Thursday, July 30, 2009

So......I have decided that blogging isn't for me. I really thought all the quirks were out of my blogging at home after the first weeks of class. But now that I went to school and was working on my paper (different computer) and I realized that none of my posts (besides Monday- the one I did while I was in Vermillion) were on the blog. Ugh...I don't understand! I think it just must be my connection at my apartment. Frustrating! But I will try to do a summary of what I had written in the blogs. This may be interesting.....

Tuesday
Tuesday was a fun day. I really enjoyed Darwin's demonstration with the cup trick and soaking up the water. I think students would be very enthused by this. I was really enjoyed the levers lab. I think this is a great way for students to work with different types of levers and calculating mechanical advantages. Just looking at a book and its pictures students may be a little confused where the pivot point is, but when they can play around with them hands on, they just to experience it instead of trying to imagine it. I really could see myself doing this lab with some variations. As for the afternoon, I was very thankful for the time Brenda and I had to work on our project. It was a little frustrating, but it all ended up ok.

Wednesday
Again the demonstrations were great. I LOVE Darla's card lesson on accuracy and precision. This seems a little difficult for the students to remember the terms but I like the way Darla presents them in a fun way. I hope to do this next year. It was neat watching the crystals grow. Also, the afternoon session was filled with great labs. I like the thermometer lab and letting students explore the different efficiencies between the various ones that were made. Then burning food was also very "cool". I think it is a great way to cover laws of conservation of energy and also mass. It is a great way to show converting food energy and heat energy.

Thursday
I thought John's balloon demo was very fun. I think I would just vary it to taking a balloon outside. But the way he presented it is way more exciting! The food demo was also very fun and informative. Today was full of plenty of explosions, which is also fun. I don't know if I would be brave enough to have any of these demos. But I do think it is very important to have conversations about the dangers of some household products, so maybe even watching movies on explosions over youtube might help get some points across. None-the-less they need to be exposed to this one way or another. Finally to wrap up the day, making wind generators was a great way to explore different variations in a popular energy source.

Again sorry about this.....I thought it was working, but I guess I was wrong.

Thank you Miles, Kathy, and Paul for everything. I really enjoyed the two weeks of class and am excited about the new ideas that I have obtained!

1 comment:

  1. Ashley,
    Sorry about those technical difficulties...don't let it turn you away from blogging, though. They can be solved. I am always willing to help, if needed.
    Take care,
    Cathy

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