Predict, Observe, Explain: Activities Enhancing Scientific Understanding

In class on Tuesday, a partner and I were both given "Heat Energy" as our specific interest in the study of Physical Science.  During a short activity, we were given a lesson plan excerpt or activity excerpt from a book called, Predict, Observe, Explain: Activities Enhancing Scientific Understanding. 

As a partnership, we were told to look through the first page of the activity and work through the activity instructions as the student.  Our activity was called "Which Contains More Heat Energy?".  Initially, I was drawn to the Did You Know? question or Hook presented at the beginning of the activity.  The story-like hook describes to students how people used to have to warm their beds using hot water bottles or hot rocks before indoor heating systems were utilized.  As the investigation, students are supposed to decide if water, rocks, or something else works better by retaining heat longer.  I found this hook to not only be interesting and applicable to the real world, but also to contain many interdisciplinary connections.  As a future teacher, I could see myself doing multiple lessons in social studies, reading, language arts, and even math that involve what people used to heat their homes before heating systems were invented.  This hook also captures the interest of students who do not believe science to be their favorite subject or even of any interest to them. 

Though the initiation was easy to read, my partner and I were thoroughly confused with the actual activity described.  After reading the activity multiple times and talking through our understandings, we did eventually come to a conclusion for how we would enact the activity in the classroom.  After working through the lesson as students, our professor asked us to turn to the following page. 

The following page was, in fact, teacher's notes for the activity!  The notes described a scientific explanation that provided background knowledge for the teacher and field experience notes that described how the activity has previously occurred when used in a classroom.  These field experience notes were helpful to try to prepare for a variety of answers, questions, and topics that may surface.  Additionally, the notes included some alternative conceptions to teach heat capacity and a full list of materials to be used.

After discussing this activity with my partner, we talked about what grade level may be appropriate for each activity.  My partner and I actually could not come to a happy compromise, primarily because of the possible safety issue involved when using boiling water in a classroom.  To both of our surprise, the activities were meant for students from 7th-12th grade!  It was thrilling to see how both my partner and myself could take a concept meant for much older students and find an instructive way to teach the applicable material to much younger, elementary students.  This activity also taught me another important lesson.  Despite the hard work and time that goes into being prepared and lesson planning, the idea of knowing exactly what to expect and knowing how to deal with problems or questions is extremely worth the work and time.  As a professional, I know that it would be unfair to my students to arrive in class using only the activity description and not utilizing other resources or background information.  Being prepared only increases my students' knowledge, and in the long run, I truly just want to see my students succeed.  As future teachers, we need to realize that the dedication to our career will shine through the light of the next generation.

Magnetism and Electricity - Science Kit Training

I attended the fourth grade "Magnetism and Electricity" science kit training today at Grantwood AEA.  Despite the fact that many of my classmates had attended their trainings much earlier in the year, I felt like I had a great deal of prior knowledge that further helped me to utilize the information I learned today.  For example, we just completed a lesson plan and pedagogical inquiry on a FOSSweb science kit of our lives.  I chose to do a fabric lesson with kindergarteners, and this allowed me to have some great background knowledge about the science kits in general.

The entire training was focused on working through the unit in a lab notebook dedicated solely to magnetism and electricity.  We worked through pre printed lab notebook pages and glued them into a journal.  Through Science Methods, I was introduced to the concept of science notebooks.  I was originally against the idea of the pre printed pages because I believed that they stifled creativity, student inquiry, and an authentic science practice.  However, my idea of the pages has been altered after experiencing the unit in this way.  We glued the pages into the notebook at every other page.  This system allowed for individual models, predictions, and scientific inquires to be made along with some structure.  Many of the pages that we were provided with had complicated drawings or lessons that would have taken class time to construct how to draw.  By providing the pages to the students, there was more room for scientific inquiry to take place, and certainly I experienced my increased learning in this way.  Yet, I do believe that a teacher should take initiative to decide when and when not to use the pre printed pages based on the activity and the students.  It was very helpful to see how pre printed pages can be used to increase student inquiry and not necessarily stifle student creativity or authentic science learning.

Another topic of interest that was discussed in my training was how to introduce science vocabulary with the kits.  The manuals include vocabulary for each lesson and overall activity, which was helpful to go over as a group during our training.  We discussed that how introducing the vocabulary after students work on a hands-on activity provides greater understanding of the concepts and vocabulary words.  Students are then provided an experience that creates meaning the student can apply to the vocabulary word and concept.  We also discussed using student definitions, especially when they are sound definitions.  There is no true reason to use book provided definitions if the student definitions make sense and are legitimate with the concept.  Teachers must recognize this when describing the definitions of words, especially when being aware of students' feelings when providing answers. The last discussion topic regarding vocabulary that occurred during the training was the idea of an index or alphabet in the back of the lab notebook.  Instead of creating a glossary at the end, our group talked about placing the vocabulary with definitions directly in the lab notebook section itself.  Not only do students have access to the vocabulary when looking through their lessons, but also an index can be included in the back of the notebook.  The index can be alphabetized and include page numbers.  The vocabulary will be easier to access but still organized and labeled.

I was pleasantly surprised when working through the lessons as a group.  We discussed every aspect of each lesson, filled in corresponding worksheets, created our own individual lab notebooks, and performed the majority of the experiments.  In addition, we were provided with many teaching resources, including quick writes for the end of each lesson segment.  This was helpful to gain perspective on the major concepts within the lessons and work on creating a bigger picture for the science kit itself.  When thinking about actually performing the science kits in a classroom, we discussed making connections for our students.  Though the kits provide great inquiry and authentic learning in terms of the nature of science, teachers still need to help students make the most important connections.  Because time is often a factor for teachers, a great option was talked about to avoid running out of time.  Taking time to review the previous lesson in the first five minutes of class the following day would be a great way to review, provide new connections, and prepare for the new lessons.

Lastly, the science kit training truly provided me with great content knowledge, but more importantly the ability to put myself in my future students' shoes.  Throughout the training, I found myself frustrated with the activity when I could not figure out exactly how to do the activity correctly.  This allows me to remember these feelings when teaching, and empathize with how my students may be feeling in science class.  Going through the training allowed me to wear both the teacher and student hat, and learn from two different perspectives. I'm extremely grateful for the techniques, resources, and discussion that I took from the training. I feel better prepared to go into the classroom and further continued my science content knowledge.  

FOSSweb: Teaching Fabric to Kindergarteners: Pedagogy Inquiry

NSES Links:

            Science as Inquiry

                         – Employ simple equipment and tools to gather data and extend the senses.

                        - Use data to construct a reasonable explanation.

                        - Use different kinds of investigations depending on the questions you are trying                            to answer.

                        - Review and ask questions about others' work.

            Physical Science

                        - Work with the observable properties of objects.

                        - Objects are made of one or more materials.

            Earth and Space Science

                        - Solids have properties of color and texture.

Iowa Core Standards:

            Science as Inquiry

                        - Use tools to gather data and extend the senses.

                        - Use data to construct reasonable explanations.

                        - Students should begin to develop the abilities to communicate, critique, and                                     analyze their work and the work of other students.

            Physical Science

                        - Objects are made of one or more materials.

                        - Objects can be described by the properties of the materials from which they are                           made. Properties can be used to separate or sort a group of objects or materials.

                        - Objects have many observable properties including size, weight, shape, color,                                     temperature and the ability to react with other substances. Those properties can be                         measured using tools such as rulers, balances and thermometers.

                       

Linn Mar District Standards:

            Inquiry and the Nature of Science

               K.A.1   Develop abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry.

Physical Science

               K.C.1 Develop understandings of the properties of objects, sizes, shapes, and colors

Science and Technology

               K.E.1 Develop understandings of the difference between natural and human made items

 

- What do students accomplish?

 Students accomplish a variety of investigations and explorations all revolving around fabric.  They begin with exploration of fabric and where it exists in their classroom.  Students also explore how different types of fabrics feel and begin to look at different types of textures.  Much of the initial investigation is inquiry based where students are interacting with fabric by "hunting" it throughout the classroom based on physical properties and creating collages with the fabric pieces.  The initial activities show students where fabric is in their world and eventually how to interact with the fabric so that it may be useful for humans.  For example, students work with weaving and sewing the fabrics to turn them into either an art piece or a useful pocket. 

In the second part of the investigation lessons, students begin to interact with fabric in a more advanced way for the individual fabrics.  To begin, students acknowledge how different fabrics react with liquid water, and can further investigate their properties based on the water droplets.  Students continue to dye, stain, and clean fabric to see how the world interacts with fabrics.  Though stains may be familiar, students are able to distinguish how the fabric is cleaned and make real world connections. As a culminating activity, students use all of their gained knowledge about fabrics to graph, as a class, which fabrics might be the most appropriate for each item of clothing.  This activity allows students to exercise their beliefs and ideas about fabrics in their world, their different properties, and how the fabrics could be used as clothes. 

- Which activities/actions do you think foster high student involvement?

The exploration and classroom fabric hunt, in particular, intrigue students because they are free to inquire about the fabric and physically search around the classroom for their particular fabric. Students are not being graded but are free to explore, creating a higher achievement of involvement.  Just by watching the videos with examples of each lesson, one could easily picture how student involvement also increases with the soiling and washing fabric activity.  Students, as the video mentioned, are rarely allowed to purposely stain their clothes so this activity gets students involved with something that they rarely do.  The students also received instant gratification as they removed the stains by washing their fabric.  Comparing the fabrics with one another added to the scientific inquiry and also gave students scientific comparisons based on stain and washing time. 

- What could you do to increase student thinking and/or involvement?

The taking fabric apart lesson along with the sewing activities seemed to lack student involvement at a variety of times.  Perhaps adding to the taking fabric apart activity to explain further why certain fabrics are woven and what certain fabrics are made out of would create more student interest.  Also, including the fabrics that students may be wearing or very familiar with would increase how involved the students are.  The sewing activity seemed like it would create a large student interest, perhaps with a better explanation and modeling in the beginning, students would be more likely to explore different ways of sewing.  The modeling seemed to little, especially for kindergarteners. Overall, many of these activities could be more relatable to students and their personal lives.

- What could you do to challenge all students?

Many of these activities can be further extended for students in a variety of ways.  In order to challenge all students, having students discuss extensions that connect to the real world allow for background knowledge and cultural knowledge to be contributed to the whole group.  Perhaps if students seem very advanced, especially in activities such as the weaving lesson, students could act as the "expert" and help other students in the classroom.  Another way to encourage students who may be advanced to go farther in their learning would be to have them create their own experiment or investigation based on what they would like to still learn about fabric. 

- How could you assess student growth throughout the unit?

The kit is very helpful in terms of laying out pre-planned assessment activities.  Student science notebooks are a great way to formatively assess student learning during many of the activities.  Kidwatching and checklist techniques can be employed again as a formative assessment during many of the lesson while students are working independently.  During the culminating activity, students have a classroom discussion about why they chose certain fabrics for certain clothing items.  This discussion, if teacher-led, would be a great way to summatively assess what students have learned, how they can apply this knowledge to the real world, and how they extend their knowledge based on what they have learned about fabric.

- Where in the lessons could you have students self-assess? What are some ideas for student self-assessment?

Students can self-assess after almost every activity in their science notebooks.  Perhaps drawing a picture or writing a short sentence would allow students to compile their thoughts about how the activity went and where they could extend their knowledge would work as a wonderful self-assessment.  When students do projects that they are truly involved in, perhaps having them self-assess their efforts and their findings would be very useful.  Students will be more motivated to self-assess their achievements and could perhaps even create individual rubrics while scoring themselves, based upon what they wanted to learn.

- What would you need to do to develop your knowledge in this area? Where could/would you begin that process?

In terms of fabric, I feel as though my knowledge is fairly broad.  However, thinking about specific fabrics and where or how they are used may be useful.  Considering what fabrics are used more often in modern times than in earlier times, for what types of materials and why would be great background knowledge to provide students with.  Personal research about man made versus machine made fabrics would be a great starting place for additional fabric knowledge.  Looking into cultural information and historical information based on fact would be interesting and useful to begin learning more about fabric.  Additionally exploring fabric stores and other options for investigating fabric would be a great place to start for learning a little background knowledge about fabric for the classroom.

Scientific Inquiry as a FORM of Scientific Practice

After reading "Scientific and Engineering Practice in K-12 Classrooms", an article by Rodger W. Bybee, a few thoughts on scientific inquiry versus the idea of scientific practice struck me.  The article clearly laid out the differences between inquiry and practice, especially when thinking specifically of the classroom in terms of mathematics and engineering.

Before taking my science methods course, I was fairly unfamiliar with STEM and how to utilize scientific inquiry within the STEM program in the classroom.  After thoroughly learning about scientific inquiry and the benefits of inquiry instruction in the classroom, I have a much better understanding of STEM.  After reading this article, my understanding of the connections between STEM, scientific inquiry, and scientific practice has innumerably increased. 

A major component of the article described how investigations and interpretation of data should be standard in the science elementary classroom.  The investigation components help students to thoroughly analyze and interpret the data they personally received.  Not only is a personal connection made here, but students are learning things applicable to math and engineering, again very beneficial for their future work. 

Though scientific inquiry is a wonderful approach, it was not as widely implemented as expected, again according to Bybee.  However, when students are doing and learning science, they are not only utilizing scientific inquiry but actually practicing science.  Within the practice of science, students are implementing strategies from scientific inquiry  The inquiry activities then become the basis for learning when practicing science.

Teaching Classmates

In Science Methods we have been working on stations role-playing in both the student and teacher roles.  My group was working on a specific station that involved soil and farming in the rain forest.  Today, Steve and I were told to teach the station to another group of students.  Before we realized what was happening, our students were at the table and waiting anxiously to hear about our station.  Steve and I had to think quickly so we looked around at the resources we had while setting up the station.  The article regarding "The Disappearing Act" that included information about the rain forest and the detrimental affects of farming in the rain forest was on our table.  We decided to have our students read parts of the article that would engage them, activate prior knowledge, and preview the material for them.  While the students were reading, Steve and I proceeded to set up our station.  When reflecting in both groups and as a class, I was proud of our quick decision to have students preview the material themselves while we worked on the set-up of the station.  I felt like we utilized our teaching skills well, and were able to make use of the limited time we were given.

During the actual activity, our students seemed engaged and to really enjoy how interactive the activity was.  Physically manipulating the soil and material helped to bring a fairly abstract concept into the classroom.  When we were ready to close the activity, Steve asked the "students" to make connections between the rainforest soil with soil in their home town.  One of our students make a great connection to a farmhouse and tilled farm land.  It was rewarding to see a student make a connection that neither Steve or I had previously thought of but that worked in the context of the lesson.

As a class, we then reflected on the different parts of our lesson and considered important parts of the opening, body, and closing.  Synthesizing this information on the board helped me to further reflect with our co-teaching and how we could have improved our lesson.  I think making the students struggle a little more with the concepts during the lesson would have increased the intensity of the station, but ultimately allowed the students to take greater control of their learning.  In our closing, I would have asked students about how their personal actions impact the rainforest.  In order to make connections, and continue to encourage students to "create", as Bloom's new theory clarifies as the final step, I would have students brainstorm ideas on how to change what is happening to the rainforest.  Students could do a wide variety of activities to change what is happening in the rainforest and decrease their personal impacts on the rainforest.

This class reflection truly helped to clarify a better reflection process for myself as a teacher, and is something that I will continue to use in the future.  I liked working with my other learning module group to use this same process in order to better how we will present our lesson on Thursday to another group of students.

Multiple Learning Sources - The Water Cycle

Today in class we added to our water cycle drawings once more and for homework, created a finalized model of The Water Cycle.  However, this was not simply a quick lesson in drawing the various components of the water cycle.  Over the past few classes, we've worked through a number of sources to acquire greater knowledge of the water cycle which attributed personally to my overall understanding of the water cycle.

We began dealing with the water cycle in our new unit: Earth and Space.  The introduction activity involved our science notebooks.  We thought about whether or not we would drink out of a filtered glass of water, essentially a solar sill that used evaporation to filter out the dirty elements of the water.  As we thought about our decision, we needed to use viable reasoning.  Personally, I knew I needed a good amount of work with the water cycle in order to have a more thorough understanding of the content.

 During the solar sill activity, we were asked to sketch our understanding of the water cycle.  I knew the basic components, and included evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.  However, I forgot to include major components such as the sun, snow, or other storage places on the earth that water travels to rather than always just the ocean.  With a partner, I added some of these additions to my cycle.  This was a nice way to remind myself what I needed to include and added another learning resource.

As a class, we watched a short "rap" video targeted for children about the water cycle.  The catchy tune and colorful drawings definitely helped spark some of my prior knowledge, and I was able to add bigger, scientific words to my water cycle such as "transpiration".  This was a different modality dealing with the same material and appealed to a different mode of language that gave me the opportunity to use background knowledge I did not even know I still held on to.

Finally, in class today we read a book about the water cycle following the life of a single raindrop.  As we read the trade book in my group, I added words that were not scientific but were instead, descriptive or helpful to aid in the understanding of my more scientific words.  Reading the book and looking at the diagrams within allowed for another learning source that helped provide me with confidence in terms of actually knowing the content of the water cycle.

As we were assigned homework today, we were told to design an entirely new model of the water cycle.  We could use personal drawings or computer images, which provided a great choice as a student.  Additionally, we were creating a final model.  As I mentioned in the modeling post previously, creating a final model truly allows the student to understand their own learning in a genuine metacognitive way.  I compared my new and final model to the first cycle and saw just how much I had learned and clarified in this short time.  I definitely attribute this great amount of learning to the use of multiple learning sources. I was able to conceptually bring together numerous information to create an in-depth, overall understanding of the water cycle.  Using different modalities and providing information through the various modes of language only adds to the learning sources in a positive way.  By interacting with the material and through the use of models, I was able to create an authentic learning process that I plan on using indefinitely with future students.

Science Learning Resources

As I was reading Ch. 7- Inquiry Learning Opportunities in our Science Methods text, I almost immediately stood behind what I was reading.  Classrooms where students complete science projects and science fairs, in addition to everyday science learning centers seems so appealing.  These activities not only engage students, but also contribute to overall inquiry learning in the classroom.  Because projects, fairs, and centers almost all include some aspect of choice and independence, incorporation of these into the classroom allows for almost "built-in" classroom management, differentiation, and incorporation of various learning styles.  When students are truly interested in something they are working on, have a choice in a specific subject matter, and a feeling of independence while working, many classroom management issues are immediately not even factors.  In terms of differentiation, learning centers offer many ways for scaffolding instruction.  I especially appreciated the idea of pairing students together of different reading levels so that both students can help each other at a science learning center together.  While considering all of these productive classroom and school ideas, I was also intrigued by the idea of science learning resources outside of the classroom. 

In particular, exploring places outside of the science classroom can become a very rewarding experience for students.  While working at a children's museum during this past summer, I gained a great deal of understanding for how museums can supplement material in the classroom.  In Ch. 7, Peters and Stout remind the reader to "place special emphasis on the reason for the trip". (Pg. 148)  This allows both teachers and students to have a focus, particularly if the trip includes a larger museum.  The museum where I was employed had such a large variety of science related exhibits and interactive activities, that a school group almost always had to consider a particular content focus before entering, to prevent suffering from information overload. 

I strongly advocate for students, when financially possible, visiting museums in school groups.  Students will further their inquiry studies by actively working in the museum and participating in science as a learner.  As the authors point out in this chapter, museums are most definitely not what they used to be.  Museums have evolved to be much more relatable, interactive, and inquiry centered places of enjoyable knowledge.  In my social studies methods course, we recently visited The History Center in Cedar Rapids.  This museum demonstrated pointedly the idea of the evolution of museums.  As a student, I remember visiting particularly well-done museums that were relatable to my life and very interesting.  Students, when given the opportunity, should utilize the out-of-school experiences to continue their learning.  This idea of informal learning, I believe, should be integrated whenever possible into classrooms of all shapes, sizes, and ages.  

Nicholas Conservatory & Gardens in Rockford, IL

Being There Experiences: Study Trips

This past weekend was Fall Break, which gave me the perfect opportunity to go home and explore an area of Rockford that I had never been.  In the past, Rockford had a conservatory next to the Rock River.  However, this conservatory was old and rarely used.  In the past few years, the Nicholas Conservatory & Gardens have been built with help from the Rockford Park District.  Despite the fact that the conservatory officially was unveiled almost a year ago, I still have not had the chance to go into the new facility.  Thankfully, on Tuesday before I left to return to Coe, I made it to the conservatory for a long awaited visit!

When considering taking students on a field trip through the Nicholas Conservatory & Gardens, I feel that there are multiple concept options related to life science that would be applicable to the conservatory, as well as the general experience of being there.  Thinking in terms of a bigger concept, I believe that learning about organisms general needs of life and sustainability and the life cycle of organisms would directly relate to the experience of visiting the conservatory.  Because of the variety of plants in the conservatory, students could study how the plants differ from one another and how they differ from animals.  Especially if the experience is a day in the winter, students would better understand the concept of the plants' basic needs because the plants could not survive outside in the winter or even during the summer depending on the climate of their original location.  Understanding the life cycle of plants would go well with this experience because students would visibly see different plants at different life stages, and comprehend how plants do resemble their parents.  In general, the study of plant organisms and their relation to their environment would be very applicable while incorporating an experience at the conservatory.  There is so much to offer, including a wide variety of plants and organisms that probably would otherwise be impossible for students to experience in the Midwest.  This experience would enhance their understanding of plants and organisms, especially creating a more global view of the life science skills, instead of merely relating the learned information to plants and organisms students are familiar with.  For example, there are palm trees surrounding one area of the conservatory.  Students could apply the information they learned about the life cycle of a lima bean seed to the life cycle of a palm tree, while deciphering similarities and differences.  Without the experience with palm trees up close in the conservatory, students would not be able to transfer their knowledge onto a more general and global scale.

My experience in the conservatory was one of pure joy.  The inside is beautiful with a variety of plants and flowers that one does not see growing naturally in the Midwest.  Using the experience as an extension of classroom studies on plants would definitely extend knowledge much further.  As I mentioned before, using my experience, especially what I learned in terms of unfamiliar plants, students would have the benefit of learning about the wide variety of plants.  I believe showing students the similarities of organisms, from across the globe, is something powerful that can relate to other disciplines in addition to creating more globalized concepts of science for students.  After working with plants and organisms, a unit on environments with some links to life science would be perfect for discussing the conservatory.  The plants in the conservatory need a very specific environment in order to sustain life, and students could further their science inquiry by developing an understanding of environments in terms of relating to organisms directly. 

I believe that many other science concepts have potential to be explored at the Nicholas Conservatory & Gardens.  Perhaps a study of evolution, specifically with plant life, could work when thinking about how plants have evolved to live in their specific environments.  Students would find numerous examples of evidence, models, systems, measurements, and other general unifying science concepts and skills when visiting the conservatory.  In terms of "Science as Inquiry", there is much to be explored when visiting the conservatory.  Students could find a plant or organism that truly interested them and then work on an inquiry project with that specific plant.  Additionally, classrooms could work on inquiry books involving the plants seen during the experience.  As I mentioned earlier with a study of environment, students could discuss how the earth works together using different environments and do some research regarding earth science.  The experience may work as a starting point for a study of the earth's various environments and the organisms that live there.  The Nicholas Conservatory & Gardens is a technologically advanced and green building.  Studying the facility itself would fall into science and technology, in addition to a discussion involving helping to save the environment.  Students could study how the conservatory works to save energy, and works in a technologically efficient way that creates a wonderful space.  Lastly, students could delve into "Science in Personal and Social Perspectives" by discussing populations of plants, resources, and environments in terms of how humans affect the various plant life across the globe.  Overall, I found numerous topics that would be applicable to various ages in the science classroom. The conservatory seemed like a great place to take students for a variety of reasons, and would work to approach numerous studies in the science standards.

Here are a few links to the Nicholas Conservatory & Gardens for further reading:

http://www.rockfordparkdistrict.org/ncg - general information
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Ui4mEfdxg - a historical video about the conservatory update

Models, Models, Models

During our last class, we worked on a variety of learner strategies that truly opened my eyes to some great features that can be done with "models" in the science classroom.  As a hook to an activity involving seeds and seed parts, we were asking to draw what the inside of a seed look liked.  Without anything to look at or reference, my model drawing came completely out of my memory, prediction, and past experience with seeds.  I added a few labels where I could, but my model was overall fairly bare and plain.  I added color, again where I was able to.  After drawing the inside, I was very intrigued about comparing my model with what the inside of an actual seed did look like.  Using the model activity as a hook for seed parts definitely hooked my interest as well as my classmates.  Especially when students have worked with seeds and plants in the past, this activity truly helped spark some interest in all of us.

As we continued with the activity, we opened lima beans together and drew a model of the inside.  Then with the help with a technical drawing on the projector, labeled the main parts of the lima bean.  I compared this drawing with the first model drawing in my science notebook.  It was nice to immediately correct any prior misconceptions and also develop greater understanding of the inside of a seed, including important vocabulary.  We tested three other mystery seeds to test if they looked similar and held similar parts on the inside.  The three seeds I chose all happened to have the same main parts and look similar to the lima bean.  I drew a model of each, and I found that I was quickly drawing and labeling without thinking.  Not only did I know the parts of the inside of the seed well, but I could identify them easily and my models became more accurate. 

Looking at my models done overtime was a very interesting experience.  I felt I gained a greater understanding for the seeds parts, in addition to identifying them with the proper, scientific vocabulary.  As we talked in class to reflect on the activity I began to think of how useful models can be for students in science.  The models bring in a different method of exploring and learning material, while incorporating a more creative part of the brain.  We did discuss how models are simplified versions of a specific organism.  They should not be art projects or science projects or even detailed drawings that seem confusing.  Students should be able to utilize models to track their understanding, correct misconceptions, and recall information using repetition of drawing models.

Later in the class period we began a group activity of drawing a model of the human body.  This task was a little more difficult and overwhelming, considering everything possible to draw within a human body.  I am very interested to see how this model plays out in the next class, and how the use of this model is different than the seed identifications we drew.  Overall, models were very useful in my understanding, working as a hook, motivation, and a track of my metacognitive development.

Exploration Day Reflection

Prompt: Reflect in your teaching and learning journal about your exploration. What did you
experience (science content, pedagogy- the methods of teaching, and nature of science-
what is being practiced)? How does that learning influence your teaching?

In lieu of class today, we were assigned a variety of tasks to explore science content a bit deeper and more relevant to real world teaching.  While reading through specific sections in the National Science Education Standards, I was somewhat taken aback at how specific and easy-to-read these standards were in reality.  I found the standards very easy to read, and incredibly applicable to my future science teaching.  When reading about the Use of Content Standards, I enjoyed the clarification between content and curriculum.  The standards made the point that content is what students learn but not how they learn the information, how the information is organized, or how the information is emphasized.  This section additionally referred to the possibility of adding science content without eliminating standards from any category.  This allows teachers the freedom to add to the curriculum, as long as all of the required standards remain intact.  This section truly made me more excited to teach science as inquiry to my future students, especially regarding the national shift and recognition of the promotion of inquiry in science learning.  I firmly believe in inquiry learning, and was glad to see many of the standards reflecting this idea.  The actual standards were organized in an easy-to-read fashion that clarified a few ideas for me.  I felt much more comfortable with my content knowledge regarding science after reading the standards.  I also felt more comfortable with the idea of using these standards to help guide my lesson plans.  Particularly with some recent lesson plan ideas, I could visualize how these standards would seamlessly fit in to my plans. 

While exploring the webquest, I found myself contemplating many important pedagogical ideas.  I have had some limited past experience with webquests, and therefore, had a good idea of what the range of webquests available is.  Having created a webquest for a social studies unit myself, I understood the formula and the possibilities available in the webquest.  After performing my webquest as a student and reflecting from both a student and teacher view, I was somewhat disappointed at the activity.  Webquests are meant to be engaging, technology filled, and creative opportunities for students.  The webquest I completed was essentially computerized worksheets, with little to no active exploration or engagement.  I was disappointed to see a webquest being used in this way, having expected a variety of challenging, inquiry-filled, and real world connection activities.  After brainstorming changes that could be made to better the webquest, I became much more confident in myself as a future teacher.  I found some very realistic ways to make the webquest filled with inquiry, more engaging for students, and more challenging depending on student interest.  I want my science lessons to be exciting and individualized, with much relation to the real-world. Through this learning, I have reflected upon my own pedagogical views and contemplated what I find most important when teaching science.  As I have written before in my blogs, I continuously find added support for my belief in the use of science notebooks.  I believe, after reading much of the content for Science Methods, that science notebooks not only allow for active inquiry but also develop a variety of skills, most importantly aid in the development of literacy.  The standard sections helped me to strive for creating lesson plans that include with standards without revolving around the standards.  I hope to create lessons that my future students truly are involved in, plans that accomplish much more than simply affirming the content standards.

Create Your Own Sciene Inquiry Station

For about a week, along with a partner, we were developing our own science inquiry stations based on a specific topic.  My partner and I chose fingerprinting, and developed a station centered around forensics and fingerprinting.  Our desired results were for students to use the tools and techniques to "gather, process, and analyze data". (Science as Inquiry standard)  We also wanted students to understand how the human body allows them to do everyday tasks.  When observing our students we chose three categories we wanted them to complete including using tools properly, using proper technique, and using proper reasoning for conclusion. 

My partner and I went first when acting as students for another group's inquiry station.  Their station was focused on balance and various ways to balance with our bodies using specific tools and instruments including water bottles, a wooden board, and a stability ball.  Initially, acting as a student was quite difficult.  Our teachers were not allowed to talk to us, which made my partner and I feel slightly intimidated as we had five teachers in comparison to only two students.  Eventually we tried to speak our thoughts out loud, and verbalize what was going on in our thinking.  The station was definitely a challenge at first, as my partner and I had difficulty understanding the beginning prompt.  After reading the added information in articles, I began to better understand how balance interacts with my body and how to improve balance with a few postures.  With more time, my partner and I would have likely generated more ideas involving the given tools to test our balance in a variety of ways.  Our inquiry became easier when our teachers were allowed to prompt us with two questions.  My partner and I further understood what we were expected to do using our balance and the floor, and then test balance positions using the tools given. 

After brainstorming some ideas on improvement for our teachers, we went on to the fingerprinting inquiry station.  Observing students was easier from my point of view after being the student first, because I had a much better understanding of what the students were feeling and thinking.  I believe our students gave us an advantage by verbalizing their thoughts in a way that allowed us as teachers to understand their thinking progression better.  They utilized what we said as students, and probably what they wished we would have said as students.  The five students met every single category we determined prior to the actual test of the station.  Even though my partner and I accidentally left out an instruction, our students surprised us by inferring what they were supposed to accomplish and reason from the material given.  Appropriate conclusions were made, especially in regards to forensics and popular culture crime scene shows.  Students began to understand not only how fingerprints benefit their life, but also how fingerprints work as identification in a variety of experiences. 

When given the opportunity to ask our students two prompting questions, we corrected our mistake and gave the students the opportunity to try to identify different fingerprints based solely on ridges, shape, and size.  This gave the students a chance to work with the fingerprints in a different way than they previously did.  The other prompt we chose was used to direct students to make more connections with fingerprinting and the outside world, in addition to connections with the articles we provided regarding forensics.  The discussion with our students gave us greater insight and ideas for how to better our inquiry station, in a variety of ways.  We would make our explanations a little more clear, and remember to include only the important steps in our directions.  We may need to re-think the comparison of the fingerprints so that everyone does two sets of the same finger from the same hand because each finger has a different print.  Overall, my partner and I were happy with our results and station, as we felt our goals were well-received and accomplished greatly.

Evaluation, Assessment, and the Future of Education

The opening vignette of Ch. 4 Inquiry and Assessment, describes an elementary teacher who utilizes portfolios and interviewing in her classroom as a tool of assessment.  According to Mrs. Christine Peters, this way of assessment helps both teachers and students.  "Portfolio assessment teaches students how to learn and teaches teachers how to slow down, get to know each student and his or her strengths and needs, and develop a curriculum that appeals to each student's multiple talents." (Pg. 60)

I find this form of assessment extremely powerful in today's classroom, especially considering how society is changing to into a global marketplace that requires inquiry skills in all forms of work.  Using assessments, such as portfolios, provides a track and allows for a more accurate and personal form of grading for each student.  In the future, I would greatly consider using science portfolios and the use of interviewing in my classroom as alternative assessments to the standardized tests most utilized today. 

Through the use of alternative assessments, one can work with the Backward Design model that begins with a learning objective and assessment in mind.  Teachers using this design establish a specific meaning for an activity.  The reason I believe in this part of the Backward Design is because a teacher can utilize inquiry, cover a topic completely, allow students to individualize activities based on personal interest, and create a deep understanding for themselves.  With authentic assessment, the inquiry that students have used in the Backward Design model shows clearly what they have learned and creates open communication for their learning.

Science as Practice

As I read Ch. 5 in Science Elementary Education, I was intrigued by the main idea of "science as practice" originally presented by John Dewey.  As stated in the very beginning of this chapter, science should be practice in order for students to actively engage in science in order to build skills that will allow them to compete in the modern marketplace.  Personally, I believe the idea of using skills in school to create humans who will work to change the world should be a goal for all teachers.  With this being said, I was excited that even science could be taught as practice with the goal of bettering the future in mind.

Furthermore, as I was reflecting on the material, I began to understand how "science as practice" can not only develop better science-related skills for the United States but also engage a variety of students to learn science through inquiry.  The four strands of science in the chapter on pg. 92 demonstrate a model for science as practice.  In strand 1, students are taught to not only learn the facts, theories, and laws of science but also learn to develop connections between concepts in order to develop a higher order of thinking.  Students will become more critical thinkers and apply these skills to other subjects, and eventually life outside of the classroom.  Though this strand sounds somewhat obvious, I think the connections made to science and non-science concepts is sometimes hard for teachers to remember to do with the requirements of the curriculum.  Interdisciplinary work can be done in science, and should be to develop stronger students.  In strand 2, students are supposed to generate scientific evidence through investigations.  Investigations and inquiry go hand-in-hand when considering a science inquiry classroom, and students taught to create their own investigations will have a much deeper engagement with the subject matter.  When students are actively working on experiments and observations, they learn self-direction and the understanding of pulling information from the data collected.  In strand 3, the idea of scientific knowledge is discussed.  Students must be provided with interdisciplinary work, but must also know specific subject language, behavior, models, examples, etc.  Students must learn to develop a scientific schema for their science work.  When students create this schema, they are able to explain their findings in a more accurate way, and truly work "as a scientist".  Lastly, strand 4 mentions science as a club, similarly to other theories that state a classroom as an "exclusive club".  A teacher must teach the rules of the "club" and engage his or her students in the activities of the "club".  Particularly in science lessons, students should learn how to construct and present personal viewpoints in science to others, be willing to ask and answer questions, and stay skeptical so investigations are done objectively. (Pg. 93)  Much of the idea of science as practice is identified in these four strands, as they can be used as a template for a teacher looking to engage, manage, and create an interesting scientific environment.

The chapter goes on to discuss particular scientific skills that support and add to the idea of "science as practice" in the classroom.  As I was reading, I found that many of these skills and attitudes are not only mentioned in our own Science Methods classroom, but also put to use during our in-class activities.  Some skills include observing, classifying, measuring, communicating, inferring, predicting, experimenting, etc.  All of the skills mentioned above have been a topic of our in-class discussions and provide useful examples of how these skills must be developed in our future classrooms.  One interesting note regarding these scientific skills is that many of them may be applied to various other classroom subjects and activities.  Observing, classifying, measuring, and predicting are useful in mathematics instruction while inferring, communicating, predicting, and observing are useful for social studies activities.  These skills are useful in many areas in an elementary classroom and are also great life skills that return to the idea of educating for students to become beneficial citizens of the world.

Lemon In-Class Activity - Light Bulb Moment!

In class, we did an activity involving lemons that furthered my understanding of observations and questioning, and the relationship that they have to my science notebook. One could say it was sort of a "light-bulb" moment, and I am excited something things finally clicked.

We began the activity by receiving one lemon per person.  We were told to observe anything we possible could about our individual lemons in our science notebooks.  The initial instructions engaged all of us, and we were curious as to why we had to intently observe these lemons.  Also, lemons have differences but are generally similar color and shape, making the task of observation much more detailed.  I drew a picture of the lemon, including labels and color with colored pencils.  I wrote a bullet point list of observations that I initially was drawn to including color, ends, indents, shape, size, etc. 

After being given time to record the observations that I noticed as important, we were told to discuss the elements of our individual observations with our table groups.  Immediately, we looked at each others' notebooks and discussed how we differed in our observations.  Then we noticed the tools made available to us, including a magnifying glass and a ruler.  Hearing everyone's observations was my light bulb moment.  Sharing what each person recorded allowed me to pick and choose how and what I chose to record.  We were given additional time to continue with our observations, and I utilized many of the techniques that our group discussed.

 I could definitely see the effectiveness when using this strategy in the classroom, especially when initially trying to teach students how critical observations are when experimenting like a true scientist.  Students can share ideas and tips for recording observations, just as scientists share information in the real world when experimenting and researching.

Finally, we were told to place our lemons back into a mutual bowl.  Sarah passed the lemons out again to each person, however everyone received a different lemon.  We were told to only use our recorded observations in our science notebook to discover where our lemon was.  Just as scientists do, we questioned our observations and compared the lemon to them.  This task was somewhat difficult, as we truly had to question which characteristics were important and which observations matched which lemon.  Eventually, my classmates and I all discovered our original lemons.

This short activity provided me with many future ideas for my science classroom.  Students will automatically be engaged when given an item and told to observe it.  With a reasonable time constraint, I believe classroom management will be fairly simple because students will want to record as much information as possible in their notebooks.  In terms of questioning, students will discuss their observations to discover whether their observations are sufficient and find new ideas on observing in general.  Lastly, utilizing observations to actually make a discovery was a rewarding feeling.  As a student myself, I felt that I had done a quality job of recording observations and was comfortable with the amount of information recorded in my science notebook.  The process was filled with inquiry, excitement, real-world connections, questioning, and observations.  All of these items created a "light-bulb" moment that I will take with me when teaching science in the future.

Elements for Teaching Science in the Future

As I wrote about in the previous post, much of the information from Ch. 2, I can see myself utilizing as a future elementary teacher during science lessons.  After further reading more into Science Notebooks, including Ch. 3 regarding "Signs of Student Progress", I continue to recognize the importance of using a science notebook in the classroom.

Not only do science notebooks provide useful organizational skills for students, but also a good progression marker for both students and teachers.  I like the idea of using the notebooks as a discussion starter between teachers and students, in addition to discussions between students.  The more I continue to discover on the use of notebooks, the further I can see myself using them in the classroom throughout every science unit.  I believe the skills developed are invaluable.  As a younger student, I can imagine myself becoming much more captivated than I originally was with science if offered the choice to keep a science notebook in school.

Ch. 2 - Discovering Science through Inquiry

9/6/12

Ch. 2 – Discovering Science through Inquiry

Prompt: Construct a view of how you want to teach science in the future.

            While reading this chapter, I began to realize a few finite ways in which I would like to teach science in the future.  I agree with the focus on student inquiry, as this often replicates what scientists do in the real world.  Furthermore, student inquiry must be individualized and not standardized.  In my future instruction, I hope to constantly change the way I teach and interact with science in order to provide the best education possible for my students.  A quote on pg. 26 struck me as particularly accurate to my future approach with science, "the teacher's purpose is to provide the best materials and learning situations to make learning individually meaningful for each student."

            Encouraging students to inquire about the world around them through open thinking and communication in the classroom was an idea suggested in the 5E instructional model.  I hope to have materials and boards available in the classroom where students and even teachers can inquiry about certain science topics.  Using this instructional model to guide scientific thinking is not only individualized but also exciting and replicates real world science.  When considering my own past classroom experience with science, I often felt the way this chapter describes as "authoritative and impersonal" in classrooms today.  I want to excite my students about the world around them and constantly persuade them to ask questions. 

            I plan on utilizing the "science notebook" concept for any age in my future classrooms.  The science notebook allows for individual note-taking skills to develop, as well as organizational skills that can be applicable in numerous other subjects.  I feel that the science notebook allows students to see their own progress, and instills a certain pride in the fact that they have completed work just as real scientists do.  The science notebook can be used in groups, partnerships, and individually, allowing for multiple uses in the classroom. 

            As the chapter mentioned, I obviously plan on using the ZPD and scaffolding to aid students in thinking independently and striving to obtain outside knowledge.  I believe using scientific vocabulary or the "language of science" in the classroom helps students to appropriately describe what they are learning.  Much like an inquiry board, a vocabulary board would be infinitely helpful when dealing with science language.  My goal in the classroom is to allow for individualization while having students excited about science in their own forms of self inquiry.

Ch. 1 - Inquiring Minds in the Classroom

Ch. 1 – Inquiring Minds in the Classroom

Reading Reflection Journal

Question: How do you see yourself using this information in the future?

            While reading this chapter, I began to visualize how exactly I would use the inquiry method of learning in my future classroom.  As I read the opening vignette about Kelly's classroom, I latched on to the idea of "active exploration".  During her soil unit, her students were individually exploring while comparing experiments to one another, in order to complete true scientific experiments.  In my future classroom, I would love to use active exploration during many science experiments. This idea links directly to the process of using scientific notebooks, as I would love to allow my future students to feel like "real" scientists.

            I liked the idea of considering an end result, again, as Kelly did while creating an inquiry based activity.  I plan on analyzing how my future students may react to certain activities, while using a common inquiry thread throughout science activities.  Along with this idea, I felt very strongly about the mentioned idea of trusting your students.  I believe mutual respect and trust are extremely important in any kind of classroom setting.  By providing responsibility and mutual respect, students will do the best work possible.

            Because many elementary teachers are not required to teach full units of science sometimes, teachers do not always feel the need to heavily teach the sciences.  However, I really liked the idea of covering fewer topics in greater understanding, in terms of elementary science.  Students, like the ones in my future classroom, will greatly benefit from exciting, hands-on, inquiry based science lessons.  I hope to remember this while teaching in the future, especially considering that students must do the learning themselves to get the most out of their education.

            The 5E model used to promote inquiry again reminded me of the steps used while creating and using science notebooks.  I believe the steps are well-divided and very realistic to use in the classroom during science instruction.  However, I would probably like to personally add more discussion and questioning among peers while working with my future students.  I really liked how frequently this idea was mentioned when reading about science notebooks, and is something that can be very applicable in my future classrooms.