Ellie Behrens- Elementary Science Methods

Week 13: Local Climate Change ·        What did you do in lab? During lab we did a group project about climate change. My group researched temperature and how it’s related to climate change. I learned that locally, regionally, and globally the temperature has been rising over the most recent years. Since Iowa and the Midwest are very prominent for agriculture, the temperature changes cause more soil erosion and change in crop diversity. During the plant life presentation, I learned that this has a negative effect on Iowa because agriculture is a vital part of Iowa. There has been more precipitation and rainfall which negatively affects agriculture. During the precipitation presentation I learned that snowfall in Iowa has been decreasing over the past years. There has been more rain instead of snow. There are typically a few big snowstorms throughout the winter compared to many small snowstorms. ·        What was the...

  Week 12: Climate Change ·         Week 12: Climate Change ·        What did you do in lab? We discussed the Before the Flood video and what we learned from it. The main point of the video was to educate us about the effects of climate change and the current reality of it. One of the major issues is that it is hard to make policy changes because everyone needs to be on board with it. This is a challenge because it is a worldwide problem, so there are a lot of people involved. One question that I would like to know more about is if the predictions from the video have come true. Since this video was released in 2016, I would like to learn more about updates since the video was released. We also looked at data for rainfall in a specific region of Iowa. We used this data to predict if this affects goldfinches. We concluded that goldfinches are negatively affected by the changing climate in Iowa. Here is our data from the “Drake...

  Week 11: Weather ·        What did you do in lab? We discussed the water cycle in depth and all the different phases. The order of the water cycle is precipitation, evaporation, and condensation. We also talked about snow and how that occurs through sublimation. Weather is short term, and climate is long term. Before we could forecast weather with modern technology, people predicted the weather in different ways. They would keep detailed records, use patterns, and physical signs. Additionally, we made a list of terms related to weather and discussed their meaning. ·        What was the big question? The big question we discussed was: What is weather and what are related terms? ·        What did you do in Thursdays discussion? In Thursday’s discussion we took our assessment. ·        Read the online textbook chapter 2.    o  ...

        What did you do in lab? In lab we did a lab that shows the different types of tectonic plate movements. A convergent boundary is when one plate dives under another. A convergent boundary forms a mountain. A real-life example of this is the Himalaya Mountains in India. We watched a video about the theory of continental drift and plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is the cause. Continental drift is the effect of the movement. Scientists are starting to find new species in the trench in the ocean every day. We did an activity that showed the transform boundary, divergent boundary, and convergent boundary. We used graham crackers, rice cakes, and whipped cream to show the different types of boundaries. The whipped cream was the “magma” and it pushed up to fill the gaps. ·        What was the big question? The big question we discussed was: What are plate tectonics and how are they related to earthquakes and volcanoes? · ...

  1.       What did you do in lab today? In lab we explore volcanoes and earthquakes. We did lots of pair-and-share group work about these two topics. First, we brainstormed individually about what we know about them from our previous courses and knowledge. Next, we looked at a world map and predicted where volcanoes and earthquakes most commonly occur. When placing these locations, we were thinking of places that we’ve seen on the news and tropical places. We had to guess about many of these places because we did not know where they most commonly occur. Next, we looked at a website that shows that tracks all the volcanoes and earthquakes to see how accurate our predictions were. 2. What was the big question? The big question we discussed was: What are volcanoes and earthquakes? 2.       What did you do in Thursdays discussion? These are my notes from Thursdays discussion: Oldest to youngest: White sandstone, siltstone, ...

1.       What did you do in lab today? In lab we explored fossils that are found in Iowa. We sorted the fossils and looked at them under a microscope. We found lots of brachiopods and corals. Both were animals that would stick to the sea floor. Next, we looked at 11 different types of sand under a microscope. We wrote down observations and characteristics of each type. It was surprising to see how many differences there were because before looking at them under a microscope they all looked very similar. We finished lab by visiting the museum of Natural History in MacBride Hall and looking at the animals that were previously found in Iowa. Sand 1: not as much variety in the size, opaque colors, white, beige, brown Sand 2: orange color, some brown colored rocks some opaque rocks various sizes Sand 3: darker color, black, crystals, larger size   Sand 4: clear/white smaller size ricks, not as much variety in size Sand 5: multicolored rocks, red, ora...