One school week left in 2007. . . are you feelin' it? Wrap up your work in chem by completing this blog assignment, then you're off the hook until 2008!
The goal of this assignment is two-fold.
1) I'd like you to research your topic a bit more, using internet searches and the U of D database resources available to us. (If you haven't used the UD databases much, take this opportunity to try them out. You need a password if you're using them; Mrs. Graham has these on handouts in the library.) Save any interesting links in your link list.
2) While researching, be thinking about a more specific approach to the topic you've chosen. It would make sense to divide your topic into 2 or 3 different ideas for exploration, and then note what resources/information you are finding. Are you finding the right information for your original path of interest, or are you finding new ideas within your topic area that you want to explore now?
So, to demonstrate the work that you've done related to this assignment, post some new links back to resources. Then write a paragraph post that outlines the thoughts you've been thinking about how to refine your topic. (What specific ideas are coming up in your area of interest?) Report as to whether you've actually been able to find information about these more specific areas, or whether you're having trouble.
Lastly, visit three other blogs from our group, and read the last posts about monitoring reliability of web resources. Please leave a helpful contribution to the ideas that your classmate has expressed. Leave me the students' names of the blogs you visited in your last post. (That helps me to find your comments more easily.)
Thanks for blogging
JV
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
RESEARCH WITH DISCRIMINATION
Hello, Cool Chem Chids.
You did a nice job with your Link Lists as you gathered a first-round of websites for your research- a fine start to our adventure into real-world chemistry. In this week's blog, I'd like to pursue the idea of the reliability of our resources. Only ding-a-lings believe everything they see and read on the world wide web; and I trust that through your years of research, you've become very discerning about the reliability and veracity of your internet resources.
Think with me for a moment about finding information on the internet. Ask yourself these questions:
When you find a site, what features of it are indicative to you that the information contained can be trusted?
What actions should you take, once you find an article that seems to meet your needs, to ascertain the reliability of the source?
Are there any things that you do routinely or have been taught to do in order to "test" the information for accuracy and lack of bias?
What strategies do you use or do you think you/others should use?
Please write a post for your blog that explains, explores, or expounds on these ideas. These are really important things for us to think about, so I'll ask, in our next assignment, for others to read your blog and to compare their ideas to yours.
Also, it's time to make a final decision about what your topic will be for this project. So, if you haven't made up your mind, please do so and be definitive about it in this blog. If you've already made the decision, I should be able to find that in your previous blogs. Just check to be sure that you have "declared" your topic somewhere.
There two things to take care of then, for your blog: 1) paragraph or two about how to judge the credibility and value of internet sites and 2) make sure you've committed to a topic.
This assignment is due at 12 noon on December 7, EST.
Blog away!!
You did a nice job with your Link Lists as you gathered a first-round of websites for your research- a fine start to our adventure into real-world chemistry. In this week's blog, I'd like to pursue the idea of the reliability of our resources. Only ding-a-lings believe everything they see and read on the world wide web; and I trust that through your years of research, you've become very discerning about the reliability and veracity of your internet resources.
Think with me for a moment about finding information on the internet. Ask yourself these questions:
When you find a site, what features of it are indicative to you that the information contained can be trusted?
What actions should you take, once you find an article that seems to meet your needs, to ascertain the reliability of the source?
Are there any things that you do routinely or have been taught to do in order to "test" the information for accuracy and lack of bias?
What strategies do you use or do you think you/others should use?
Please write a post for your blog that explains, explores, or expounds on these ideas. These are really important things for us to think about, so I'll ask, in our next assignment, for others to read your blog and to compare their ideas to yours.
Also, it's time to make a final decision about what your topic will be for this project. So, if you haven't made up your mind, please do so and be definitive about it in this blog. If you've already made the decision, I should be able to find that in your previous blogs. Just check to be sure that you have "declared" your topic somewhere.
There two things to take care of then, for your blog: 1) paragraph or two about how to judge the credibility and value of internet sites and 2) make sure you've committed to a topic.
This assignment is due at 12 noon on December 7, EST.
Blog away!!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Beginning to Research: Creating LinkLists
Hello, Happy ChemBloggers.
Now it's time to begin investigating how we can use the blog resource for our research about news and issues in chemistry. Remember how to create a link list on your blog page? Go to customize (top right corner on your blog), add a new feature, link list.
You will begin doing online research about the topics you've chosen. The goal is to browse around, read about your potential topics, and find what truly interests you. Use the U of D database for your researching, as well. In order to keep track of your research, you will be creating a list of links to resources you found. If you find a good link, or something you want to read or find later, post the URL into your new Link List. (You might want to make several Link Lists, by topics that you're considering.) This Link List allows you to find these resources easily next time you're researching. It's a great tool. You can use it from any computer!!
Your assignment is:
1) to have at least 10 links in the new list.
2) then, post a "reflective" paragraph to your blog - talk about what you found out, discovered, didn't find out. . . while researching your topic. Perhaps it was difficult to search for your topic, or there was too much information. . . .Perhaps you have thought about narrowing your topic, or perhaps you've made a decision about what, exactly, your topic will be this term. Write about this first initial stage of your research.
3) Due by Monday, Dec 3 12:00 PM EST
Over and Out.
Now it's time to begin investigating how we can use the blog resource for our research about news and issues in chemistry. Remember how to create a link list on your blog page? Go to customize (top right corner on your blog), add a new feature, link list.
You will begin doing online research about the topics you've chosen. The goal is to browse around, read about your potential topics, and find what truly interests you. Use the U of D database for your researching, as well. In order to keep track of your research, you will be creating a list of links to resources you found. If you find a good link, or something you want to read or find later, post the URL into your new Link List. (You might want to make several Link Lists, by topics that you're considering.) This Link List allows you to find these resources easily next time you're researching. It's a great tool. You can use it from any computer!!
Your assignment is:
1) to have at least 10 links in the new list.
2) then, post a "reflective" paragraph to your blog - talk about what you found out, discovered, didn't find out. . . while researching your topic. Perhaps it was difficult to search for your topic, or there was too much information. . . .Perhaps you have thought about narrowing your topic, or perhaps you've made a decision about what, exactly, your topic will be this term. Write about this first initial stage of your research.
3) Due by Monday, Dec 3 12:00 PM EST
Over and Out.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
NOW WHAT?
Okay, happy bloggers. You have some great blog pages set up. Now. . . .
1) Post about your ideas for research topics. Post at least three unless you are absolutely certain.
2) Then, visit 3 other blogs, read what other people are considering for topics and give them MEANINGFUL feedback. Provide reasons for why you like the ideas.
Due by 12:00 PM EST on Nov. 28, Wednesday
10 pts.
1) Post about your ideas for research topics. Post at least three unless you are absolutely certain.
2) Then, visit 3 other blogs, read what other people are considering for topics and give them MEANINGFUL feedback. Provide reasons for why you like the ideas.
Due by 12:00 PM EST on Nov. 28, Wednesday
10 pts.
THE FIRST STEP
What you'll need to do to get started is to visit the blogger.com website and create your own blog space. In order to have a blog space, you'll need to establish a Google account. (Blogger.com is a Google enterprise.)
At some point, when setting up the blog, you'll be asked to establish a URL identity. Pay attention to that, because other classmates will need that to link to your blog. Once you have your URL, put it up on the whiteboard along with your name, so we can link to your page.
The most important thing to do today is to learn how to include links - these links will be the URLs of the blogs of class members. Insert links for all of us on your page - there should be 16 (not you). Here's how to make a link list: Under the "template" tab option (top) for your blog, select the "page elements" tab, then "add a page element". Choose "link list", but before you do, check out all the other options for your page. The "list" option is nice for gathering research ideas. You may also want to use "link list" again when collecting URL's from your research.
After making your link list, save your blog, then try the links out in the "view" mode to make sure all the links work.
Now that you're all set up, you can customize the space in a lot of ways. Manuever around and explore how to reformat your space, re-colorize, etc. if you're into that sort of thing. Otherwise, the templates are pretty nice to use on their own. If you'd like to visit another classmate's blog, leave a constructive, complimentary comment for them about how their page looks. This is a first step in community exchange.
The goal is to have your blog space created and all class members linked by Wednesday's class, Nov 28.
At some point, when setting up the blog, you'll be asked to establish a URL identity. Pay attention to that, because other classmates will need that to link to your blog. Once you have your URL, put it up on the whiteboard along with your name, so we can link to your page.
The most important thing to do today is to learn how to include links - these links will be the URLs of the blogs of class members. Insert links for all of us on your page - there should be 16 (not you). Here's how to make a link list: Under the "template" tab option (top) for your blog, select the "page elements" tab, then "add a page element". Choose "link list", but before you do, check out all the other options for your page. The "list" option is nice for gathering research ideas. You may also want to use "link list" again when collecting URL's from your research.
After making your link list, save your blog, then try the links out in the "view" mode to make sure all the links work.
Now that you're all set up, you can customize the space in a lot of ways. Manuever around and explore how to reformat your space, re-colorize, etc. if you're into that sort of thing. Otherwise, the templates are pretty nice to use on their own. If you'd like to visit another classmate's blog, leave a constructive, complimentary comment for them about how their page looks. This is a first step in community exchange.
The goal is to have your blog space created and all class members linked by Wednesday's class, Nov 28.
A COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS
This term we will investigate, research, and write about what's happening out in our world as it relates to chemistry. There are so many issues and interesting things going on, and tons of them are tied directly to chemistry.
Your goal: to choose a topic of interest to you, to explore current ideas, news and issues about the topic, to report about what's going on, and to reflect about your thoughts as it relates to what you're learning.
SELECT-EXPLORE-REPORT-REFLECT
Class goal: to use the blog as a tool in order to: read about what others are learning, communicate directly with classmates about what they're writing, and provide exchange feedback and dialogue about each other's information. READ-COMMUNICATE-EXCHANGE
Topics for exploration should be first and foremost things that interest you. Any topic is really okay, as long as it has some chemistry related to it. (And what topic is not, somehow, related to chemsitry?) The guiding question for your exploration and research should be "How is chemistry related to this issue?"
Here are some ideas of topics:
Issues: blood doping in sports, the impact of chemicals on global climate change, nuclear chemistry for energy, nuclear chemistry for weapons, pharmaceuticals - how to get chemicals to people who can't afford them, alternative fuels, are all these "energy drinks" going to cause problems, artificial sweetners, genetically modified foods, steroids in sports, ritalin and other medicines I might take, disposal of technological items (cell phones, computers) in the environment, pollution,
Curious: what's happening in HIV/AIDS medication research?, what's all the fuss about trans fats?, how effective are things like gatorade, vitamin water? water treatment plants, sewage systems, chemical toilets - how do they work?, diets? what's a liver for? pharmaceuticals-what's the latest and greatest out there, beauty products - what's the difference?,
Get the idea? Let's find out what to do first. . . . Read the next post.
Your goal: to choose a topic of interest to you, to explore current ideas, news and issues about the topic, to report about what's going on, and to reflect about your thoughts as it relates to what you're learning.
SELECT-EXPLORE-REPORT-REFLECT
Class goal: to use the blog as a tool in order to: read about what others are learning, communicate directly with classmates about what they're writing, and provide exchange feedback and dialogue about each other's information. READ-COMMUNICATE-EXCHANGE
Topics for exploration should be first and foremost things that interest you. Any topic is really okay, as long as it has some chemistry related to it. (And what topic is not, somehow, related to chemsitry?) The guiding question for your exploration and research should be "How is chemistry related to this issue?"
Here are some ideas of topics:
Issues: blood doping in sports, the impact of chemicals on global climate change, nuclear chemistry for energy, nuclear chemistry for weapons, pharmaceuticals - how to get chemicals to people who can't afford them, alternative fuels, are all these "energy drinks" going to cause problems, artificial sweetners, genetically modified foods, steroids in sports, ritalin and other medicines I might take, disposal of technological items (cell phones, computers) in the environment, pollution,
Curious: what's happening in HIV/AIDS medication research?, what's all the fuss about trans fats?, how effective are things like gatorade, vitamin water? water treatment plants, sewage systems, chemical toilets - how do they work?, diets? what's a liver for? pharmaceuticals-what's the latest and greatest out there, beauty products - what's the difference?,
Get the idea? Let's find out what to do first. . . . Read the next post.
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