The lesson today focused on using a ruler to measure lines using centimeters and millimeters. During the first half of the lesson, students used index cards and a leveling device to level their desks. Many of our classroom desks have uneven legs, so students placed stacks of index cards under the desk legs to make them level. Students then had the option of using a level, a level app on their phone, or a marble to determine when their desk was level. Once the desk was level, students made a table in their lab notebooks and reported the number of index cards under each table leg, as well as the thickness of each index card stack in millimeters. During the second part of class, students watched a brief video on the Golden Ratio. Students then practiced measuring the distance between facial features (first on a worksheet and then on their partner) and calculated the ratios of the distances to determine how their data compared with the Golden Ratio. Tomorrow we debate whether the Golden Ratio should be considered science or pseudoscience.
Category Archives: Nature of Science
Nature of Science: Networking
Another busy day! Today students turned in signed copies of the syllabus and lab safety contract along with their milk lab work from last week. Students received credit for their work in Illuminate and then filed everything away in their folder in the class file cabinet. The remainder of the class period was spent constructing a social network. Students used their critter diagrams to introduce each other and used that content to create a network diagram. Nodes consisted of student names (names inside circles) and edges (lines connecting the nodes) represented shared points of interest. The ability to construct a network diagram will be a valuable skill as we continue on with our study of biology. Class concluded with students analyzing their networks by counting the number of nodes and edges and sharing out with the class.
Nature of Science: Critter Diagram
Today was a busy day! We started off with a thorough review of the class Syllabus. Students also received a copy of the class Safety Contract. Both documents must be signed by the student and their legal guardian and returned tomorrow for credit. Next, we checked out textbooks in the library. Textbooks should be left at home or in a safe place where they can be easily accessed if needed. If textbooks are needed in class, students will receive advanced notice. We ended the day back in class completing the Entry Task for today. Students must complete the writing portion and attempt to complete the critter diagram as homework. Tomorrow we will use the critter diagrams as a tool both to meet each other and to begin the process of learning how to construct networks to model information flow.
Nature of Science: Milk Lab
Welcome to the 2014-15 school year! What an exciting time to be a Highline Pirate! It was a pleasure meeting over 170 new students on Wednesday, and I appreciated the enthusiasm everyone showed playing the “This-or-That” game. On Thursday and Friday, we reviewed the Pirate Way and then launched in to the Milk Lab. On Thursday, students combined 2% milk, food coloring, and liquid soap. After carefully documenting “before soap” and “after soap” observations, students worked with their lab partner to come up with a testable hypothesis about what caused the “after soap” reaction. Students were asked to write a new procedure, changing either the type of milk or soap used. On Friday, students conducted the experiment again, following their new procedure. Most groups had time to extend their learning by integrating the results from their new experiment, formulating a new hypothesis, and running a third experiment. After carefully recording all observations, students assembled into larger lab groups, sharing results with other students who had tested similar experimental conditions (i.e. used the same procedure including the same type of milk). Groups then reported their findings out to the class. We created a class summary table each period which included the variable changed (type of milk or soap) and the outcome (compared with 2% milk). We will revisit the summary tables and analyze the results across my five biology classes in the near future.
Science with Swart 