Wow! What a semester! Over this Spring semester I was in both Social Studies and Science Methods classes and it was a lot of work to do. I learned more then I ever thought I could about technology to use in the classroom. Along with technology I have also learned a lot about what kind of science teacher I want to be. I want the students to be able to experiment and come up with their own ideas of science rather then just giving them the answer. I will emphasize that in science there is often more then one answer and that sometimes there is no right answer.
This class along with my other methods classes left me with a lot of work to do. It was hard to complete all the assignments at times due to my time schedule between work and school, I tried to make it work the best that I could.
This is a very captivating video about Earth, how it came about, what is happening to it, how it is changing. This is a good way to introduce a class to a unit about earth. Also with this video a class could brainstorm how they can help the planet. In the class that I watched this movie for, we came up with a petition. Here is the petition that we created.
I have recently read the article Keys to Teaching the Nature of Science. In this article They discuss the nature of science (NOS) and how to use it in the classroom. They explain that a big part of science is interacting with one another, scientist work with one another to come up with answers and to solve problems. Science is highly influenced by culture, society and history, so working with other people on science experiments will give more then one opinion and outlook on something.
Another thing that the article talks about is how all the types of sciences astronomy, physical, earth etc. are all different; all the sciences make a hypothesis, do an experiment to test the hypothesis. draw a conclusion. the article says that there is no universal rules for science however each science does each of the scientific method steps differently. This is what we need to teach our students.
I chose this article because it seemed to have good insight on how to effectively incorporate science into the classroom. here is the article if you would like to read it!
In recent news, it has been found out that "elephant genes may provide a crucial clue in the fight against human cancer." This news came from the Ringling Brothers Circus. They are retiring their elephants due to all the controversy with having such big wild life animals in the circus. These elephants have been in captivity for too long so can not be sent back into the wild. They are going to be used for cancer research and to help pediatric cancer patience so they still have a purpose.
Scientific research has found that elephants should be much more likely to get cancer because they have so many more cells then humans do. However, scientists have found that elephants have an extra gene that stops and kills cancerous cells and tumors before they form.
Scientists and medical professionals are taking blood from the Ringling Brother elephants to taking the extra gene/cell they have out of it, to try and see if it will work for humans! Medical professionals are also considering to make a medicine that mimics the cell.
I chose this topic to talk about because if scientist and medical professionals are able to figure out how to use this gene/cell with humans, it can change the world and the future forever. When you are teaching, It is important to help the students understand that medicine is a big part of science and so are animals. This can also show students that animals can help humans.
Wow! What a semester! Over this Spring semester I was in both Social Studies and Science Methods classes and it was a lot of work to do. I learned more then I ever thought I could about technology to use in the classroom. Along with technology I have also learned a lot about what kind of science teacher I want to be. I want the students to be able to experiment and come up with their own ideas of science rather then just giving them the answer. I will emphasize that in science there is often more then one answer and that sometimes there is no right answer. 
