Annamarie's Elementary Science Methods I and II Blog

What question are we investigating? For the sixth week of Science Methods II, we would begin to ask the question: “How the distances and size are for the main four planets and moon”. We did this through talking in small groups over how to make the four main planets and moon. This would be done through making a model for the planet and moon by showing the distance between each of them. What did we do in lab to investigate this question? The teacher would start out by allowing everyone in small groups to talk about the different ways to think about how to do the sizes for Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon, and Mars. This would allow us to use prior knowledge over this to think about this before her giving us a website that helped with this information for the size for them. It also would allow us to know how far to put each of the planets and moon to show how far they are from each other. This would allow my small group to use a measuring meter ruler to make the sizes for the planets and ...

  What question are we investigating? For the sixth week of Science Methods II, we would begin to ask the question: “How the phases of the moon occur, What causes the seasons, and What causes a lunar eclipse”? We did this through talking in small groups about these questions and investigating it with a globe and a foam ball with a light bulb. Then as a whole group we would learn the information about these questions.  What did we do in lab to investigate this question? The teacher would start out by allowing everyone in small groups to talk about the different questions and what their initial thoughts were. This would also be done through using a globe and a foam ball to see how it changes the moon with the light bulb. This would allow me to personally see how some of the information learnt in some of my previous science courses taught information similar or different as she explained it. One way I learnt the new information was through Geocentric and Heliocentric. This would ...

  What question are we investigating? For the fifth week of Science Methods II, we would continue to ask the question: “How can we support play that is exciting but not dangerous?”. We also would look at “How can we design a safe and durable playground surface”? We did this through talking in small groups about the different things that could affect a surface for playgrounds and create an experiment based on this information. What did we do in lab to investigate this question? The teacher would start out by allowing everyone in small groups to talk about the different materials that could be used for a surface on playgrounds and think about what materials we may use to not make the egg break. Then as a whole group we would get soil, sand, straw, and tire pieces to put into the bowl. My small group would choose to do 1 meter and measure that to see if the egg would break or not with the amounts of different surfaces we put in the bowl. The first meter wouldn’t break the egg. This wo...

  What question are we investigating? For the fourth week of Science Methods II, we would continue to ask the question: “How can we support play that is exciting but not dangerous?”. We also would look at “What affects how long it takes a swing to go back and forth?”. We did this through talking in small groups about the different things that could affect the swing and create an experiment based on this information. What did we do in lab to investigate this question? The teacher would start out by allowing everyone in small groups to talk about different factors that could affect a swing. Then as a whole group we would write down are thoughts over what could affect a swing. Some of the examples include length, weight, push or pull, and weather like wind. My small group would choose to experiment how pushing and pulling affects the swing. My group's initial thinking was that pulling would go faster compared to pushing. We thought that pulling would give it more speed compared to pus...

What question are we investigating? For the second and third week of Science Methods II, we would continue to ask the question: “How can we support play that is exciting but not dangerous?”. We also would look at “ What affects a rider’s speed down a slide”. We did this through talking in small groups about the different things that could affect the rider’s speed down a slide and create an experiment based on this information. What did we do in lab to investigate this question? The teacher would first do this through allowing everyone in small groups to talk about different ways that could affect the speed of someone going down the slide. Then as a whole group we would write down are thoughts over it. Some examples of this can be weight, size, and clothing or material. My small group would choose to experiment how the weight affects someone’s speed going down the slide. The group’s initial thinking was that weight will affect how fast someone goes. We would do three trials of the same ...

  What question are we investigating? For the first week of Science Methods II, we would look at the question: “How can we support play that is exciting but not dangerous?”. We also would look at “ How do we make a race exciting between people who run at different speeds?”. We did this through talking in small groups about the different things we saw on the video on the playground. Then we would share our thoughts in a whole group before going again in small groups for testing races between each other.  What did we do in lab to investigate this question? The teacher explained we would be finding out how to get two individuals in our small groups to finish at the same time with different speeds. Then he would put us together with another small group to get one person from each small group to stop at the same time with different speeds. My small group would create a method on finding a way to get both individuals to stop at the same time based on their different speeds. We did t...

  What question are we investigating? For the fifteen week of Science Methods I, we would continue with the question: “How can we support elementary students in learning about matter and its interactions?”. We also would look again at the question “Where do the bubbles come from when we mix vinegar and baking soda?” We did this through being in small groups to create a lesson plan to show this phenomenon to elementary students. Then we would share and receive feedback with another small group.  What did we do in lab to investigate this question? The teacher explained by reviewing everyone over what happened when mixing vinegar and baking soda together. He would ask everyone in small groups to create models to explain what happens to elementary students. My small group would think about using a balloon with a small coke bottle to show this reaction to the elementary students. We believed that it would allow the students to get a clearer understanding of how it looks when they a...