IdeaFest Pictures
This week we will talk about our text and view a documentary. Don't forget to catch up with the outreach reflection due into D2L, if you haven't done it, already. Also, be sure you have posted your poster there, too. We will discuss the changes.
Have a great week.
Dr. E
Week 12 –Apr 6, 8
IdeaFest Presentations of Research Posters Apr 7, 8 Post to D2L
Assignment Read: Science Matters: Achieving Science Literacy (SMASL) Ch 9, 10 Write a reflection -- 2 paragraphs on the Blog about major concepts in these chapters.
Week 13 – Apr 13, 15 View Documentary and Write a Reflective Paper -- 2 pages and Work on Presentations of Science Philosophers to class on April 27
Assignment Read: Science Matters: Achieving Science Literacy (SMASL) Ch 11, 12 Write a reflection -- 2 paragraphs on the Blog about major concepts in these chapters.
Week 14 –Apr 20, 22
Demon-haunted World – Carl Sagan Write a reflective paper 1-2 pages
Lab Experiment and discussion of inquiry methods
Week 15 - Apr 27, 29
Presentations of Philosophers of Science Final Class Activities, and evaluations
Chapter 9:The chapter on the fundamental structure of matter was quite confusing to me. I found it ironic how physicists view the world as simple, and here I sat often re-reading the same paragraph trying to comprehend what they said. I did however recognize a few of the terms mentioned in the text from my brief background in physics. There is a laboratory being built in Lead, SD which seeks to study this particular field of physics. I found the research to be very cutting edge and am interested to find out what they discover in these laboratories.
ReplyDeleteChapter 10: This chapter covered the field of astronomy. Having very little knowledge in this field, I found myself to be very interested in this chapter. I learned a lot about star life cycles and how the sun and solar system were formed. With the innovation of technology it will be interesting to see what astronomers discover outside the Milky Way.
Chapter 13: This chapter overs the restless earth. What I found most interesting in this chapter was the following quote, "Every scientist must be willing to change his or her mind when the data requires it." This is true for every field of study and one that we all need to keep in mind. I think that too often in society we accept or discredit research too quickly. Being a skeptic is important in driving scientific research.
Again, the field of Earth Science is not one I am familiar with and found myself very interested in how the plates move. It will be interesting to see if the 3-D model researchers are trying to develop will provide scientist with more information about plate tectonics.
Class Activities: During class this week we watched a documentary about science literacy and public policy. The seminar was very interesting and Dr. Krauss raised some very interesting points. On Thursday we did a lab activity simulating an earthquake. This lab was very interesting and provided an excellent visual.
On Tuesday we watched a documentary and on thursday we did a lab activity. We are supposed to write a reaction on the documentary, so I will save that for later. The lab was about strike slip faults relating to the fault in the most recent earth equakes in California.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11 was about the Cosmos. Thinking about the universe is really mind boggling to me. This chapter helped to make things stay somewhat simple. I didn't realize that space is correlated to how much matter is within that space. I also learned that there are universal freezes which I didn't know existed.
Chapter 12 was about relativity. It seemed pretty simple that "Every observer sees the same laws of nature" because science needs to be constant to hold true. The same idea applies to lab experiments. If the experiment can not be repeated then it does not hold true. I'm glad that they had a little section about black holes. I thought that was interesting and have never really known what one was until reading this chapter. I like how they used the visual of a plastic sheet with a heavy ball dropping creating the black hole. Now I have a better understanding of the whole concept. Interesting read. Maybe we should make a light clock in class. :)
Book Chapters
ReplyDeleteChapter Nine - The main point of this chapter was to explore what actually makes up the Earth. The chapter was able to narrow down that everything is made up of two things: quarks and leptons. Quarks combine to make hadrons, which are particles that are inside the nucleus, such as protons and neutrons. Leptons are particles outside the nucleus, such as electrons. Overall, this chapter did a good job at defining terms and concepts for me to understand, and as a future teacher, this will help me be able to explain things well to my students.
Chapter Ten: Astronomy - The most important part of this chapter was the "time line" of a star. In very basic terms, it is born through the attraction of neighboring materials until nuclear fusion releases energy to create a star. Then, through life, the star uses hydrogen for energy (meaning the smaller the star, the less hydrogen needed, the longer it lasts, and vice versa)/ The final stage is the death of a star, which occurs when a star runs out of hydrogen. Altogether, this chapter was very interesting because I have learned about stars previously. but not really how they are created, so this was helpful to learn.
Chapter Eleven: Cosmology - The most important part of this chapter was the section titled, "The Structure of the Universe." It explains that galaxies are collected into structures known as groups, clusters, and super-clusters. However, the most useful part of this section was the visual representation is provided. The section describes cutting through soapsuds to see what the universe looks like. This part of the chapter had a great teaching moment with this visual, so that is why I think this is the most important.
Chapter Twelve: Relativity - The most important part of this chapter was the definition for relativity. It is defined as, "every observer sees the same laws of nature." Meaning, that no matter where a person is located, they can witness the laws that govern the universe the same way; there is no specific view" needed. This explained the idea really easily to me, which is why this part is the most crucial in my opinion.
Class Activities (04/6 & 04/08)
On Tuesday, we watched a video which I believe was titled, "Science vs. Anti-science: From Washington to the Classroom. It was interesting to watch, and the parts where he physically addressed education was beneficial for me as a teacher.
On Thursday, I was not able to be in class because I was on a trip to Rosebud with my internship class. However, I will be sure to collect notes or any other materials I may have needed from someone in my group.
Tuesday- I thought the documentary was very interesting. I really liked the definition of "open-mindedness" that Krauss gave: ability to conform your beliefs to reality. I think that I enjoy so many subjects and so many topics because I do have an open mind. I am able to enjoy a variety of interests- and could find a job in just about anything and be happy. Quite honestly I find non-openmindedness boring. How could you not want to learn about other's views- the other side of your view? I think someone's life events would probably be pretty minimal if they were not open-minded. I also enjoyed Krauss's discussion on religion.
ReplyDeleteThursday- the exeriment we did in class was fun. I got to work with a new group! I just might vote my group off of the island since they left me all alone! Just kidding! I don't know if I totally completely understand the experiment and what it was saying- but I think that I got the main idea. It was fun to try things that were not on the lab directions- use other objects or tweek it a little bit. Isn't that how many things are discovered!
Readings- plain and simple! I didn't read. I went to my grandmas today- made brunch (I'm a great cook!)- cleaned up her yard- potted some flowers- ate some cheesecake (than ran it off later!) and helped my brother fix her porch door! I will catch up on reading and update my blog!
I have read the rest of the chapters in Science Literacy assigned for this class and found them all to be very interesting.
ReplyDeleteChapter 9 discusses the makeup of all matter. It goes into aspects of the smallest elements of matter such as quarks and looks at how even atoms are formed and interact with each other to create everything that we know around us.
Chapter 10 discusses astronomy and the planets. It tells us a lot of information about the planets we know around us, but also about galaxies and the universe. There is a lot of interesting information in this chapter in regards to how small we are compared to everything in the universe.
Chapter 11 discusses the cosmos. This is my favorite chapter. Terms such as dark matter and dark energy were introduced, and the big bang was dissected in order to understand what happened about it went off. The chapter shows us that we know very little about the universe, and that dark matter and energy make up even more than the energy and matter we know of today. There is a lot to be discovered yet in these fields.
Chapter 12 discusses relativity. This was also a fun chapter with difficult subject matter, but the authors are right that relativity is all around us and we are experiencing and are aware of it all the time; such as the speed of time and other "thought" experiments that Newton and Einstein were famous for.
On Tuesday, we watched a documentary titled "Science vs. Anti-science" in which Professor Krauss discussed various topics such as sex education, missile defense, artificial controversy, and so on. I thought this discussion was very enlightening. Professor Krauss is a very passionate speaker and is able to capture an audiences attention.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday, I was not in class due to a trip for my internship course.
I appologize for not keeping up to date on the readings, but I will post my reflections very soon.
Krauss's comments were all very prudent to the current state of science in America today. I was suprised to see that there was in fact such a struggle going on between science and anti-science, though i think in general it may also be looked upon as anti-intellectualism. While the lecture was long and sometimes dry due to the vast array of statistics rattled off, i think if one payed close enough attention it was clear how it all tied together. Ultimately, the well being and health of our democracy is directly at stake.
ReplyDeleteTuesday.. we watched the documentary.. just uploaded the 2 page paper. My refelection are mainly: i do but i don't believe on the whole story line of one person created man and adam and eve took a bite out of the apple which doomed humankind for all of etternity. Science does offer alot of explanation of phenomenons and crazy things that are termed to be just coincidences. But i believe without this basic belief, society would be a mad, uncontrollable system where chaos would rule over anything.
ReplyDeleteThursday lots of people were missing and we experimented with sliding rock formations against techtonic plates. Where the actual experiment was measuring slip with pulling a piece of wood across the table and measuring the slip distance.
Chapters 11-12
ReplyDelete11::The cosmos, I have a hard time believing the reasoning behind their theories and meausring the millionths of a second at the beginning of the universe by theories of microwaves and best guess models of how the big bang theory is. The material is shaky at best but it is all we have for a best guess. That will have to do for know. Then the topic of dark matter is just mind boggling and should be taught in a specific class for theory.
Chapter 12 discusses relativity, which is the main chapter we have been discussing in physics 113 class now. The idea of relativity is all about the reference frame and the math all adding to the same conclusion. In one reference frame i throw a ball 10mph out of a car going 60mph. Me being in the car i think the ball goes 10 mph. But for a person standing next to the road observes the ball going 70 mph. Which one is correct. Well both are in there correct reference frame. Time dilation refers to the same general concept of being in two different places and observing the same thing but measuring differently. Clocks and perception of distacne are great examples. Einstein's theories superseded Newton's and yet their concepts are still taught by themselves for an understanding of relativity. This concept is much more concrete than black matter and black energy by far because in many cases the numbers can be repeated in many experiments
Chapter 11: This chapter discusses the phenomenon of the cosmos. This chapter is very interesting, but extremely hard for me to conceptualize. This chapter talked about the time scale of the universe and it's incredible to think of the Big Bang on such a small scale. Dark matter and dark energy are relatively new discoveries in cosmology. It is amazing what cosmologists discover and predict in a where that may not be directly observable to them.
ReplyDeleteChapter 12: This chapter covered Einstein's theory of Relativity. Relativity is something that I vaguely understand. I have had a brief encounter with this concept in physics class, but was never really able to conceptualize this. This chapter compared and contrasted Newton's and Einstein's view points, and I was surprised to learn how different they were. The concept of time dilation was not one I had fully considered until I read this chapter. Again, the amount of discoveries made by researchers in the field and the amount of questions to be answered is astonishing.
Dr. Krauss' presentation was great in my opinion. I thought he nailed America's public literacy on science perfectly. He also touched on the topic of religion which I respect. Not many people tackle that subject which needs to be done. Much of the anti-intellectualism in America stems directly from religious beliefs and for the most part, Dr. Krauss said it well, are pure "non-sense".
ReplyDeleteI believe Dr. Krauss's lecture provided a thorough and accurate portrayal of the deplorable state of the public's scientific literacy. Krauss highlighted many reasons for such condition including religious principles, its stark misrepresentation by modern media, and economic influence. He also contends that a crumbling educational system is at the core of the science literacy meltdown. Having read Matthew Miller's "Two Percent Solution" in the foundation course, I believe that making teaching a more respected (as it ought to be)through financial incentives could aid in mediating the crisis.
ReplyDeleteDr. Krauss brought up a lot of really interesting points. I also feel that being open-minded is a very important skill to grow as a person. If people were always to scared to try new things, the world would be an extremely boring place. The ability to stay objective and open-minded is also going to be a very important tool when transitioning to the work world. If we, as future potential employees, go into a job with the idea that we already know everything there is to know about the job, I don't think you would stay employed there long.
ReplyDelete