YETC Lab 2

Today in the YETC lab I really feel like I learned a great deal and will remember a lot more of what has been taught. I really enjoy being able to apply what I learned in class. For my session today I usually spent anywhere from five to ten minutes on any particular program. The programs I looked at included, stellarium, xmind, celestlia and phun. All these programs had something different to offer. The program I had alot of fun with was the Phun program. Phun is a great physics teaching tool. It is a virtual world that illistrates and showes how gravity air and other physical properties affect objects. I especially liked the interaction and creativity one could use to create new objects and manipulate them in different ways.
I think that especially for the sciences the programs I experimented with would be some great tools for my learners. An example in which I would use one of these programs is if I were to do an Astronomay section in my classroom. For my class I would use stellarium to show the different constellations and where they might be in the night time sky. I would also use celestlia to show my students the different planets and their movements throughout the solar system. What I like about these tools is that it allows students to have more options to look around and explore. They are also very user friendly so I am sure after a couple minutes of lecture on how to use the software kids would understand how to use it and be able to go off on their own.
This section was very meaningful to me because it further enforced my learning from last week plus it was alot of fun. If I were to offer one suggestion for the class I would make sure we all got an oppertunity to explore the YETC and then have us make up our lesson plans. To me that would be a better way of allowing us get more exposed to what is out their and then allow us an oppertunity to practice what we have learned.