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By: Connor Fish, Jada Moore, Cole Roessler, Maro Yeranossian, and Jessika Stone

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Group One 3 Cole Roessler, Connor Fish, Jada Moore, Maro Yeranossian, Jessika Stone Mr. Harrell English Comp 1 27 November 2013

Science in the Classroom Throughout the history of man-kind science has been one of the most talked about subjects of all time. Science is the understanding of the unknown and is solely based upon questions, and experiments. Within the subject everyone has their own opinions. By having this, science is a totally controversial element where not everyone can agree on one idea. All across the board science in the classroom is taught hundreds of thousands of different ways especially on controversial topics such as, the Big Bang Theory, how the Earth was formed, how the Earth moves, gravity, and evolution.

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As we all know, the big bang is a theory that is taught in space science talking about how the Earth and planets were formed. Learning about the big bang comes along with a lot of different sub-subjects. For example, you learn about the galaxies and what planets they belong to if any and the planets along with all of their properties.

The teaching styles of this particular subject could become quite creative as far as your approach goes. For example, there are slideshows that can be presented to show the Big Bang actually happened. In the slideshow there will be examples of how the Big Bang happened including explosions, movements, and placements. Also there are projects done hands on to show how this theory came into play and the results of it. In this example the students would make the explosion with models and show the Big Bang in eye view just if the students learn better with hands on material. As Andrew Falk and Lauren Brodsky mentioned in their new letter Incorporating Models into Science Teaching to Meet the Next Generation Science Standard, Given that models have a variety of roles, there are numerous ways to incorporate them into instruction with students. (Falk, Brodsky 3). Using models to teach science has

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become more useful to teachers because that student can actually see the changes and why their theories could become correct.

As far as the teaching goes on a whole it is more important that what you are teaching actually gets taught. If the teacher is taking a whole week to teach one subject but the student does not understand then that teacher, in my opinion, is unsuccessful. Me being a student and learning about science, since it such a wide variety to learn, I would want to understand what the teacher is talking about and why the teacher is saying certain things. Should I believe everything that my teacher is saying? Or should I take it upon myself to make sure that I understand? I asked middle school science teacher Mrs. Yendrick what she thought was the most important thing being a teacher, Well, its simplemaking sure that the students you are teaching understands the material is what I strive for. If there are questions and uncertainty, then I would go back over important parts of the lesson with those students who do not understand the lesson and go further in depth with them to make sure they fully understand the lesson.

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Me being a student that still has a few problems with learning in a large surrounding with more than 20 students, I would prefer to learn like this. First I listen to the teacher to see if I understand the lesson with the class. If I dont understand, Ill go to the teacher and ask for individual help if it can be given. There are many different types of students and they all have their own way of successfully learning. With the Big Bang theory being such a strong subject in science to talk about there are a lot of questions that go a long with it. Being a science teacher you would have to be very well prepared for these questions.

But while teaching something like the Big Bang could become very risky for there are different views of this subject. Since the Big Bang is a scientific theory that is an effort to explain what happened during and after the moment of forming, then as a teacher there are situations to be prepared for. There are teaching that debunk the theory. Those who believe in the theory that there is a higher power that created Earth would not particularly appreciate listening to learning about the Big Bang theory. So with that being said, there are different approaches to a subject like this.

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As a teacher for those who do not believe in a higher power being the creator of the universe, teaching this subject could be fairly easier to teach. While teaching this in that aspect, the teacher could go on about the lesson without having the stop due to someone who does not believe in that specific theory. With the Big Bang, in short, youre taught that there was an explosion in space which formed the planets and from there animals appeared that later would evolve into todays life. The teachings of students who do not believe in the science theory are taught that there was a higher power or being that made the earth and its first people to live. That higher power is who the people on Earth should worship and so on and so forth. Both teachings have a long story of why they should or should not be taught which goes into great detail and as a teacher you should be very aware. The Big Bang theory is the start of many things. For example it leads into the Earth, gravity, evolution and so much more. Being that it is a specific subject, the questions that come along with it are endless. .

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The earth was formed about one hundred billion years ago. Back then the earth was a ball of dust and rocks. Now it is a planet with people and water on it. People always wonder how the earth was formed. There are two theories on how the earth was formed and I am going to explain what they are. This is the first theory on how the earth was formed. This theory is all about disk instability. The earth was formed about 4.6 billion years ago. There are many different ways to think about how the earth was formed. Scientists believe that the whole solar system was just a cloud of cold dust particles that were swirling throughout empty space. During time, the particles were attracted to each other and came together to form a huge spinning disk. As it spun, the disk separated into rings and the fast motion made the particle white-hot. Then the center of the disk became the sun, and the particles in the outer rings turned into large fiery balls of gas and molten-liquid that cool down and condensed to take on solid form. Then four to five billion years ago they turned into the planets that we know now. This is the second theory on how the earth was formed. This theory is all about core accretion. The solar system was a cloud of dust and gas known as a solar nebula. Gravity collapsed the material in on itself as it began to spin, forming the sun in the middle of the nebula. With the rise of the sun, the remaining material began to clump up. Small particles drew together, bound by the force of gravity, into larger particles. The solar wind swept away lighter elements, such as hydrogen and helium, from the closer regions, leaving only heavy, rocky

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materials to create smaller terrestrial worlds like Earth. But farther away, the solar winds had less impact on lighter elements, allowing them to coalesce into gas giants. In this way, asteroids, comets, planets, and moons were created. Earths rocky core formed first, with heavy elements colliding and binding together. Dense material sank to the center, while the lighter pieces created the crust. The planets magnetic field probably formed around this time. Gravity captured some of the lighter elements that make up the planets early atmosphere. Early on, Earth suffered an impact by a large body that catapulted pieces of the young planets mantle into space. Gravity caused many of these pieces to draw together and form the moon,which took up orbit around its creator. The flow of the mantle beneath the crust causes plate tectonics, the movement of the large plates rock on the surface of the Earth. Collisions and friction gave rise to mountains and volcanoes, which began to spew gases into the atmosphere. Although the population of comets and asteroids passing through the inner solar system is sparse today, they were more abundant when the planets and sun were young. Collisions from these icy bodies likely deposited much of the Earths water on its surface. Because the planet is in the Goldilocks zone, the region where liquid water neither freezes nor evaporates but can remain as a liquid, the water remained at the surface, which many feel play a key role in the development of life. The way Earth was formed is taught in Conservative Christian Schools because Christians believe God created Earth 6,000 years ago in 6 days, and thats the 6 days of the week excluding sunday which is worship day. It is taught in a liberal school because scientists believe the Earth was formed, if I remember I was taught that something collide with Earth, and thats how it was formed, and it took billions of years to form, opposed to how Christians say it took 6,000 years.

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How does the Universe move? Well as we know it today, the universe moves in a heliocentric model, meaning that the sun is in the center of the universe, with Earth and the other planets orbiting around the sun. But to this day, many people still dont believe this, and the subject is still taught in a different manner. In some institutions, such as private Catholic schools and even aeronautical schools still teach the geocentric theory, for important reasons, while most other institutions teach the traditional heliocentric theory. In some private Catholic schools throughout the world the geocentric theory is still taught. Basically it is still taught in schools because it was most widely accepted by the Catholic Church and the Pope in the 16th and 17th centuries. The reason why in some places this is still taught is because Catholics believe that the significance of mankind will be less if the Earth is not the center of the universe, and they also questions things such as If Earth moves, why cant we feel it? or How does Earth move that fast?. Although many of these things have been proven, they still firmly believe in geocentric universe. Another place that may teach the geocentric theory is an aeronautical school. The geocentric theory is sometimes used to teach aeronautics to students because of how useful it is. The geocentric theory helps students block out the sun, and focus on the Earth and its gravitation field and pull of other objects. Some aeronautical professors have also said that it is essentially an easier way to teach aeronautics, and a way that students will be able to understand the complex systems in an easier way. Although the students and professors believe in the heliocentric model, they use the geocentric model at times for its simplicity.

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Throughout history many people have thought differently on how the universe moves. There are two main models of how the Universe moves in space. The first model and most widely accepted for its time period, was proposed by Ptolemy and was named the Ptolemaic Model. The second model which was most controversial was proposed by Nicholas Copernicus, and later by Galileo Galilei; it was call the Copernican Model. How the Universe moves was taught differently throughout the courses of history, right or wrong. But for the correct model to immerge, the scientists who proposed it hard to go through many hardships to prove themselves correct. The Ptolemaic Model, discovered by Claudius Ptolemy in Rome around 100 A.D. was centered on geocentric solar system. A geocentric solar system is when the Earth is at the middle of the solar system, and all of the other planets revolve around it. As you can see by this diagram, the Earth is pictured in the middle of the solar system while the sun and other planets orbit around it.

Throughout many centuries of wars and expansions the geocentric model of the universe was still the main model, and was even more widely accepted when the Catholic Church accepted the model around the 13th century. The Catholic Church played an immense role in the Ptolemaic

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model of the universe. The Catholic Church taught its people that the universe moved in a geocentric orbit, and they shunned anyone who questioned the theory. To this day there are still Catholics that believe the universe moves geocentrically, but there are very few. The Ptolemaic Model was finally questioned by the brave Nicholas Copernicus in the 16th century. Nicholas Copernicus proposed the Copernican Model, something that he had worked his whole life on. Nicholas Copernicus had two mains reasons for questioning the Ptolemaic model, his first reason was that it wasnt very precise, and the predictions of where the planets would end up were failing. His second reason was that Ptolemaic model had big epicycles to explain the retrograde motions of the planets. The Copernican Model was a heliocentric view of the universe, meaning that the Sun was at the center, while the Earth and the other planets orbited the sun, as you can see in this diagram.

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Gravity is obviously very important to us. It is the reason why we are all sitting down and functioning as we do here on earth is because of gravity. Sir Isaac Newton among other things came up with the law of gravitation and also explains it in a formula. Newton explains the law of gravitation in this formula (Williams). F represents the forces between the two

masses which is measured in newtons (Williams). G represents the gravitational constant which is an empirical constant (Williams). M represents the first mass and the second mass which is measured in kilograms (Williams). D represents the distance between the center of the two masses which is measured in meters (Williams). This formula basically explains that gravity is was keeps us on the earth and from floating out in space. In schools today teachers teach this concept of gravity earlier in the sense that it is leaned in middle school rather than high school. It is taught earlier because gravity is one of the first concepts you learn in physics. Physics is usually taught in a boring class room taking notes, watching very outdated videos on physics with minimal chances to do fun experiments. Students didnt comprehend the material because it didnt really appeal to them when I was being taught. But the new way of teaching which incorporates modern technology and more experiments gets students more excited about physics.

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There is a study done by Anne Forbes and Keith Skamp called Knowing and Learning about Science in Primary SchoolCommunities of Science Practice: The Views of Participating Scientists in the MyScience Initiative. During this study scientist are working with primary students in the community to encourage the learning of science (Forbes). Myscience helps research which class projects are effective for students and which projects resonates with the students more (Forbes). Some possible outcomes of Myscience are acknowledged interest in investigating scientifically, Acknowledged personal learning in investigating scientifically due to the influence of others, Acknowledged others learning in investigating scientifically due to own or others influence, Acknowledgement of own role in investigating scientifically, Acknowledgement of others roles in investigating scientifically, Description of activities/discussion while doing MyScience (Forbes). Ventia Holmes did a study about children and how modern technology like computer games can help encourage and help students understand science more. The questions that this study attempts to answer are what are science and technology teachers views of congruence between goals of primary school science and technology course and the new curriculum (Holmes)? What are science and technology teachers views of changes in the teaching-learning process proposed by the new curriculum (Holmes)? What are science and technology teachers views of changes in the evaluation process proposed by the new curriculum (Holmes)? These questions were answered in the experiment because ultimately the teachers views were changed because the experiment was successful and the research shows that students do learn from modern technology like video/computer games.

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Science is created to bring up skepticism. There is nothing scientists love more than finding an answer to peoples ideas and find it a necessity to prove each other wrong. The subject of science is driven by questions, not answers to be exact. Evolution is a big part of that. There are so many what ifs in this subject all the way from first grade to college. What if science didnt exist? What if evolution was one big lie? Evolution in the classroom is surrounded with debates, religious view points, and evolutionists. Science in the classroom will and forever will be the most talked about subject. There are many different interpretations of how evolution is taught throughout the schools. Some are harsher towards the religious views and some completely neglect the scientific views. In the liberal schools science is more important than religion so they teach evolution. On the other hand in conservative schools they neglect the idea of humans and animals evolving and say its all Gods work. Teachers sometimes dont like teaching the subject mainly because its usually taught at the end of the year and it leaves numerous questions about the subject along with usually big debates with students on whether or not they believe it or completely disregard it.

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Evolution in the classroom has always been a touchy subject for students especially at an early stage in their lives. When at home, their parents are either not religious or the parents are trying to force their religion on their kids. Trying to teach them that God created the world and everything inside of it. Then when the kids get to school and begin to learn science and evolution the teachers basically teach exactly the opposite. The kids are left confused and want to believe their parents but then again the teachers will test you on exactly the opposite of what you want to believe. Evolution will and always will be a touchy subject in school as long as religion and science clash. Teachers have recently found by giving students more hands on learning experiences they will be more open to the concept of evolution such as showing them recent new discoveries. They also have been showing students fossils of their ancestors from way back when kind of showing the comparison to them and the fossils. They are encouraging students to investigate the fossils, and the photographs the teachers provide with more detail and want them to explore in more detail. There are six questions they want the teachers to ask the students. Did more than one hominid live at the same time? Can we tell the hominid is a male or a female? How do scientists know how old these individuals were when they died? When did the last common ancestor between humans and African apes exist, and what did they look like? Where did our genus evolve? Who were the Neanderthals? These questions usually are good questions to ask without aggravating too many students while teaching evolution. They will cause a fun debate, with many interesting answers. The study of science will always be a mystery because with more technology comes more discoveries which create bigger mysteries. We feel this is a never ending subject that will always have peoples mind wondering endlessly. Ever since the Earth was created there were always

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people wandering the unknown and because of those people the subject to this day exists for what it is.

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Works Cited "Bill Nye the Science Guy A Gravity Demonstration." YouTube. YouTube, 03 Apr. 2012. Web.26 Nov. 2013. DeSilva, Jeremy. Interpreting Evidence: An Approach to Teacher Human Evolution in the Classroom. American Biology Teacher 66.4 (2004): 257-67. ERIC. Web. 17 Nov. 2013 "The Fall of the Geocentric Theory." The Fall of the Geocentric Theory. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. "GEOCENTRISM." Scripture Catholic. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. Halk, Andrew, and Lauren, Brodsky. Incorporating Models into Science Teaching to Meet the Next Generation Science Standard. 2013. Print. September 2013. Kampourakis, Kostas, and William F. McComas. "Charles Darwin and Evolution: Illustrating Human Aspects of Science." Science & Education 19.6-8 (2010): 637-654. ERIC. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. Machamer, Peter, "Galileo Galilei." Stanford University. Stanford University, 04 Mar. 2005. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. Taylor, Nola. How Was Earth Formed? Space.com. Techmeadia Network. 08 Jan. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. "The Geocentric Model Is STILL Used to Teach Aeronautics." The Geocentric Model Is STILL Used to Teach Aeronautics. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. "The Ptolemaic Model." The Ptolemaic Model. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. Williams, John E, Frederick E. Trinklein, and H. Clark Metcalfe. Modern Physics. United States of America, 1984. Print. Williams, Matt. How Was the Earth Formed? Universe Today. WordPress Admin. 24 October 2010. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.