The Rosie Project Part 2

Ok, so I know how much I loved this book when I first did a review on it. It is so amazing. I have learned so much about genetics while reading this book. I know this is a science blog, and I was so excited to learn more about this side of science. Like, if you have blue eyes and your partner has brown eyes you can't have a baby with green eyes.

I highly recommend this book. It is a very easy read and the ending is not what you would expect at all.

You can find it on Amazon here.

Rocks, Rocks, and More Rocks!

Our second graders were busy learning about rocks. They have gone over the types of rocks and their attributes. I have a friend who in 6th grade made a sandwich with peanut butter, jelly, goldfish, and bread. They talked about how rocks are in layers and they made layers with their sandwich materials. I loved getting to hear about the hands-on approach to learning about the layers of rock, however I just don't know that I could eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with goldfish on it. 😝

Here are a few more links to other ways to teach about rocks:

http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Category.aspx?CategoryID=4761

http://www.science-fest.org/Rock%20On!%20--%20Final%20Edition%20-%20Debbie%20Cubillos.pdf

STEM in the elementary classroom

When I was student teaching at Hobgood they had a Related Arts class that was STEM. The students got to go to a computer lab where they would explore technology and topics such as geography, math, and science. The students really loved this class and often asked if they were going there that day.

I wonder what this would look like in a general education classroom. Well, I looked up a website that tells all about STEM and even gives examples. I really enjoyed reading this web page. The author states that you can incorporate STEM into your classroom with little change to what you currently are doing.

Check out the link for more information!

STEM: It's Elementary!

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

I was given this book by Dr. Bass. It is about a genetics professor who has decided that he is going to look for a wife. He comes up with a scientific way to reduce the number of women that could be a potential wife for himself. The dubs it The Wife Project. Over the course of time, the professor creates a questionaire that the women have to fill out. His best friend takes the, well over 100 questionaires, and then sends one woman to him. They go on to create the Father Project, in which they seek to find Rosie's father.

While I haven't completed the book just yet, it is obvious that the professor has some sort of medical condition that he is unaware of currently. My guess would be Aspergers Syndrom, but I am definately not qualified to say for sure, and it is just a book.

I highly suggest reading this book, even though Dr. Bass was informed that it is a teen novel. :) I can't wait to see where this book goes, and I was truely impressed with the scientic data and vocabulary that is in this book.

Do you wanna build an...atom?

Ok, I really enjoyed our class presentations today and getting to see how everyone rebuilt their lessons. I really liked the idea of having students build atoms out of edible materials. They have a project to work towards and in the end they can choose to save it or eat it! Not knowing what grade level we will be teaching in our first year of teaching, means that we need to have creative teaching methods, such as this, for the future.

Science Fairs

I saw this post on Facebook the other day about how much parents dislike Science Fair projects, because they end up doing all of the work. When I told my mom that I was doing a Science Fair in class her response was, "What do I need to do?" I find it extremely interesting that parents feel the need to complete said projects for their students instead of simply helping their student come up with a topic and guiding them through the process.  Here is the picture that I saw and the mother's (Susan) explanation of why she made this board can be found here.

So for those of you that plan on doing a Science Fair in your classroom or maybe even one at your school when you get there, check out some of these sites for helpful tips for your parents. The worst thing that you can have beside an unhappy student is an unhappy parent!

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr220.shtml

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/parents_resourceoverview.shtml

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/sciencefaircentral/?pID=fair

Planets, Stars, and the Moon

I so wish that I had a lens for my camera to take a picture of the stars! I can't believe how much clearer you can see them at my new house compared to how hard it was at the old house. I remember telling my husband how much I loved to just look at the stars now. It reminds me of when I was a little girl and could see them in my backyard in Georgia.

While I can't show you pictures of the stars from my house, I do have a friend who took this awesome picture of the moon from his house.

As science teachers, we teach about moon phases. Here are several links that are great, including a video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWeaQctUp1c

http://www.planetsforkids.org/moon-moon.html

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/astroskymap/lunar.htm - This site has games that your students can play to learn about the constellations and moon phases!

There is also a song by The Raging Idiots, on their album Raging Kidiots, about the planets. You can download it from iTunes now.

I can't wait to teach about the planets, moon, and stars. This was one of my favorite sections of science.