Two Great Space Science Lessons

Here are two fabulous astronomy lessons that I do with my 6th and 7th graders.  The first is an ordering activity called Cosmic Survey: What are your ideas about the universe?  This is a lesson I start out with when I begin teaching astronomy.  I comes with pictures of different objects in the universe and asks students to put them in order from smallest to largest, closest to the earth to farthest away, and youngest to oldest.  It is a wonderful beginning activity.  Here is a picture of one of my groups looking at the different pictures:

This activity can be found at this address:
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/seuforum/download/CosmicSurvey2003.pdf

Another great activity for beginning students is a lesson that incorporates plotting about 100 stars using brightness and temperature of the star.  This lesson also has some questions that go along with the graph and a couple of articles about what a star is, as well as, information on habitable zones around stars.  Here is a picture of one of my students plotting a star:

This is another great, hands-on lesson that can be found here:
http://astrobio.terc.edu/samples/chpt2_act3.html

Three Day Teacher Appreciation Sale

Starting on May 6th and continuing through the 8th is the teacher appreciation sale on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Many sellers will have their stores on sale for the three days.  You can also take another 20% off with the above code of TAD12 at checkout.  This is one of our best sales of the year so don't miss out. My own store will have every item reduced!  I like to pick up some things for the next school year during this time.  Happy shopping!

Why It's Good to Take Those Upper Level Math and Science Classes!

For those of you who thought in high school that you would "never use that math stuff anyway," here is the video for you.  One of my favorite personalities, Niel deGrasse Tyson, suggests that one good thing to come out of challenging yourself to learn difficult math and science would be the connections that happen in your brain.  These brain pathways help us to become better problem solvers. Unfortunately, most of us shy away from difficult things and never create these pathways.  He goes on to suggest that people who are science and math literate are the people who create new industry and are invaluable to companies. Basically, these are the people we need right now in the United States to sustain a bright future.  I showed this to my 7th graders before we started our astronomy unit and they really got a lot out of what he said. Anytime they get stuck on a math or science problem and have to really think hard to come up with the right answer they talk about the "pathways" they are creating!  Let me know what you think.

Get Into the Green- Earth Day 2012

Sunny Days in Second is have a great linky party for all your free earth day products.  Just click on the above picture to get there.  I have created some great little free stickers for earth day.  You can print them to the labels specified in the download.


The link to my stickers is here:
 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Happy-Earth-Day-Stickers
Have a great earth day!

A Very Lovely Award

A big thank you to Michelle Baldwin from Apples and ABC's blog who nominated me for The Lovely Blog Award! 

 
Please check out her wonderful kindergarten blog.
Here are the rules for this award:
1.  Link back to the person who gave it to you.
2.  Follow the person that sent it to you.
3.  Pass it along to 15 (ish) other lovely bloggers.

Here are some of my favorite blogs.  Check them out!

Frog Spot

Go Figure!

Life in Special Education

Teacher Park

Lessons From the Middle 

 Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings

It's Elementary

Smart Chick

The Teched Out Teacher

Beautiful Arizona

I am taking a little breather from science fair to post some pictures and scenery from around Arizona.  Those of you who read my last post know why!  Actually, my 6th graders did very well with their science fair project today.  Hopefully 7th grade will do the same. 

Those of you who have been to Arizona probably know how varied the landscapes and geology are across the state.  For those of you who haven't been here I hope you can visit soon!  Here are some great examples of scenery from around Arizona. 

These are Aspen trees up from Lockett Meadow in Flagstaff.  Do you know that aspens have a particular smell when they turn yellow like this?  Wonderful!

Meteor Crater:  A huge hunk of space debris smashed into the earth here near Winslow, AZ about 50,000 years ago.  This is one of the best preserved craters due to the dry climate.

 

This has got to be one of my favorite pictures ever taken in Arizona!  Sedona is a great place to go to get out of the summer heat.  This is Courthouse Butte with a nice storm behind it.  You will see this picture all over my blog and button.  I just love it. 

 This is Montezuma's Castle that can be seen driving from Phoenix to Flagstaff.  It is a Sinagua cliff dwelling that is actually a national monument.

This scene also graces my blog.  It is a photo taken by my husband of Saguaro National Park outside of Tucson.  It is a wonderful place to go at sunset.  Those are metamorphic rocks  in the foreground.  

This is one of my favorite parks in Arizona.  Most people do not know that we have volcanoes here!  This picture was taken at the cinder cones at Sunset Crater National Monument.  A great place to visit near Flagstaff.  

 I will end near Phoenix with a picture taken in the White Tank Mountains.  These rocks show pictographs that could approach 10,000 years old.  

Hope you enjoyed some of these pictures from around the state.  It is truly a varied place with a lot of great outdoor adventure.

Agghh! Science Fair

I have yet to have a non-stressful science fair!  It is actually a huge project for a 11-13 year old to handle.  I try to make it bearable by giving students a packet with all due dates and parts of the project.  I still have a lot of aggravation!!!  I have discovered that part of my frustration comes about because of students and their partners.  I tell them they may do the project by themselves or in a group up to 3 people.  I do this because I see over 200 students and 200 projects is too much to oversee.  However, just today I had a group of girls who already had their problem and hypothesis done split up due to arguing over the project.  What is there to argue about on a science fair project when you already know what you are doing?!!

Another issue I have is that students want to change their problem in the middle of the project.  They start with a good question like: Which are stronger caged chicken eggs or free-range chicken eggs?  And turn into something like:  Which egg is faster a caged chicken egg or a free-range chicken egg?  What?  Faster down what, a ramp?  Why do we care about which egg is fastest?  All I have to say is AGGHHHH!