June 30th Journal

The smallest park in the biggest city would supply with a bit of sustainability. Just because it is a park, Millenium Park is a sustainable resource to the city of Chicago. Especially if the grounds where the park currently lies used to be occupied by parkland, rail yards and parking lots. For sure, it is better to leave future generations a field full of green living things than tones of concrete.

When it comes to focus in specific aspects of the park that you notice that are sustainable or that promote sustainability, the task turns into a hard one. I have found just three :

• The Exelon Pavilions, that are certificated as sustainable. All the apparently mirrors that cover the buildings, are in fact solar panels.

• McDonald's Cycle Center. A place to hire a bicycle to ride not only the park but the city too. 

• Some bins to recycle waste.

June 29th class journal

The lab I think it would be easier for me to incorporate into my teaching back in Spain is "Egg Bungee Jump".

Introduction.
This lab is important to me to teach my students because I can cover lots of concepts with an activity that students will find fun. This way they will be motivated and therefore willing to learn so, consequently, they will learn (or at least, the probability that they learn something meaningful is the highest).

Objectives (what I want my students to learn):

• To undersntand concepts related to Physics and Ecology:
• Gravity force.
• Elasticity.
• Inhuman treatment to hen.
• To use Maths (proportions and equations) to solve problems.
• To realize that Maths matters and that it is a basic tool to solve problems you might have to deal with on a daily basis.
• To use different units of measure and to change one into another .
• To take measures and to reduce the error obtained. 
• To work in group.
• To discover things on their own.

Procedures (how my students will reach the objectives).

• They will apply the scientific method.
• Under the guise of a game, they will be given an otherwise tough lesson.
• They will work in group.
• They will discover things by themselves.

Simulations

I have chosen the simulatios "Build an atom".

I would use it in the third year of  "Diversificacion" (a group of students with a variety of learning  difficulties) to illustrate what otherwise is so complicated for them to understand.

After explaining that atoms are made of three kind of particles: electron, proton, neutron, I will encourage my students to construct an atom. They have to discover that each particle has an specific part of the atom to be placed and that not any combination in the number of particles results in an stable atom.

Finally, they will have to find out the rules to build any atom:

• Protons and neutrons are located in the nucleus and electrons in the shell .
• The number of protons equal the number of electrons.
• The number of neutrons can vary.
• The number of protons identifies an atom.
• The mass of an atom is the mass of sum of protons and neutrons.

Click to Run

June 28th On my own

Over the course of a school year, I want out of my students:

• To find what I teach them meaningful.
• To awake their cuiosity.
  To enjoy classes.
• To improve their health habits
• To know how to work in a group.
• To don't trust even the teacher.
• To be independent.
• To know how to learn on their own.
• To respect other people's opinion.
• To appreciate their abilities.

June 28th class journal

First I wrote:
'So far I don't like Google Docs but I do like Google Sites and Blogger. So I will just talk about the latter two'.

But after talking to Pat, who usually use Google Docs, I've changed my mind and I will include it.

No matter what the context is: this program, my classes and my students, etc, the utility of either Docs, Blogs or Sites is that you can share stuff in an interactive way.

With Docs you can work in any office document more than one person at a time. If you want your students to do a teamwork that should be presented as an office document (presentation, written document, etc), with Docs they can work online and in the distance.

Both a blog and a website is convenient when you want other people to see your work (or the teamwork), for example if they are to be shared with the rest of the group.

A blog is easier to create and it's a good way to show information and to obtain a response, if needed, to this information. For example, in the program we are taken, the information will be our answers to the questions made by the teacher and that will conform our class journal.

With a website you can organized all the information in a better way. If the students are doing a work, the different sections can be displayed on the website in a clear way.

In my opinion, a website is the most useful of the three, because it includes all the possibilities or options.