Sunday, April 14, 2013

Blog Post #12

This week we've been assigned the task of creating our own blog post assignment geared toward our own areas of specialty. Being a fan of blogs before taking EDM 310, I've been dying to do a blog post incorporating a very popular topic in the blogging community: Five Things Friday. For those who don't know about five things Fridays, you post five things, topics, blurbs, or random thoughts on your blog every Friday. However, since my area of specialty is science and EDM 310 is a technology class my five things will not be random blurbs, but will be related to technology I'd like to use in my classroom as well as examples of what my future Five Things Fridays posts may consist of.

 photo tumblr_inline_mkkcx53aWH1qz4rgp_zpsd3473468.gifInstructions

1. View some examples of blogs containing Five Things Friday posts. Feel free to Google and find other examples if you'd like!
Life As Lexa- She's a fellow education major studying at Mississippi State and her Five Things Friday posts were my inspiration for the assignment.
The Polished Teacher
The Brown-Bag Teacher
2. Find and share FIVE subject related topics in a Five Things Friday blog post.
*Your post must be related to the subject matter at head. For example, you can choose to find Five interesting science experiments to talk about, five science questions you'd like to bring up in class discussion, or you could write about five current events happening in out in the field.
3. Be sure to include pictures and links to any resources you used.

Five Things Fridays

1. Google Earth
I've always been obsessed with traveling around the world and seeing new places. However, being a college student I don't have the financial means to make my dream a reality so I've settled with cyber-backpacking with the help of Google Earth. But the great thing about Google Earth is that you're not limited to just Earth! The application actually includes the option to switch between the Earth, Sky, Mars, and the Moon. I'm taking Astronomy right now and have been having a blast searching for the stars and nebula we've been discussing in class. And there are tons of extra links and picture included so your cyber-field trip is basically never ending, much like the Universe.

2. PhET Interactive Simulations- University of Colorado at Boulder
My high school physics teacher actually introduced me to the PhET simulations. He frequently used their simulations to help explain difficult topics. There are several different categories of simulations to choose from and each category contains fun and interactive learning experiences. These simulations definitely helped me grasp the concept at hand and I will definitely be sharing them with my future students.

3. Staying Informed
New discoveries and scientific breakthroughs are happening 24/7, 365 days a year. In order to keep somewhat up-to-date on events, discoveries, and breakthroughs I like to use twitter. I follow tweets from NASA, National Geographic, and the Smithsonian. I've actually created a separate profile where I've only followed science related tweets so that the updates and information is nicely organized together in one place. I'm really excited to share daily Galaxy pictures posted by @dailygalaxy and other interesting topic related tweets with students. If you're not a fan of Twitter, sites such as Science News For Kids, Discovery Kids, and National Geographic Kids are equally as good and student friendly.

4. Did you know?
Starfish(sea stars) have no heart. Maybe that's why the Crown of Thorns Sea Star is causing major problems in The Great Barrier Reef. Check out the video below about reef destruction caused by the Crown of Thorns Sea Stars!



5. Fun Photo
Here's a photo taken by the Hubble space telescope of a star nursery. Here new stars are beginning to form from dense, compact pockets of interstellar gas called evaporating gaseous globules(EGGs)in the Eagle nebula.
Gas Pillars in the Eagle Nebula (M16): Pillars of Creation in a Star-Forming Region
Source: Hubblesite.org

2 comments:

  1. Hi Paula! Prior to EDM310, I had no blogging experience. Although, I have often thought I would like to start. The idea of Five Things Friday consisting of random tidbits of information is an awesome idea. This is a great way to allow students to think outside of the box. This also allows students to bring their own knowledge to the classroom while exploring new ideas. Oh, and I had no idea that a starfish does not have a heart. Also, I will be checking out Google Earth. I like your assignment a lot! Great job and thanks for sharing!

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  2. OK! That is really a great idea. I spent so long reading about your five things, I totally lost focus on what I was here for. I can see how just a little morsel of information can wet the appetite of students and send them searching for more information. It happened to me! I love you idea and I will use it in the future in some form or another. Thanks!

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