Growing up in the middle of the United States left me with little or not knowledge about oceans except for the brief vacations, and what my various science teachers decided was important for me to know. They say that experience is the best teacher and I learned a few lessons when I moved to Alaska fresh out of college armed with a degree in biology. The first lesson was to respect the tide and learn to live by it. This lesson came after pushing a Boston Whaler up a shallow slough which had been a part of the ocean when I left. Out of necessity I quickly learned how to live with the ocean.
There was a great deal of scientific information this week. I really enjoyed the various resources that were included. Some of them I will plan to use in my class and others were interesting because they lead me to different resources that will be valuable in future lesson plans. For example, after viewing the youtube video What Causes Earth's Seasons I found a different video that I thought would be more appropriate for middle school students Why Does the Earth Have Seasons. It really is almost overwhelming the amount of resources that are available. Time would get away from me as I went from one resource to another, leading from one topic to another. Seasons are one place where there is a great deal of misinformation and misunderstanding. Students, and many adults, often think that it is colder in the winter because we are further away from the sun. I think the above resources will be valuable to help with this misconception.
Latitude and longitude is a hard thing to teach kids. I have just finished a unit in my classroom looking at the surface features of the earth. After reviewing the district science curriculum I realize that by 8th grade they should have been introduced and taught these concepts 3 time in science and social studies. I am always amazed how confused kids are. I wonder if maybe teaching them one at a time would be a good idea. After watching going over this weeks module and thinking about the importance of latitude on seasons, weather, etc I think maybe teaching about latitude would be really helpful giving them and then later teaching about longitude. Unfortunately it is too late for this year but next year I am going to focus on latitude. It will be interesting to see if it helps.
As a district and a building we are focusing on Math and Language Arts. I must admit this is extremely frustrating as a science teacher but, that is a different story. My task this year has been to focus on reading and writing skills in science. One of the cultural connections that I see is not only the scientific Native Ways of Knowing, but also the myth's and legends that surround various scientific phenomenon. There are many great resources that I found but the most helpful one is Native Languages. You are able to search this sight by either phenomenon or by culture.
The cultural connection were very interesting. Lately in the news we have heard a great deal about the loss of ice and its affect on the polar bear population and other animals. It wasn't until this weeks videos and information that I really stopped to think about the affect of this one the communities. This following video about whaling also made me think about issues that might be controversial. What issues are facing southeast communities and villages? One issue that I can think of that might be of interest is subsistence.
This month's NSTA magazine Science Scope is has a great activity called Save the Penquins: Teaching the science of heat transfer through engineering design. I think
As I mentioned above one of the things that I have found valuable in the past few weeks is the various paths that I have traveled looking at all the different resources. One of these paths this week took me to the Pacific Gyre. The Pacific Gyre is a garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean that is estimated to be anywhere from twice the size of Texas to as large as the continental United States, depending on the source. Below is a picture of it.
Three Colleagues
Sabrina Sutton
I really enjoyed reading Sabrina's life experience and her enthusiasm for place-based learning. She also turned me on to a great resource called The Alaska Tsunami Education Program.
David Wages
Like David I also have taught that the Coriolis Force incorrectly. It made me really wonder what else I have learned and taught wrong. It did make me do some additional research and it seems that at one point it really was believed.
Nick Pader
I was caught by Nick's picture of the sunrise in Barrow. I can't imagine how exciting that must be. He later went on to say that people from the village do not even get excited about that moment. Not me, I get excited if I see the sun even for a brief moment during the course of my day.
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