Instructional Model

I did a unit on plate tectonics and the model that I used was gram crackers and icing. I have done this activity previously and every year my students love it. It is a great visual to show how mountains form and show how divergent plates work. Using models is especially important to ELL students. I love to use modes in my lesson because it makes learning fun and engaging.

Natural Disasters

I think that natural disasters bring people together. We often become so self focused on our busy lives that we forget about those around us.With such diversity in the classroom disasters is one thing that students can all relate to. With disasters we can have students do research on a certain region that relates to them. Giving students ownership in their learning is important. Allowing students to share their culture and their experiences helps us respect and understand that we all come from different backgrounds and experiences. It just sad that it takes something like a disaster for us to appreciate one another. Disasters are devastating but it is overcome with love and compassion thhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifat we share as a humanity.

Web 2.0 Review

For my review I have choose to review Prezi and PowerPoint. I was initially going to use Prezi for my presentation. I really found it to be a cool tool to use. What I liked about it was the option for others to view it from their computers. It is a great way to collaborate our presentations.However, after I read the instability problems with Prezi I thought it best to go with PowerPoint.PowerPoint is a tool that I am comfortable with so it will be an effective way for me to show my presentation. It has been a while since I have done a PowerPoint presentation so it will be fun to brush up on my skills. I am excited about this project and look forward to viewing all your presentations.

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The four materials I tested in this week’s experiment were paper, plastic wrap, aluminum foil, and a hot pad. The results were a bit surprising to me. I had guessed that the hot pad and the paper would perform much lower than the plastic and aluminum foil. Although the aluminum foil did keep the water the hottest, the difference between the four experiments was a matter of a few degrees. I was surprised by this outcome. I would have guessed that the difference between the aluminum foil and the paper would have been much greater. What I learned from this experiment is that cotton does insulate, however, it would not keep the liquid warm as long. The experiment was only conducted once so if I was to do this in the classroom I would have them do the experiment a couple of times and average the scores together. This would allow for a more accurate reading. Students would be divided into groups and given different types of containers such as styrofoam cups, metal cans, plastic cups and ceramic mugs to work with. It would be fun to compare the results after the experiment to see if the container had anything to do with the outcome. This is a fun experiment that would be easy to reproduce in the classroom.

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Melting Icebergs Experiment
I stated off excited about the hands on activity lesson that was planned for us. However,after doing the experiment a couple of times and not getting the results I wanted I was a bit confused. It took me talking to my husband to realize why the water was not overflowing the bowl.I felt a little silly after our conservation but boy did it make me curious. I think this weeks assignment was the perfect lesson for inquiry. I had taken a Geology class were we briefly covered global warming. My professor stated that global waring is being blow out of context. That the media is making a mountain out of a mole hill.I had shared the same view has him but after reviewing all the facts I think that we have no choice but to get proactive in preventing man-made greenhouse gasses. Our experiment did reveal that we don't have to worry about glaciers over water but we do have glaciers that are covering land mass. If those glaciers begin to melt at an alarming rate we are in for a serious global disaster. Even though we may not be directly hit by the disaster the global economic impact of such an event would be catastrophic.The global human suffering that we would have to witness would be devastating.We can not due anything to change the natural greenhouse gasses that are being produced but we can do something about the man-made gases that we are producing. Professor Wally Broecker of Columbia University said it best “Climate is an ill-tempered beast, and we are poking it with sticks.” The question I have is are we prepared for a global natural disaster? How would that impact of daily lives? The possibility of a global disaster was something that I left to my imagination and Hollywood movies.

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I found this weeks lesson plan to be very challenging. However, it has made me put more thought into how I plan a lesson. I found the 5 steps to be helpful. Overall,I found the lesson to be beneficial.

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