Sunday, March 28, 2010

Formative Assessment Blog Post (In-Class workout #10)

Part 1: Description of the workout
This quiz is about how different kinds of sports can be beneficial to an athlete.
It addresses the Indiana Academic Health Standard: 9.7.1 Identify positive aspects of participation in several different physical activities. Each question requires students to think about the different kind of sports, what kind of qualities they require, and what kind of values they encourage for athletes. There are six questions in this quiz.

Part 2: The quiz results
Overall, the results of the quiz were successful. Most students did not miss more than one question while taking the quiz, and they were able to answer all of the questions fairly quickly. Some students simply did not read through all the choices on the first question and put "teamwork" or "cooperation" instead of the correct answer: "all the above" for that question. All students answered the text question correctly because they were able to give evidence for why they thought their answer was correct. The rest of the questions on the quiz were only missed by one or two students and most of them just needed to change one of their answers that they checked to get full credit.

The students have all known that cooperation and teamwork are encouraged in team sports, but some did not realize that sportsmanship is also a value that athletes learn while playing team sports.

The students all knew that children should learn to play sports while they are young, but some cited different reasons of the importance of playing sports at a young age. However, all answers were correct for this question because each student was able to back up their answer with some kind of explanation.

The majority of students knew that individualized sports teach athletes the value of self-trust. Only two students misunderstood the question and put listening skills instead.

The majority of students also knew the correct answers to the next two questions about endurance. Only one student got the first endurance question wrong. That was probably because the student had a misunderstanding of what the term endurance means.

The last question was a pretty easy one for most students. Only one student answered incorrectly because he or she included all of the sports. Another student just forgot to check Dance long with Cheerleading and Gymnastics. I think most students have a good understanding of flexibility and can identify which sports require it most.

Part 3: Reflection
Based on the results of the quiz, I think the focus of the class should be on reminding students the meaning of basic terms such as sportsmanship and endurance that some of them struggled with. Just a simple reminder of the terms and examples of what each term means would freshen up their memories and I think they would do much better on a quiz if they had some more review.

The quiz helped me make decisions because it was easy for me to identify which parts of class the students did not understand or were not paying attention to. It helped me choose on what to focus on in the future and it also showed me that some students learn differently than others. It showed me that some students need to be reminded to read the questions more carefully so that they answer the questions in the right way and can receive full credit for their answers. I also realized that most students do well on questions where they can write out their own answers in text because they have the opportunity to back up their answers and explain their reasoning.

Here is the link to the actual quiz:

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Station 9: Our Teeth and What We Drink

Part 1: About the Station
-Title: Our Teeth and What We Drink
-Group Members: Kara Epperson, Sandra Little, Samantha Ginther
-Station Description: The module measured the pH of four different liquids that people commonly drink (cranberry juice, tea, soda, tap water). A pH sensor and Logger Lite (a computer program) were used to measure and read the pH of each liquid.
-What our group did: We hooked up the necessary equipment and dipped the pH sensor in one liquid, used Logger Lite to take a measurement of the substance's pH value, took a screenshot of the data that Logger Lite showed, then put the pH sensor in a rinsing liquid so that the rest of the data would be accurate. We did this same process for all four liquids.
-Individually, I was in charge of dipping the pH sensor into each liquid when Sandra was ready to begin the Logger Lite program and take a screen shot of the data. After we measured the data for at least 20 seconds, I took the pH sensor out of the liquid. Next, I put the sensor into the rinsing liquid so the rest of the data could be read accurately. I repeated this process for all four liquids in this order: Cranberry juice, tea, soda, tap water.

Part 2: Our Work

In laymen's terms, pH is the measurement of how acidic or basic a substance is. The typical range for pH that is healthy for human teeth is 6.2-7.4. This range is neither too acidic or too basic for teeth and will not cause damage to teeth. Basic beverages (any that have a pH of above 7) do not normally have adverse effects on teeth. These beverages include any variation of milk (regular, soy, rice) and usually contribute to stronger teeth because they normally contain calcium. On the other hand, acidic beverages (fruit juices and sodas) often contribute to tooth decay because the acidity of the liquids eats away at the tooth's enamel. This matters because if we limit the amount of acidic beverages in our diet, we can improve the overall health of our teeth and avoid damaging them even further.

The following pictures are screen shots of each of the graphs our group obtained.

Cranberry Juice is acidic and can be potentially harmful to teeth if drank 1-2 times per day.



Tea is also an acidic beverage and can eat away at the enamel of our teeth if we drink it 1-2 times per day.



Soda is extremely acidic and can be very dangerous to the health of our teeth if we drink it 1-2 times everyday.













Tap Water is safe for us to drink daily, even though it is slightly acidic. It is safe for us to drink because it is very close to being in the healthy pH range for teeth (6.2-7.4).














Part 3:

As a student, I would like that this activity is very hands-on and entertaining because I like to do the work for myself to learn instead of just watching someone else do it or getting data from a book. As a teacher, I would like this activity because it helps students gather data on their own and gives them a lot of experience with new technology because they get to use the pH sensor and Logger Lite to collect their data.

As a student, I would not like this activity because the equipment was very fragile and it needed to be handled very carefully, which not all students would be able to do. As a teacher, I would not like this activity because it only lets students test acidic beverages. None of the 4 beverages tested had a basic pH (above 7). I think the students need to be able to measure the pH of both acidic and basic beverages to get the most out of this activity.

The most interesting and suprising parts of this activity was how easy it was to use the equipment. Although it seemed very confusing and technological at first, it surprised me at how simple it was to use the pH sensor and Logger Lite together in order to gather the data we needed. The activity was simple to do because we were able to use technology to measure the data.

Here are a few websites I referenced to find some of the information about pH:

http://ask.metafilter.com/58903/What-are-some-Basic-higherpH-beverages

http://www.cocoonnutrition.org/catalog/page_teeth_NL.php

http://affordable-dental.net/how-does-ph-in-juice-affect-your-teeth

http://www.ehow.com/about_5191580_ph-saliva_.html