Global Warming - Inquiry Experiment Question #8 and #9

This inquiry experience could raise many good questions and good debate within a classroom. I hypothesized that when the ice melted the water in the bowl would not overflow, and in my experimentation found that to be proven correct. I see a few problems with the experiment that would not make it possible to use in class without modifications. It took longer than 40 min. for the ice to melt and that would not work in the allotted class time. I also think that if student's were doing the research themselves they would encounter a lot of nonfactual information and be responsible for weeding these out. For younger students this could be a huge problem.

Not too many years ago people were worrying about global cooling, people panicked and jumped on the band wagon, companies profited, and scientists were wrong. As a person who tends to not jump on the band wagon, I have yet to see enough irrefutable evidence to support global warming or to support the theory that humans are a primary cause of global warming.

I do not live under the illusion that humans have no effect on the climate, I am just not yet convinced that human impact is the major contributor to climate change. Joel Hood a reporter from the Chicago Tribune reported on findings from Northern Illinois University that denser corn and soybean fields in the Midwest are causing cooler temperatures, thus proving the impact of humans(http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-05-11/health/ct-met-weather-crops-20100511_1_water-vapor-climate-scientists-midwest). To believe that humans can cause large change or control climate is almost laughable.

In looking at the geographic and climate history of Illinois alone, I feel that the Earth has cycles that it will go through throughout its life. At one point in Illinois' history, it was ocean front property, many years later it was covered by large amounts of tropical vegetation that scientists, through the fossil record have determined was much like a rain forest. This vegetation was then covered by a glacier that was around three miles thick. I would say that Illinois has experienced “global warming and cooling” before people even entered the fossil record. With more recent evidence, the University of Illinois and other institutions have reported that the Arctic Sea ice levels are dropping and the Antarctic Sea ice levels are rising. Researchers from NASA have also reported that ocean temperatures have actually been cooling since they began research in 2003 (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88520025). Al Gore and many scientists have provided evidence for global warming, but when looked at within a larger and longer time context it is so minimal that it does not seem out of the ordinary for Earth. Unfortunately for a lot of science today it is tainted by the media and by corporate and government influence. Until it is proven with unbiased research, I am not likely to jump on the bandwagon of global warming.

This week’s assignment has been a bit overwhelming. After reading all the resources and watching all of the videos and visiting all of the sites I thought that I had an understanding of what a STEM lesson was and realized that I often incorporate these aspects into my teaching. I also realized that I was familiar with the 5 E’s lesson model from my undergraduate work. I really thought that designing the lesson would be somewhat easy, that was, until I started taking what I had written out on paper and began putting it into the provided template.

When I read about the 5 E’s lesson model in Chapter 5 of Becoming a better science teacher: 8 steps to high quality instruction and student achievement, I realized that this was something that I was taught in my teacher preparation courses, and was doing in my classroom. I wanted to create a STEM lesson that I would be using in the fall when school started and began working it out on paper using the Illinois State Standards and the district curriculum. When I had a solid plan down on paper and had my labs, worksheets, and assessments completed I began to enter my information into the lesson plan template. Who knew that a seven page document could elicit such anger and frustration from me? I realize, after my very rational husband pointed out, that a portion of it was probably my hormones as I am seven months pregnant and prone to crazy mood swings right now. I really felt that the template provided was overly confusing, repetitive, and not something that a teacher would realistically use.

It took me way too long to fill in the template, but when it was all said in done I have a lesson that I can use in my classroom this fall. I can use this lesson to introduce my students to inquiry and incorporate the components of a STEM lesson. I will continue to use the 5E’s lesson model, and incorporate the components of a STEM lesson, but outside of class would never plan a lesson using the template that was provided.

Test Post

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