Alexa's Elementary Science Methods Blog

What did you do in lab?     -  This week in lab we learned the difference between climate and weather. Climate is what temperature you expect to occur in a certain area and is determined by what the average weather is measured over thirty years. On the other hand, weather is the temperatures that you get day to day. We also analyzed multiple graphs in order to come up with a statement based upon the earth's climate. Some of the graphs showed that we are having a higher number of frost free days, we are using the furnace less, we are having more precipitation, longer growing seasons, etc. These all show the intensity of climate change and how it is continuing to become worse as the years go on.  What did you learn in lecture?     -    This week in lecture I learned that the public is 50/50 on whether or not climate change is real. This may be due to the fact that there are "trusted" sources, such as the Climate Depot, that are telling them, "No war...

 What did you do in lab?          -      This week in lab we started off by discussing the Before the Flood film and some of the major issues it discussed. We talked about how the film explained the topic of climate change and how we as humans contribute to this greatly through burning fossil fuels, deforestation, methane emissions, pollution, etc. Some common questions that we had related to this film and climate change relate to what can we do to reverse the damage done by climate / can we do anything, and what changes can we make to protect the environment. We also worked in groups and were given a section of Iowa to focus on and see how the number of days with heavy rainfall has changed over time. My partner and I had the Drake University section where we found that the number of days with heavy rainfall increased over time by 33.33%.  What did you learn in lecture?          -      Exam Textboo...

What did you do in lab?          -      In lab this week, we talked about the Law of Superposition, which explains that the layers of a sedimentary rock go from oldest to youngest, and also go in a horizontal direction, which is explained by the Principle of Original Horizontality. We also learned how to determine the order of the rock layers from oldest to youngest when looking at a picture. One last thing we did in lab was look at various types of sand under a microscope and list their characteristics. We saw sand of many different colors, various sizes, smooth texture, rough texture, different shapes, etc.  What did you learn in lecture?          -      This week in lecture I learned that an objects buoyancy is related to the density of the object and its comparison to the density of water. We tested out multiple cans with liquid inside of them to see which ones would sink and which would float. We f...

What did you do in lab?   - This week in lab we modeled the three different kinds of rocks with starbursts. First, when creating the two models of the igneous rocks, we made the first one by heating warming it up and then letting it cool from the air, and the other one was made by warming it up and cooling it in cold water. Next, the sedimentary rocks were made by pushing one together with our hands, and stepping on the other one. Lastly, the metamorphic rocks were made warmed up, and one of them we pushed together with more pressure, and the other one we applied lighter pressure. In lab we also talked about assessments we give. It was emphasized that when we give assessments, the most important thing to observe is their learning and improvement they have made from the formative assessments to the summative assessments. What did you learn in lecture?   -  One of the things I learned about this week in lecture is the different types of weathering. The first type is mechani...

  What did you do in lab? This week in lab we worked on putting different events in order on a timeline as an introduction to geologic time. We started off by placing five different events on the timeline in the place where we thought they would fit. These five events were the first appearance of humans, when dinosaurs were on Earth, the first land plants as well as the first land animals, and lastly, the creation of the moon. Next, we used Earth Viewer to search for multiple events that took place and when they took place. Some events that we looked into were the first land plants, which took place 470 million years ago, as well as Pangaea which took place 300-200 million years ago.  What did you learn in lecture? Exam

What did you do in lab?  - This week in lab we presented our slideshow over the space topic we chose. My groups topic was black holes. Here is the link to our presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1U_mbKomuz5pA6SSsrsdxWTUVqeJUFXOUEg0IDS85E54/edit?usp=sharing - While researching black holes, some big ideas I learned is that black holes are created at the end of a stars life and they grow bigger as they take in more matter. I also learned that the gravity compressed in a black hole prevents any kind of light from escaping, so this is why black holes can not be visibly seen. There are four different types of black holes: stellar, supermassive, intermediate, and miniature. We also got to listen to other presentations. These were origin of the universe, lifecycles of stars, origin of the earth, galaxies, past, present, and future of space travel, and black holes.  What did you learn in Thursday's lecture? - This week in lecture we began by talking about the orig...