The Objects in our Solar System--->$100

If I had $100 dollars to divide up between the items in our solar system the sun would be $97.50 of the $100 total. Next, Jupiter would get half of the remaining $2.50. Following is the remaining larger planets such as saturn and uranus.

Seasons

Despite a lifetime of school, the Harvard graduates get the questions wrong based on simple astronomy. While at the same time the middle schoolers across the street are getting the same questions wrong. Here are some of those questions and my wrong answers....

1. Why do we have seasons?
     We have seasons because the Earth moves closer and further from the sun and this creates warmer and colder weather.
----The orbit is nearly circular but has no effect on the seasons.

Plate Tectonics

Modeling Plate Tectonics can be done in many fun ways for kids to better understand. In class we used grahmn crackers and frosting to model how the earth's plates can shift in different ways.


Modeling plate tectonics can be done in many ways that can help the kids better understand and also be fun for them. In class we did a model involving graham crackers ad frosting. This  modeled how the earths plates can shift in different ways and what happens to the earths crust when this happens. 
Here are some examples for the different boundaries we represented through the graham crackers and frosting ...

Divergent Boundary 

Convergent Subduction Boundary 

Convergent Collision Boundary 

Transform Sliding Boundary 

If I Had $100....

Where is all the water on Earth?

1. Oceans (the biggest)
2. Lakes/rivers/ reservations
3. Ground water/soil water
3. Glaciers
4. In the air
5. Plants and animals

If  I had $100 and I had to disperse it out into the places water is found listed above I would give the oceans $96...they are the largest bodies and hold the most water out of anywhere else in the world.
I would give the lakes, rivers, reservations, and glaciers 3 dollars and then I would give plants, animals, air, and ground water each 25 cents.

Listed above was my prediction. In reality $97.20 goes to the oceans. the water with the second most is glaciers with $2.15. This means that everything else on the list adds up to 65 cents. Next most is ground water adding up to 62 cents. Next $00.09 goes to fresh water lakes, $00.08 to salt water lakes and seas, $00.07 to variable, $00.05 to soil moisture, $00.01 to atmosphere and $00.0001 to steams.

Crater activity

In class we were first instructed to draw a model of the Earth in the different layers. In the picture I drew I made a representation of Marquette showing the mountain to the city and then to the beach going deep to the bottom of the lake.
Next we made a model of a crater using plastic clear plates and play dough. we traced each level of the crater onto separate plates and then stacked them using the play dough as a separator to see a 3D version of the crate. I thought it was a pretty cool activity and I also liked that if you flipped the plate over ti could be a representation of a mountain.

Rocks

Today in class we drew up a model of the rock cycle. We had to draw this diagram on our own without any resources to see what we knew. I was able to draw out a picture that I thought was a pretty good representation of the rock cycle but I had a hard time filling in all the blank spaces, so I finished it as we went through the lesson as a class.
Here is my drawing:

Next in class we were given "models" of the three different kinds of rocks. One of each a sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. 

First, we were given a rice krispy treat. This is a representation of a sedimentary rock. 

Second, we were given a butterfingers candy bar. After biting off the tip of the candy bar it was a wonderful representation of a metamorphic rock. 

Lastly, we were given a Werther's original hard candy. Due to the small crystals closely stuck together we were able to see the representation of a igneous rock. 

Crystals

A crystal form is a set of crystal faces defined according to their relationship to the crystal axes. Crystal forms look differently according to each individual kind. A crystal can be cube shaped, diamond shaped, triangular and many more.
In class we did an activity where we combined the ingredients of salt, water, bluing, and ammonia. After combining these ingredients we covered a toilet paper roll in the liquid and let it set for two days. When we returned to class there were crystal formations cover the toilet paper roll. What a great activity to do with my kids in my future classroom!

Fossils

A fossil is the remains of something living. I have learned that there are many different types of fossils including foramifera, trilobites, petrified wood, fossil amber, carbonized leaf, copralite and many more. I find each of these fossils to be very interesting in their own way from being what used to be a tree, bones or even animal dung. In class we got to make our own "fossils". We made these using a plaque and water  mixture and sand. For making the fossils we used three different mixtures varying the levels of each ingredient and a shell to place inside. In the fist cup we used a 50-50 mixture. So inside the cup we placed 40mL of the plaque mix and 40mL of sand. In this one the fossil was hardened by the end of class. In the second cup we had more sand than plaque mixture so we placed 40ml of the mix and 70 of sand. This made the combination out to be very thick. In the third cup we used more of the plaque mixture than sand so we placed in the cup 80ml of the mix and 70ml of the sand...with that  much sand the mixture was still very watery!

The fossils are now placed on the windowsill in the classroom for a couple day drying period. .......

After the drying period we began to chip away at our mixtures to get to the fossil inside. To start, our cup with more mix than sand was not hard and so it did not have a good result. Also, the cup with more sand and less mix was too crumbly to hold the shape of the shell. Our mixture that was 50-50 was perfect. It was hardened and solid. After chipping away to get to the shell we had a perfect indent in the plaster to serve as our "fossil".

Geologic Time Scale

In class we performed an activity that involved the geologic time scale. We used a blank piece of paper to draw out each era and period within to get a better visual of just how long each one was and after wards we wrote out notecards based on the eras and periods to get a better understanding of what life on earth was like during these times. Because of this activity I was able to discover when the first plants emerged, different forms of life such as land animals and fresh water fish. I was able to write down what the vegetation was like and how the continents were moving causing the climate to change. The activity was a great representation that Earth is always changing.  I thought that this was a very educational hands on activity I can see myself using in my future classroom. Now only was it fun and challenging but I now have very good study tools for the exam !

What is Science?

As stated in my prompt, the word "science" can bring many different pictures to ones mind. Weather it be a fat textbook, white lab coats and microscopes, an astronomer peering through a telescope, a naturalist in the reinforces, Einstein's equations scribbled on the chalkboard, the launch of the space shuttle, bubbling beakers and so on can all reflect some aspect of science while not providing a full picture of science ay all.
Since science has so many different facets, it is overall different from all other disciplines. Science is a self correcting process. Depending on the amount of testing and experimenting done on a topic it can alter weather the data is true, false or just altered. On many terms, what is considered a face in science, has gone through extensive texting to have become a "fact".
What makes teaching science different from other subjects? Students engage in the topic of science and learning through labs and hands on experimenting to discover different ideas in science. They have to be able to form a question, a hypothesis and gather information in order to test it and discover is there hypothesis was true or false and be able to alter the experiment to get the most accurate data possible. Not only as they learn to pass through the phases of the scientific method they have to be able to understand that a possibility with science is that is is always changing. Every science teacher seeks that moment where the light bulb goes off within a child learning science.