TED Video

1. How does (or does this) video apply to our teaching and learning?
    This applies to our learning in this specific class because you make us use a lot of technology during this class. Which is good because we know technology so well these days, even though I did not know how to use blogger, you showed me and the rest of the class. My neighbor is in 5th grade and they teach them how to type and use a computer in elementary school. I was only required to take a typing class in 7th grade. I believe that the school programs are learning that kids of all ages use technology everday so why not teach them how to use search engines such as google. College professors use the internet to communicate with their students, either by sending an email, blog, or webct. These are all very useful techniques to get a hold of the student, especially because a lot of us have smart phones and get the email right on our phone. He said children will learn what they want to learn and this is true. We will pay attention and want to know more about things that interest us or that will be our major. We tend to space out and not pay attention if we do not want to.2. One aspect of the video I found interesting was the "granny cloud".  This uses the broader community as a part of education.  Was their any community involvement in your K-12 education? Do you think the broader community should be involved?  How can/should this happen?
     Honestly, when I was in k-12 I had no community involvement in education. I was involved with my neighborhood and volunteered and learned some things from that, but not really education. I think the community should be involved because "elders" always complain about our education and how we do not pay attention and all about the drugs and alcohol. If they go more involved and if we actually listened and learned from them, I think every community would be a better place and less violence.
3. Comment on his use of technology and how technology features in your learning and potential future teaching.
     He put computers in these poor places. They were not mac computers or really even high tech, and  they learned so much from them. They taught themselves how to navigate around on the internet. It has become a part of school now in every grade, elementary, middle, high school and definitly college. I think technology is going to just get bigger and soon people will not even have to go to class, it will all be online lectures and such. Some classes are already like that but it will keep improving. I use the internet to look up definitions and to find sources for  my papers. I also communicate through email to my teachers and classmates.

Creativity

What is your definition of creativity?
My definition of creativity is expressing yourself. Doings things your way and adding your own pieces to it about you life, interests and hobbies. Also when creativity comes to mind, I think of colors and clothes. People really express themselves with clothes.
Why do you think creativity is important?
I think creativity is important because, like I said it is a way to express yourself. It lets people dress the way they want, write the way they want, draw and paint the way they want, sing the way the want. It make people feel free to do what they want and what they truly enjoy. You do not have to have an answer for why you do what you do or why not, kind of like what the article read. In a way it is a mystery, maybe not to you but to those around you.
Can you think of a time when you were most creative?
My sister and I coach a middle school dance team and I also coach an elementary dance team. It is really hard to come up with 2 minute routines actually. You have to make sure you have music with a good beat, but no bad words or anything. You have to think of cool moves that will look good, but appropriate for these ages and you have to come up with different, awesome hair and make-up ideas every time. It truly is a long process, but the end result is usually amazing!! I love what I do, and I would not change anything about it. 
What can we do to foster creativity in ourselves and others (like our classmates or future students)?
Well for one thing, we can let all the kinds really be "awake" and alert about everything that is happening, and not be putting them on medicine to help them cope with a problem like the Ted video said. They need to learn at a young age to be creative and how to express themselves. In ourselves, we can maybe try to thing of things more creatively and not so harshly. We can brainstorm the best way to do something before we make a decision on what we are going to do. 
Do you know any really creative people-What are they life?
Honestly, my mother and sister are very creative. That is probably where I get it from. While my sister was in high school they used to decorate their shirts with puff paint and fabric and stuff and it always looked so fun. I also did that in high school, but with her help. She is an awesome choreographer and I someday hope to be as good as her! One year for Halloween, my mom made my costume. She made me a Christmas ornament. She like paper-mached  a big circle thing, then let it dry and painted it red and put some tinsel on it to make it really look like an ornament. My hat was the top of the ornament like where you hang it off the tree. That was really creative and to this day she is still very creative. 

SBG

·  You can discuss and provide examples of social, historical, and cultural influences on science and visa versa.       

 Well, for this particular experiment I do not believe that we used any of theses but perhaps on a different experiment we would use historical figures such as scientist who we got research from. As for social and cultural, I'm not really sure how that could ever tie in with science, but I am curious to find out.                

·   You can create analogies between science process and every day experiences and find connections across disciplines.You can deal with the frustration of creating/executing a research project and develop a positive attitude required to complete inquiry projects.      

  Before we started our own experiments, when we had to make 40 observations about the birthday candle, that was very frustrating because it was just a candle and how many observations can you truly make. When we got into our groups we had to think of a question that we all agreed on. It took some time but eventually we came up with one. I think the hardest part was trying to figure out how we were going to measure the wax. We also had an altercation. Our pictures got deleted on accident so we had to redo the experiment, which was frustrating but we all handled it well and never got mad at one another. Positive attitudes is a major part of this class. It's very hands on and very social, so you cannot be a "negative Nancy" while working with others. It gives off bad vibes.            

·    You can examine/analyze the inquiry process using Harwood’s Activity Model for Inquiry and/or the Understanding Science flow chart.   

       I liked using this because it was different than anything I have ever used before. It wasn't step by step directions, telling you exactly what to do. We could do anything we want in any order and go to a certain step over and over if we had to. This could be really helpful to anybody doing science experiments and I hope that middle school and elementary school can start using this process.          

  ·    You can identify dependent and independent variables and develop experiments that require controlling variables.      

      For some reason I always get these mixed up! Our dependent variable was the amount of wax that was burned after 10, 20 or 30 minutes of burning time. Our independent variable was the 4 different scented candles we used.                                                                                                     

 ·    Be able to clearly communicate to others.     

      This was probably the easiest ha ha. I already knew Mel from like middle school and high school, but I've never really had a conversation with her. Both my group members were very laid back and made it easy to talk to them.  After we kind of got to know each other, it was much easier to communicate about our experiment. We really did work as a team.

·       Interpret and manipulate data in a variety of formats, such as technical drawings, graphs, tables, charts and, maps to analyze results and derive and defend conclusions using evidence. 

      We really only made one bar graph to show our data, but that was because we did not have to collect so much data. Whereas the experiment we are working on now, requires tons of different graphs and ways to show all the results.

·        You can generate testable questions and design experimental procedures that are reliable, reproducible, and executable. 

      This was probably the hardest part for me and my group. Coming up with questions may be easy, but then having to think about something you could test and the independent variables and the dependent variables. You have to make sure that the question you choose will allow you to have all these elements in it.

·      You can collect accurate data on the natural world including observations using your senses and numeric data of length, mass and time. 

      We had to use our senses obviously. We watched the wax burn, and one candle of ours actually like started pouring out the middle of the candle, so that was interesting to see. We used numerical data when we measure the cups, the candles and the amount of wax each candle produced.

·      You understand the definition of science, theory, law, hypothesis, and experiment (you can find definition of these on the Understanding Science website) and how they relate to each other. 

      Science: Our knowledge of the natural world and the process through which that knowledge is built.  Theory: a broad, natural explanation for a wide range of phenomena. Law: the term law usually refers to a generalization about data and is a compact way of describing what we'd expect to happen in a particular situation. Hypothesis: A proposed explanation for a fairly narrow set of phenomena, usually based on prior experience, scientific background knowledge, preliminary observations, and logic. Experiment: A scientific test that involves manipulating some factor or factors in a system in order to see how those changes affect the outcome or behavior of the system. These are all related because you have to have a theory and hypothesis to properly conduct a science experiment. They also have laws about science that make all this stuff possible.

·     You  know that science involves developing an understanding of the world through posing and answering questions. 

     Life is about "posing and answering questions" that is how you learn. It is natural for people to ask questions about something they do not understand or about something they would like to know more about. To create an experiment, you first have to decide a question that you want to find out the answer to. Such as, does the scent of a candle effect the rate it burns at? The answer is no, but I would not have known that if I did not ask the question and do an experiment on it with my other group members.

·   Know that scientific ideas are subject to change yet durable and that science cannot provide answers to all questions. 

       I understand that scientific ideas are subject to change because everything changes. Technology is moving so fast these days and they are making more things. In this case scientist have better equipment to get more useful or further information on certain ideas and such.

QTP Responce

I found this QTP to be pretty confusing. The topic we had to write questions about was very general and broad, but I guess that was to get more questions flowing, and more things to question. We had a few statements to read and we had to decide whether it would be diffuclt or easy and why. We said asking as many questions as possible would be easy at first, but then we got to thinking about it and we realized that it actually is hard to come up with a lot of questions. Another statement was if it would be hard to just ask questions and not discuss anything, and we out that was hard, because you have so many questions and you might want to know the answer to some as soon as you can. All in all, this did not change how I view science, but it did in fact get me thinking differently on a few things. I did not think there was that many questions about learning, teaching and doing science.

Science in my own words

Science to me is like experimenting with different things. You make observations of what you think is going to happen given a situation and then you wait and you see the results and you write what you observe then and if your predictions were right. It's a way of knowing and understanding more about I guess everything. Honestly, I do not enjoy science very much but I took one of the other physical science classes last semester and it was a lot better than just a regular science class. I tend to do better when I do things hands on, which we did a lot in that class and I'm sure it will be the same here. Last semester we did this project where we had a system in the body and we had to create a power point for it make a written out plan of how we were going to teach it, and we also had to have an activity to go with it. We were in groups of 4 and we each had to present a certain part of our system. I don't like getting up in front of people and talking/ presenting but that was not that bad and it actually helped me a lot. I am not really sure if I have a bad experience, like I said science is not my favorite subject, so usually I just put the effort I have to and nothing more, but with these physical sciences I really tried to go above my own expectations. I also do not think I used a scientific approach in my life to help me out, unless I did not realize. Well I do not know if this counts, but my sister had a baby in November and a few days before we all made predictions about when he was going to be born and how much he was going to weigh. We looked out how it was her first child, and usually they are late or the mother is in labor for a long time, we also looked at how big he was then and how much we think he would grow. We each put in a dollar and who ever was right got all the money. We observed my sister and the baby to make predictions about when he would be born, so in a way, I guess that was a scientific approach.

First Blog

I am taking this course because it will fufill my requirements for science as the core at unm and for my major, which is education. I expect to understand pysics and astronomy more.