Noor's Science Methods Blogs

 Week 13: Testing M&M's What are we investigating? What is fundamental? Why the colors mix?  Does the color affect the speed of the dye? How did we investigate this? This week we continued to investigate different things and learn how to use particle models of matter in order to explain phenomena. In learning how to use particle models of matter to explain different phenomena we also learned the importance of using models to help students understand concepts, and also pushing them to create their own models. When investigating the questions we had in lab we conducted several different experiments as a class. This experiment rather than being done in small groups was done as a whole class to begin with. Each table got a different color of M&M that they would be conducting the experiment on. Each student got a plate with water in it. As a class we were investigating the question of does the color affect the speed of the dye. The professor told us all when to drop the M...

 Week 12 Properties of Matter What are we investigating?  How do properties change when objects are broken into pieces? What we did to investigate this? In this lab we explored the properties of matter, we did this by discussing what we noticed about some of the observable physical properties of these objects. We made a list on our white board that included mass, density, malleability, hardness, conductivity, and more. We had ten different objects such as crayons, wood, straws, foil, paperclips, corks, and more. Use materials such as graduated cylinders, a light bulb, and a scale we tested all of our different objects to figure out what was on our list. Each object had a small size and a big size of it that way our tests were more extensive.  We found out many things some of the data was affected by the size of the object, but others were not. We also found out which objects conducted electricity, which were dense, which was malleable, and many more. Majority of our predi...

 Week 11 Chemistry Stations This week we began chemistry and focused on many interactive activities of observing different phenomenon occurring. We were pushed to make observations, ask questions, and make claims without being given any answers.  The phenomena we encountered included: plunger suction Ice melting faster on certain materials (metal vs wood) Coke vs Diet Coke floating and sinking Vinegar and baking soda sealed in a bag M & M's in water Condensation on different coke temperatures At each station it was our job to observe what was occurring and discuss with our group why we thought these things were happening. For example at one of the stations the plunger was pushed down onto the table and a suction occurred where it was very difficult to pull the plunger off. As a group we had to discuss why this was happening and the plunger stayed suctioned down. At the M&M station they were placed in water and the colors began bleeding out but not mixing. Our group had...

Week 10: Review and NGSS  What questions were we investigating? What makes something living? How do plants get their food? Where does living stuff come from? Where does it go? What makes a good lesson plan according to the NGSS? What did we do in lab in order to investigate these questions? In this lab we did a station activity with a cube to help us investigate big ideas from biology as scientists would. We then made a brochure of the big ideas from the NGSS standards. On the brochure each side had one of the standards that we have learned so far in biology and we wrote all the big ideas then shared them as a class. This was made to help us review for the upcoming exam but also something that you would think to give to a parent or student.  The purpose of this lab was to ensure that we had no lasting questions!! :)

Week 1 Living Vs. Nonliving What question are we investigating? The question that we were investigating in this lab was "What characteristics makes something living?" What did we do in lab to investigate this question? We did several different activities to investigate this lab was organizing an array of images into categories of living vs. nonliving. These images consisted of objects like bacteria, the sun, a butterfly, a tree stump, fire, and a leaf. Although this activity seems like it would be easy, our group was finding difficulties in wrapping our heads around the details of if a virus was living or non living. As a class we discussed different aspects and criteria we thought made something living. To deeper understand what make something living vs. nonliving, we each dissected a flower to look at its functions. We specifically analyzed the flowers reproductive system, looking at how it reproduces as it's own entity and what functions it has in order to do so. We th...

Week 2 Life Cycles What question are we investigating? The questions that we investigated this week were, What do all life cycles have in common? What kinds of structures and functions support a life cycle? What did we do in lab to investigate this question? We did several different activities to investigate these questions in lab beginning with analyzing meal worms. Each group received a petri dish full of mealworms and as a group, we had to try and analyze what part of the life cycle they were at. After doing so, each group was asked to make a life cycle. Our group came up with the cycle beginning with eggs, to larva, to pupa, then to bug or beetle. We observed how the mealworms structure changes and shifts completely throughout its life cycle. We then observed and analyzed Wisconsin fast plants that were in petri dishes at each of the different stages of growth in their cycle. We added that to our life cycle as well along with the mealworms.  What did we figure out? After observ...