Traci Morrison
Attend Midwestern University
TX

Scope on Safety: Food for Thought, But Not for Eating

Wed, Dec 03, 2014 12:46 PM
Food For thought, Not for Eating

Food has always been a staple of any school laboratory investigations. Here are some examples of popular food-based questions that students can explore: • Does the color of popcorn kernels affect how many will pop when heated? • What conditions affect the browning of apple slices? • What test can you use to determine the difference between samples of diet and regular soda? • How much salt do you need to add to water so that an egg will float in it? • Does the vitamin C level of a fruit drop with heating? • How does temperature affect the amount cookies will rise during baking? This is a good article because it is filled with suggestions on how to be safe in your lab and remind students not to eat what they have been working on. It is very important to remind your students that the lab is not their mama’s kitchen. This article was a good reminder to me to think of everything when writing rules for my future lab. Do not be afraid to use food in your experiments, just be cautious and include in your rules No eating experimental food.

Earth and Space Science

Wed, Nov 12, 2014 9:26 AM
Earth and Space Science

I read this chapter book and found it very interesting. I have always loved the moon and the stars but I have hard time remembering everything. This chapter book is good because it breaks up the science standards by grades and helps give you a better understanding and gives you ideas for your classroom. It starts with EC through six, gives you an introduction into the chapter, and points out standards for each grade. Then the next page is geared toward k-2 and goes into more depth. One of the things it mentions is how you need to give your students a variety of concrete experiences that enables them to learn about properties of earth materials through observation. They give you ideas on assessments with your students to make sure they understand the concept. I feel this is a valuable chapter book to read to have all the standards broken down for you piece by piece with examples and ideas to help you enrich your classroom.

Natural Resources: Stargazing

Wed, Nov 12, 2014 9:06 AM
Star Gazing

This article is full of web links to show you different things on astronomy. They can tell you when to look for meteorites. I recommend this article because it is a good article filled with a lot of information on the stars. They have a link listed to the Astronomical league that sponsor’s an astronomy day. NASA also has a link on here that takes you to a site that has ideas for themes such as; sun earth day. I feel this is valuable to read so you can have resources that give you ideas for your classroom and helps you enhance your lessons and broaden your student’s minds. This article pointed out that even President Obama hosted a star gazing night at the white house. It has a City Science section that informs you on dark sky awareness. Even if you can only see a little bit with the naked eye in your city setting, software and websites are available to help you explore the sky often in real time.