Paul's student blog

Long time...

2007-10-22T00:09:00.000-07:00

WOW...it's been forever since I've been on here. In New York now at Teachers College. It seems my files have been deleted, so I can no longer access my page that I made, unless the URL is bad. I'm happy to be here, but there are aspects of Rutgers that I miss. Some of the courses here are not up to the calibur I expected and hoped, but otherwise, it's great living in the city. I have been able to observe some nice schools and ones with great technology too, i.e., smartboard technology. Next semester I do my student teaching, so if anyone has some good chemistry stuff for me, let me know!

Dive In

2007-05-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I know the class is over and people probably wont' be checking blogs or other people's blogs as much, but Joe helped me A LOT the other day to put together a lesson on Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures that my observation teacher let me teach this morning. I modeled it after Eugenia's ISLE cycle and I thought it went well for the most part even though it was Friday. It's a total of 12 slides and I was able to go through all of them within the 43 minute period. I've also attached a worksheet for the kids to do for homework to follow up on what they learned in class. Students struggled a little bit just cause it was a different learning environment for them and this was my first time doing it, but overall I think it went well and so did my observing teacher. Hope it helps for anyone who has to teach Dalton's Law. You will find that this has applications in scuba diving among other area, and a topic scuba divers should be familiar with...so don't be afraid to get your feet wet with your students and DIVE IN!

Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures.
Partial Pressure Ditto.

Technology Application 2: A Lemon Battery

2007-05-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

In this activity, students perform an application experiment using food! Ever hear the old saying, "When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade!" Well today, when you hand the students a lemon, they are going to make a battery. Students will design a battery with a lemon to try and light a bulb. They will be able to use Vernier to measure the voltage. This is a fun activity after going through electrochemistry and how a battery works.

Materials for the lab:
Lemon Battery Lab.
Vernier voltage probe Configuration file.

Journal 14

2007-05-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

Today in my observation, my teacher took her students to the computer lab to do use a computer animation to study gases. The students had to build the apparatus themselves and then determine the pressure at a fixed volume when different masses were put on top of a piston in a closed container. The students seemed to like it and it gave them a chance to experiment with different gases. Friday will be my last day there and my teacher is letting me teach. I will be covering Daltoon's Law of Partial Pressures, so if anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears!

Reflection 14

2007-04-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

Today, we each discussed our lesson plans that we developed and learned how to make a free web page/e-mail address that's valid and not at an AOl address. Some people had some great ideas for observational experiments and other lab activities that utilized technology, e.g. Vernier. I think for my next activity, I can use an application experiment using a lemon battery with Vernier and also a website that shows simulations of chemical reactiosn on the macroscopic and microscopic level.

Journal 13

2007-04-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

I made my PowerPoint presentation for my seminar class and it came out well this week. In my observation today, my teacher held true to the ISLE cycle by showing observational experiments with gases and used technology to show a real life application of a situation when steam was let out of a train and crushed it due to atmospheric pressure. Found a good lab to do with vernier that I posted and I will be in a poster contest on Friday displaying my lesson plan using the ISLE cycle in the new biology building on Busch Campus for undergraduate chemistry students who have done research or other academic achievements!

Technology Application 1: An Oxidation-Reduction Titration: The Reactin of Fe2+ and Ce4+

2007-04-25T07:58:00.000-07:00

A titration, as you may recall, allows students to learn more about an unknown solution by reacting it with a second solution of known molar concentration. There are a number of ways to measure the progress of a reaction. In this experiment, students will investigate a potentiometric titration in which the electric potential of a reaction is monitored. Through a redox reaction, students will be able to determine the amount of Iron (II) ions in a solid sample of ferrous ammonium sulfate hexahydrate. This lab would be most appropriate for an AP class or Honors.

Materials for the lab:
Redox Titration Lab.
Vernier ORP Sensor Configuration file.

Reflection 13

2007-04-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

Today, we learned how to make technology fun and educational by using a program that is a newer version of the PRS called "Turning Point Technology" and puts questions up on a projector for the class to see and allowing students to click in answers. This allows for good discussions and seeing where students are having difficulties and what they understand and immediate assessment. I was finally able to get the picture on my "hire me" page working.

On-screen question

2007-04-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

In an electrochemical cell, conduction through the electrolyte is due to:
a) electrons moving through the solution attached to the ions.
b) electrons moving from ion to to ion through the solution.
c) the movement of both positive and negative ions.*
d) the movement of water molecules.
e) electrons moving across through the solution from one electrode to the other.

Correct answer is *.

Hire Me

2007-04-18T14:05:00.000-07:00

This is my hire me page

Journal 12

2007-04-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

Not much happened this week other than I created my powerpoint presentation for my seminar class and I think it looks pretty good with the tricks I learned. I did not get to observe this morning because my teacher was absent. Other than that, just the usual e-mails and what not. Hopefully i'll be able to observe tomorrow.

Reflection 12

2007-04-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

Today I continued working on my "hire me page" and was able to add some links to some work I have done and add my resume. I learned of a new program that is similar to front page called Nvu which works just as well. It makes making the hire me page a lot less daunting. I'm hoping it will all come out neat and professional next week.

Journal 11

2007-04-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

Today, I did my observations and there wasn't much technology use other than my teacher showing me her page she had to write about herself and develop when she was in graduate school. I also used the vernier probe in my lesson yesterday to measure the voltage of an electrochemical cell, but did not get to show the class the results due to time. Next week I will be presenting my powerpoint presentation on a paper and I'm glad that now I know a few more tricks to make it more efficient and presentable. I am eager to continue my hire me page, but unfortunately, won't be coming back next semester to add to it. Other than that, not much has happened this week in terms of technology.

Reflection 11

2007-04-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

Today was my favorite class yet. I learned how to use Chris's page as a template to create my own page and add my own information. I think it will be very helpful and informative in the future. Front page is also very helfpul editing the hire me page instead of staring at HTML and is very efficient. This is a great idea and I think every future teacher should have one. It's a great addition to show schools your potential and how useful you are to them.

Journal 10

2007-04-04T13:42:00.000-07:00

This week with technology I learned quickly how to convert a word document into a PDF file and then post it in my blog. I have a good website that I will be using to show redox reactions macroscopically and microscoppically: Redox Reactions.
I will also be using one of my papers I found on JCE to give a powerpoint presentation and hopefully be able to redraw a voltaic cell. Other than that, have not used much technology other than the simple e-mails. I was not able to do observations this week since they have off from school.

Make a resume

2007-04-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to my resume in word format.

Here is a link to my resume in PDF format.

Make a PDF

2007-04-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

In order to convert your word document paper into a PDF file, go to https://www.pdfonline.com/track.asp and browse for the paper you want and follow the on-screen instructions.

Reflection 10

2007-03-28T16:24:00.000-07:00

Today I learned a lot of neat tricks for word and excel and especially the shortcut for subscripts and superscripts. I was able to take more advantage of equation editor which I have not used a lot before. Learned some more tricks on powerpoint and every week I feel more comfortable in preparing my powerpoint presentation for my Chemistry seminar class. A lot of the graphical stuff we did in Excel I already knew, but it was a good refresher!

2007-03-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

The standard cell potential of a voltaic cell! :)

Journal 9

2007-03-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

I had another observation this morning and it was quite productive. All the teachers give out a Chemistry Performance Assessment question that involves all the labs they have done and they have to use the labs as references to answer the question and write up a formal report. It was a great way to web pieces of knowledge together into one cohorent group report. Also, which I think is a great idea, my teacher gives her students who are all Juniors a project on investigating science course curriculum by analzying two colleges they would like to consider going to and choosing science as a major and obtaining information. After collecting all the information, they put it into a table and a formal lab report and today I helped my teacher by going online to various schools including Rutgers and going to the web pages where they showed course outlines, major requirements, etc. which she projected on the screen. I think its a great way for students to begin to get involved with the college process and navigating through college websites.

Reflection 9

2007-03-21T16:26:00.000-07:00

Today I learned how to draw concise pictures in powerpoint and use them to make a video on movie maker. It was helpful when i'm designing my powerpoint for chemistry seminar. I wish I was able to find parking earlier to find out more of what went on, but my video came out well and now I know how to add voice effects and edit and publish my movie depending on what I want the students. I can be more creative using google images and editing them with what I want to give the students.

Journal 8

2007-03-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

Didn't do too much with technology the past two weeks, but I'm getting farther with my assignment on the lesson plan. I found a good website to use as part of my lesson that illustrates macro and microscopically redox reactions. My observation this week was good as well. The teacher did not use any technology because they had a lab, but the class was an Inclusion class with learning disabilities and discipline issues. It was very interesting to notice the changes from a CP or Honors class and how crucial it is to reach these kids to learn science and learning in general. I'm also in the process of changing my profile pic too!

Reflection 8

2007-03-07T16:17:00.000-08:00

Today was a very new experience for me. I made my first video ever on Windows Media Player and was able to produce it and put it on the DTSE hosting site. I choose to use electric potential and was able to edit it to give a brief introduction as to what electric potential is to instruct my students on what they will learn. I learned how to add end credits to it and will hopefully add a transition to it sometime soon and add it to google. When I am able to get it on google, I will be able to publish it on my blog which will be cool for others to see and for my google groups to view and enjoy!

Journal 7

2007-03-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

This week I had to use excel a lot for my labs to generate tables and graphs of data I collected. I'm also part of another Yahoo group for science teachers and they gave me some cool websites I can use for my presentation on Electrochemistry on the molecular and macroscopic level. Within the next few weeks I will be getting my powerpoint presentation ready for my seminar class and now that i've learned a few more tricks about powerpoint, I'm hoping this one will turn out better. Did not observe this week because the students are taking their HESPAs. Other than that, not much exciting happened, but Friday I will be leaving to Montreal, so i'm excited about that!! :)

Reflection 7

2007-02-28T16:25:00.000-08:00

Today, we learned a lot of new ideas about Microsoft word and how to format our resume and other documents and the importance of page breaks and tables to organize information. I was able to use my flashdrive to save my resume to it for the first time and we were able to calculate the force that the earth exerts on the ball to determine the acceleration of gravity. The tricks for word will be helpful in the future to fix things quickly and efficiently and help other colleagues.

Journal 6

2007-02-28T12:42:00.000-08:00

Today, I had my third observation and the students worked on a heat capacity lab. Today was also the first day I saw my teacher use powerpoint even though all of her slides are on powerpoint and she covered the mole and was talking to me about programs she uses to write equations and dimensional analysis. She also does her "Do Nows" on powerpoint. It seems to save a lot of time for her and the students like it a lot. I also this week bought a flash drive (1 GB) for $20 and I was happy about taht, but not too sure how to use it with all the programs that come with it, so hopefully someone can help me. I have had trouble using my floppy disk on all computers to obtain data, so i'm hoping the flash drive will ameliorate that problem. Not much else new in the technology department, other than I will have to plan a powerpoint presentation for my seminar class.

Reflection 6

2007-02-21T16:00:00.000-08:00

Today, I was able to use vernier to apply physical situations to the classroom and involve students more by going deep into observational experiments. There is a pH sensor which I will find very useful and tried to take the pH of snow, but it did not work! The motion sensor was a good program to use, but ther were some bugs in the system. I was able to come up with some more ideas for my project. The motion detector was pretty easy when it worked well. The vernier has a voltmeter that will be useful for my project, so I hope it works well and I can encorporate it with what I will be doing!

Journal 5

2007-02-21T13:16:00.000-08:00

This morning I had my observation and I found out she uses all her notes as power point slides and loves it and I asked her students what they thought of using power point and they like it a lot more than using the blackboard for everything. Haven't used the computer much for anything this week except for my pchem lab and doing minor e-mails and what not. Now knowing that my teacher finds power point a lot easier and the students like it, I'm highly considering it when I start teaching. It's also good because then you can put it online and students can go to it whenever they need to. They can also check out simiulations multiple times and give them homework online as well. I have some more ideas for my presentation, but have not encorporated any technology yet. Hopefully, I can get some good ideas from someone!

Journal 4

2007-02-14T13:40:00.000-08:00

I was suppose to do my observation today, but my school was cancelled and had to search a while online to find the right number to call to find out whether they had school and at the same time I was listening to AM radio to listen to all the schools that were cancelled. How come Rutgers is always open when everyone else is closed!!? Not much new in terms of technology, but soon I will have to prepare a PowerPoint presentation for my seminar class. I'm interested in purchasing a new computer sometime in the future and although I do not know MACs very well, I would like to know the pros and cons of a MAC vs. a DELL and how easy are MACs to use if you have never used one formally before. Also, trying to think of utilities I can use to for my presentation on Electrochemistry, so if anyone has any ideas...feel free to shout them out!

Reflection 4

2007-02-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

This week I learned how to set up a template for Electrochemistry and different sources of technology that I will be able to implement. From my observations this morning, I learned that technology is really important for doing labs and citing references. It was also helpful to set up a host my files through the dtse.org website. This will be helpful event to set up a rubric to show students online as well.

Electrochemistry

2007-02-07T14:36:00.000-08:00

Through the discovery of electrochemistry, we will construct the central ideas underlining this branch of chemistry from the 16th century to present day. In addition, we will explore its applications and its importance in our society.

Journal 3

2007-02-07T08:55:00.000-08:00

This morning was my first day of observation at JP Steven's High School. I actually observed one of our classmates and that was pretty cool. I was fortunate and very happy that I will be observing all chemistry classes for the future. The teacher I will observing is really cool and really nice and the students seem to appreciate her. She was also a cook student like me and is going for her Ed.D. I feel like I will be able to learn a lot from her and she shares the same passion for chemistry as I do. She has her own website through the school that the students can access when doing labs or citing references, etc. She's taken her class to the computer lab three times this year to work on excel sheets and other short exercises that involve labs. This week, I didn't do too much out of the ordinary with technology, but yesterday I lost my resume and could not figure out to retrive, so I was able to find a pdf. file of it, but I don't know hwo to change to a word doc. so that it stays in the same format. If I could figure that out, that would be really awesome. Within the next 2 weeks, I will probably have to set up a powerpoint presentation for my Chemistry Seminar class. Since my unit plan is not until the end of April, I do not have anything for it, but I still have my lesson plan I created from last semester. I've gathered some information on what I will be doing, but have not set up anything yet.

Reflection 3

2007-01-31T16:07:00.000-08:00

I learned today what Concord Molecular Workbench is about and how I was able to import it on Wiki. Molecular workbench is a great tool for chemistry, physics, and even Biology teachers to use in their class to show dynamic simulations of microscopic and macroscopic situations where students can construct activities themselves. It is a great tool that can be done at anytime, quickly and efficiently. Another great technological too that teachers can use to better the classroom experience by making science 3D!

WIKI Reflection

2007-01-31T15:22:00.000-08:00

Today, I learned how to set up a wikia scratch pad page. My topic was the Concord Workbench. I've been playing around with the Concord workbench and find it very useful for the future in teaching chemistry. Many of the simulations are interesting and it allows students to see what I could not show them on a molecular level, considering my drawing stinks. I also learned how to set up the page and add pictures thanx to Todd. Before today, I never used wiki to make a page, only Wikipedia to access general things. This will be very useful for students to set up their own page and become a community and allow them to artistically set up what they find interesting in the class and what else they would like to learn about. Concord is great for physics and chemistry classes, and also gives the students the option to change the parameters of a reaction and see how different properties affect a particular situation. It allows students to actively construct knowledge by giving them a 3D view of what is happening.

Technology and Me

2007-01-31T13:04:00.000-08:00

Not much interesting happened this week in terms of technology. Mainly used the web to send e-mails and pay my bill. I did establish my banking online. I have a power point presentation that will need to be done for my Seminar class in a few weeks and from what I've learned, I think it will make the presentation better. I was thinking in my last class how cool it would be to have a chalkboard or even a whiteboard where you could press one button and magically the whole board would erase itself! Didnt have to waste time erasing the whoel board or get chalk all over your clothes. I think that would be a great technological advance in the classroom that over time would save a lot of time!

Reflection 2

2007-01-24T16:13:00.000-08:00

Today, I learned a little more about powerpoint than I did before. Last semester was my first real exposure to power point, so much of it was new to me. The big thing I learned today was how to differentiate between different software technologies that can be utilized in the classroom and where their optimal use can be used. Excel is great with grading and organizing data, but I wouldn't use it as a main tool to give a lesson. Vernier I found by mistake is a great tool for all science teachers that allows teachers to buy packets including software to do real experiments that correlate with the unit at hand. I will be interested in possibly finding more information about this program and other like programs that have chemistry related activities. I also am curious to find out programs where students can utilize an individual small computer and they can do things where I can view them from one computer. I remember my Organic Chemistry professor was thinking about implementing this and this can be very useful when you want your student to draw a structure and monitor their progress of how well their understanding the material.

Fun technologies

2007-01-24T15:14:00.000-08:00

The first type of technology that I would like to further research and enjoy is YouTube because its popularity has grown so much so quickly and it is free for anyone to post news, video, and posters of all material. It's easy to access and can be viewed multiple times to allow students who may not be in class view it at some other point. The second type of technology that through this class that i've been introduced that is useful is blogs. It's free and students can personalize it the way they want. Students can have easy access to full communication with their teacher in and out of the classroom and can talk to the teacher publicly and privately. It's also easy to use and set up for people who are not computer literate. The third type of technology that I found useful was my personal search for Vernier Software and Technology which gives science and math teachers opportunities to use sophisticated software that was designed by teachers to implement fun and relevant labs that real scientists peform in the field.

Technology and Me

2007-01-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

I have only had mediocre experiences with technology, mostly being computers. My new thing that I am always toying with is my Ipod. I hope that since my PChem lab class is my only computer requirement, this class will better aid me in using simple computer programs such as a blog. It seems similar to facebook? I am wondering what is the main difference, if any, or is facebook fancier? Learning to create a blog has been fun and has given me another window to explore on the internet. Hopefully, along the way, i'll learn some more technical stuff about computers and their use through education since whenever I have a problme with my laptop, I ask my friend and he is usually able to fix it. My D drive never seems to work properly, and I don't know if its because it's not properly installed, but I don't feel like sending it back to Dell and waiting, so I am tolerating it for now. Maybe I can fix that minor problem as well!

Reflection 1

2007-01-17T15:17:00.000-08:00

Today, I learned who my teacher was and a little about his background. I learned what a blog is and how to create one. Also, doing minimal stuff with the blog, including creating a template and adding a picture. I also learned how to input a link from my blog to the course homepage.

Class Goals

2007-01-17T14:29:00.000-08:00

Since this is my first computer/technology class, I hope to learn how to integrate phsyical science technology into the classroom, especially chemical reactions and simulations. I hope to learn what students expect out of classroom technology. I also hope to obtain a significant list of websites that aide teachers with computer visuals. If possible, I hope how to learn how to design or begin my own website I could create when I become a teacher.