Assignment #12: Creating a model of the atom

Purpose:

The purpose of this project is for you to develop your understanding of the history of atomic theory and what it tells us about the nature of scientific inquiry.

Overview:

The class as a whole will develop an overall structure for the museum project. The task is to design a museum exhibit about the development of atomic theory, including modern models of the atom, for young adolescents. You will be working in conjunction with the science teachers at Early College. Then you will divide yourselves into teams which will take responsibility for different portions of the exhibit. You are required to include hands-on activities that will allow young adolescents to explore and discover facts for themselves.

Grading scheme:

40% Intellectually rigorous – You must include content material that is pitched above what the standards require, and which cover the content of PHSC 4010. You must create an atmosphere in which museum-goers have the opportunity to uncover the nature of science.

20% Multiple learning modalities – There must be visual, kinesthetic, auditory, numerical and text-based opportunities for learning.

20% Consistent with constructivist and sociocultural learning theories.

10% Well-organized and professionally presented.

Students at Early College, teachers and other community members will be given an opportunity to assess the exhibit. This assessment will be used in conjunction with the scheme above to determine a grade for each team.

Text:  Primary Science
Resources: Exploratorium; Chemistry Heritage Foundation;

Bring a draft of your ideas to class on Tuesday, October 30, 2012.
You will have 15 minutes to work on developing your ideas during class.

Due Tuesday, Nov 6, 2012 by the end of class:

1. Determine the portion of the exhibit for which your team will take responsibility
2.Input tasks and outcomes using a project management chart exhibit
3. Post as a comment by team name, what portion of the project you will be responsible for doing


Project Management Chart 
Using Post-Its, you will create your tasks and outcomes and decide who is responsible. Each week, tasks and outcomes will be identified as completed or new tasks and outcomes will be placed on the chart. As each is complete, the outcome will be moved to the product outcome until the project is complete and ready for exhibition.

Exhibit Planning Tasks	Tasks			Product Outcome
	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3
	What? Who is responsible?			What? Who is responsible?
	What? Who is responsible?			What? Who is responsible?
	What? Who is responsible?			What? Who is responsible?
	What? Who is responsible?			What? Who is responsible?

Assignment #11: Concept Map and Pudding & Clouds

1.  You will use the stickers to create a concept map that links your ideas about the nature of the atom together.

The stickers should identify the concepts (typically these are nouns) and the lines connecting these ideas should describe HOW they are connected. You decide how this map will be drafted; that said, begin with a CENTRAL concept from which and to which your ideas will be connected.

Note: The instruction in class was to create a map about the development of current ideas of the atom; the names of the investigators are not key to your map. Their experiments, evidence, and conclusions are key.

2. Complete the HWK handouts. Fresh copies have been emailed to you. These will be accepted at the beginning of class.

Assignment #10: Bringing it full circle

1. Relook at these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhWgv0STLZs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmmglVNl9OQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfY4R5mkMY8 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7OKPaKr5QM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z2ZfYVzefs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsA_oIXdF_8&feature=relmfu


2. Create a FLOWCHART that maps the the videos, the Bill Bryson reading, PhET simulation and the Duckworth's article. 


3. Do #1,2 before you complete the hand-out homework.


4. Bring in a tri-fold poster board


5. See Assignment #11 on Friday for information on creating a model of the atom (due TBA).

September 11: Announcements & Updates

1. Science in the Media:  Sign up as teams of 2 at the  Science in the Media  post.
These will begin on September 26. Only ONE team of 3 is allowed to sign up..


2. Moon Journal: We will work on orienteering exercises on September 19.
Thereafter, you can begin collecting data.


3.  Your text books: Please bring your text books to class on September 19.


4. Constructing models of the atom:
You will create a physical model of an atom to be displayed in a "museum" at Georgia College.  Your model will be accompanied by an Interpretation Narrative for viewers to understand your display.

You will have two weeks to construct physical models of the atom. You will be allowed time to work on this in class on Tuesday Sept 19. that is, come with ideas for your models that you want to discuss. Your models will be due on September 26, 2012.

Assignment #9: Let there be LIGHT, cont'd

Answer the following questions below on the blog unless otherwise noted.

A. To help you answer some of your questions about the atom and the nature of the atom, during class you observed light through your green "glasses":
(i) during the Light Tour of Milledgeville
(ii) looking at the spectral tubes
(iii) you investigated different sources of light that you brought in (glow sticks, flash lights, lamp lights, flames, candles, etc.)
(iv) you conducted Flame Tests using solutions of different salts (sodium chloride, strontium chloride, etc) in a methanol solution by spraying the salt solutions into a flame and observing the colors created in the flame.
You also created a concept map to link the ideas that you had discussed and investigated to date. Here are some questions (please place the correct number associated with your response from the corresponding question).


Look at this web site: http://science.discovery.com/videos/100-greatest-discoveries-shorts-atoms-signature-light.html.

1. What three (3) questions do you have?

2. What do you suppose is the gas in the UNKNOWN spectral tube? How did you go about making that choice?


3. Below is an image of the spectral lines from the sun, hydrogen gas, helium gas, mercury gas and uranium gas.

Reference: http://astro.physics.uiowa.edu/~www/ITU/labs/introduction-to-spectroscop.html

(a) What do you observe that is similar and/or different among the gases?


(b) What do you think the colored lines represent in the spectral tubes?


(c) What do you think the dark spaces between the color lines represent?


(d) A photon is a packet of light. Mercury gas shows several types of photons including an intense green spectral line at 546 nm. Recall that 1 nm = 1 nanometer. Calculate the energy (in Joules, J) of a single photon  of green light having a wavelength of 546 nm.




B. You still have a number of questions about the sources of light and what is light.

1. Complete the PhET Simulation handout from class for the Models of Hydrogen Atom activity: http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/hydrogen-atom. Answer the questions. Come prepared to discuss what you've observed.

2. What three (3) questions do you have?

3. Look at these videos; the sound is not that good but the content is:
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhWgv0STLZs&feature=related
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmmglVNl9OQ
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfY4R5mkMY8 
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7OKPaKr5QM
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z2ZfYVzefs
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsA_oIXdF_8&feature=relmfu


4. Re-look at the PhET Simulation.  What new ideas do you have? Do not change your responses to #1. Come prepared to discuss this question.


5. Look at the first handout that you received in class that asked you to draw your ideas of the nature of the atom as a team.  Come to class prepared to answer the following question:

Many biology textbooks often represent the atom as a small central nucleus composed of protons (positively charged particles) and neutrons (neutral particles) with electrons (negatively charged particles) orbiting the nucleus. 

1. What do you think are the three most important components of this model? Probes: nuclear model; billiard ball model; plum pudding model, orbital model; electron cloud model;  
2. What do you think about this representation of the structure of the atom?
3. Why do you think that this is the representation of choice about the atom’s structure?
4. Would you present a different representation or not if you wrote the textbook? Explain.

Assignment #7: The Virtues of Not Knowing

The goal of this exercise is to prepare you for deep and intentional discussion of this article during our next class session. In the book, The Having of Wonderful Ideas: And Other Essays on Teaching and Learning, Eleanor Duckworth pens an essay on The Virtues of Not Knowing.  Eleanor Ruth Duckworth is a cognitive psychologist, educational theorist and constructivist educator. Wikipedia

PLEASE PICK UP A COPY OF THE ESSAY AT MY OFFICE
(Herty Hall 349 -The Science Education Center)



A. Before reading the essay, respond to the following on the blog:

1. What do you think this essay is going to be about?  
2. What do you think is virtuous (valuable, worthy, honorable) about not knowing something?  
3. How to do you think that this idea of ‘the value of not knowing’ applies to a science classroom?

B. Read the article and respond to the following on the blog:
4. Find three (3) quotes (sentences/groups of sentences) that you found to be interesting. Rewrite each quote in the blog. For each quote, explain why is it is interesting to you. Include any learning theories that you have been studying that may support or conflict with these quotes.


C. Using a blank sheet of paper, create a flow chart that describes the child's thought process in developing the diagram using the glassware. Bring your flowchart to class to share.

Assignment #8: Respond to the following statement...

"Science is everything."

Nature of the Atom: Resources

• Light: http://www.cosmosportal.org/files/51501_51600/51526/file_51526.jpg
• Models of hydrogen atom: http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/hydrogen-atom
• The Chem1 Online Textbook: Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table (html)
• Video Lectures: MIT (html)
  • Lecture 1: Atomic Theory of Matter (html)
  • Lecture 2: Discovery of Nucleus (html)
  • Lecture 3: Wave-Particle Duality of Radiation and Matter (html)
  • Lecture 4: Particle-Like Nature of Light (html)
  • Lecture 5: Matter as a Wave (html)
  • Lecture 6: Schrödinger Equation for H Atom (html)
  • Lecture 7: Hydrogen Atom Wavefunctions (html)
  • Lecture 8: P Orbitals (html)
  • Lecture 9: Electronic Structure of Multielectron Atoms (html)
  • Lecture 10: Periodic Trends in Elemental Properties (html)

Why do you think the course is taught using this approach?

Science Responses in groups during class: Sept. 4, 2012

​

Alexis, Madison, Haley, Tynisha

a.

Teaching us to make our science classes more memorable

b.

Science related content isn’t always scientific

c.

Coming up with your own conclusions is important

d.

Shows that not everyone’s experiences are the same

    

Siobhan, Casey, Tarver, Clay

-

refresher/ jog our memory

-

as teachers we have to be conscious of the curriculums

-

science is a question based study

Sarah, Brianna, Kelly, Jill

-

in order to prove we all have the capability to teach science; science relates to everything

-

science intertwines with every subject

-

teaching us to think more broadly

Maci, Maggie, Nicole, Missy and Casey

-

metacognition: consciously thinking about our learning process

-

recalling past scientific experiences

-

actively learning

-

sharing knowledge with each other

-

thinking critically

-

observing the world around us

LET THERE BE LIGHT!: Bring the following to class on Tuesday, September 11

A.  Decide as a cohort who will bring the following to class.

1. Glow sticks (one for each person, including the 2 course facilitators and Joanne Previts)
2. A lamp with a working bulb that we can access
3. Candles (4-6)
4. Lighters (1-2)
5. Flashlights (as many as you can find)
6. Any other sources of light that you can think of, bring to class!

B. Bring your text books and your journals to class on Tuesday

C. Also remember to post your Light Tour of Milledgeville pictures to your FaceBook page so that we can view them on Tuesday.

Assignment #6: Come prepared for a Quiz

Quiz on Tuesday!

We know that you have a number of questions, and as we discussed at the beginning of class, this is OK. Come prepared to respond to the following during a quiz on Tuesday, September 11, 2012:

List ALL of the concepts discussed during the past 3 class sessions.
In class, you will devise a concept map that connects the concepts and ideas that you have.
This map will also include what happens when plastic containers with foodstuff is heated in a microvave oven; the Light Tour of Milledgeville; what is the "UNKOWN" gas that you observed in the spectral tube; your ideas of atomic theory, models of the atom, hypothesis-building, etc.

You will be evaluated on the depth of thought associated with the development of your concept map. Some examples of maps are given in the link below.

http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/assess/conceptmaps.html
http://cmap.ihmc.us/docs/ConstructingAConceptMap.html

Checks Lab Overview

CONCEPTS
1. Scientific knowledge is uncertain, tentative and subject to revision.
2. Scientific explanations and interpretations can neither be proven nor disproven with certainty.
3. Scientists use a variety of criteria to compare explanations and select the better ones.
4. Human values deeply influence science (its terminology, the questions asked, and the criteria used for choosing among theories).
5. Scientists can study events of the past for which there are no witnesses available, by proposing plausible explanations, then testing those ideas by looking for clues expected due to a proposed explanation.