Wednesday, 13th of May

Today was our last day of class, as Friday is a public holiday.


Today has been a day of review, since Irene has reminded us of the evaluation criteria again so that we have them clear.

After that, Irene has told us that next week she will send us the exam questions so that we can work on them, and that if we have any doubts, we could do more virtual meetings to solve them.

She has also told us that in the exam he can ask us to draw and that even that part, we can do it "without it" and send it to him later.

Finally, we have been solving doubts, especially about shadows.


During today's class I have felt good, I have found this subject very short and bearable. I also think we have learned a lot of things through creative, fun and entertaining ideas such as the project, the creation of the measuring instruments or the homemade cloud, the work about the distances between planets, the sun and the moon...

However, I have to admit that when Irene said that we would have to draw on the exam, I was a little nervous since drawing is not my thing.

Finally, since it is the last post to thank Irene for everything she has taught us and the patience she has had with all of us.

Friday, 8th of May

For today's class, as I said the other day, we had to have read a document about inquiry learning.



Once read, Irene has shown us different examples of logic wheels so that we could elaborate one on inquiry learning. We had to prepare it in groups and for this, we had a meeting and from there we were preparing it during class.

Firstly, Irene had left us the first hour, but seeing that we were a little lost and that it was costing us more than she thought, she has left us all the time in class.


Here I show you the final result:

During class today I felt good. We have had some problems when using the application that Irene had recommended us to do it, and we have decided to do it in a more "traditional" way, which has been easier for us.

Wednesday, 6th of May

Last Friday, 1st of May we had no class due to the Labor Day holiday.

During the day today, we have started the class from early in the morning since we have carried out an activity that our early childhood classmates had proposed.

It consisted of the realization of a virtual gymkhana. We had to overcome different challenges and comment on the results to obtain the following tests. The final password was: There is not planet B.



Next, our classmates from "la piña" have explained their project on supermarkets and the use of plastics and later we have done a disscusion in acadly about the following question:

➼ Change comes from citiziens, consumers or from supermarkets and enterprises?


Next, we have made the final evaluations of the project and we have also evaluated the participation of our working groups, all individually.

To finish, Irene has explained to us that we have to read a document for Friday, and has explained volunteer work. We have to compare the methodology explained in that document and compare it with the one used in class last year.


During today's class I felt good, I really liked the way my classmates thought of doing the gymkana, I was very controlled as I went through the different meetings. He was very guided and I think it turned out very well.

Wednesday, 28th of April

Today's class has started strong. We have started talking about the exam and trying to set a date to do it.

Irene has explained that she will do an oral exam, in which she will let us prepare our questions. In other words, he will give us a list of possible questions and on the day of the exam he will ask us two or three of those questions randomly.

She has also told us that on the day of the exam we can discard a question so as not to answer it.


Finally, related to the exam, Irene has told us that in addition to the exam we will do another type of activity that is still not very clear and we will have to record ourselves.

Secondly, Irene has given us time to make small meetings with our groups and make a final assessment of the project. Once we have passed the statistics of the instagram account we have seen that participation in general has been very low, something we already knew, but nevertheless, within the low participation, we have seen that our group is one where people has participated more.

Finally, we have carried out a questionnaire through the application of socrative to see how we are doing. It has been quite easy to do.

During today's class I felt good, I saw that I learned more things than I thought since we didn't have time to look at anything before taking the questionnaire.

Friday, 24th of April

During today's class we continued with the theory of the previous day.

Today we have started with the energy flow and a pyramid with the trophic levels:

Top carnivore ⇝ Hervivores ⇝ Producers ⇝ Abiotic factors

Afterwards, we have seen a video about biodiversity.

➵ Link to the video:   https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-is-biodiversity-so-important-kim-preshoff

After watching the video, we had to read an article and started an acadly discussion about biodiversity and human viruses.

Finally, Irene has sent us some activities through a simulator. In the activities we had to overcome different challenges on ecosystems and we had to make different plants and species coexist without dying.

During today's class I felt good, however when using the simulator I was overwhelmed since I was not able to do the different challenges. I was trying everything and I got it to come out. I liked the initial idea, but I found it very complicated and stressful.

Wednesday, 22th of April

During today's class, Irene has divided it into two parts.

Firstly, we have started by correcting the questionnaire that we had previously completed and we have scored the responses of two random partners.

Secondly, we have started with a new unit, "Ecosystems".

Within the unit of ecosystems, we have been differentiating between the following concepts:

➼ Habitat 

➼ Species

➼ Population

➼ Community 

➼ Ecosystem 

We have also been talking about the food chain. Within this section we can point to:

➸ Producers: (produce own food)

➸ Consumers: (use the foof energy that was created by producers)

➸ Descomposers:(Break apart dead organisms or the waste material of living organisms)

During this class, we talked about a lot more things like animal relationships, about carnivorous, herbivorous, and omnivorous animals, and about photosynthesis and chemosyntesis. 

However, as it is an easy topic, we should have read it previously in the time that Irene has left us, and then we have commented on what was most difficult for us.

During today's class I felt good, since it is an easy subject and it is also one of the ones that I like the most.

Friday. 17th of April

To start today's class, Irene asked us the following question about the film  an Ocean of Plastic (which we should have seen): 

➼ How would you describe the picture of our current world that the video show us?

We have all answered in acadly forum and it was very good, since once you answered you could see the rest of the comments. They were all quite similar, that we are destroying the planet.

Finally within this question, a cloud has been generated with the most repeated words that we have been putting:

Afterwards, we carried out another activity, which consisted of making two groups and having a debate on the most pessimistic and optimistic view of plastics. I have positioned myself on the pessimistic side. We had to comment on our position and then counter the arguments of the opposite position.

To end the class today, Irene has sent us to take a questionnaire about environmental care.

During today's class, I felt good, I think that all the proposed activities have been very good and we have had all the forms in a very active way. It has been fun as in my case, my group and I are totally connected to quickly contrast the arguments.

Wednesday, 15th of April

Today was our first class after the Easter holidays.

In today's class, we have made two questionnaires about the plastics project that we are carrying out to see the participation that we have at the individual and group level.

In my case, I am reading and seeing everything that is uploaded to instagram, but it is true that I cannot participate in all the challenges that are proposed to us, sometimes due to lack of resources or time.

On the other hand, the rest of the people we go to are not participating at all, and in our case it is very complicated since we are doing a Scape Room and it is very difficult to keep putting tests if nobody does them, but we will continue ahead.

Finally, Irene has sent us a task, we have to watch a movie for the next day and take note of the message she wants to convey, the main ideas ... to comment on during the next class.
The chosen film is an Ocean of Plastic.

During class today, I felt good. However, as I mentioned before, we are a little frustrated by the low participation that other people are having with respect to the proteject. We hope that it will be solved soon and that people will overcome all our challenges.


Finally, I would like to finish today's post, putting the images of the work that Irene sent us to do at Easter.

We had to create two measuring instruments and I chose to create a barometer and an anemometer.

Barometer

Anemometer

Wednesday, 1st of April

Today was our last class before the Easter holidays.

Today we had to organize the dates on which we were going to publish each one of their publications on instagram. There has been a bit of a mess, because we are many groups and we want to publish a lot, without saturating it.

Also, we have seen the results of the survey that we carried out in Ces to check the needs that we have to cover and what is really known about plastics.

Finally, each group has carried out the expositions of their project.

During today's class I felt good, because in my opinion, after seeing what each of us is going to do and setting dates, it was like seeing a ray of sunshine, that the global project ends up coming out, despite all the Modifications that all groups have had to make.

And that is all for now, we will be making our publications as we have agreed.

See you around Easter.

Friday, 27th of March

Today we have had another virtual class.

Today, we have held small virtual meetings with our working groups to continue with our project.
We had to fill out another sheet in a group, to distribute the tasks and see what we had to do.

We had thought about making small games, but talking to Irene, she told us that it is better if we took advantage of what we had already done (the fish story) and used it as a common thread.
And that we have decided, we will make our history and small challenges or games that we all know, to make people aware that the issue of abuse of plastic is serious and that with little we can do a lot.

The story has been based on Nemo and Dory. Dory has memory problems and that's why she does things wrong (related to the plastic issue) and that's why she needs the help of Nemo. We will play the role of Nemo a bit throughout the project to remember the importance of doing things well, and the rest of the people will be Dory, who forget to do those things well, because they think they don't matter.

Finally, my group and I have started with the development of the story and the design of the small challenges and games.

The next day, we have to prepare a short presentation about our work to show it to our colleagues.

During today's class, I felt a bit overwhelmed again due to the difficulty of developing our project in a totally different way from what we had thought, but little by little we have finished going.

Wednesday, 25th of March

Today was the first day of class due to the suspension of our internship due to the state of alarm in which we find ourselves due to the coronavirus.

We have had our first virtual meeting with Irene and she has explained to us that during these days we will have to carry out an experiment, which consists of creating a cloud, and two measuring devices with things that we have at home, and then use them for seven days and record the results.

Afterwards, we have been holding small meetings with our working groups, to talk about the final project.
We were going to create a Scape room, but due to the situation we have and we don't know if we are going to return to the classes or not, Irene has told us to change everything and try to do it in a virtual way, perhaps through a instagram account or something similar.

During today's class I have felt good, since Irene has been able to explain to us what is going to happen with the subject and what steps we have to follow. However, I have been overwhelmed when we have had to change everything we had in the project, because we have gone from doing it in person to making it virtual, but little by little we are seeing how to approach it again.

Friday, 6th of March

Today was our last class, since next Monday we begin our internship period.

Today we have time to talk to our groups about the final work. We have reviewed the questionnaire that we have done among the whole class and we have thought about how to set up our scape room so that it fits well.

Then Irene has sent us two jobs to do, one mandatory for everyone before Sunday, and another volunteer.
Voluntary work consists in conducting an experiment, we have to create a home made cloud at home and record the process.

When the video will be ready, I'll upload the video here too.

And ...
... this is all for now, see you around the internship period!

Wednesday, 4th of March

In today's class, we have started to get together between the groups that had the same text and all comment on the conclusions. Then two or three representatives went to the center of the class to discuss it with the rest of the classmates.

Our text was about air pollution. Primary and seconary pollutans.

Once the activity is finished, we start with the second part of this unit, the weather.

We have started talking and describing the following concepts:

➼ Daily temperature range
➼ Daily mean temperature
➼ Monthly mean temperature
➼ Annual mean temperature
➼ Annual temperature range



Finally, we have seen how the temperatures of two places can vary according to their:

➼ Season
➼ Latitude
➼ Differential heating of land and water
➼ Ocean currents
➼ Geographic position
➼ Cloud cover and albedo

I felt good during class today, since I like the topic of the weather a lot and I find it very curiousand interesting.

Friday, 28th of February

In today's class, we started talking about some of the questions we asked the other day in the test to clarify some concepts.

Next, we have continued talking about the atmosphere. Today, we started with the layers of the atmosphere  that are the followings:

➼ TROPOSPHERE: (Is the closest to us.)

➼ STRATOSPHERE: (Atmosphere ozone is concentrate in this layer.)

➼ MESOSPHERE: (Lowest temperature value in the atmosphere.)

➼ THERMOSPHERE: (Density much nearer vaccum.)

During the second hour, we started talking about the Greenhouse Effect that is the process by which radiation from a planet's atmosphere warms the planet's surface to a temperature above what it would be without this atmosphere. Is a natural process. 

Finally we have done an activity in groups. Each group had one of the following topics and we had to read it and draw conclusions that we would present during the next session.

➼ Air pollutans

➼ Ozone hole

➼ Uv index

➼ Changing color of the sky

My group had the topic of air pollutans.

During today's class I felt good, and in our case I found the text that we had to read very interesting. It was very well explained.

Wednesday, 26th of February

Today we only had one hour of class, due to the celebration of ash. 

As Irene had told us last day, today we had the test to see how we were doing and where unit one entered. We have gone to the computer room and have been able to do it in pairs. It was a multiple choice test.

I have felt confident to be able to take the test in pairs, and to be able to discuss between them which is the correct answer. However, it seemed a bit complicated because I had to reason a lot and there was some trikky questions.

On the other hand, this exam has served us as a drill and to give us an idea that she can ask us in the final exam.

Friday, 21th of February

During today's class, we have started a new unit. We have started talking about the atmosphere, that is the envelope of air that surrounds our planet.

We have also continued talking about:

➼ Origin: 4.500 million years ago

➼ Chemical composition: 99% nitrogen and oxygen 

On the other hand, in today's class, Irene has explained the final work. Our group has played the part of workshops. 

The rest of the Irene class has left us time to think about the project, and we have come up with several ideas such as a street market or a gymkana, but we have finally decided to create a scape room where the protagonist will be a fish that lives in a sea of plastic and doesn't know how to get out of there.

During class today I felt good, however we had a little discursion with another group because we both wanted the rewards issue. As we did not agree, we had to throw it to luck and we have touched on the issue we did not want. But in the end we have come up with a lot of ideas that can look good and we have motivated ourselves a bit.

Wednesday, 19th of February

Today, we have started the class with the news that next day we will have the first control of the first unit. We all got scared, because that same day we had another test and in the end Irene has decided to change it and put it next Wednesday.

Next, we have started talking about the moon and saying some characteristics about it. Irene has put us a video where we had to pay more attention to the following words:

➼ Aescent 
➼ Gibbous
➼ Waxing 
➼ Waning 

We could not see the video due to technical problems and in the end we have done an activity to explain why we only see one side of the moon.  The answer is because the moon rotates very slowly and always looking at the Earth. We have simulated it with two classmates.

During the second hour, we have started watching the phases of the moon and we have seen the video that I mentioned before.

Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vXWXqGmPCk&feature=youtu.be

Finally, we have talked about eclipses, and for them to occur, the sun, the earth and the moon must be on the same line.

During today's class I felt very good and we have been talking about very curious topics and we have been able to understand it easily since we have seen it with drawings or even with representations of our classmates.

Friday, 14th of February

During today's class, we have continued talking about the Earth and its characteristics.

Next we have talked about the grades of incidence between the sun and the Earth and we have answered the question we asked during the previous class.

➼ To the question: Why is it cold in winter and in summer it is hot?

We have responded that it is because the sun's rays fall obliquely, so the sun provides less light and heat, which is why it is colder. When it is winter in the northern hemisphere, in the southern hemisphere the sun's rays fall perpendicularly, this provides more light and heat.

Finally, we have talked about some movements made by the sun or the Earth such as:

➼ ROTATION

➼ REVOLUTION

➼ PRECESSION

➼ NUTATION

During class today I felt good, because we have been seeing things we all know but we really don't know why they are like that.

Wednesday, 12th of February

In today's class, during the first part, Irene has left us time to finish the work she sent last week as we were told.

We had to record a video explaining the distances between the different planets and between the moon and the Earth. Sometimes the distances were very large and we could give examples of how far it would be.

Next, we have returned to class and have seen some brief characteristics of the Earth.

After that, Irene has told us that for the next day we have to answer the following question:
Why is it cold in winter and in summer it is hot?


Finally we have continued with our table about the overuse of plastics:

➽CLOSE TO US: Promote the use of reusable cups and bottles when going to a cafe, promote the use of reusable bottles at Ces Don Bosco, design a Ces Don Bosco bottle, account in instagram - raffle, collect signatures, questionary, visual campaing, rewards...

➽CITY: Increase the price of plastic, promote the local stores... 

➽EDUCATION:  Campaign at the school, give aluminium bottle, give piece of fruit, workshops, award (points)...

During today's class I felt good, although at the beginning together with my work group we were overwhelmed a little due to the great distances between the planets, the sun, and the moon. Then we have asked Irene for another alternative and we have already relaxed and started to do so.

Friday, 7th of February

Today, as Irene was a bit involved, she sent us a work.

The job was to create a model of the solar system, the closest thing to ours, and thus check the different dimensions and distances between the planets and the sun.

All this, we have done with scales and taking as reference the sun a pilates ball fifty centimeters in diameter.

In today's class, we have had to make three rules to find the different measures and distances of the planets. And next day we will take our balls from the different planets to record a video and we can see it better.

These have been the distances and sizes we have obtained:

Today, I felt good. I really liked the work since we can get an idea of ​​the real dimensions of the planets and the sun and even see how far away you are from each other. On the other hand, since the measures were the same for everyone, we have divided the tasks among the whole class and have been able to do it more quickly and cooperatively.

Wednesday, 5th of February

First, during today's class, Irene has taken us to the playground to do the thought routine: "I see, I think, I wonder". 

We had fifteen minutes to walk around the playground and do it. These have been my answers:

➥ "I see...": Plants, cold, sun, bush, landscape, rocks, people...

➥ "I think...": Will the sun be in the same place in an hour?, In a year, will the plants remain the same, have they grown or died?, In a year, the landscape will be the same?, In a year the temperature will be more or less the same? ...

➥ "I wonder...": Why a tree is green?, Why the sun is circular?, How a rock is formed?. How a planet is formed?, Are there plants in other planets? ...

Afterwards, Irene has asked us the following questions and we have answered them in the different working groups:

➽ Where are we?
➽ How does the Earth look like?
➽ Where the universe formation come from?

Finally, we have been reading the articles that we had to choose by groups related to the subject of plastics on Earth.

Today I felt good, and at the time of the routine of thought, I have realized what it is difficult for us to ask questions, but that nevertheless later arise without stopping.
From my point of view, the universe is a very broad topic and there are still many questions to ask and many answers to answer.

Wednesday, 29th of January

During today's class, we continued with the table we made the day before about some problems that affect us related to earth sciences.

Then we all voted together on all the issues proposed and decided that the most important one was excess plastic.

Finally, we were discussing possible proposals to reduce the problem of excess plastic on our planet.

Some of the proposals we made were the following:

➽ Don´t buy water in plastic bottles.

➽ Don´t use straws.

➽ Reusing glass containers.

➽ Use reusable bags.

➽ Use reusable feminine hygiene products.

During class today, I felt good. I have also realized that with small gestures or attitudes that cost us nothing in our daily lives, we can contribute to improving the planet.

THE DAY OF THE SECOND CLASS ARRIVED!

Today, we have started the class by creating our "Group identity". It was fun to think about the name of the group and the catchprhase.

We couldn't think of anything, and after thinking about different things we have opted for:

• Name: Little Einsteins
• Catchphrase: "Faster than the electrons"

Afterwards it has been a lot of fun to also try to make a decent drawing, since none of the members of my group know how to draw well. In the end we have done as we could a planet (Saturn) and a test tube. This has been the final result. It could have been much worse.

Then the complicated part has arrived, where we had to assign different roles. After speaking to decide what role we were staying each of us decided to do it as follows:

• Facilitator: Andrea
• Secretary: Álvaro
• Spokesperson: Belén
• Timekeeper: me

During the second hour of today, we have seen a video. It was a TED talk by Kiran Sethi where he essentially conveyed the following message: "I can".

Link to the video: https://www.ted.com/talks/kiran_sethi_kids_take_charge?language=es


Then we have been discussing different methodologies and how to design a change. We have to take into account the following aspects to improve:

🠊Feel, imagine, do and share.



Next we have to discuss with a classmate a problem close to us that affects us and is related to earth sciences. We have thought about climate change, and the consequences are what just happened in Valencia, Catalonia, better use of water, enhance use of solar energy, traffic (too much), using less plastic...

During the class I felt good, I really liked the video we have seen and we have come closer to the subject relating it to our daily problems.

FIRST DAY OF CLASS

Today we had our first class of the subject "Earth Sciences at School". 

During this first class, Irene explained the schedule and the teaching guide of the subject. Afterwards, she explained that in the same way as last year, we had to make a learning diary, but this time, we will do it through this blog.


After all this, we have begun to talk about science, what is science and what is not, and I have discovered that astronomy was not a science.

Finally, we have seen a video that talks about earth sciences.

Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck_e4CRM82Y

During the second hour of this first class, Irene has left us time to create our blog and upload the link to the virtual campus so she can access it.

And that has been all for today, I hope it is not a very complicated subject, since the sciences do not passionate me and we will do funny things.