Fish is Fish

   In class today, we did a lesson about a mystery bag. Dr. Smirnova held up a bag and made us make predictions and a hypothesis. After we had a couple of different predictions, everyone was given five seconds to squeeze the bag and try to figure out what was inside of it. We discovered that there must be some kind of squeaky toy in the bag because one item was soft and squeaked every time you squeezed it. We also thought that there might be a rattle inside because if you shook the bag, it sounded like the little beads inside of a rattle. The activity was very engaging and fun for us, so it must be even better with younger kids! We never found out what was actually in the bag, which was a bummer.
   One thing that we discussed in class that I hadn't heard before is that a hypothesis is a tentative explanation. I think that that's an interesting way to look at it and it makes sense. We also discussed how science is all about uncertainty and not exact answers. I found that concept to be weird because school always seems to demand exact answers from students, but uncertainty can be reduced by collaboration, which we also do a lot of in science classes.
   At the end of class, we watched a video of the reading of Fish is Fish. It's a children's book about a tadpole that grows to be a frog and explores the world, then goes back to the ocean to describe it to his fish friend who has a hard time picturing the things the frog describes because he has never seen them for himself. The overall idea of listening to that book was because it represents the misconceptions that students may have, especially if they're not exposed to the topics you're talking about in class. It's much easier to understand science when you can do an experiment about the topic and see what happens with your own eyes.

This is not the exact one we watched in class, but here is a reading of Fish is Fish:

All About Me

   For our second day of class, we each had to pick a different online tool to use from a list where we will all create a "Digital Me" project. The tool that I chose is called Glogster! I've used this tool before in my Social Studies Methods class and I found it really cool, but I have never created an individual project on it before, so I was excited to finally make one! I loved making my project; there are so many templates to choose from or you could even create your own from scratch. There's the option to add videos, pictures, text, graphics, and so much more! It was an excellent choice for this type of project because I was able to really find things that capture who I am through all of their different tools.
   Next class we will be presenting our "Digital Me" projects, so I really hope that everyone likes my glogster and it encourages them to use this technology in their lessons or in their future classrooms. I think it'll be interesting to learn a little bit about my classmates, while being introduced to a plethora of new technologies that I could potentially use in my future classroom!

Here is my "Digital Me" project!