Mallory Lange- Elementary Science Methods II

    In lab, we started with a formative assessment about what is considered a rock. My biggest take away from this lab about rocks is that they have to be naturally made to be called a rock. Convection cells were also discussed in lab and how this looks within the structure of our Earth. Heat rises, and the core is very hot, so the heat coming from the core goes up to the crust, and the coolness from the crust goes back down to the core. This causes the plates to move and cause different outcomes. When plates come together, it creates mountains. When plates slip past each other, it creates earthquakes. The last thing we did in lab was create the three different kinds of rocks with starbursts.      My biggest take away from the lecture was discussing the layers of the Earth. I have never had these memorized before and I feel as though they have been barely discussed with my previous schooling. I find looking at it as a hard boiled egg is a gre...

    In the lab, we did a lot of work with the timeline of our Earth. We discussed when our Earth began, and what came after this time. There were some misconceptions when we were looking at our results from our Google Form when we were initially putting our thoughts into when we thought certain events occurred on the timeline, and there were a lot of mix-ups. We then broke up into groups that related to the timeline and came up with big events that happened between the years we were given. This was very eye opening and helpful when it comes to thinking about the big events that have happened way back in the past compared to our present day. What I found most helpful from the lab was the picture of the Earth's history as a clock.  Convection Cells: (would not upload to blog, check ICON)

     In the lab this week, we had six groups that shared their presentations over the different topics we were assigned. My group was the past, present, and future of space travel. For this, we went over the timeline of space travel that occurred during the space race, what our current science understanding is, the expected future, along with the Iowa connections to space travel. The main part that I feel is most relevant to what I have learned in this class so far is the misconceptions. The misconceptions we brought up were that the Earth is closer to the Sun in the summer, the solar system is very packed together, and that the Moon orbits the Earth once a day- which are all false. I have learned more about these misconceptions during our lectures and labs!      What remained with me most from Thursday’s lecture was the Right Stuff/Wrong Gender slide. Women were more preferred to men because they were lighter, shorter, and consumed less food. I have never ...

The big question addressed in the lab was- What is scale, and how do we properly construct a solar system to scale? What we started with was the Sun, and deciding how big our Sun was going to be and being able to keep our solar system within the Lindquist Center, before moving on. Our group made our Sun 500 mm large, and the rest of the planets were very tiny compared to this! We only had to create four planets, and Mars was all the way to the end of Lindquist! We used Play-Doh to create our planets and a meter stick to ensure we were making them the correct length. This was very eye opening to see how tiny the planets are compared to the Sun, and how far away the planets are. I used to think the solar system was crowded, but definitely not anymore! In the lecture, we discussed shadows and where our shadows would be if we were on the Tropic of Capricorn versus the Tropic of Cancer. Moon phases were also touched upon, but the main idea we discussed was the Moon and its origin. We ta...

How the phases of the moon occur?  The phases of the moon occur based on the Sun. The Sun lights the moon differently based on specific times and placements. The phases of the moon also occur due to the positioning of the Earth. They all play a part in the illumination of the moon.  What causes the seasons?  The seasons are caused by the hemispheres and their placement to the sun throughout the different times of the year. Along with the hemispheres comes the tilt of the Earth. The tilt and where the hemisphere is located is what causes the different seasons in the different parts of our world.  What causes a lunar eclipse?  The lunar eclipse is caused when the Earth is shadowing the moon so that it is a darker, deeper color than how it is originally.  The Earth is smack dab in the middle of the moon and the Sun, and that is the relationship between all of them when it comes to a lunar eclipse.      My biggest takeaway from the lect...