Week 13

  Elementary Science II

Week 13: November 18th- November 22th

What did you do in the lab this week/ What was the big question:

 We started by talking in our groups about the two articles, Couple Inquiry and Sweater, and about how similar and different they are. Both talk about teachers letting go of the control. I think that is something a lot of us are not used to or have never seen. Even as a college student, I am used to being told what to do and study for. To then move to allowing students to take over the lesson can be hard. But both articles make a great point. The sweater article talked about how students naturally lead a lesson if and only need a little bit of guides. The Coupled Inquiry talked about allowing time for freedom but with guidance. 

A fun fact that I learned is that Americans are lagging in academics and despise the free education we give. I find it interesting but also not shocking. In all my travels I have seen how smart students can be without all the techniques or support. In the US they give free schooling and support but we still lack the ability to keep up with other countries. 

In our groups, we read 5 articles about climate change and answered the big questions. The image is seen below. 

What did you learn in Thursday's lecture?

I learned American has commitment issues and isn't willing to change. 

In the lecture, we talked about the Paris Agreement, where the whole world came together to talk about climate change and agree to make a change. The only one that didn't agree and one of the most to contribute to this is the United States. Then after 5 years they decided to join this agreement but will be backing out again in 2025. I think this connects back to the film we watched that statistically one person from American wastes the same amount as 9 people in India. We are one of the most wasteful people and should be the ones to be making more change but the United States lacks the ability to change. 

Answer questions about weekly textbook readings:

1. What did you learn? I feel like everyone always says the words greenhouse gases but I don't really know what that means. So I learned that there are gases in Earth's atmosphere that trap heat, it helps keep our plant warm. Examples of gases are CO2, CH4, and N2O.

2. What was most helpful? It was helpful to have the videos and visuals.

3. What do you need more information on? Nothing

4. What questions do you have? No questions about the reading