Friction

Intuition on static and kinetic friction comparisons: Why static friction is harder to overcome than kinetic friction
Static and kinetic friction example: Thinking about the coefficients of static and kinetic friction

Mendeleev for a Day

Pictures of completed "Mendeleev for a Day" activity.  

The above are my 3 year old's best guess where things are.  He pointed to the first piece in "the blue" row when I asked him what was missing.  He also said there were 2 in each of the top rows.  I did the math for him.  

For all interested who complete this activity submit photo to paul-barnard@uiowa.edu

IEPs and Accomodations

Finally getting to that last post.  Are there any students who do have IEPs in the block that I observe?  Yes, there is one student.  What sort of accommodations?  After talking with the special education teacher and seeing the IEP, the is to be given more time for heavy writing tasks.  The student is also to be given all notes relevant to the class.  If asked for, materials can be read to the student.  All writing tasks that are considered "heavy" are to be done on the computer.  

This class does have some writing, so on the larger projects like scientist biography, power plant reports, I imagine this student did get extra help and/or time.  Also, I have seen the "accommodated" test in which the teacher reduces the number of questions on writing it out type problems and the number of responses by one on multiple choice (usually the misleading or most distracting foil) leaving the student still needing to do the basics of the concept and have to chose between a right answer and popular misconceptions.  

The special ed teacher did inform me that the teachers are very good about providing the notes.  It is generally the student who loses them or forgets to pick them what.  What happens then?  In the emergency, it is printed off for them to use.  Generally there is a spare copy or left over from the initial handouts so the student is provided the information needed to comply with their IEPs.  

Technology in the Classroom

Welcome to technology in the classroom where once again, we try to see what can be manufactured forced upon us and hopefully it will help students learn.  Observations on what I saw that people would consider technology: There is a single computer, an Apple laptop that is the teachers hooked to a pair of speakers and an Epson projector.  There is a cart full of iPads in the school that can be reserved for specific days.  By chance I did see that there are Vernier probes but I'm guessing that is limited to just the teacher and a select few other computers in the school.  While this school has a state policy of no cell phones out during class, there is soft enforcement of this rule and one student did look up the term "sublimation" to see that it was real.  The enforcement comes when a student is using the phone more for a distraction than as a tool to find information.  

Other tech that is tech but is not so obvious.  There are white boards and magnets holding up papers.  Each student has a calculator, pencil, paper.  There is the lab equipment from fish tanks, beakers, laser pointer, light boxes, DC current boxes, etc that I have observed.  Technology exists, it just isn't always Star Trek but it isn't necessarily Grog the Caveman bashing a stone down on something either.  There's a spectrum and it runs pretty wide in this classroom.  

Safety First

"And remember, safety first!" Miss Jenny Sodor Construction Co.  Thomas and Friends

Welcome to the obligatory science class topic on safety or how not to lose your eye, or in this case a student's eye get sued and have to test your liability shield of your union and district.  I joke, but to me, safety has been there hand in hand since I started back in the mid-90s whether being the goggle-guy, helping with waste disposal, or serving professionally as the contact person for EHS to do audits on things like fume hoods (*cough cough Neal*), chemical inventory, biohazardous wastes, or even radioactive material pick up and disposal.  At any one point in my career I probably was responsible for more EPA, DOT, and DOE regulations than anyone possibly realized.  But today it is about the school and what is done.

First let's talk about general safety.  The school is locked.  You can't get in except through a buzzer at the front door.  You must sign in at the office (well you don't, but they'll run after you if you skip that step).  Backpacks are banned given the reason of being a fire hazards.  Student traffic in the halls is kept to a minimum.  Attendance is taken so the location of students is known.  

Room Safety Features

The room is divided in half.  The cabinets are all locked.  The prep room is where the actual chemicals are stored long term. There really isn't anything beyond some hydrochloric acid in there, and that is diluted (~3M?) and that is taken from the upstairs 11th grade chemistry class.  Most everything is household or kitchen items.  Inventory is informal.  Orders/MSDS are received as needed.  There is a master gas control in the prep room and another emergency gas shut off iin the front "teacher"s bench.  Goggles are required when chemicals are in use in the back half of the room (law).  Most everything is flushed down the drain due to very dilute.  

There are three doors (2 to the hallway, 1 to the preproom) if needed for escape.  There is a fume hood (about where the camera is located for the picture above).  There is also a safety shower and 2 eye wash stations on the first bench on the left and right sides.  

Current Events II: HHMI Puts out Call for Proposals

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has put out a call for proposals for funding the training of STEM teachers according to a new report.  This is going to be an expansion of an already existing program, National Math and Science Iniativive (NMSI) UTeach program.  This is essentially a pilot program that Texas-Austin started.  It sounds very similar to the way thigns are done in the TEP here at Iowa however.  

What makes this my science education article?  It is the fact that it is all about the training and results.  They talk about retention rates in the pilot program of close to 70% in math and science where the normal attrition rate is 50%!  Now that is something to look at.  Of course, why is it that a four year degree and a teacher ed program works while something like Teach for America gives 50% rates?  

Impressive things to me is HHMI.  They don't throw money at things unless you get results on somethings.  I have seen HHMI labs (and pilfered their supplies when they weren't looking shhhhhhhhhh) they are all about compliance, hoops, publishing, graduating, and "achieving".  

Troubling facts to me about this whole thing.  Doing anything that originated in Texas.  NCLB.  'Nuff said.  Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation haven't found enough underqualified people in the classroom yet.  The Dell foundation is gonna be broke soon.  Exxon and Lockheed Martin obviously are in it as a pipeline to fill their workforce, but for all the evil they do they at least are stepping up and saying math and science are important (even if used against us).  

Student Observation

This was the week that creeped me out the most as an adult.  To litterally stare or observe one single minor for 90 minutes, even to try and observe their behavior just isn't exactly easy for a 36 year old to do with respect to 14 year olds.  I lucked out in that it was a test and not a typical class period.  I felt I could best observe a student or two without them feeling that I was staring through them to figure out what was going on in their very active hormonal driven brains.  I observed one male student who I sit right beside.  

To aid me I made an ethogram, which is used in behavioral biology.  I essentially observe for a given time, choose relevant major behaviors, and than go back and re-observe and record the amount each of those behaviors occurs.  

Behavior	Staring	Pen Cap Closing	Notebook closing	Notebook flopping	Other
Occurrences	6	7	8	15	7

Staring: Blindly staring off test paper for more than 10 seconds
Pen Cap Closing: Taking cap of pen, putting it on
Notebook closing: Taking out notebook, looks up information, closes it
Notebook flopping: Taking closed notebook and flipping it over
Other: Behaviors observed not found to be repeated.

The student is easily distracted, staring off into space.  He frequently places the cap on and off of his pend.  He's distracted by the hallway traffic even though he is on other side of the room by a window (which is out to a field).  His notes are transferred because the handwriting in the notebook doesn't match the writing on the test.  I do know that he is a good drawer.  The artwork on certain structures they are being tested over is not as good as his own work that I have seen him do and other students have asked him to reproduce for their notes.  His handouts/assignments are disorganized and really slowing him down.  He does use the assignments to model and find similar problems for his test.  Drawing ray diagrams seems to give him more focus as all behaviors except test taking seem to go away.  His nose starts to run, but he returns quickly nad gets right back to work.  He appears confused (facial expression).  He does seem to fold his hands in prayer/mediation as if that will enable him to finish/know the answers.  He does have an internal clock begins asking how much time with about 15 minutes or so to go in class.  

Student Interview

The last time I was at my practicum school I took advantage of a unit test to accomplish two lingering blog posts.  This post will deal with an interview of two young men (I had to look up at them and I'm 6'1"!!!).  They had finished their test early and were looking at their next long term project on the wall, a list of historical physicists, chemists, and a variety of female scientists not named Curie.  

One thing I learned, teenagers guard syllables more than a goblin guards gold at Gringot's Bank on Diagon Alley.  Monosyllabic speech is an art form at that age and these two guys were masters.  While I admit to not being the best interviewer (most of my experiments never talked back except for a couple of crickets and even then I had to coax them with a faux cricket recorded earlier).  

When I could bribe them to speak in complete sentences of yes or know I had found out the same thing:

What do they like best about this class and science learning?

Answer: they are given an explanation or some background.  They than do an activity generally by the next block.  They enjoy that the hands on activity does relate back to the topic and is not just some buy work project.

What has been their favorite activity/thing about the class?

First both expressed that this teacher is their favorite for this year.  Having read their student handbook, the first 2 years at this school are highly planned out in terms of requirements.  There is wiggle room for electives (foreign language, band, choir etc) but most students have to take 6 subjects out of 8 possible blocks with little to no choice over who teaches it.  Next their favorite activity was burning the food and calculating the "food calories" to the printed box calories.  Having done that myself, flaming Cheetos  cashews and marshmallows is a fun thing (of course one questions the wisdom of giving 14 year olds fire).  

What do they like least?

They can be overwhelmed by terms, formulas and procedures.  They have open note/open book tests.  The students feel that they have no means of organization and are left to fend for themselves in that regard.  They are struggling and just don't seem to know where to begin.  

Time Frame of Lessons

Well during my discussions I have learned that my cooperating teacher has pretty much decided he has the freedom to go with what he wants when.  He does have a system where he progresses through things in an organized manner.

I believe I missed a unit on how light energy is captured by the retina.  I came in on a unit on how energy specifically wind, solar, nuclear, and coal (through fossil fuels) is than converted to electricity.  They are now in a unit on waves and sounds.  He says he is not following any standards but is using examples he has gotten from the book, developed and refined over time, stolen from other places etc.  He'll finish the year with chemistry.  So there is long term and medium term planning evident.  I don't see enough day to day operations and the time so far has been too brief to ask about short term planning, but I do know it's timed about down to the week (about 2-3 days due to block schedules).  tomorrow I do know the students will be taking their unit test on waves, and the next time I'll see them may not be till April and the midst of chemistry due to Spring Breaks of both their school and Iowa.

Week 3 Snow Delay

So despite there being a 2 hour delay and 2 hour early dismissal, my block was still scheduled to go its normal time and length for when it occurs on Wednesday.  Well let's complicate that fact with there was a cancellation on Friday due to snow.  The school did not rotate their days but instead waited, so I'm on the wrong week.  I did stay and observe the kids.  I did actually get inspired to write out a lab by one of them playing around with their current activity which was taking prisms and refracting lights. One took off her glasses and placed it in the focused beams.  You could see the multiple slit light focusing into one single beam.  I don't think she realized that this would be the answer to the homework she got later in the day.  But my inspiration would be to take a variety of lens/prescriptions of whatever is in the room (have spares or my own pairs as back up) and do the same thing.  Have the students explain why and what it is helping to correct.  So I'll get back to the questions when they are my group and try a double post later on since I already know the answer to the upcoming week's question.  

Pendulums

A performer is was winging on the trapeze at the circus. It takes 5.2 seconds for him to complete one swing.  Another performer jumps on what's happens?

It goes faster.  F=ma.  Or 1/2mv^2.  Increasing mass should increase potential energy at the start.  Therefore leading to increased velocity which means less time.

My personal experience is that when on a swing, the more effort or work I undertake ie pumps the legs the higher and faster I can go.  The other I can't share due to audience possible lay seeing it.

100 years ago clocks were the most important thing.

Two will go through a period faster than a single.

Hooks law.  Wave functions.  Angular momentum.  Monkeys make for terrible models for this sort of phenomena.

My prediction is you gain 1.5 per doubling of mass.

9 per 10 seconds for 1 washer.

Predictions: For 2 washers is 13.5, 3 washers is 18, and 4 washers would be 22.5 oscillations.

I was wrong.  They were the same.  I put too much " faith" in the mass.  Thinking on it hook's law is mass independent but totally dependent on positional changes.

Material of what makes the "string".  Do different materials swing differently.  Is there an angle that is not 180 degree flight path that is faster than the others?

Week 2 Post Practicum Brain Spewing

Same block different day.  Full period this time and I got to see the power/utility of the block scheduling   It was interesting to note the use of time.  I found it interesting that he chose to give some students (one third of the class) the laboratory activity seemingly random (middle two rows).  It was then up to those kids to go find two partners.  They had done a similar activity since I had last seen them.  They are now on a new unit of optics/waves.  They were working with concave and convex mirrors, tracing lines and seeing how they reflected off.  This took approximately 20 minutes or so.  I was able to talk with each of about half of the kids and started asking them how they liked this activity and what they learned more.  Most seemed to say that they would love doing things like this all day.  One said she could learn it no matter what.  

Getting to this weeks burning questions, my cooperating teacher has pretty much total freedom to go with whatever he wants when he wants to teach it.  He is the only teacher in the school for this particular grade and class.  That said, I did learn the previous week that he has it grouped into several 3-6 week units.  Most of March will be waves/light with some optics.  April through the end of the year will be things related to chemistry.  Each week has a specific focus.  He has been doing this for several years.  He started with the text book, and expanded out eventually leaving it behind so the text books are now all on a shelf in the back of the room.  He developed experiments and activities based on the equipment he had inherited when starting the job.  Everything today is now been developed by him and used for at least a couple of years.  As to standards, since this was originally designed from the text book which probably were in line with the old standards, he probably is covering some.  He just isn't going out of his way to determine which standards are being met on a given particular lesson instead making sure they get a mix of things covering a broad spectrum of physical science.  

Article I: Large Asteroid Crater found in my home town

It is always interesting when something happens in a place you were born, lived a significant portion of your life or have some sort of connection.  Essentially tests are being run to see if this could be the 184th confirmed time a solid rock impacted the earth and made some big hole in the ground in a story originally from the Washington Post. The crater is approximately 3.5 miles wide and dates back to approximately 470-490 million years ago.  And it shows there was something in Decorah before some one put up a web cam on some bald eagles.  

This is a wonderful opportunity to teach children about several things.   I learned things just by reading the article.  There was believed to be a large collision in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in which several of the other 183 craters came from.

We can learn about geology and the various rock layers and formations.  I know from growing up there Decorah is primarily a limestone bed that was formed by a prehistoric sea (as is most of Iowa).  The ocean/sea would've been receding, gone or vaporized by the time of this collision.  So there is the opportunity to learn about plate tectonics  geologic time scale, and changes over time both globally and locally.

Furthering geology and even chemistry, this alleged crater was discovered by identifying quartz that formed due to impact.  By learning what chemicals are in rocks we can learn ways to identify things and how to design tests to use gross estimates on how to determine if rock is say limestone versus marble or volcanic or some other sedimentary process.

The biggest stretch is that because of the prehistoric ocean, we can learn about evolution in biology.  How certain forms that emerged from the precambrian and this time reappear through out all of life today.  How great periods of time gradual changes add up.  How extinction and respeciation or new speciation occur.  

View Larger Map

Week 1: The Adventure Begins

I'm going to try to keep everything anonymous from school to teacher and especially students.  Although a good search, and some reasoning can pinpoint the school I don't have to confirm or deny anyone's supposition   

Getting ready for blast off....

So today was the first day at my practicum.  I was surprised how close this school was to where I live.  The sprawl of several cities has merged some of these small towns willing or unwillingly into a mini-metro with several distinct school districts nearly on top of one another.  This is different from many local school boundaries in the same district.  The second thing was this school is much more serious about security and access than several others I have visited and walked through in the past.  I had to be buzzed in, sign away my first born (it's ok with his behavior lately, no problems there j/k), and was escorted to the room by the secretary.  I also noticed not many kids in the hallways.  Only 3 or four (in a school of about 400 total kids in high school) wandering the halls but to and from the bathroom or their lockers.  The last thing I noticed before even entering/while entering the classroom is a strict no backpack policy.  My cooperating teacher informed me it was due to OSHA/fire marshall regulations about blocking the aisles/tripping hazards.  I also made a small mental note that in a "secured" building, if everyone is just carrying what they need for class, anyone with a backpack at times not ~8AM or ~3:30pm is fairly suspicious though.  

Finally I entered the room.  I saw that the room was divided into two not quite equal parts (about a 60/40 split).  The larger portion of the room was a lab area with benches coming off the walls.  The smaller half was  aligned with desks in fairly organized row, a central "teacher" bench in front of the classroom, a mounted projector, white board and a computer cart with my cooperating teacher's laptop.  There is a five minute transit time for students between their scheduled classes.  I was shown a seating chart.  I was explained that today was a presentation day for the near end of a unit on energy.  They were doing the histories and engineering of how certain power plants around the country.  

The cooperating teacher called for the students to sit down.  I should ask who set this up initially  but Google drive was used for the students to share their presentations.  Generally the students were questioned if they used an acronym and didn't define it in their presentation and would occasionally question if they did not explain.  It was unique to say the least because I think most presentations were done in under five minutes.  My cooperating teacher obviously knows his students and reminded them several times about the "allow" button for sharing at one point asking "Does anyone listen to me?"  (I tried not to laugh).  He obviously knows his students by this point in the semester (I asked).  There's some back and forth with some underlying history I didn't quite catch.  One thing I started to notice was there was more and more talking the closer to the lunch break, so I heard the quote, "Talk during a presentation and lose points".  It got quiet, but the obvious tattling began between presentations and all one student said in reply "He said no talking during, this is between" and the teacher confirmed.  

Today I learned about what period I don't want to teach: the one with lunch on the day of an early dismissal, especially when you have the "B" lunch.  The students were obviously anxious to go to lunch all day.  Then after returning from lunch they were anxious to leave early.  I think this was possibly great planing (or fortuitous accident) that I got to see these presentations today.  Instead of fighting their tendency to want to be elsewhere and give them something new to do, I saw letting them summarize what they have done.  In 2 weeks, when I return to this day on the blocks, I would like to see how it is different.

And the struggle begins....(Course if I pull the sword out I'm king off all the Brittons and my life gets easier)

Magnetism

1. What are some “real life” applications of magnetism?

High speed rail.  Magnets propel light passenger trains.

Cranes can use magnets to carry large magnetic pieces of equipment or scrap.  

Magnets are used practically daily in kitchens to hold things to refrigerators from grocery lists, reminder notes, money, and whatever else can be held.

MRI/NMR uses a giant magnet used to infer the spin states of hydrogen nuclei.  From this we gain information about structures in the body or chemical structures.

2. What experiences have you had with magnets in your life?

I've used refrigerator magnets.

My son's Thomas the Tank engines are held together by magnets.  We hold them up off the tracks in long chains and watch them spin and see who can make the longest trains.  

I'm the only chemist in the world who has possibly not used NMR but can read the structures from various NMR techniques.  

3. What ideas do you have about the science of magnets?

It involves the electron configuration of the d/f-orbitals and which are paired in the same spin state and which are not (electronic configuration); this is where the term rare earth magnets come from.  It also is directly related to electricity in that it produces a field in which it may act in attractive way to things that are similarly charged.  It is considered an energy form, and we see certain wave lengths that are emitted as visible light.  

4. In the Mickey Mouse Video it says, “Well, metal does stick to magnets”?

What do you think? Will a magnet stick to these materials?
Material	Prediction	Why?
Granite	No	Lacking the right chemical make up
Aluminum	No	Thing electronic configuration is wrong
Glass	No	Silicon therefore not metalic in origin
Iron/Steel	Yes	Correct electronic configureation
Fiberboard	No	Not metallic/organic in origin
Copper	No	Think the electronic configuration is wrong
Circuit Board	Hesitant yes	Depends on "charged" and substance
Tin	Yes	Correct electronic configureation
Cardboard	No	Not metallic/organic in origin
Wood	no	Not metallic/organic in origin
Lead	Yes
Mirror	Antique ones yes, new no	Correct electronic configureation (due to lead) No lead
Plastic	No	Not metallic/organic in origin
Foam	No	Not metallic/organic in origin