SBG Essay

Topic: Scientific Process                    SBG ESSAY ASTRO

Learning Goal: To understand that science is non-linear, creative, and cyclically in

nature.

4. Can do items in 2 and 3. You can discuss and provide examples of social, historical, and cultural influences that make science subjective and may introduce bias. Connect to the larger cultural experience of observations and storytelling. You understand the scientific processes as practice and can explain/teach to another person. You can create analogies between science process and every day experiences and find connections across disciplines. Independently demonstrate extensions of your knowledge.

Comment: As we walked around the class and learned about other people’s projects one thing I was interested in was reading about was the Big Bang Theory. This will definitely introduce bias within the class room. As it conflicted with my religious beliefs, I believe it may do the same with others. I wanted to know about it because in order to be able to argue correctly I would need to know more about my opposing views.  I think that I achieved this goal because I can independently show the knowledge I have gained. I was able to explain to my Dad about the messenger mission to Mercury. He was impressed because he did not know about it and because I was able to describe the mission. I was also able to intelligently tell him about seasons. I had an intelligent conversation with my dad who is very intellectual!

3. Can do items in 2. You can deal with the frustration of creating/executing a research project and develop a positive attitude required to complete inquiry projects. You can examine/analyze the inquiry process using Harwood’s Activity Model for Inquiry and critique your own work. You can identify dependent and independent variables and develop experiments that require controlling variables. Be able to clearly communicate to others. Participate in the global community of citizen scientists. Interpret and manipulate data in a variety of formats, such as technical drawings, graphs, tables, charts and, maps to analyze results and derive and defend conclusions using evidence.

Comment: I won’t lie, there were times I want to pull my hair out because I just didn’t understand something. Our subject for our project was more frustration because we had to find time to meet us as a group or because a lot of the information we found was repetitive but, in the end we were able to put our poster and Prezi together. We definitely had positive attitudes about it because we learned, well I did at least! Through the Prezi’s we researched and found information about different parts of astronomy and through the Poster project we were able to narrow it down to one specific aspect of astronomy. I applied the Hardwood’s diagram to Astronomy because we identified problems, made observations, asked questions and investigated the known. Being able to communicate with others is always vital while working with science. We shared data and worked together to have a better understanding of seasons. We used graphs, charts and maps to give us a better understanding for why the seasons change. This is where I felt like pulling my hair out and I had to communicate with Matt and others to help me. I was annoyed that we recorded so much data, and I wondered why? In the end it was all the data and graphs that really helped me write my essay about seasons. Astronomy is a lot different than Physics in the fact that in physics we can do experiments and somewhat control the outcomes. Astronomy wasn’t, we collected data and compared it with other data to find the outcomes. When it comes to experiments in Astronomy, it would be kind of hard to control a spacecraft in outer space!  

2. You can generate testable questions and design experimental procedures that are reliable,

reproducible, and executable. You can collect accurate data on the natural world including

observations using your senses and length, mass and time data. You understand the definition of

science, theory, law, hypothesis, and experiment and how they relate to each other.

Comment: Astronomy is the study of outer space, anything and everything in it. Unlike Physics, Astronomy didn’t require us to design experimental procedures, we collected data and observed information that we researched. Length was used while we studied different time frames that have to do with Space, we used light-years to measure length of time. Time was used as a dependent variable in a class while collecting and testing data. While researching different cities in the world and how they correlate with each other, we used times of the year and day to test the hypothesis of how and why the seasons are changing between hemispheres.

1. Can do all of the 2.0 items with help plus know that science involves developing an understanding of the world through posing and answering questions. Know that scientific ideas are subject to change yet durable and that science cannot provide answers to all questions.

Comment: Science is an something that is always changing and experiments are always being modified. One thing I learned was that I can only gained better understanding for science by asking questions! Not all the questions can be answered in one sentence. Science is very opened ended, meaning that questions can have many answers and answers are always being modified and changed. I definitely have had times I was beyond confused but Matt is a very great teacher. I can definitely say I like being confused in this class because I know I will learn something. This is one class I have actually learned.

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