Spectacular Space Adventures with Becca

What Does Inquiry Mean? Raising the question, "What does inquiry mean?", seems to me to be the best place to start in exploring the idea of teaching an inquiry lesson. So, let us take a minute to answer that question. In chapter one of our textbook Teaching Children Science , by Donald A. Derosa and Joseph Abruscato, one can find "scientific inquiry requires careful, active observations of the details and connections of systems and events that we encounter, which often go unnoticed by casual observers" (p. 5). So, what does this mean? Well, it means that to be a scientist, you cannot simply just take in the world as it is, you need to look closer and simply try to uncover all that is possible. Then, once you have observed the world around you, how can you expand your knowledge? Though inquiry of course! After observing the world, it is almost impossible to not form a question or two. So, posing a question is the first step in the inquiry process. After a question ...

Scientific Me! What has science been to me? Well, it has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. The earliest memory I have in science was way back in first grade when we were raising ducks. We had about four or five eggs that we watched every day and took notes on any changes we noticed. After a couple weeks, only one of our eggs hatched. It was sad to not see the other eggs hatch, but back then I remember  just being excited to watch our little duckling grow. We did a similar project in second grade when we raised caterpillars into butterflies. I named my butterfly fuzzball because, at the top of its chrysalis, there was a tiny little puff of fuzz. I remember the day we let our butterflies go, one of the kids in my class held his magnifying glass over the butterfly and it burned the color off of its wing. That was a little traumatic for me. I remember most of my elementary science projects were a lot of fun. One of my favorites was my fourth-grade electricity project. We pretty ...

Reflecting on Climate Change with Dr. Edelstein- Environmental Psychologist Yesterday, Dr. Smirinova's husband, Dr. Edelstein, came to our class and presented on climate change. Climate change is a very important topic because if it is not taken seriously, there can be major consequences. In the simplest of terms, the Earth is getting hotter faster than ever before. Why is that a problem? It is a problem because the increase in heat causes an increase in disastrous weather conditions, the melting of the polar ice caps, and the overall decline of quality of life. What causes this increase of heat? There are many factors that all play into one another and make each other worse in what is called a positive feedback loop. Firstly, the increase in greenhouse gasses in the air makes it more difficult for the rays from the sun to escape back into space. With more rays being trapped, there is an increase in harmful UV rays in addition to the increase in temperature. Those rays are not o...

Climate Change with Dr. Edelstein- environmental psychologist  sustainability- remaining on earth within its limits how we live our lives to allow future people to have the same opportunities climate change- arises from the use of fuel  Newburgh water has pfos-escaping from Stewart air force base, used to clean planes people have to be tested for it most chemicals petroleum based (fossil fuels) Al Gore- climate change studying climate in Hawaii and for correlation between climate change and particles in the air in college     teacher Roger Revel Rex Tillerson- Secretary of State  CEO of exon mobile ran a campaign against climate change to prevent people from being against fossil fuels an inconvenient truth  based on Al Gore's teachings on climate change Apollo Mission first time there were pictures of Earth first time people actually could see where we live water planet spherical hydro logical cycle happenin...

The first week of Science Methods Completed! Yesterday was the last day of week one classes for Science Methods. It has been fun so far and I am really excited to start teaching lessons. Reading over the letters from past students has made it very clear to me that I will have to keep myself on task and not procrastinate more than I ever had to before. It sounds like it will be a tough class, but I am ready to get back into what I love, working with students. I excited to be teaching science as a bit of a contrast to the English curriculum I had been working with in my past two methods classes. I am super happy that our topic is the solar system. Space is a very fascinating topic. I am also really excited about the Google Drive folders! I never knew that I could organize my drive like that. After seeing how simple it was to create folders, I feel a bit silly never using them before. I think this will really help me stay organized. I am glad I won't have to worry about acc...