Sciences blog – September 2021
Sciences at MIS embodies our definitions of learning, especially in the virtual learning environment, one that sticks out would be how learning in science is applicable as teachers and students use simulations and modifications to at home labs to apply their knowledge of skills and unleash their creative and critical thinking.
Sciences in the virtual environment started off as a challenge but now using technology to simulate a classroom environment has become second nature. Websites such as padlet and features on teams such as the break-out rooms, help us simulate group discussion in a class. We build group mind-maps as well using the white-board collaborative feature. Quiz links such as kahoot and quizzlet allow us to have a quick interactive assessment with the students with an element of fun involved, this also promotes a healthy competition to get a higher score and work on those concepts that bring their scores down.
At MIS we focus on concept and skill strengthening through our holistic curriculum, aided with interactive presentation, simulations, websites such as mentimeter and Prezi etc. Below are some images to showcase our young scientists work:
Figure 1: Virtual simulation on to study a series circuit DP2
Figure 2: Redox processes in Voltaic cell DP 2 Chemistry
Figure 3: Jam board for collaborative work in Biology DP 2
Although the virtual labs help with simulating a lab environment, it stills does not replace the skills that can be got by hands on labs, this is where at-home labs are also designed to help students develop hands-on skills of data collection, to understand the impact of human errors on the experiment, real-world problems that need to be dealt with, such as friction, which are absent in simulations and show-case idealistic scenarios. Students perform an audit of equipment available at home for them and possible applications available on the play store that use the sensors within the phone to measure – with this information and a creative mind, they alter experiments to perform them at home; from simple experiment in MYP involving calculation of speed of an object to more complex ones in the DP for their individual investigations. See some example down:
Figure 4: A student measuring at home how the intensity of light reflected varies with frequency of light which is moderated with the help of different coloured t-shirts acting as light filters
Figure 5:Inter specific and intra specific competition between dicotyledonous plant by Sathviga Sri DP 2
Figure 6 :Investigating Ecological imbalance through simulation by Akash Ramnath (MYP5)
Some Useful Resources for our learning community:
The nature of science is such that nourishes the inquirer within our young learners. To facilitate the inquisitive minds a few web links that can be used are:
- Amrita labs
- Arvind Gupta science toys from trash
- pHet simulation
- Britanica
- The scientific method
- Resource exploring software
Reflections from learning community:
The students are developing scientific skills by understanding and applying the steps of the scientific method – making an observation, forming a hypothesis, performing the experiment, interpreting the results, writing conclusion using evidence from an investigation and evaluating the results. As part of the lab report writing process, they developed their own hypotheses and experimental design, as well as analyzed data in order to draw conclusions. The experiments were conducted at home.
Here are some reflections–
Ella Ward-MYP-1A
Science is finding out different and interesting things in different ways. It can be verry fun but sometimes it can be hard, I think. And by doing experience you can invent a lot of new and fantastic stuff. My experiment was to find out which ball would roll down a hot wheel track fastest. I wanted to find out which ball would be fastest, so with that information I cloud make a game with either the fastest ball or the slowest ball or both. I had 3 different balls (Independent variable) and the hot wheel track was 1.5 m. And the three different balls were Rugby ball, tennis ball and a golf ball. The rugby ball was 45 cm, the tennis ball was 28 cm and the golf ball was 15 cm in diameter. My hypothesis was that the golf ball was goanna be fastest because it was the smallest and that the rugby ball was the slowest because it was the biggest. My result was that the golf ball because the golf ball was the smallest so that means that the smaller the ball is the faster it goes. The rugby ball was the slowest because it was much bigger than all the other balls. The challenges I faced was taking the time because all of the balls went so fast so I needed to be very concentrated because my dad did the experience with me because I love doing stuff with him and he is very funny So my dad did hold the hot wheel track from a chair and his job was to roll down the balls Asdell and I sat there with my phone an taking the time on it it was so hard because It was like just pressing the Stopwatch button and then pressing it again because the balls went so fast.
Design of the investigation
Aamya Puri-MYP-1B
My experiment is showing which plane (big or small) flies farther due to size, weight and material. I was seeing if the bigger paper plane would fly a longer distance because I explained in my lab report that it would be pulled by the weight and would cover more distance. When I was doing the experiment, I had a couple of problems because of how narrow the hallway in which I was doing the experiment was. This made the planes bump against it and get crumpled up and sometimes destroyed and then I had to make another. In the end I managed to finish my experiment and I proved my hypothesis right where the larger paper plane made with lined paper flew farther and the smaller one made with sketch paper didn’t. The results were actually very close with a difference of 7 meters since the small plane had an average of 3.4m and the l larger one had an average of 4.1m. At first, I thought that doing a scientific experiment and working on a lab report would be tricky and complicated but then when I finished it, I realized that it wasn’t too hard, and I learned a lot about different variables and different scientific terms and the scientific method.
DP 1 Biology
Works Cited
YRA Science. YouTube. 3 June 2020. 20 September 2021.
Ambrose, S. et al., 2010. How Learning Works: Seven Research Based Principles for Smart Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
“Classroom Resources: Simulations.” AACT, teachchemistry.org/classroom-resources/simulations.BY- MIS Secondary Sciences De