Siddharth Sharma's Blog

 1. What did I learn this week? This week in lab we revisited the M&M's dissolving in water but conducted multiple experiments. There was a control group that dissolved M&M's in cold water. The other groups were hot water, sugar water, and salt water. We observed the colors dissolved fastest in hot water because there was more room for the molecules to disperse. The salt, sugar, and cold water took longer for the colors to dissolve because there was less room for the colors to disperse. 2. How can I apply what I learned to future teaching? I believe it is important to conduct meaningful experiments and have students create a model for what they observed. Creating a visual representation to digest the information is very important. 3. Questions? What are other experiments that I can use in my classroom that is related to molecules dispersing?

 1. What did I learn this week? This week in lab we learned about how different materials have different properties of matter. We tested different types of matter. The first test was whether the object sinks or floats in water. The second test was measuring its mass and volume. The last two tests were seeing if the object conducts electricity and if it is magnetic. We also tested if the results differ if we cut the object into a smaller piece. 2. What parts were confusing? I was intrigued but also confused about the aluminum in water. I knew it would float in water, but when it took a different shape it sunk. Why did this happen? 3. How can I apply what I learned to future teaching? The lab made me realize that teachers need to make their students curious. I can ask them about what they're observing and why they think a certain process is happening.

 What did I learn this week? Today in lab we learned about how matter interacts with other matter in a series of experiments. There were six stations: Baking soda and vinegar, m&m's w/ water, cold soda, plunger, ice melt, and floating coke. Baking soda and vinegar: Some observations my group made was that the bag got cold, gas was released, and the bag expanded. One question we had was why did the bag get cold? M&M's in water: Observations: Colors are washing off and they are not mixing. Why did the colors not mix? Cold Soda: Observations: There was no condensation forming even when the soda was cold. Does consistent change in the temperature of the environment affect condensation? Plunger:   The plunger stuck to the table but not the cardboard. Is there a difference in air pressure when it was trying to stick on the cardboard? Ice melt: The pot melted the ice faster while the wood struggled. Maybe the wood doesn't absorb water as well as the pot. Floating coke: Obs...

 1. This week, we learned about evolution. We made evolution children's books, shared them, and read our peers' books as well. My group's specific lesson was a chicken and how it evolved from a t-rex. 2. I can applied what we did in lab to my future classroom by incorporating storytelling of evolution into my lesson planning. I think kids can learn a lot by being creating something that lets them get a better understanding of the material. 3. One question is how can I balance project-based learning and standard testing? Should I balance these in science education?