Audrey Ward - Elementary Science Blog

 Week 6: Geological Time  1. What did you do in the lab today?  In the lab, we did a short review at the beginning of class. We then moved on to discussing the timeline of the Earth, addressing our preconceptions. We debated when major events throughout Earth's history actually occurred and used the Earth viewer to discover interesting facts about the Earth over the last 4.65 billion years. We discussed many of the various events that occurred before humans. For example, dinosaurs lived for millions of years before being wiped out by an asteroid, whereas humans have only been living for approximately 300,000 years. One thing that I learned was that we are currently in a mass extinction since the Revolutionary War because humans are killing off more than 90% of the plants and animals.  2. What was the big question?  What is the Earth's history, and the significant events that occurred before humans?  3. What did you learn in Thursday's discussion?  N/A ...

Week 5: Galaxies to Black Holes  1. What did you do in the lab today? N/A; I was not in the lab this week.  2. What was the big question? How do stars and other objects in space form, change, and influence the universe? 3. What did you learn in Thursday's discussion? 4. Read the online textbook chapter 2:  What did you learn? All stars begin as clouds of gas and dust.  As the stars burn through their fuel, they lose mass, resulting in a decrease in gravity and an increase in size.  Super red giant stars have more mass, so they burn their fuel quickly.  Once they have burned all of their fuel, they collapse and create a supernova.  Once this happens, the star can form a black hole OR a compact neutron star.  Meteors:  The streak of light that we see when a meteoroid enters Earth's atmosphere and burns up due to friction.  They are often called shooting stars even though they are not stars.  Comets:  Icy bodies that orbit the sun...

Week 4: Our Solar System  1. What did you do in the lab today? In the week 4 lab, we conducted an activity to measure the distance and size of the Sun, Moon, and several planets. My group decided to use millimeters, so we started with our Sun being 170mm, and found the distance and size of the other planets from there. It was a really cool experience to get to see the size and distance (not to scale, of course) of the planets, Sun, and Moon. It was interesting to learn that the sizes of some of the planets are very similar, but that the Sun is way bigger than all of them.      At the end of the lab, Pheobe from the School of the Wild came to talk with us about our lessons. We reviewed the lesson plans and asked her any questions that we had.                                            2. What was the big question? How d...

Week 3: The Moon  1. What did you do in the lab today?      Today in week 3 lab, we learned about the moon phases and how often the moon rotates and revolves. We learned that we only see one side of the moon because of a phenomenon called tidal locking. Additionally, we learned that even though we only see one side of the moon, it still rotates. Towards the end of class, we did an activity whose purpose was to learn about the surface of the moon. We used cocoa powder layered with flour on top, and dropped a small ball into it. This demonstrated how craters are impacting the moon's surface and the different layers of the moon. By doing this, we were able to determine what the surface of the moon is like, how thick or thin it is, and how the craters are made. This activity helped me understand that the two sides of the moon look different because the depth of the crust is not the same on each side. The darker side of the moon must have a thicker crust because it has fe...

Week 2: Space: The Final Frontier  1. What did you do in the lab today? N/A; Labor Day 2. What was the big question? What are the major milestones and people involved in space exploration?  3. What did you learn in Thursday's discussion? My notes:  4. Read the online textbook chapter 2:  What did you learn? The Soviet Union and the United States competed to get the first human to land on the Moon. Space Race  In 1969, the American mission Apollo 11 landed the first two people on the Moon (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin).  Women were seen to have a physical advantage as astronauts.  Shorter, lighter, and consume less food.  But NASA had a requirement that astronauts had to be military pilots, which was a job only for men.  In 1983, Sally Ride became the first female astronaut.  What was most helpful? It was very helpful to see the timeline of major milestones in space exploration, which allowed me to visualize when they were happening. I ...