Meet wth a Scientist, Present to A Scentist

Please post your team name, team members
As a comment to this post, indicate the scientist consultant and paper that you have received.

Activity
This year's presentation draws from Crease's book, The Great Equations.

Each team will present as a panel for 15-20 minutes to the class and scientists on the chapter that you received. You can prepare a one-page handout if you wish. You will not use PowerPoint as part of the panel presentation. A rubric for assessing the panel presentation, participation of each member of the team, the question/answer component, and your demeanor during the presentation is in the DropBox (to be updated).

Questions
Here are some questions that you can use in addition to your own:

1.     What is the “take away” point (main argument) of the chapter?  Why might this chapter be significant to the study and nature of science? 

2. How do the physical science models and theories that we studied apply to the content of the chapter (heat, atomic)?  Are there any models or theories presented in the chapter that we have not studied?  If so, do they seem like explanations for central concepts or concepts that are less crucial for understanding physical science? 
3. Describe 3 key features of the main model or theory presented in the article that would allow others to distinguish it from another competing model or theory.

4.      Can/Is the model represented mathematically and/or conceptually? What evidence do you have to support this claim?

5.      Identify any limitations of assumptions or boundaries of the model/theory identified in the chapter. How are they limitations of the model?

6.      What predictions, if any, can be made from the model/equation presented in the chapter?

7.      Can any predictions from an unrelated phenomenon be assessed from these models?

8.      What would you do to improve on these model/theory/equation?

9..  Find 5 physical science concepts that could be addressed in the chapter that are also identified in the National Science Education Standards.  Explain how each of the 5 concepts benefit from the equation in the chapter as well as more generally, how they relate to the natural world.   

10. What would you expect a middle school student to understand about these concepts and their relationship to “real life”?  How does this compare to what the middle school teacher should understand about these concepts and their relationship to “real life”?

From Now to Thanksgiving.... (sounds like a movie title?)

Find below our ideas for the second half of the course; these may change depending on the depth of our discussions. However, the goals remain the same.


October 2
-Discussion:
---Meet with/Present to a Scientist (articles will be approved by scientist then placed in DropBox or a URL given)
-Evaluating your Concept Maps (a rubric will be handed out to assist you in assessing your maps)
-Lecture: The development of ideas on the nature of the atom (atomic theory): 2 PPTs
-Models/Nature of the Atom project (see blog: goal is to educate middle grades students about the development of ideas of the atom)
-Energy Lab: What's Cookin'? Burning A Cheeto! (introduction to heat)


October 16
-Science Talk: development of ideas on the nature of the atom and the nature of science
-MidTerm Quiz
-Moon Journal discussion
-Science in the Media
-Introduction to heat
-Energy Lab: What's cookin'?
-Meet with a Scientist: create teams
-HWK



October 23: Heat
-Science in the Media
-Team Time: Meet with a Scientist: articles distributed
-Conversations about Heat and Models of the Atom
-Energy Lab: What's cookin'? Science Writing Heuristic
-MidTerm Quiz Discussion
-HWK: Heat Problems; (assigned reading: bring Primary Science (first 2 chapter); bring text to class
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-MidTerm Quiz
-Moon Journal discussion
-Museum Exhbit discussion
-Introduction to heat



October 30: Happy Halloween
-Halloween Costume Competition
-Science in the Media
-Team Time: Meet with a Scientist
-Conversations about Heat and Models of the Atom
-Heat Problems
-Concept maps
-MidTerm Quiz Discussion
-HWK: bring Primary Science text to class; bring in Moon Journal and artifacts



November 2
NSTA Regional Conference (Atlanta, GA)



November 6
-Science in the Media: several teams

-Heat Lab: Boiling water lab
-Primary Science conversation
-Team Time: Meet with a Scientist
-Concept maps
-Moon Journal Activity/Lab
http://www.winkatthemoonnight.com/
http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/lunar-lander
-Chalk Talk
-HWK:Preparation for Present to A Scientist event

 

November 13: Panel discussions
-Meal (4:30 PM)
-Present to a Scientist (panel)
-HWK: Science News Jigsaw articles; Newton's second law of motion (Great Equations)/Chapter in Bryson's book Newton's Laws reading and responses to prompts; reading from Primary Science; Atom Exhibit



November 20: No class
-The Physical Science of Thanksgiving



November 27: Informal Science Education (ISE)
-Science in the Media
-Science Writing Heuristic/Models of the Atom/Newton's second law of motion (Great Equations)/Chapter in Bryson's book
-Museum Exhibit: final plans

-Lab: Newton's Laws
-HWK: bring Primary Science text to class
-Evaluating Science News: Science News Jigsaw
 -------------------------------------------------
-Science in the Media
-Primary Science text to class
-Creating an interactive museum exhibit (L. Chandler)  
-Museum Exhibit: final plans 
-Moon Journal Activity/Lab
http://www.winkatthemoonnight.com/
http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/lunar-lander


December 4-Museum Exhibit: exhibit on display
-Informal Science Education 
-Chalk Talk


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November 27: 
-Creating meaningful, interactive museum exhibits (L. Chandler): Natural History Museum (1st floor Hery Hall)
-Museum Exhibit: final plans
-Science in the Media 
-Lunch (30 minutes)
-Moon Journal Activity/Lab
http://www.winkatthemoonnight.com/
http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/lunar-lander
HWK: bring in researched responses to your questions

December 4 
-Museum Exhibit: exhibit on display
-Bring it all together: The Nature of Science and the Nature of the Atom: hypotheses, theories (including Shrodinger's, Newton's, etc.), models, light, heat, KMT, 
-Informal Science Education 
-Chalk Talk
-SALG 

MidTerm Quiz

1. Prepare an index card for each activity; these cards must have lab activities, computer simulation and science talk activty
2. On each card, please summarize the data that you collected and a one sentence statement of the scientific meaning of the data an index card; you may want to crate several duplicates of each card
3. On a different index card, copy the statements from question 1 of the mid-term exam
4. Create a matrix/grid of the index card with test prompts on side and data from each activity next to the appropriate statement (see below).

TEST PROMPT	DATA from activity	DATA from activity	DATA from activity
A molecule is simply two or more….	Electrolysis Lab; we learned that the decomposition of water occurred when current were placed in the tubes; Gas bubbles formed in the tube were likely from hydrogen gas  released because the gas popped when a flame was applied; colors changed for the pH indicator; the other tube was supposed to relase a gas (likely oxygen since water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen).
One puzzle had to do with spectral readings of the wavelengths of hydrogen…	Spectral Tubes and Science Talks: In our science talk, we discussed how there was no medium ground for energy levels, like a ladder; only one wavelength or another; this expalained the gaps in the spectral tubes….	Light Tour: We also observed these color gaps during the light tour of Milledgeville….	PHET Simulation: The simulation in Dr. Richards' lab we began to see when the e;ectron jumped; we brought this up in the Science Talk…