What will happen if polar ice caps melt?
Global warming has become an important political issue. Global warming is a climate change referring to earths temperature change in the last century. Most scientist believe that the sudden change in temperature to the green house effect. The green house effect can be caused by natural factors as well as human factors. Many believe that the gases emitted in the are by humans are destroying the ozone level and creating a increase in the earth temperature. Could this be contributing to melting polar ice caps. How could this effect the earth as we know it.
Current theory believes that the rising temperature and melting ice caps could play a small role in the rising ocean level. Icebergs are chunks of frozen glaciers that break off from landmasses and fall into the ocean. The rising temperature may be causing more icebergs to form by weakening the glaciers, causing more cracks and making ice more likely to break off. As soon as the ice falls into the ocean, the ocean rises a little.
I currently believe that it is possible for shifts in temperature can lead to changes in the weather. The plant have experience record breaking heat waves, droughts, and blizzards. I believe that the current green house effect has contributed to this as well as the melting of ice caps.
I have had the opportunity to teach this lesson on paper chromatography several times. I often use this lab as a follow up inquiry lesson on mixtures. I strongly believe that it is important to assess students knowledge in multiple ways. Planning an assessment is an important part of any lesson plan. In order to accurately assess students its important to plan multiple assessment activities to assess student knowledge and understanding. Because of this belief I decided to to use different techniques to assess my students. The methods I used during the Paper Chromatography inquiry lesson are as follows: Assessing prior knowledge, informal questioning, and performance.
ReplyDeleteOverall the methods used went well prior to the lab students I was unsure that students truly understood the concepts of mixtures, compounds, and substances. The students were set up in small group before I started teaching. To introduce the lesson I started by discussing primary and secondary colors.with the students. This was done to assess students understanding of primary colors. Students thought it was funny to see how many students remembered that yellow and blue makes green. Most of the student knew their primary colors. The lesson continued with a small demonstration. Students were asked to observe what happened to a M&Ms in water. I placed 3 different colors M&Ms in the water. During open discussions students noted that the did notice how the colors spread but stay separated from each other. Student indicated that they could see boarders for each color. I baited the students by asking what could cause the separation of the colors. Some students guessed that it had to do with density by many did not understand the question. I had to lead the students by asking questions. Once student understood that the density chemicals the colors produced the different color zones. I explained to the students that what they actually witness was chromatography. I provided the student students with a brief history of chromatography. I made sure to include a discussion of food additive like food coloring and dyes. Students were shown vials of kool-aid paste and food coloring and then ask what method of chromatography would be the best way to separate the colors in the kool-aid. Students were asked to read through directions and to set up their paper chromatography lab. The students seemed to enjoy the lab. Many of the students enjoyed seeing the separations of color pigments. Time ran out for several of my classes my longest period which is 50 minute all of my other classes are 40 minutes classes. Student had to let their paper stay out and wait until the next day to complete the lab. In order to improve the lab there will need to be some changes made to make sure that students are able to see color separations. One adjustments I will need to make is using a thicker and coarser filter paper than what we used. I think this would help in seeing the different color separations. Also, I would like to set up the lab allowing student to choice from different material to test student can choose from markers, plant leaves, food coloring and kool- aid. I would like to create a graphic organizers to help student move through the experiment more easily.
Overall, that inquiry lesson students did well with this lesson. I feel that my objective for this lesson was accomplished. After the lab students seemed to have a better understanding of with the difference between a mixture and a compound. Student also seem to understand that colored dyes can be found in a variety of food. Most of the students were able to identify the different color dyes in the kool-aid . Students also did well on lab discussion questions and written test given after the lab.