Building Critical Thinking Skills: Is Purple the Perfect Color?

Here is an article I wrote for the TalkSTEM site:

Building Critical Thinking Skills: Is Purple the Perfect Color?

As an elementary science teacher and mother of two young boys, I love hearing, “Guess what I just discovered?”. It often occurs when curiosity, wonder, and knowledge collide and can provide the foundation of a lifelong love of science. Recently a student had such a eureka moment and announced excitedly, “I found out that sapphires are really just blue emeralds”. I was intrigued by the statement though my limited knowledge of geology suggested it was incorrect. Maybe I was wrong and would learn something new. When asked where they found this interesting fact the student replied, “Online!”.

The saying, “You cannot trust everything you read”, is particularly true for online sources. Yet this often takes students (and adults) by surprise. In an age where Google is the go-to-source for general scientific questions, how much confidence can be had in data found online and how does one decide what is a reliable source? In scientific research, Peer Review helps ensure confidence in the scientific literature. Before publishing new data and conclusions, it is reviewed by a collection of other scientists to gauge the quality of the work and ensure all conclusions are supported by the data. Only work that meets the high standards of a field is published. Unfortunately, while Google uses an algorithmic approximation of peer review called PageRank to rank websites by importance, the question of accuracy of information isn’t directly considered.

To get students thinking critically about information online I tell them that I could post online that purple is the perfect color. Does that make it true? Is it a fact or an opinion? What if I was the main sponsor for purple items or had some other conflict of interest? Does that change how they would view my comments? Generally after answering these questions, it does. Another factor to consider is the relevance of the source. For instance, the student who noted “sapphires are really just blue emeralds”, found that ‘factoid’ on a website for a video game describing their virtual Chaos Emeralds.

All students should be trained to develop critical thinking skills including how to gauge confidence in online sources by accuracy and relevance. Its a requirement for those intending to pursue STEM careers and it benefits all students.

About Jamie:
Dr. Jamie Repasky is an independent science educator in Portland, Oregon, focusing on hands-on STEAM programs for K-8th grade students. She works both at Rieke Elementary School as a Science Enrichment Coordinator and at Woodlawn School as a STEAM Consultant. She holds a B.S. in Marine Science and Biology from University of Miami, Florida, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Immunology from Yale University. Recently she was honored at the Sigma Xi Columbia Willamette chapter’s 2015 Outstanding Science Teacher of the Year.

Celebrate STEAM

E.T. Phones Home!

After seven months with no contact, Philae the space probe on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, woke up!

'Hello Earth!': Comet probe Philae wakes up

Solar S'mores

The sun is out and we are ready to enjoy a favorite summer snack.  Using poster board, cardboard, aluminum foil, glue, string, and clips, we created Copenhagen Solar Cookers for s'more science fun.  Once in the sun, the ovens heated up to 150'F in a matter of minutes and were able to melt the chocolate on our marshmallow fluff covered graham crackers.

Here is a video on how to build your own - How To Make Cogenhagen Solar Cooker.  We even made mini ones using 7"x7" poster board squares and 4"x4" cardboard center!

Future Solar Engineers

The Woodlawn students had a chance to experiment with solar panels and create a UV activated bead keychain at the "It Takes A Community" event.  Go Woodlawn Wildcats!

photo credit - Sherylita Mason

photo credit - Sherylita Mason

Come to the Woodlawn 'It Takes A Community' Event this Friday!  We will be running a 'Celebrate STEAM' table with science crafts and more information about the Planetary STEAM program.

Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink

Did you know that 1/6 of the world does not have access to clean drinking water?  That's over 1.1 billion people!  This week Rieke's 5th graders learned about the microbes all around us and which are the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Located near the school is Stephen's Creek watershed that has had high E. coli pollution over the last 10 years - E. coli is one of our sometimes good but sometimes bad microbes.  For this engineering challenge, the students were asked to purify the water from our creek with the SODIS method - using infrared and ultraviolet radiation from the sun to kill the microbes.  Each team chose a variable to test with their creek water - using baggies vs. glass bottles, black tarp vs. reflective surface, sari filtered water vs. SODIS treated water, aluminum foil boats vs. corrugated roof, ...  We allowed the experiment to run over the weekend and then the students tested their water with a bacterial/coliform petrifilm.  With these plates, bacterial colonies appear as purple dots on the pink plate.  E. coli colonies are purple dots with an air bubbles next to them.

Three days later, they observed the results.

Thankfully, our tap water did not have any detectable bacteria!

Stephen's Creek water - there are 8 E.coli colonies on this plate

From left to right - creek water, sari filtered creek water, SODIS treated creek water

From left to right - creek water, SODIS treated on a black tarp, SODIS treated on reflective surface

Can you create a constellation?

Woodlawn now has four constellations in the main stairways - Orion and Taurus in the south and Bootes and Ursa Major in the north.  We are inviting the students to create their own constellation.  They can submit a drawing of their unique constellation along with an essay explaining what is represents and the story behind the design.  Is it a story of a hero, an explorer, animal, location?  We have room for a few more Woodlawn constellations to be mounted on our 'stars'.

Beaver Engineering

Both humans and beavers are environmental engineers - able to modify a habitat which can change the landscape and species richness of a region.  This makes both of these mammals a keystone species and their behavior can affect the healthy and stability of their environment.  These Rieke kindergarteners were able to test their engineering skills as they took the challenge to use mud, sticks, and water to create a mini dam!

Hello Woodlawn Wildcats!

Here is a shout out to the Woodlawn students from American Museum of Natural History astrophysicists from around the world!

Cosmic Rays

How do you collect sunlight?  What can affect how much solar energy hits the Earth?  How can we save the energy from the sun?  These are questions that our 3rd and 4th graders asked as they collected data about our sun.  Using solar energy meters the 3rd graders predicted the best angle to collect the most watts/m2 and then set up an experiment to track the temperature and solar energy at a location for a week.  They found that temperature was a good prediction of how much energy they could collect from the sun but that clouds and pollution may affect how much radiation reaches the Earth's surface.

HOBO data logger graph - blue is temperature, black is volts

The 4th graders learned how to connect a circuit to use solar energy to charge a AA or AAA battery.  They made predictions on how long it would take to fill a rechargeable battery and collected data with a multimeter every 10 minutes over an hour.  It was a science/recess lesson!

Solar battery circuits chargers while the students played

Checking the connections after collecting data

Tracking the Sun

Sunflowers are able to detect and move to toward the sun by a process called heliotropism.  Our 5th graders were given the engineering challenge to mimic this process with four mini solar panels, a DC motor, popsicle sticks, and a glue gun.  As a team they needed to wire the panels to the motor so that when the tip of the 'solar house on its side' is facing the 'sun' (work light), the motor would stop.  But if they turns either left or right with the solar house, the motor would spin in the opposite direction.  The students were able to practice their 'engineering loop' and after multiple tries, fails, and brainstorming, they got it.

Art in Nature

Sometimes when you take a step closer to the intricate world of nature you see amazing things - patterns, colors, textures that you would have overlooked.  On our nature adventures, we have been using technology in the form of a Proscope and iPad to view what a bug would see.

Simple Machines

What are a mechanical devices that have allowed humans to move, lift, push, and pull objects for centuries - Simple Machines!  The 1st graders were able to test how these devices help transfer their effort to solve a task.

• Wedges and Basic Wheel
• Can you transport a large box across the room?
• Screws
• Can you move water uphill?
• Levers
• Can one student lift 3 classmates?
• Pulleys
• Can you lift your classmate three feet off the ground?
  

STEAM and Community Service

At Stephen's Creek, our 4th graders were able to identify and learn about ways that the Native Americans used our local plants - ferns, willows, firs, berries, and The Tree of Life - cedar.  Unfortunately, invasive plants have moved into our natural area and with the help of the Portland Parks and Recreation SW Watershed Steward, the class was able to remove English Ivy from one section of the park.

The students were able to take their hard work back to the classroom and change it into a beautiful art project.  While the Native Americans would not have used English Ivy for their baskets, our students removed the leaves and learned how to weave a mini basket!

Muon's in the air

Humans can only see part of the radiation from the sun - the visible light spectrum.  What about the unseen gifts from our local star?  Some are safe for humans and life on Earth, and other are damaging.  We discussed how our atmosphere protects us from some of the most dangerous forms of cosmic radiation - some of the ultraviolet spectrum, x-rays, and gamma rays.  Using a homemade cloud chamber, Rieke 3rd grade students were able to view a normally invisible safe cosmic particles called muons.