Makenna Kopf's Science Methods 1 Blog

 1. What did you do in lab today?  Today in lab, we started off by doing a formative assessment on how we thought the course was going so far. Then, we did some review over the sun, the moon, and stars. This was super helpful to me because it helped solidify and my knowledge and we had time to ask questions to clarify before the exam. Then, we did an activity on preconceptions where we placed where we thought things happened on the timeline of life as we know it, which was fun because we got to move around the room. Then, we got to explore on Earth-viewer and chose one cool thing that happened in the history of the Earth and place it on the timeline. Then, we talked about Earth's history, and one analogy that was super helpful to me was looking at it like a clock. I will attach the slide (similar but not the exact same) from the lab presentation. Overall, I learned a lot and feel more prepared for the exam on Thursday.  2. What was the big question?  What are the sig...

  What did you learn in lab this week?  This week in lab we shared our presentations. My group did ours over Galaxies. We also took notes over the other groups presentations. This is all we did this week so we got out an hour early.  What did you learn in discussion this week?  Stars:  Light did not happen until roughly 300,000 years AFTER the big bang.  Stars and galaxies began to form 12.7 billion years ago.  The sun formed from a stellar nebula (dust and debris) most likely from a star that went through a supernova.  Our sun is 4.65 billion years old and is half way through its full supply.  Average stars turn into Red Giants.  Red Giants burn fuel and lose mass which increases its size due to less mass (gravity decreases) Nuclear fusion- stars can only fuse atoms up to Iron on the periodic table of elements.  When a star goes supernova that is where the rest of the elements came from. So, we know that there must have been anothe...

What did you do in lab this week?  This week in lab we did an experiment where we created our own solar system of the four closest planets to the sun. We had to scale the distance and the size of the planets. My group made our sun 600 millimeters and then scaled our planets. I did not realize how long the distance actually is because even at the small size we scaled ours too, we went all the way from the sun in the back of the classroom to Mars all the way on the other end of the first floor right up to the wall What did you learn in discussion this week? (photos of notes below) Chapter 4: What did you learn? I learned more in-depth information about the planets in our solar system. Also, the distances from each planet and the sun and their diameter. I learned more about the Big Bang Theory which I found really interesting because we talked about this in lecture but I was interested in learning more. I also learned more about the NGSS standards that support what we have been learn...

 1. What did you do in lab today? What was the big question? In lab this week, we did an experiment trying to create craters in the moon. It was very open ended. We used flour, cocoa powder, and balls to try to create craters. The big question of the lab was why does the dark side of the moon have less craters than the side that faces Earth? We got to work with our table groups to figure out what the question even was from the tools we were given to create the experiment. I really enjoyed the freedom we had to explore on our own.  2. What did you learn in Thursday's discussion?  Early Earth was a molten ball of mass Why are there different thicknesses on the different sides of the moon? Earth facing side: 200 degrees F warmer  Near side acts more as a plastic than a solid substance  More prone to volcanic activity, including magma fields (dark spots on the near side)  But, there is no active core, so why did it have volcanoes?  Questions:  Residu...

 1. What did you do in lab today?  We had no lab this week due to Labor Day.  2. What was the big question?  I think the big question of lab today was will humans ever return to the moon?  3.  What did you learn in Thursdays discussion?  Galileo invented the telescope.  Chinese astronomer was the first person to attempt going to space by strapping himself to rockets (could be a myth we do not know)  Greek astronomer in 240 BCE measured the Earth, which is extremely complex (valleys, mountains, equator, etc)  Earth is like a lumpy potato  The last time people were on the moon was 1972, the first time was in 1969 (Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin).  1957 Russia successfully launches a satellite into space.  Russia sends up Yuri Gagarin in 1961 and he orbits Earth three times, this made the US realize they need to catch up on space exploration and they sent Alan Shepard into space in a Saturn V5 rocket which is longer than a ...