Mrs. DuBose’s Class: AdVeNtUrEs iN ScIeNcE

As a teacher, we all have come to the aid of a student who has bullied and seen the hurt, stress, and anxiety that this causes. Even after severe disciplinary actions, sometimes the cycle still continues and we are left wondering what is left. After reading and watching “How to Stop a Bully”, I found the principal’s concept was unique and definitely came to the source of the issue-the bully.   The recent school shooting in Germany is a constant reminder of what can go wrong when bullying is not dealt with.  These were the 14-year old shooters last words

I’ve had enough. I’m fed up of this pointless life. Always the same. Everybody laughs at me. No one sees my potential. I’m serious. I have weapons and I will go to my old school in the morning and have a proper barbecue. Maybe I’ll get away. Listen out. You will hear about me tomorrow….

Check out the “How to Stop a Bully” video BELOW. To read the full article “How to Stop A Bully” click here

LEAVE A COMMENT..Share what do you think??

Students have been learning about the moon, the Earth’s natural satellite. Before Thanksgiving, we learned about it’s formation:fission, coaccretion, capture, and impact and its surface features: marias, highlands, and crater. This week we started learning about the phases of the moon. Students started their moon phase project (print if needed) this Wednesday. Their job is to be ASTRONOMERS FOR A MONTH and observe the different shapes of the moon. If you forget a day, check out the FARMER’s ALMANAC.  On Friday, the students learned another part of the Earth-Moon-Sun interaction-tides and eclipses.  The students used hand motions-straight and right angle- to help remember SPRING AND NEAP TIDES. Students also enjoyed seeing on video a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse.  Many kids never realized they were actually seeing a lunar eclipse when the moon was “RED”.  Many students were asking when would the next eclipse be..well here’s the answer for you.. 2009… As always scientist, TEACH YOUR PARENT!

On Monday, we are wrapping up moon phases with our Oreo cookie activity where students will use OREO cookies to create the phases of the moon. On Thursday, students will be wrapping up Earth Moon Sun system with a test. We will then wrap up the solar system by wrapping up with the Sun. In this mini unit, students will learn the layers of the sun, have fun watching the constellations on our class ceiling and finally learn that stars go through a life cycle just like humans do.

• To watch the last total solar eclipse, Aug 1, 2008, click here or Google Video
• The next solar eclipse will not be until next year.  To see the dates check click 2009 ECLIPSE

Animations on Phases, Tides, and Eclipse:

• Take the Moon Challenge!
• Moon Shadow – Solar Eclipse
• Moon Dance-LUNAR ECLIPSE
  
• Moonlight Madness
• Tides: Sun, Earth, Moon Interaction
• Moon Phase Movie
• Phases of the Moon Cartoon
• Moon Phases: Sun, Earth Moon Interaction
• Harcourt: Phases of the Moon Interactive
• Exploratorium: Solar Eclipses

This week we learned about lab SAFETY in science and started SCIENCE INQUIRY.  Students were required to get their LAB SAFETY contract signed and take a LAB SAFETY test and score 70% before they can participate in FULL labs.During lab safety, we also had fun learning safety with SPONGEBOB,  playing a lab safety symbols matching game , and playing a lab safety review game before our big LAB SAFETY TEST on FRIDAY. 

On Wednesday, student enjoyed learning how science works through our DOGS & TURNIPS ACTIVITY. Many students realized that our HYPOTHESIS changes as we get more information and that scientist may get different answers even seeing the same information because we all have different backgrounds and ideas.

On Thursday, students used the scientific method to see how scientist solve problems.  To jumpstart our brains, we saw a StudyJams video about Scientific Method (great cartoon that connected with kids), Mrs. DuBose then demonstrated the scientific method by walking the kids through the QUESTION: Which will hit faster a book or a sheet of paper. The kids all said the BOOK would hit 1st.  This was a GREAT discrepant event because I posed the question “what if it doesn’t matter how heavy an object is..these two objects are supposed to hit the ground as the same time”.  It was great hearing that IDEAS..Finally someone said “ball up the paper so it doesn’t have AIR resistance.”  GREAT SCIENTIFIC THINKING. After that students then applied their knowledge Drops on A Penny Lab.  (I did introduce the idea of surface tension by using my data projector to show me filling up a cup of water and showing the children the bubble across the top. Many students expected the water to spill out.)

The students were quite amazed by the number of drops that could fit on a PENNY.  After we completed our lab, I asked the students what else do you think could affect the number of drops on a penny.  Their ideas were.

1. Type of liquids
2. Types of soaps
3. Temperature of water

This was a great intro to learning about variables next week because they will get to experiment with how does “SOAPY WATER AFFECT THE NUMBER OF DROPS ON A PENNY”. Lastly, on Friday students took their LAB SAFETY TEST (required by our county). I am happy to report that over 98% of our team passed.    As an incentive to always study, I have a class challenge called BRAIN WARS where classes compete and whoever has highest classroom average gets a prize: a PBS ticket, piece of candy, 5 points EC, etc, 2 minutes added to Preferred Activity Time, etc.

DON’T FORGET TO check out this week’s

Hi Fellow Edubloggers,

Isn’t blogging AWESOME but a little frustrating!   Well to help you on your VOYAGE I have assembled some of the most frequently asked questions (FAQS).  The questions are answered from various resources such as Sue Waters the Edublogger, Wordpress FAQ section, and I Learn Technology.   If there is a question that you have that you want to be added to the HELPDESK, please let me know.

1. Choosing the THEME for you BLOG
2. Edublogs Basics
   
3. Difference Between A Post and a Page
4. 5 tips for WRITING POSTS
5. How Do I Upload Documents (.doc, pdf, .ppt)
6. How Do I Upload an Image
7. Uploading Pictures from Your Camera
8. What is a Widget
9. Using the Text Widget
10. Embedding Code into A Post
11. Creating Online Quizzes For Your Students
12. Embedding Video Into Your Blog
13. Adding A Voki to Your Sidebar
14. Adding A Voki to Post/Page
15. Ways to Incorporate Web 2.0 Into Science
16. Embedding Wordles into A Post

Are you a VISUAL LEARNER and need VIDEOS to help you learn better..

PAGE 2 IS FOR YOU!

This week I got to meet my brand new scientist.  We learned about our classroom procedures  and class policies through our Classroom Scavenger Hunt.  Because we are REAL scientist, we need to have our TRUSTY, DUSTY notebook.  Next, we organized our Science Interactive Notebook. For SIXTH graders, they did an AWESOME JOB.  Student learned that they get to be CREATIVE on the LEFT side and the right side is restricted to Mrs. DuBose. On Thursday, we took a MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE “TEST” and the students figured out the ways that they were smart.  On Friday, we had did “DRAW A SCIENTIST” and the students learned that we all have stereotypes of what a scientist is.  As I suspected most of my students thought that scientist were MALE, OLD, CRAZY/WEIRD, and nerdy! There job over the LABOR DAY weekend is to find a picture of themselves and PASTE it over the face of the scientist they DREW so that they can see that they VISUALIZE themselves as scientists.

DON’T FORGET TO check out this week’s

Hey Super Scientist,

It’s BrainPop time. BrainPop is the only website around with over HUNDREDS of animated videos that you can watch to help you learn in reading, science, math, social studies, and more! Mrs. DuBose has a classroom subscription and we will meet Tim and Moby as they take us on adventures in different science topics. We will use the videos to help us introduce new concepts, review at the end of class, open up class discussions, and more. Lastly We will be using the online quizzes to to play quick review games in class to help assess your understanding. BrainPop also offers at-home science experiments, homework help, and much more.

BrainPop has offered some FREE videos that you can watch at home.
Check OUT the VIDEOS BELOW. If you feel like this is something that you want definitely, maybe ask your parents and see what they say. Hmm..you get learning and fun at the same time..What parent wouldn’t love it. Click HERE to check out how much a FAMILY subscription would be. It is quite AFFORDABLE. Of course, before you buy it, TRY the FREE 5 DAY trial. BE WARNED YOU WILL PROBABLY BE HOOKED after the 5 DAYS..

Do you want your students to be more organized, increase their higher order thinking skills, and to be more engaged in their learning..WELL HERE’S THE ANSWER..
STUDENT INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOKS. I have been doing a lot of research into interactive notebooks in science. An interactive notebook (INB) allows students to have a personalized DIARY of learning about science. It is their own portfolio of work in ONE convenient spot. The INB also is a great ORGANIZATIONAL tool that gives students permission to be PLAYFUL AND CREATIVE in their responses without “messing up” your notes. The INB is a great model because it allows students to be like a REAL SCIENTIST. hen you will re-organize the information in some way that will help you understand it and remember it.

Setup
Students are given “input” (PLACED ON THE RIGHT SIDE) on from the teacher in the form of teacher guided notes, lab procedure, reading articles, etc and expected to re-organize the information in some way that will help you understand it and remember it. This is called processing. The best part of processing is it allows students to tap into their CREATIVE side. One of the most important part about the “output” (PLACED ON THE LEFT SIDE) on the left side is the use of COLOR which allows students to remember and make connections. To learn more about interactive notebooks click

Resources:
http://interactive-notebooks.wikispaces.com/
http://sciencenotebooks.org/

Discussion Question: If you have incorporated INBs in your class, what has your experience been like. Do you have any samples of student work to share?

Do you want a cool way to tell about things that interest you. Here’s mine.  I thought it was pretty fun.  Well, Wordle is a [software program] for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share..(remember though that all information is PUBLIC so do not put anything you DON’T want others to see)

Ways to use in class…

• use as a wordsplash and have students guess what the new unit is about
• give students a Wordle and have them try to ascertain what a news article is about
• as an end of unit review where students choose the most important words
• beginning of the year activity where students create something about themselves
• for literature, have students pick a character and then chose adjectives.  The more prominent character traits would appear BIGGER & BOLDER

These are just a few I could think of….

DISCUSSION:Do you have anymore that you can think of??

While browsing the internet for some parent resources, I came upon an interesting new tool for parents called “Handipoints“.  The basics are that many children like working on computers or in the virtual world. However, many don’t particularly like doing chores.  So here comes Handipoints which is a online virtual world where children can keep chart the completion of chores in a fun and engaging way and parents can track how their kids helped out around the house.  The big kicker is that if the child successfully completes activities (such as cleaning their room, taking out the trash, or even brushing their teeth and eating an apple), they gain either of two types of points: so-called “handipoints” that can be redeemed for real-world items such as Nerf guns and toys; and “bonus points” that can be used to buy virtual goods in the online world. Parents determine which type of point, and how many of them, is rewarded for good behavior.   So if your Johnny or Jamila  hates doing chores but loves the computer, you might want to give Handpoints a shot to give that gentle LOVING nudge.

Discussion Question:Which side are you on..Do you think it is a great idea and helps kids develop responsibility or do you think it teaches kids that they have to get a reward in order to do something? 

Through MiddleSchoolScience Yahoo! Group one of our members sent us a link to this great post.  While on there I found two great post that have great use in the classroom..

50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers

By Alisa Miller

Blogging is becoming more and more popular in the classroom. Teachers can blog to stay in touch with parents and students or they can incorporate blogs from all of the students as a learning tool. The beauty of the student blog is that children from Kindergarten to high school can blog. No matter how you use blogs in your classroom, these tools will help you get started, enhance your experience, or bring the students into the fun.

50 Ways to Go Green in the Classroom

By Heather Johnson

Most of you teachers are wrapping up the school year, but we have an important homework assignment for the summer. Can you think of 50 different ways to go green in your classroom starting this fall? Don’t worry: we really want you to enjoy your time off, so we came up with this little cheat sheet to help you and your students make a pact to make more eco-conscious choices and take real steps to saving our planet.

How would you use any of these IDEAS in your classroom? Please share..