Friday, August 19, 2011

Science Study Units

Still thinking about how to teach science to groups of boys striving to be buddist monks. To make it relevant, I thought I would begin by focusing our study on three essentials for life; water, air and sunlight. I would lead the boys in an investigation of properties connecting it all back to the periodic table. You know, water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen, air is made up of nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor, argon, and carbon dioxide and the sun is made up of 71 % hydrogen, 27 % helium, 1 % oxygen and the last percent is made of carbon, nitrogen, silicon, magnesium, neon, iron and sulfur. If you haven't looked at the Periodic Table of Elements lately, trust me, they are all on there. As we experiment with water, air and sunlight . . . we'll be "doing" science and learn about the process of inquiry. So what do you think? Your comments would be greatly appreciated. I could use some help from all my teacher friends, please!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Time to Plan the Lessons

 
Travel plans to Nepal are made and now it’s time to plan the lessons. First step is to reach out to teachers I know. Teachers who love to teach science and who are good at it too! Gather up the websites but wait . . . first head upstairs to those 13 binders I so carefully organized into vinyl pages before leaving school. Yes, that’s where I’ll start; my binders.