Week 13 Blog

Lab: This week, our reading was about coupled inquiry. To begin class, we had a small group discussion of how the coupled inquiry article relates to the sweater article. The sweater article gives students full freedom over their learning and investigates how sweaters warm things. After several investigations, the teacher steers the students in the right direction. This is similar to coupled inquiry because it encourages teachers to allow students to investigate their misconceptions but also has teachers intervene sooner in the instigating process. Coupled inquiry also begins with a guided approach rather than an open approach. Also, we talked about the difference between climate and weather. Weather is the daily temperature and expected conditions, whereas climate is the average over thirty years. Then, we discussed evidence of phenology using bird hatching and how climate change impacts the timing of these natural events. 

Activity: 

Pressbook: This week's Pressbook had lots to do with Earth's atmosphere. In class, we briefly discussed the effects of Greenhouse gases on Earth's atmosphere. The Pressbook divers further into the harms and causes of Greenhouse gasses and what they are composed of. The Pressbook taught me something new: the Greenhouse Gas Effect and how it causes the atmosphere to trap heat beneath its surface. It also discussed the albedo effect and the carbon cycle, which I knew about. However, I did forget that carbon is stored in sediment.