Sophmore Year

Wow, if I thought this second year was going to be a little easier, it isn't looking that way at the moment. I've not had time to post at all, so I'll skip the kwetching and go straight to the instruction.

I'm pretty happy with the way things are going at the moment. We just got into some nature of science stuff this week and will finish up the introductory material next week. I budgeted 2 full weeks (not counting this past one) and I may just meet the schedule for a change. This week we talked a little about magic - I did the "Science Never Sucks" (Word Doc) trick with the test tubes, penny, and soapy water. Worked in 2 classes but not a third. The penny is just a hair too big or doesn't sit just right on the lip of the test tube so it's a little inconsistent. Then I showed them a "gory" Crisangel video and we talked a little about the importance of observation and skepticism.

We spent a little time on the "Tracks" activity that I can't link to for copyright issues. E-mail me and I'll send you the copy that I scanned. It's actually from BSCS (or that's where I got it) and involves exposing a "fossil bed" (picture) of animal tracks, one section at a time, and making observations/inferences, then revising those inferences as more information accumulates. I'm sure there are other versions of the activity, but a google search turned up nothing. It was interesting to me that students at the end wanted to know the "real" story. That lack of certainty is obviously a problem in science for a lot of people. We seem to crave an author, an authority, or an authoritarian to give us a definitive answer.

Next week we will be playing with the hissing cockroaches. They will begin a long term observation of the critters and I will start by asking them to compare the cockroaches to themselves in as much detail as possible. I don't have a formal lab write-up. Instead, they will be taking notes and keeping a log in their journals. For lab minutes I will have to supply some sort of worksheet to keep on file for them, but that will have to wait a few weeks. I also have the mealworms that I will work in at some point. I found an idea to conduct a controlled experiment on the effect of temperature on their development from pupa to adult. It's the only transition where there's a certain degree of control for the age variable, since you can actually know within a few hours when a mealworm turns into a pupa, then measure how long it takes to turn into a beetle. Unfortunately I think my adult beetles are engaging in a little cannibalism, and I may have to start a separate cage for the adults to keep this from continuing. Gotta get those student monitors lined up next week to help with some of the lab set up and live critter upkeep.