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Week 15 Blog - Elementary Science Methods (Addyson Junge)

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Week 15 Blog - Elementary Science Methods (Addyson Junge) May 11, 2025                                                                  Figure 1 What did you learn this week? This week, we explored ways in which we can teach the chemical reaction with baking soda and vinegar (Figure 1). My group and I conducted a few "experiments" to find ways to explain to upper elementary students how this phenomenon worked. We knew we had to catch our students' attention, so we thought about performing the chemical reaction for them. At first, we discussed some ways we could show students how the mass does not decrease or increase, but instead, show them the creation of a new mass, a new material. In this case, we learned that the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar makes carbon dioxide, the same gas...

Week 14 Blog - Elementary Science Methods (Addyson Junge)

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Week 14 Blog - Elementary Science Methods (Addyson Junge) May 1, 2025                                                 Figure 1 What did you learn this week? This week, during our lab, we got the option to conduct one of the two phenomena we did during week 11. Our group decided to go more in-depth on the "Melting Ice" lab. We were initially confused as to why the ice melted faster on a metal surface than on a wooden surface. Throughout the lab, we started to gain a better understanding of why the ice melted faster on metal because of the density of particles. We then produced our flip video, for which we had created a layout on a whiteboard (Figure 1). In our lecture, we talked more in-depth about phase changes and why that happens. We continued to look into how temperature affects different atoms/molecules.  Are you able to relate what yo...

Week 13 Blog - Elementary Science Methods (Addyson Junge)

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Week 13 Blog - Elementary Science Methods (Addyson Junge) April 27, 2025     Figure 1                                             Figure 2                                              Figure 3 What did you learn this week? This week, we revisited the M&M experiment that we did in Week 11, but this time, we focused on the "why" question: "Why does it do this?" To answer this question, we had to run a basic experiment with one plate of M&Ms, then record our data (Figure 1). For our next experiment, we wanted to see the effect sugar had on the saturation of M&M color. So, we ran another test, but this time with two plates, one with 1 Tbs of sugar and the other with no sugar, side-by-side, and recorded our da...

Week 12 Blog - Elementary Science Methods (Addyson Junge)

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Week 12 Blog - Elementary Science Methods (Addyson Junge) April 20, 2025     Figure 1 What did you learn this week? Today, I learned to think like an adult/teacher and a child/student. As I went through the lab activity, I had several predictions and explanations as to why something floated or sank, weighed heavy or light, conducted electricity or not, and was magnetized or not (Figure 1). However, when I had to put on my "child" cap, this activity seemed slightly more difficult. I kept asking the question, "Why does this happen?" During the lecture, we talked more about property types and how that affects characteristics, such as density, volume, mass, etc.  Which parts did you find clear and which were confusing? Something I found clear was the idea of water being 1 g/mL. Not only did this make a lot of sense to me, but it was also super in terest in g. Something else I found clear was that when you cut something in half, it does not change the material. As stated...

Week 11 Blog - Elementary Science Methods (Addyson Junge)

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  Week 11 Blog - Elementary Science Methods (Addyson Junge) April 13, 2025                        Figure 1                                  Figure 2                                  Figure 3                         Figure 4                                 Figure 5                                  Figure 6 What did you learn this week? This week, we learned about 6 different science phenomena by doing hands-on experiments as elementary students. We were cha...

Week 10 Blog - Elementary Science Methods (Addyson Junge)

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  Week 10 Blog - Elementary Science Methods (Addyson Junge) April 6th, 2025                         Figure 1                                 Figure 2                                 Figure 3 What did you learn this week? This week, we checked on our fast plants, which were at the end of their life cycle (Figure 1). During class, we learned more about evolution and natural selection, doing some new activities. We did a "Prey Bean" activity that represented natural selection throughout generations (Figure 2). We later found that predators inherit traits that help them catch prey (Figure 3). At the end of the week, during our lecture section, we took Exam 3, which was nice to have a small reflection of the course material.  ...

Week 8 Blog - Elementary Science Methods (Addyson Junge)

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Week 8 Blog - Elementary Science Methods (Addyson Junge) March 16, 2025         Figure 1                                           Figure 2                                           Figure 3 What did you learn this week? At the start of class, my group and I checked on our fast plant, and it seemed like it did not grow very much (Figure 1), but we observed another group's fast plant again this week (Figure 2). During the lab section this week, we reviewed our Baby Face Lab, DNA sequencing, acquired and inherited traits, and DNA mutation. Lastly, during our lab, we did a mutation activity, which helped me understand the difference between the different points of mutations (insertion, deletion, and substitution) (Figure 3)....