able to have a hands on activity to relate it back to. I never thought about how h...