Due to illness, we have decided to cancel co-op. We will be using our makeup day of May 17th as our 12th class day. Please mark your calendars to reflect this change. Thanks! Please check your email for other important announcements.

Scholars began a personality inventory called the IPIP, which is based on the Big 5 personality taxonomy. We didn't finish it today, so I provided them with the link on paper. Here is it in case clicking is easier!

http://www.personal.psu.edu/~j5j/IPIP/

Scholars have homework for next week - to watch an 11 minute video on persuasion and influence. It's pretty fun! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFdCzN7RYbw

Here's the cut/paste version of the handout on the Final Project. I posted the Word version in the Facebook Files area for your reference. Please come to class with your chosen experiment Tuesday (feel free to choose an experiment that isn't listed here - these are just suggestions).

Final project: A Mind Map!

What is mind mapping? http://www.mindmapping.com/

The details

Pick one of the following foundational Psychology experiments and create a mind map to describe it. Think about what the experiment was about, what the experimenter(s) did and what was found. Why was it important? How did it contribute to modern theory? Was it ethical?

You’ll need to download a mind mapping program. Don’t worry, you shouldn’t need to pay for one. Many offer free trials, and several are free for educational access. Here are some to look into. You might want to try one or two, as they are different in functionality. You’ll want to get started early as you learn this terrific software that is being used quite a bit for presentations at the collegiate level.

Experiments

1. Harlow’s monkey experiment (1960s)

2. Little Albert experiment (1920, Watson)

3. Bobo experiment (1961, Bandura) - ANNA

4. Milgram’s obedience experiment (1963) - OLIVIA

5. Kahneman & Tversy’s risk aversion experiment (1979)

6. Loftus & Palmer’s memory manipulation experiment (1974) - MICHAEL

7. Asch’s conformity experiment (1951)

8. Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment (1971) - ABBY

9. Mischel’s deferred gratification experiment (1972) - MCKENNA

10. Hawthorne studies (1920’s) - ISABELLA

11. Gibson & Walk visual cliff experiment (1960s)

12. Festinger’s (1957) cognitive dissonance experiment

Mind mapping software (a few options):

Mindmeister - https://www.mindmeister.com/education-software

X mind - https://www.xmind.net/

Mind Manager - https://www.mindjet.com/

Coggle - https://coggle.it/

Mind Node - http://mindnode.com/

I Mind Map - http://imindmap.com/

Free Mind - http://freemind.en.softonic.com/

Prezi – http://prezi.com (this has a free 2 week trial and is free for educational emails)

I am excited to play with playdough! Each week feel free to send your child with their playdough toys, if you have any. I would love it if each kid had at least a roller each week.

Here is my semester plan:

January 19th: Surprise Playdough---we will be mixing the color into the dough so expect to see some color on their hands. It should wash off in a day or so. 

January 26th: Snow theme---think Frozen + playdough and you've about got it

February 2nd: Exploring food---but not eating the playdough, of course. The playdough will be scented. If you have any play kitchen items that they could use with their playdough it would be great. Plastic spoons, ice cream scoops, little pretend cookie trays, etc.

February 16th: Queen of Hearts---everybody LOVES to play with playdough, right?

February 23rd: Shapes/Numbers---hopefully we can learn through play

March 1st: Plant a garden---If you have mini gardening tools or a pretend watering can we could use them this week.

March 15th: Leprechaun gold and rainbows--hopefully the gold they take home won't disappear.

March 29th: Bunny with a basket of eggs---if you have egg shaped cookie cutters send them

April 5th: Growing flowers---I have scented the playdough to smell like flowers. Please let me know if rose or lavender scents will be bothersome.

April 19th: On the farm---an odd request, perhaps, but if you have Lego fencing it would be fun to create some pig pens

April 26th: Monkeys like fruit---scented playdoh again

May 3rd: Blast off to space!---Our last day will be glowing. Does anybody have a black light? If you have star cookie cutters we could use them this day.

Each week I will be sending home playdough and a mat (or two). Use them however you want at home...you will probably need a container to hold it all because it's kind of a lot of playdough. I probably went overboard just a little.

Adventurers Spring 2016

Let’s Learn about our Bodies!

Lesson Schedule

January 19 – Bones: Structure and Joints

January 26 – Bones: Anatomy and Healing

February 2 – Muscles

February 9 – Co-op Break

February 16 – Digestion: Mouth and Teeth

February 23 – Digestion: Internal System and Process

March 1 – Lungs and Breathing

March 8 – Assembly Day: Invention Convention

March 15 – Heart and Circulation

March 22 – Co-op Break

March 29 – Brain and nerves

April 5 – Five Senses

April 12- Assembly Day: Eggonauts

April 19 – Five Senses Continued

April 26 – Skin

May 3 – Review/Make-up Day

May 10 – Assembly Day: Field Day

Here are my notes for the first few classes in case you would like to follow up at home.

Bones: Structure and Joints

1. What do bones do?

a. Support and give shape

• Flashlight on hand demonstration

b. Protect organs

c. Make blood cells (red bone marrow)

d. Storage (fat and minerals)

e. Movement – joints

2. Names and locations of bones.

a. Introduce skeletal model

b. When you are finished growing you will have 206 bones!

c. Head, shoulders, knees, and toes.

3. Joints

a. Joints are the places where bones meet.

b. Some joints allow a lot of movement, some only allow a little movement, and some don’t allow any movement at all!

c. There is a special fluid in joints called synovial fluid that helps them to move.

d. Friction activity – rub hands together for a minute then add lotion and rub again. Discuss observations.

d. There are different kinds of joints in your body that let you move in different ways.

e. Hinge joints

- Elbows and knees

- Very stable but limited motion

f. Ball-and-socket joints

- Hips and shoulders

- Wide range of motions but aren’t as stable as hinges.

g. Saddle Joints

- Ankle

- Less motion than ball and socket but more than hinge.

h. Plane Joints

- Vertebrae

- Bend and twist back

i. Pivot Joints

- Your skull to your vertebral column

- Shake your head no

j. Sutures

- Cranium

- This is where the bones of the skull are fused. No movement.

4. Activities stations

a. Clay bodies with popsicle stick bones.

b. Frozen joint activities.

Bones: Anatomy and Healing

1. Bone Anatomy

a. Bones have layers.

k. Periosteum

- The outside layer, thin and tough.

- It has nerves that sense pain.

- It also has blood vessels where nutrients are brought into the bone and waste taken out.

- It helps build new bone.

l. Compact Bone

- Thick, hard layer.

- This is what you are looking at if you see bones at a museum, it can last thousands of years.

- Smooth and hard.

- Made of calcium (this is in milk) and tough fibers called collagen.

m. Spongy Bone

- Pores and tunnels that are connected in a pattern that makes the bone strong and resilient (able to bounce back after being pressed).

- Like foam.

n. Inner cavity

- Yellow bone marrow stores things like fat and minerals that your body needs.

- Red bone marrow makes red blood cells.

b. Bone facts

o. There are very few things on Earth stronger than bone!

p. Your bones are being remodeled all the time.

q. You need to eat well, exercise and get some sunshine (vitamin D) to have your bones remodeled well.

2. What happens when a bone breaks?

a. When you break a bone you bleed, just like if you cut yourself. The blood settles and forms a clot (kind of like a scab).

b. Bone building cells called osteoblasts come into the clot and starting making new bone.

c. Over time bone destroying cells (osteoclasts) help shape bone and the osteoblasts build a bone almost like the original.

d. Casts help move the parts of the bone close to each other and keep them from moving around so that your body can repair faster.

3. Activity Station

a. Broken twig x rays

b. Twig casts

Muscles

1. What do muscles do?

a. Help us move

b. Help us breathe

c. Pump blood

2. Muscle facts

a. There are 640 muscles (remember there are only 206 bones).

b. Your muscles are so strong that if they could all work together to pull in the same direction at the same time they could pull a semi-truck!

c. Muscles make up almost half (40%) of your weight.

• Weigh and record muscle weight

d. Your smallest muscle is inside your ear.

e. Your biggest muscle is the one you sit on, it is called the gluteus maximus (it helps you walk, run, climb, and jump.

f. Your strongest muscle in the masseter, it is the muscle that closes your mouth.

3. Kinds of muscle

a. Skeletal

• Attached to your bones and help you move.

• Muscles are very polite, they never push! Muscles can only pull.

• When muscles pull they tighten up and get shorter and fatter.

• These muscles are voluntary, that means you control them by thinking about what you want them to do.

b. Cardiac

• Cardiac refers to the heart, that is the only place you will find this kind of muscle.

• This muscle is involuntary, you don’t have to think about it to make it work.

• You can hear this muscle contract and relax! Your heart beats about 100,000 times a day.

c. Smooth

• These muscles are found in blood vessels, intestines, and bladder.

• These muscles are involuntary.

• They work like squeezing a toothpaste tube.

4. Activity Stations

a. Skeletal muscle – muscle fatigue and building muscle

b. Cardiac muscle – stethoscopes

c. Smooth muscle – panty hose and clay peristalsis

Digestion – Mouth and Teeth

1. The digestive system is all the parts of your body that takes food in, breaks it up, prepares it for your body to use, and gets rid of the trash.

2. This process is called digestion.

3. Digestion begins as soon as you put something into your mouth.

a. Remember the masseter muscle? It helps you bite, tear, and grind your food.

• This is the mechanical part of digestion, the grinding up and moving along of the food.

b. Teeth help break down food.

• Let’s use mirrors to look at our teeth and see their different shapes.

• Incisors are sharp and are used to bite and cut. Can you point to your incisors?

• Cuspids or canines are also sharp and are used for tearing food. They are pointy, can you point to them?

• Premolars and molars are the flat teeth in the back of your mouth and they are great at grinding.

4. Anatomy of the tooth

a. Enamel- the white coating on the outside of our teeth.

• Extremely hard, white, shiny

• Enamel is not living.

• It is the hardest substance in your body, even harder than compact bone! (remember we said there are few things in the world harder than bone?)

b. Dentin

• Supports the enamel and absorbs shock that could damage your tooth.

• It’s alive! (It contains cells)

c. Pulp

• This is where the nerves (the sensors that help us feel) and blood vessels are found.

• It is sensitive to hot and cold

5. Tooth Facts

a. The crown of the tooth is what you see above your gum.

b. Teeth are attached to your jaw bone by roots.

c. Cavities are holes in your teeth that are formed by germs in your mouth.

d. You get two sets of teeth! One when you are a baby (20) and one when you are an adult(32).

• Look at dental x-rays

e. When a tooth starts to come through your gums it is called eruption!

6. Saliva

a. Chewing begins mechanical digestion but saliva (or spit) begins chemical digestion.

b. 99% water

c. Contains chemicals that help protect teeth and break down food

d. Defends mouth from infection

e. Makes food taste better

7. Tongue

a. Helps move food around and shape it into a ball to be swalled.

b. Guides food to the back of your mouth.

c. Has taste buds!

8. Activity Stations

a. Build a model mouth

b. Chemical digestion with crackers and cheese

Scholars, I'm unable to post attachments here, so I will be posting on our Facebook site when there is something to download. 

Hi folks!

To help us keep moving as we change classes, please make sure that you set your cell phone clock to alert you 10 minutes before your class ends. This will allow helpers to begin the shift to their other classes (especially if they are teaching!) and it will also help you keep track of those critical last minutes of class, so that you don't run late. I know that we all have amazing classes full of great ideas, and being on time helps everyone provide the most awesome-ness possible in a one hour class.

*** You might also find it helpful to print the schedule for classes, especially if you're new (it's under "files" on our FB site).

We are going to have a lot of fun this semester! My thoughts for this class are to start each day by reading a book from the Magic School Bus series by Joanna Cole. We are going to try one book/theme a week, but if it seems to be too much, we can carry topics over by adding additional weeks and cutting out a few books. Each day we will read together, discuss the theme and related vocabulary, do an activity or experiment, and record our findings in a science notebook (I am providing these). Here is our tentative schedule:

January 19- Who is Ms. Frizzle? What is the Magic School Bus? What makes a good scientist? Start Science Notebooks

January 26- The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System (Activity: Mapping out/drawing planets in our solar system)

February 2- The Magic School Bus: On the Ocean Floor (Experiment: Density of water- salt vs. fresh water & warm vs. cold water)

February 9 No School

February 16- The Magic School Bus: At the Waterworks and/or The Magic School Bus: Wet All Over (Experiment: The water cycle- making rain)

February 23- The Magic School Bus: Inside a Hurricane (Activity: Types of clouds)

March 1- The Magic School Bus: Inside the Earth (Activity: Play-Doh models of Earth’s layers)

March 8 Invention Convention

March 15- The Magic School Bus: Blows its Top (Experiment: Volcanoes in action)

March 22 No School

March 29- The Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body (Activity: Where does our food go? The digestive system)

April 5- The Magic School Bus: Explore the Senses (Experiment: Sound and vision- seeing sounds)

April 12 Eggonauts

April 19- The Magic School Bus: Inside a Beehive (Activity: Honeybee Bop- how do bees communicate?)

April 26- The Magic School Bus: In the Time of Dinosaurs (Activity: Making/identifying fossils)

May 3- The Magic School Bus: The Electric Fieldtrip (Experiments: Balloons and static electricty)

May 10 Field Day

I will be using Handwriting Without Tears: Get Set for School for Pre-K to teach letter formation in a very hands on way.  We will also be discussing the sounds letters make as we go along.  I will be keeping the students slate each week, so that we are not constantly looking for them.  They will get to take it home at the end of the semester.  I'm sure all of this will change as I witness ability and attention span, but here is my plan.

January 19  Alphabet Knowledge, Introduce wood pieces- (names, positions, size), Mat Man

January 26  Grip, Vocabulary words- (vertical, horizontal and diagonal), Writing names

February 2  Build with wooden letters/ Wet-Dry-Try:  letters L,F,E,H

February 9 No School

February 16  Letter and picture match, Wooden letters/ Wet-Dry-Try:  letters T,I,U

February 23  Identifying friend's names, Magic C, Wooden letters/ Wet-Dry-Try: letter C,O

March 1  Name that capital, Wooden letters/ Wet-Dry-Try:  Q,G

March 8 Invention Convention

March 15  Distinguishing lowercase letters from capital letters, Wooden letters/ Wet-Dry-Try:  letters S,J

March 22  No School

March 29  Community drawing, Wooden letters/ Wet-Dry-Try: letters D,P,B,R

April 5  Distinguishing capital letters from lowercase letters, Wooden letters/ Wet-Dry-Try:  letters K,A (diagonals)

April 12 Eggonauts

April 19  Matching capitals with their lowercase buddy, Wooden letters/ Wet-Dry-Try:  letters M,N

April 26  "Sliding Down to the End of the Alphabet", Wooden letters/ Wet-Dry-Try: letters V,W,X

May 3  Community drawing, Wooden letters/ Wet-Dry-Try: letters Y,Z

May 10 Field Day