The Heat Is On.

In this experiment I tested four items as insulators; aluminum foil, house insulation, a cloth ovenpad, and a silicone oven pad. because of the dificulty I had in securing some of my test items to the mug, I found my results to be inconclusive. I did notice that heat was being transfered by conduction as the heat from the water in the mugs rose up through my testing substanse and I could feel the heat above the mugs.
One spin that I think would be interesting to test would be to change the material of the mug instead of the of the enclosure material. One could test styrofom, stainless steel, porcelin, and double insulated plastic mugs toped with aluminium for ease to see which mug was a better insulator.
I think to make this fun and engaging for the students, we could one day examine their lunch bags and see what they are bringing in for lunch. (I still have about 9 students who bring lunch from home.) If no one is bringing in hot food - we can discuss why. Maybe they can't find an insulator that works well for them? Then we could discuss what they would bring in if they could. I picture that we could end up testing bagel bites, pizza rolls, mini corn dogs, etc. in different types of insulators. Of course we would have to chose the variable . . . either the type of food or the typr of material, but the students could determine that.

Fav Online Physical Science Resourses

Hey! Sorry for the delay in posting . . . . I hope I have not thrown any of my Walden classmates off track. It was a big week with those 3 applications due! Those took alot of time and when I was done, I did not correctly compose this blog. So here I am today, a little less tired and frustrated. :)

One of the web sites I found most helpful, because I am a visual/auditory learner, was www.howitworks.com. I incorporate this address into many of my lesson plans during the engagement portion, because having a bit of background helps students to be unafraid to come up with good solid questions and ideas and thus, truly engage in inquiry. However, my big idea in researching online resources was magnetism and here is what I found . . . .

My favorite web site in the end was wwww.bln.gov/sls/interactivewebsites.asp#Magnets. This was my favorite for a couple of reasons. One is that it is basically a link page to several other user friendly pages. One page has a simulation of attraction and repulsion by magnetic poles and other higher level tutorials. One has a simple read on the basics of magnetism and a little on-line quiz at the end. Another has a great FAQ page which could really spur on some good inquiry in our classrooms. There is also a link to a very elementary magnets and springs game that could be something for early finishers to do just for fun. Because these links vary so much, they can be used in many different ways throughout a lesson. Which ones you use really depends on the learning styles of your students and the focus of your lesson.