11/16

Today I taught first hour again. We did a lab on angle of insolation and temperature and then a heat transfer lab. I found a really cool computer demo about it on the internet yesterday but couldn't get permission to use it in time for class today. As a class we did the angle of insolation lab and made hypotheses, collected data and made conclusions. I wanted to guide the students a little bit, or at least give them some idea for a possible hypothesis, but not give them one. I explained my small understanding of the angle of insolation but I probably could have explained what I expected a little better because some in the class didn't seem to know what they were supposed to do. Mr. Borton was going around as we were collecting data and helped some of these students understand what to do. When it came time for the heat transfer lab I let the students work with little instruction. Its hard to say whether the kids learned better this way or if I should have guided them a little more, but most of them seemed to figure it out. I think the lack in the lesson was from my end in explaining. Still the heat transfer lab is really fun for the students and some of them understood right away what was going on and others it took some thinking to figure it out.