Mar. 25
Today was the last day students collect data from their plants. We will be discussing this more next class. Today’s class also included the last few consumer product testing presentations, and a demonstration of how to search the ERIC database (at the library). One of the article review assignments may (optionally) be completed via a fast ERIC search, as discussed in class.
Mar. 23
The bulk of today’s class was taken up with student presentations on their consumer product testing assignments.
Mar. 16
Continue with Mystery Powders … students should soon be making unknowns for one another, investigating properties when powders are mixed. Toward the end of class, depending on how things are going with the powders, we can take some time to discuss graphing (see last Wednesday’s lesson plan) and/or discuss issues connected with the consumer product testing assignment due a week from today.
FOR NEXT CLASS: Quiz, including a question about solving a mystery powder mixture, and a question about the kind of graph that would be generated when answering a specified question.
Mar. 11
Make sure to mention importance not only of controlling variables for cons. prod. testing, but also generating plenty of data for analysis.
Continue with Mystery Powders
If time permits, can discuss the type of graph that would go with various examples of long term research project questions.
Mar. 9
Mystery Powders (cont’d)
Discuss Gott & Duggan 62-85 (tables, graphs), incl. use of terms “independent variable,” “dependent variable,” “continuous data,” and “categorical or ordinal data:” Continuous variables are numbers, basically. Categoric variables are categories, separate things that have no particular order to them. Ordered variables are categories or separate things, but they do have a particular order. …
EX’s to discuss in class:
length of a pendulum (continuous),
period of a pendulum (continuous),
pounds of trash thrown away per week (continuous),
types of trash thrown away (categoric),
powerboat registrations (continuous),
manatee deaths (continuous),
states (categoric),
student quartiles (ordered),
four brands of cookie tested for consumer product testing assignment (categoric),
number of science classes taken (could prob. be continuous or ordered, depending on what you were saying)
Include some time for issues connected to consumer product testing assignment
FOR NEXT TIME: Hallway article is due
Mar. 4
Today will include taking plant data at the beginning of class, including possible discussion about variable control and study design.
Today also begins Mystery Powders unit … Introduce unit to students, explaining that their ultimate goal is to be given a white powder and figure out which combination of seven powders it’s made of. Chemists call it qualitative analysis, we call it Mystery Powders. Show students the powders, give them general instructions related to putting powders back into bottles, etc. and turn them loose with first tests (that which can be learned with just senses). Make sure students understand that the unit’s quiz will be hands-on. … Can use projecting microscope to display individual powders.
Pass out caterpillars…
And a little discussion about what students found for Article 2.
For Next Time: Gott & Duggan 62-85 (tables, graphs)
Mar. 2
Skull Activity—
1. Pass out handouts with photographs of carnivore, herbivore, and omnivore skulls. Give students time to brainstorm differences they see in the types of skulls.
2. See what they came up with, and add in other differences that experts tend to note when they look at the skulls (Nature Of Sci: what you observe depends upon what you already know/believe)
• Flat teeth for grinding, sharp incisors for tearing vegetation, sharp teeth for tearing flesh
• Vision (eye sockets)—big, forward looking in carnivores; perhaps sideways looking in herbivores
• Space in skull for nasal cavity—the larger the space, the better the sense of smell
• Space in skull for brain compared to rest of skull
• Area where jaw muscles attach—strong jaws for biting
• (Nature Of Sci: Can’t tell everything from the skull … can’t tell about ear tissue and hearing, for example)
3. Show the omnivore skull photographs. Discuss how they have characteristics of both carnivores and herbivores.
4. Show students photographs of other animal skulls. Have students try to identify features indicating whether the animal is a carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore.
5. Show students the animals corresponding to the skull photos they’ve been looking at so far.
6. Bring out the dinosaur skull models. Give students time to try determining whether the animals were likely to have been carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore. Go from table to table for each animal. Any student should be prepared to represent their table.
7. Discuss Nature Of Sci issues illustrated here: assumptions underlie investigations (we’re assuming that characteristics seen today are applicable to living things from the past) … concept of indirect evidence (you can make conclusions about something you didn’t witness; “the CSI effect”) … there are some questions the data will not let you answer, even if you want to (hearing, color, etc.)
8. EXTRA: What could people do with living animals to figure out how large extinct animals were, given only the extinct animal’s skull?
For Next Time: Article 2
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