Sidney Jones
Digital Portfolio
Improving My Knowledge of Science Concepts & Terms
The purpose of a reflection in the 7th grade is to show how I grew in some sort of skill in or during a project. I believe that a skill I grew in was my knowledge of science concepts and terms, when we do activities. Recording scientific principle when we learn a new property or find something new in an activity is helpful to me. I have them recorded in my science book(s) to study the concepts and terms so I can keep going in my knowledge of them.
The purpose of the chemistry unit is to figure out what a chemical reaction really is. My artifact for the chemistry unit is the scientific principles in our chemistry science workbooks. The scientific principles state a scientific idea that is believed to be true based on evidence. In my own words the purpose of the scientific principles are to record different terms/concepts and why and how scientific phenomena’s happen. The scientific principles themselves were made by Ms. Lydy (my science teacher), but the class had to think based on the scientific data we had from doing a lab what the scientific principle was before Ms. Lydy told us the principle. One of the terms/concepts I learned was the definition of a chemical reaction. A chemical reaction is when two or more substances are combined and new substance(s) is/are formed with different properties. The new substance cannot go back to its original form. The product cannot be separated back to the reactants. Before I came to DRSS I didn’t understand what a chemical reaction exactly was. When I was in about 3rd or 4th grade I remember talking about what a chemical reaction was but it wasn’t as detailed compared to the end of the chemistry unit. At the very beginning of the energy unit I didn’t know what to think a chemical reaction was. In the fat and soap chronicles, lessons 3-5, I learned what properties are. Properties are the characteristics of a substance, examples include color, hardness, melting point and more. If a property changes it has through a chemical reaction, because now it is a different substance. A certain substance has certain properties.
Continuing the topic of chemical reactions, in reading 6.2 it explains what a chemical reaction is, how you know one occurred and gives examples of everyday chemical reactions. Doing the soap and fat experiments gave me knowledge of what properties are. Reading 6.2 gave me detail on what a chemical reaction was, because it told me what how you know a chemical reaction occurred and that requires the properties to change.
From the physical science unit (energy unit) my artifacts are activities 2.1 (on page 7) and 2.2 (on page 13) in our science workbooks. I think we do activities to find evidence when we think there is a new scientific principle or a new thing, for example a new type of energy. The activities themselves were created by the creators of our science workbooks, but the whole class conducted the experiment. The class conducts experiments by following the direction in our workbooks. Ms. Lydy supplies us with the things (beakers, test tubes, etc.) we need to conduct the experiment(s). One of the terms/concepts I learned that if something is moving it has kinetic energy, also called mechanical energy. An objects kinetic energy increases as its speed and/or mass increases. Before I came to DRSS I didn’t even know what kinetic was. In fact I don’t think I even heard of kinetic energy before I came to DRSS. I remember when we first started the energy unit and the activities titles usually say “Kinetic Energy” for example. I had no clue what it was. In the beginning of the energy unit the class watched videos of different objects, we had to decide if the objects had kinetic energy. People were torn on two theories, if the object was moving at all it had kinetic energy or it had to be moving on its own with nothing helping it.
Also, from the physical science unit (energy unit) my artifacts are from activity 3.1 (on page 19) and reading (on page 24) 3.1. The readings and activities were created by the creators of our science workbooks, but we conduct the experiments and RAHA (Read, Annotate, Highlight, Answer) the readings. This activity and reading is about gravitational energy. The purpose of the reading and activity is to learn about gravitational energy and what factors effect it. I’m basically learning about another new type of energy. The class conducts experiments by following the directions in our science workbooks. Ms. Lydy supplies all of the things (chemicals, measurement devices, etc.). In activity 3.1 we had two cans with different weights and we dropped each can at a different height, so it will land on the clay. By the end of activity 3.1 we figured out the higher the elevation the more squish and the more mass the more squish. I read readings by RAHA-ing (Read, Annotate, Highlight, and Answer). RAHA-ing is when we read a paragraph of a reading and highlight the main point. Then you underline or lightly highlight the evidence of why what you highlighted before, as the main point of the paragraph. Lastly, you make a note in the margins of a question you have to answer. By the end of reading 3.1 I learned that the higher the elevation the more gravitational energy. Another term/concept I learned from the physical science unit (energy unit) is the definition of gravitational energy. Gravitational energy is when something is elevated above a reference height. Gravitational energy increases as its elevation and/or mass increases. So its elevation and mass are the factors that affect it. Before I came to DRSS I didn’t know what gravitational energy was. Just like for kinetic energy I had no idea what gravitational energy was.
As a class to keep all of our types of energies together and organized we created a foldable with each type of energy we learned, what factors affect it and objects or examples that remind us of that type of energy. This is very help, because it helps me keep track of the types of energy and Ms. Lydy says some people still use the foldable in the 8th grade, this means I will have to know the types of energy in the future.
The knowledge of the science terms/concepts of a chemical reaction and kinetic and gravitational energy will help me in the future in getting a good grade on a test, because I understand what they are and what they do etc. Even if I do something outside of school, for example Science Olympiad, I would be able to already know the terms/concepts. I will gain more development on my knowledge of science terms/concepts by paying attention in class (as always) and when we take notes in class after a unit I should keep the notes somewhere safe so I can keep reviewing the terms/concepts. I can learn new science phenomena’s, concepts and terms in anything, like readings and activities, as long as the reading, activity, etc. includes the definition of the phenomena, concept or term and what it does