Effecting Change at School and District Levels

I am not currently teaching in a science classroom, but if I were, I would ensure that all students in my school are experiencing high-quality science instruction by pushing inquiry-based learning.  As I substitute in different schools, I see some teachers using inquiry-based learning in their science classrooms.  I also see teachers who continue to teach through lecture and reading the science book.  These are the teachers I would target.  I would start by discussing inquiry-based learning with them.  I would invite them into my classroom to observe an inquiry lesson in action.  I would also invite them to bring their students into my classroom and work together on an inquiry-based activity.  In this way, the reluctant teacher would see his or her own students using inquiry to learn science concepts.  By using baby steps, I hope to get these teachers to see the benefits of inquiry-based learning. As they become more and more involved with me in my room as we combine classes for instruction, the reluctant teachers would become more comfortable with incorporating inquiry in their own rooms.  I would gradually release control to these teachers in our combined classroom.  Eventually, the teachers would use inquiry in their own rooms.

SCIE6664S-1 What's Our Sputnik?

I am old enough to remember watching Neil Armstrong land on the moon when I was nearly 5 years old.  I remember my mother sitting in front of our black and white television while my father played with the rabbit ears trying to get a better picture.  I was not old enough to understand the tension in the room as fear and pride were the emotions at war with each other.  Fear because my parents understood there were no guarantees that Armstrong would survive the lunar landing, walking on the moon, or getting off the moon.  There were no certainties.  Pride in that Armstrong was an American, and we were the first, and to this point only, nation to put a man on the moon.  Armstrong's moonwalk, as well as subsequent trips to the moon, was a culmination of the race to space generated when Russia launched Sputnik in 1957. Our schools kicked into high gear pushing mathematics and science in order to beat the Russians into space, and we were successful.

I am not sure when the push for education stopped being a priority.  Many students today struggle with basic reading and writing.  Where did we as educators and as a nation go wrong?  Was it when we entered a time when making our children feel good about themselves became more important than making sure they had the educational skills necessary to proceed to the next grade level? Perhaps it was when we pushed whole language rather than teaching phonics.   Friedman (2010) discusses the peace breakthrough between Taiwan and China saying Taiwan "got rich by asking: 'How do I improve myself?' Not by declaring: "It's all somebody else's fault.  Give me a handout.'" America is a country with people full of excuses and looking for handouts.  There is no personal responsibility anymore.  How did we let this happen?

What is it going to take to make education important again?  Mandatory state testing is not the answer.  We as educators need to find ways to make education interesting to our students--to make them understand education is worth pursuing.  Friedman is correct when he comments that China is our economic partner and competitor. He hopes China's economic rise will have the same result on education as Sputnik did 56 years ago when we rallied as a nation to become "better educated, more productive, more technologically advanced and more ingenious" (Friedman, 2010) than Russia, our then competitor.
We need a catalyst to propel us forward again.  STEM education is a start.  STEM education will assist our students in becoming problem solvers and communicators.  By incorporating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in everyday problems, perhaps we can get our students to see the benefits and the need for real education. We need to create higher expectations for all of our students and refuse to water down the curriculum or teach to the test.

It is unfortunate that our nation can find money to send to any country in need, but we cannot properly fund our schools.  We can send our politicians all over the world to work out other counties' problems, but we cannot fix our own country.  Taiwan has the answer--we need to move from blaming others and expecting handouts to asking how to improve ourselves.  If we want to be the top country in the 21st century and beyond, we need to make education our top priority.

References
Friedman, T. L. (2010, January 17). What’s our Sputnik? [Op-Ed]. The New York Times [Late Edition (East Coast)], p. WK.8. Retrieved from the Walden University Library using the ProQuest Central database.

21st Century Topics and Tools

I decided to use electricity for the specific content area of physical science.  I discovered several activities for students on the Internet.  One of the most powerful web addresses I discovered is a website with several links to electric and magnetic simulations for students to explore electricity and magnetism through.  The website is http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/physics/electricity-magnets-and-circuits , and is through the University of Colorado.  All of the links work, and they explain electricity and magnetism as well as give students online simulations of currents and magnets.  This website supports students' scientific understanding, facilitates students' inquiry processes, and awakens students' interest and motivation in science.

Another powerful website that promotes 21st century learning is the Electricity Webquest at http://www.skokie69.net/index.php/ed-lmc-resources/webquests/item/496 .  As students move through the webquest, they learn about electricity, types of electricity, how electricity gets to the house, potential dangers involved with electricity, and conservation of electricity.  They take this information and prepare a PowerPoint presentation to use when informing 5th grade students about electricity.  They work collaboratively as a group to gather information, record information, synthesize information, and communicate the information.  These are 21st century skills.

A physical activity that could be planned around the first website is a lab where students create electric circuits.  Because they practice with circuits using the website, they have background knowledge to physically construct parallel and series circuits and explain the best uses for both types of circuits.

Challenges with both of these tools would be lack of computers, Internet issues, and the websites being shut down as time passes.

Heat Transfer

For the inquiry, I decided to use four coffee mugs from my set of dishes. I chose these four mugs because they are the same size, shape, and thickness and are made from the same material. They were as identical as possible which made them a constant in the activity. I selected four different insulators consisting of Styrofoam, a dishcloth, newspaper, and plastic wrap. I chose Styrofoam because it is the material used in to-go coffee cups. The Styrofoam cups limit the heat transfer so that the coffee consumer does not get burned through the cup. For this reason, I thought Styrofoam would prove to be the best insulator. For the second insulator, I decided to try a cotton dishcloth folded in half. I was thinking of the quilt on my bed when I chose the dishcloth. The quilt keeps me warm at night when we have the windows open. I could not cut my quilt down to fit the cup, so I used the dishcloth, which was sewn in a similar manner as the quilt. The next insulator was newspaper. I have seen homeless people sleeping on park benches with newspaper as covers. I have also read about people stuffing their clothes with newspaper in order to keep warm on cold days. I selected plastic wrap for my fourth insulator because I use plastic wrap to protect food, and I wanted to see how well it insulates against heat transfer. I figured the plastic wrap would be the worst insulator of the four insulators tested because it is relatively thin.

 To begin the inquiry, I poured 3/4 of a cup of water into each coffee mug. I placed the mugs inside the microwave oven on a glass turntable. The mugs were placed in a circle the same distance apart with the handles pointing out from the center of the circle. By heating all four cups on the turntable at the same time, I maintained an even heating of the water in each mug. I heated the water in the mugs for two minutes. While the mugs were in the microwave, I cut a circle from a Styrofoam plate and folded the dishcloth, newspaper, and plastic wrap in half. At the end of the two minutes, I used a thermometer to measure the water temperature. The water was heated to 46°C. I used two rubber bands to attach a circle of Styrofoam to the top of the first mug and set the mug on the counter. I attached the dishcloth, newspaper, and plastic wrap to each of the remaining three mugs using one rubber band around each mug. I placed the three mugs on the counter next to the first mug and set a timer for 30 minutes. When the 30 minutes were up, I removed the Styrofoam from the first mug and measured the temperature of the water. The water temperature had dropped from 46°C to 38°C, a difference of 8°C. I repeated the procedure with the remaining mugs. The water in the mug with the dishcloth was also 38°C. The water in the mug with the newspaper dropped to 37°C, and the water in the mug with the plastic wrap dropped to 36°C.  

The results were somewhat unexpected. I predicted the Styrofoam would be the best insulator, so I was surprised that the water in both the Styrofoam and the dishcloth mugs dropped 8°C. I expected the Styrofoam to be a better insulator than the cotton dishcloth because Styrofoam contains air pockets. Heat does not transfer quickly through the air because the molecules in the air are further apart than molecules in solids (Tilley, et. al, 2008). I believed newspaper would be an adequate insulator. Since the water in the mug with the newspaper on top dropped only one degree lower than the water with the Styrofoam and the dishcloth, my belief in newspaper as an acceptable insulator was correct. I also accurately predicted the plastic wrap would be the worst insulator because it does not have air pockets to slow the heat transfer. The water temperature in the mug with the plastic wrap dropped the most in the inquiry.

The heat transfer inquiry provided several insights into heat transfer and insulators. During the inquiry, I experienced the effects of all three forms of heat transfer.  According to Wisc-Online (2012), when I used the microwave oven to heat the water in the mugs, I used radiation.  The electromagnetic waves generated by the microwave oven came in contact with the mugs and the water in the mugs.  Heat was transferred from the electromagnetic waves to the mugs and the water in the mugs causing them to heat up.  I felt the effects of convection when I touched the insulators at the top of the mugs and felt the warmth.  The warmth I felt was due to the energy moving from the heated water, through the air above the water and into the insulators.  I noticed the effects of conduction when I felt the heat on the outside of the mug.  Energy transferred from the water through the ceramic mug to my fingers.  I also learned different materials insulate in varying degrees.  As previously mentioned, heat transfer occurs slowly through the air because the air molecules are further apart than the molecules in liquids or solids.  I examined the Styrofoam with a magnifying glass and discovered I could see the air pockets contained in the material.  The dishcloth was folded in half which allowed a layer of air between the two dishcloth layers. The newspaper was also folded in half, so air was trapped between the newspaper layers as well.  Less heat escaped from the first three materials.  The plastic wrap was also folded in half, but due to the nature of plastic wrap, very little air was trapped between the plastic wrap layers, and more heat escaped.  The activity proved the importance of air pockets in insulators.

I would like to repeat the experiment with bubblewrap. Bubblewrap has a lot of trapped air, so I wonder how well it will do as an insulator.  I would also like to try a piece of carpeting just to see what type of insulator it is since we use it on our floors.  I did not try any solids in my experiments, so I would like to see the results using a piece of wood or a brick.  I know metal would be a poor insulator as metal is a great conductor of heat.  It would be interesting to see how fast heat escapes when using a piece of metal.  I wanted to use aluminum foil in my experiment, but we did not have any.

I would like to test oatmeal and coco wheats to see how the density of the material affects cooling.  I think the oatmeal would take the longest to cool because it is thicker than coco wheats and water. Water should cool the fastest because it is less dense.

Force and Motion

I chose to focus my guided inquiry on the question which pendulum will come to rest more quickly, a lighter pendulum or a heavier pendulum?  To conduct this inquiry, I used three washers with different diameters: 1/2”, 1”, and 1.5”.  Each washer also had different masses.  In addition to the washers, I used a string, the arm of a document camera, and a 13” ruler.  I tied the 1/2” washer to the string and tied the string at a length of 9 inches to the arm of the document camera.  Keeping the string pulled tight, I lifted the washer to a height of 13 inches and dropped the washer.  As soon as I dropped the washer, I started a timer to keep track of the time it took for the washer to come to rest.  I recorded the elapsed time in my notebook.  I repeated the procedure three times and averaged the time it took for the washer to come to rest.  I recorded the average time.  I did the same thing with the other two washers using the same string.  I discovered the 1/2” washer came to rest quicker than the other two washers, and the 1” washer came to rest quicker than the 1.5” washer.  The results were what I expected.  The results confirmed the concept that “the greater the mass the greater the inertia, or resistance to change in motion” (Tillery, Enger, & Ross, 2008, p. 41).  

I faced some challenges during my guided inquiry experience.  My biggest challenge was starting the timer at the same time I dropped the washer.  This proved to be more difficult than I expected.  I either hit the start button right before or right after I released the washer rather than simultaneously with the dropping of the washer.  Another challenge was ensuring I dropped the washers without adding more force or twisting the washer on the string.  I attempted to solve this problem by balancing the washer on the ruler and dropping the ruler to release the washer.  Using the ruler to drop the washer also caused challenges.  There were instances when either the hole in the center of the washer or the string caught on the ruler and disrupted the flow of the first swing.  When this happened, I had to stop the washer and start again.  Time became a challenge due to starting, stopping, and restarting the initial dropping of the washer. What should have been only three sets of three timings for the original activity turned into many more attempts in order to obtain an accurate time.   Even more attempts were necessary when I added the different lengths of string for the second activity.