We started the day off discussing math integration. The point was made that when we talk about math integration, we discuss math as a means to solving a scientific problem. A student needs to make sure they are using math, not just doing math. I would even go so far as to say that arbitrarily putting math into a science lesson without context does a major disservice to the student.
However, when math is used properly, it leads to discovery. We were given an experiment to do that integrated math. Our key question was: What happens to the mass of gum after it has been chewed for 10 minutes? I hypothesized that if I chew my gum for 10 minutes, the mass will go up. Our group was given 3 types of gum: Doublemint, Trident, and Hubba Bubba. We weighed our gum with the wrappers on using a balance scale and gram stackers and recorded the pre-chew mass. We chewed each type for 10 minutes and then weighed our gum again, wrapper and all, (post-chew) and recorded our data. We found the pre- and post-chew difference, the ratio (difference/total) and then the percent of sweetener and flavorings (ratio x 100).
Much to my surprise, the mass of each piece of gum actually went down! I was able to infer, from the math, that when I chew gum, my saliva breaks down a fairly large percentage of the sweetener/flavoring when I chew gum. And just as it should, this discovery made me ask more questions- do the sweeteners and flavorings have more mass than saliva that dissolve them? What would happen if I chewed for 20 minutes? 30 minutes?
This science experiment was full of discovery and I couldn't have gotten there without the math!
After our experiment, we got to play with Gizmos! The awesome company Explore Learning (check them out here!) has created science simulations (gizmos) for students. Gizmos are organized by grade level and... (gasp!) state standards! However, teachers can use any gizmos they choose to. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I found out teachers can give access to their students with individual accounts- 6 classes with up to 35 students each. AND---teachers maintain control of what their students can and cannot see on Gizmos; this means that if you're an over-achiever you can set up your gizmos for the entire year, and keep them hidden until the time comes for your students to use them.
Now to the actual Gizmo! For those of you that are still skeptical, as each gizmo was being developed, the people at Explore Learning were doing the real-life experiments behind the gizmo. They were manipulating the independent variables and observing the outcomes, and it shows on the computer screen. When I planted my virtual bean seed, I was able to manipulate the light, the water, and the fertilizer or compost. The resulting plants were almost real!
I found that even though it wasn't the real thing, it elicited the same response as the real thing. I was able to hypothesize, manipulate variables, make observations, draw conclusions, and ask more questions for further discovery.
There are over 450 gizmos and I mean, if I can have this much fun with them, what will they be able to do?! I can't wait to find out!
Tomorrow- TEACHING! Water consumption, here we come!
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