What's Our Sputnik?

“What’s Our Sputnik?”

            We need a Sputnik today in order to spark more interest back into Science.  This is not going to happen if our government keeps cutting education.  We have so many other places that we can cut but when all else fails lets cut the education of our future.  The government needs to look at what they are doing to our future by cutting funds to develop our future.  The higher levels of government need to step in and do something about all the budget cuts for education.  For example in Pre-K we were cut millions but it was great for the head of the lottery (which Pre-K is funded by) because not only did she receive her HIGH salary but she got a million dollar bonus!  Now you tell me how this bonus could have helped our education?  I believe her salary alone should be enough to buy whatever she wants and put her bonus back into education where it belongs.

Students today have never heard of the Sputnik.  We can relate lessons to any video games and they will know exactly what we are talking about.  We need to put interest back into science and do it quickly because we are falling behind other countries and will contribute to do so until something is done.  We have fewer and fewer students entering into STEM careers because we do not promote these subjects or lessons enough for students to become interested in them.  We have to focus too much on reading at our schools.  Science is on the back burner for our school system because all we are worried about is meeting AYP.

            Many countries are passing us in STEM careers because they are not having all the budget cuts and they are producing smarter people in their country.  We need to take a look at how we are teaching our students and stop teaching vocabulary words but teaching students how to take a problem, research it, analyze the data, and then present their findings.  We will be promoting higher order thinkers for our future.

            I have implemented many new strategies just in my Pre-K room in order to help them become interested in Science for their future.  I have hands-on activities and inquiry lessons that enables my students to use their knowledge to solve a problem.

Modeling Earth's Science

We were discussing our unit on dinosaurs.  I had my students pretend to be archeologists.  They had to use a chocolate chip cookie as the Earth's surface and then use tools to extract the fossils.  The students were actively involved and really grasped the concept of having to be easy and gentle with the model that had.  I even had a real archeologist come in as a guest speaker with actual findings and pictures.  The students loved this lesson!

Natural Disaster Blog

Natural Disaster Blog (May 16, 2012)

I conducted a lesson on tornados when one hit our town and a town not too far from us was destroyed.  We first read a book on tornados, how they form, and what damage they can do.  Next, we made a tornado in a bottle so the students could see the twisting and twirling motion.  Then, we watched a clip from the movie Twister.  The students were able to see the how the sky looked, what a tornado looked like and its motion, and the destruction it could cause.  It also showed what to do in case of a tornado such as moving to the middle part of the house.

We discussed what you need to do in the event a tornado is in your area.  We talked about getting in the middle of the house or getting in a bathtub with a mattress over the tub.  We talked about staying away from windows and doors if at all possible.  Then, we talked about an emergency kit that everyone needs to have made up.  The kit could have things like food, clothes, flashlights, blankets, medicines, etc.  This will give a family most of the necessities needed if they lose power for a while.

I also took them to another room to watch the news footage on TV covering our town and others around us.  They were able to see the damage in our town and how Americus was destroyed.  We learned what the American Red Cross does for victims in these situations.  We then found out a students at our school was affected and her house was destroyed.  The students wanted to help so we set up a fundraiser to gather items for this family.  They learned how to help others in our community.  Overall, this lesson connected the students to our community and what might happen and how they could help.

Ask the Scientist

I asked the scientist some questions about the red cockaded woodpecker but it showed no results for my questions.  I was hoping for some help with my project.  I did not get back what I had expected for these questions.

I asked why no cure for cancer has been developed.  I got back some good suggestions for a cure for cancer.  Lauren, a pharmacologist, stated that she wondered why we couldn't replace the defective cell's entire DNA with a healthy patients DNA.  I think this seems reasonable but it has not been done yet.  I learned a lot about what could be done from this response.  I learned genome replacement has disadvantages as well.  For example a person with cystic fibrosis has a defective CFTR gene in all cells.  This deficiency is observed in a couple of organs despite the fact that all the cells have the same mutation. DNA replacement from one tissue type in these individuals will not correct their disease.  There is a lot that scientists need to learn about gene therapy.

Some other sites for further reading:
http://www.fda.gov/cber/gene.htm

http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/
medicine/genetherapy.shtml

Ask a Scientist!

I decided to ask a scientist some questions about my project of the red cockaded woodpecker.

1.  What kind of specialized cells does the red cockaded woodpecker have?
2.  What could the woodpecker have in order to help it adapt to an environment?

I also am interested in cancer and how we do not have a cure yet.  I wonder what it would take to figure out how the cancer cells are destroyed daily and how to use this to maybe come up with a cure for cancer. If some people can kill off these millions of cells daily how come scientists can not figure out how these cells work and then use that information for a cure?

The Living World

My favorite part of science is the living world.  I am to research an endangered organism for a project and I chose the Red Cockaded Woodpecker.  For my presentation I played around with Prezi.  I am used to workin with Powerpoint but I am willing to ive this a try.  There was no cost to the trial I chose to use.  I chose a blank template so I could add whatever I wanted to it.  I love how you can add pictures and even video clips to your presentation in this program.  You are able to chose the shape of a text box that you wish for information in.  The wheel seems to make things easier to add objects to your presentation.  As I was viewing other presentations, I want to figure out how to make the pages fade in and out when going ot the next item you are going to talk about.  I am still going through all the tutorials and learning.
 It is a very buusy time for me right now because I have a three week old baby so time is critical for me.  If I can not figure out all the options I want to use I may still go back and use Powerpoint.

21st Century Topics and Tools

I chose to research all about awakening student’s interest and motivation in science.  The link I found to be beneficial and possibly worthwhile is Van Andel Institute (www.vai.org).  This site showed lots of ways for your school to motivate the students and the teachers.  It also showed the ways they were implementing and the ways they could help you.  Some of the ways they suggested were:  Out of school time cohort program, science on Saturdays, classroom science investigations, and partners for sustainable innovation.

All of the tools they offer expose students to a world of science and possibly open up a career for them in the future.  The students will become more aware of what science can do for them and what science has done so far.  They are hands on fun ways to get students motivated in science and makes science learning fun.

I found the classroom science investigations to be beneficial and I am presenting it to the elementary school and high school here in my town.  In this program the teacher identifies the area of focus and the staff at VAI develops curriculum for the teacher’s classroom and instructional assessment.  The teacher can come to a 2 ½ day session and VAI will also come to your school to make classroom visits and model the concepts and methods.  I think this is a great way to help both students and teachers.

If using VAI, I can pick any physical science activity and they will help me prepare a way to teach and assess the activity.  I would pick magnetic because I teach Pre-K.  I would call them up and ask for help to come up with fun ways to teach magnetic to my students.

Some complications I might encounter is that that they are located in Michigan and we are in Georgia.  I wonder if they would come here and how much it would cost.  I also wonder if phone call help from them would be an option.

http://www.biztools4schools.org/motivate_students_to_study_and_enter_science_and_math_careers

http://www.middleweb.com/StdntMotv.html

http://www.students2science.org/

http://www.vai.org/education/academy.aspx?gclid=CP27kKfo9awCFY1W7AodC2WjRQ