Fruit Experiment

 Have you ever gone grocery shopping and found a few days later that some of the delicious fruits you purchased are now rotten and inedible? Have you ever wondered what happened to them? What makes fruit rot faster than others? What environments cause the process of fruit rotting to slow down? What environments speeds the process up? Do products such as these really work?: 

 

If they do work, how?  Do citrus fruits like oranges rot faster than low-acid fruits like sweet apples or starchy fruits like bananas? Why? What information should we know about fruits before walking into a grocery store? What are some things we should know about fruits when storing them in our homes? 

Two years ago I had a roommate who owned all "produce-saving" Tupperware. A few months ago, my mom sent groceries home with me, and in the bag it contained the Ziploc fresh produce bags. After these two things, and my genuine love for fruit and frustration I get when it goes bad, I'm curious about the science behind these products as well as the science behind the decomposition of fruits in general.

 

I want to know how this:

can turn to this in a few days: 

What is happening in between, and how can we slow it down in order to enjoy our produce longer?!

Hating Math?

A child in your class says, "I hate math! I'm not good at math, and I never will be!" What experiences do you think this child has had in his/her life that contributes to this child's feelings about his or herself, math, and his or her relationship to math?

I myself was and still at times am just like this child. I used to hate math, because I felt like I was not good at it. If I wasn't making A's, I felt like I was failing and feelings of failure made me despise the subject. I believe that this child has had to experienced some failure along the way, which is why he hates math. Those feelings could come from the material being too advanced and it not being in their ZPD level causing frustration. It could come from the child making bad scores because he or she was not explained or taught the subject well, but I think it had to of come from the student not feeling like they are able to succeed in the matter being taught. For my brother, he hated math because he made B's and C's whereas I would make A's and B's and he felt like he didn't understand it as easily as I did so he wouldn't want to try. I think all students start to dislike subjects when they don't see any hope in succeeding. 

Pendulum Motion

I had absolutely no idea that pendulums were used to tell time, so I was interested as soon as I started reading this article. I also didn't know that Galileo invented the pendulum, or maybe I did and I just didn't remember.  I love when the article talks about how much the discovery of the pendulum affected so many other fields such as mechanics and astronomy. Learning about these discoveries and how much of an affect they had at that time period for other studies is kind of exciting to hear about. I can't imagine what it would be like to have discovered something as big as the pendulum and time telling. The people of that era must have been amazed. I also never really thought of pendulums having anything to do with navigation, but after reading it is interesting to think of how the people got along before it was discovered. As far as the dispute that was discussed in the article, I'm not quite sure I fully understand it. However, It blows my mind that so many scientific figures studied the pendulum and how much such a simple discovery has lead to how we live our lives today. Although most things are done digitally now, we would be nowhere if it wasn't for this discovery. It's kind of sad how little I knew about it, but this article has given me appreciation for the pendulum with the history and importance it has shared.

HW #2: Flashlight Experiment

I did this experiment with two different flashlights. The first one I used was a flashlight light that was slightly bigger and dimmer than the one we used in class. I shined the flashlight into my walk-in closet, which was completely dark, and was surprised to see that there was no visible beam. It looked just as it did as the flashlight we used in the box. You could see where the flashlight was shining on the opposite wall, and that was where it was brightest. The light lit up everything eye-level to the flashlight but I'd say it was a 2 inch range around the entire flashlight that things were being lit up. I then took the flashlight outside late at night and again, there was no visible beam. It shined the same range as it did in the closet, but there was no spot that it was the brightest. It just faded to where you weren't able to see it anymore. The weather was clear and it was 9:30 pm. There was no rain or smoke and it wasn't humid outside. The last place I shined this flashlight was in my bedroom. I turned all the lights off in my room, and the only light that was showing in the room came from under my door which was the light from the kitchen. The same thing happened as in the closet, and there was a bright spot on the opposite wall from which I was shining.

The second flashlight I used was two flashlights in one. It looked like this:
Again, there was no visible beam outside, in my closet, or in my room. The thing that was different was that in my closet, you could see a series of circles of lights as the light made it's way to the opposite wall. There were 4 brighter circles around the range of light that was shining. The same circles showed in my room, but they did not show outside in my yard.



With both flashlights inside my room and closet, I was able to see dust particles floating around, but outside I didn't really see anything floating in the light that was shining. The lights seemed to be brighter when I shined them in my closet and in my room than they did out in my yard. With both lights I tried to look for a beam as I was holding them straight in front of me, and could not. I also held the flashlights horizontal in front of me to try to see a beam from the side and could not.

The Virtues of Not Knowing

I found this article fascinating. I, too, would answer that "the most passive is the virtue of knowing the answer" (p.64), but I would have never thought to have answered that a significant virtue is the act of learning, solving, and figuring out. In the article, they say that there will never be a tester that can score the pupil on the amount of triumph they accomplished through finding the right answer, and I agree, but there are definitely ways that a teacher could put some emphasis on students who accomplish this learning necessity. I think it's all up to the way the teacher manages his/her classroom. If you create a learning atmosphere in which students are constantly researching, discussing, challenging one another ideas and thoughts and digging deeper to figure out solutions to problems, then the grades will speak for themselves. I think it's all in how you teach. Any teacher can give a student a worksheet or a pop quiz and then grade it after, but a real teacher gives students a problem, and allows them to take it and dissect it until they really have figured out the solution, which is the best kind of learning. This can be done in any subject. I once had an English professor spend a whole semester teaching our class about giving to others and over the course of the semester our beliefs, ideas, and opinions were all challenged with one another's but we were never given a single pop quiz or worksheet in doing so. We wrote papers, yes, but we spent the time in class discussing, telling stories from past experiences, and asking questions, and it was in that semester of college that I learned the most. I made an A in that class and it was the grade given to me from my papers, but my teacher didn't just made it about the grade. He created the environment that allowed that process of learning, and it just happened naturally. No, the tester will never know how much triumph a student went over by what grade they made, but a good teacher will know whether or not his/her students are involved in this type of learning and the grades will just act as a bonus. Creating that environment and using a style of teaching that supports this act of learning is a responsibility we have as teachers. The tester shouldn't have to worry about that, but the teachers should.