Thursday, July 9, 2009

Thursday (Day 4)

The biology activity that we participated in this morning reminded me of several activities that are in the Project Wild and Project Flying Wild's curriculums. There are several ways to adapt these activities to meet your needs and the areas/subjects you are teaching. One of my favorites is the Bird Beaks activity where you get several different utensils to simulate 6 different types of bird beaks. Tweezers, a spoon, chop sticks and other things are used to pick up rice, beads and other things. I love Project Wild, Project Learning Tree, Project Aquatic Wild and Project Flying Wild's curriculums because all the activities are hands on activities. These curriculums have activities for all grade levels and can be used to meet some of the South Dakota standards. Here is one link for the activities that could be used to meet the middle school standards from Project Wild:
http://www.sdgfp.info/Wildlife/Education/Projwild/WILD6-8correlations.pdf If you want the high school or elementary list for the activities that match the standards, I am sure I can find them, just let me know.

Our afternoon's activity consisted of observing the reaction between crystal violet and sodium hydroxide. We used a machine that monitored the absorbance. Although this machine was useful for this experiment, it is hard for me to think of purchasing something that is only useful in one setting or situation.

I am enjoying learning the mathamatical components to our labs. I taught basic math equations such as gas laws and solving chemical equations. I didn't go real in depth at Woodfield Center. I felt that my job was to grab the at risk students' attention and get them excited about science and school again. Getting more in depth in math has me excited for new adventures as I begin teaching in a new location.

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