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.