An interesting science unit might be focused on ecosystems and food-webs. I’m at a loss for what sort of in class experiments or demonstrations would be useful here, but I have come up with a string of questions that I think could be the foundation for a lot of valuable discussion.
I might want to start off the unit asking whether or not all living things consume energy. I think this would bring about a “what about this?” (for the lack of a better term) situation, where students are either throwing out ideas or challenging them. Inevitably this would lead to a discussion(s) of what kinds of energy things consume and how they consume them. It also brings up the idea that while many things are consumers of energy, they are also sources of energy. To build of this, the question can be asked, “ Is there a bottom of this chain?” Does energy recycle, or does it flow. (It might be important to redirect conversation to the concept that material is broken down into energy). I might want to ask whether humans are producers or consumers? Can you think of an organism that only produces? Only consumes?

Again, as for some structural component of the “lesson”, I’m not sure where that will fit in.

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.

The work that Penelope Eckert is doing is incredibly important, especially for teachers. A teacher that can understand the underlining motivations and factors that contribute to how a student behaves in school will be able to accomplish innumerable things. While Dr. Rosenblatt was explaining that Penelope Eckert had realized that all children want to “play the game”, but have different ways of going about it, all I could think of was a story from when I was in India. While traveling parts of Southern India, my group and I were told that economists have discovered that one reason India is still poor is because when someone has the opportunity to work say an 8 hour job, they only want to work 4 hours, so that one of their neighbors can work the other 4. It is not because Indians are lazy and don’t want to work 8 hours, but because they would rather everyone make a little money, instead of some people making none.

I feel that as a teacher being able to recognize these subtle things is key. To truly be an effective teacher, one has to know their students. A teacher has to know their students not only in how they act at school but they must also know the external factors that play into how they act at school. Penelope Eckert made a really good point in establishing that it is not just about differences in actual behavior, but how students will interact academically. Understanding the factors that can lead to a student being a “burnout”, will help teachers better reach those students. A teacher must understand the causes of behavior before those behaviors can be corrected or changed.

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.

Rob Grader, Science Notebook Entry #5 – Sticky Water
Jason and I worked together to develop a lesson on “sticky water” for my first grade class. The idea was to start off with a full glass of water, and gradually raise the water level so that the arc of water above the rim is visible, and then wonder why this occurs. This first grade class is not accustomed to working in small groups, and as a result, whenever I have attempted to work that way, there have been some clashes and disputes that have gotten in the way of a productive lesson. Given this, Jason and I had to figure out an acceptable way to have this be an interactive and engaging class, but still having to keep some distance between the students and the hand’s-on materials. Ideally, we would have had students work in small groups to predict and determine how many pennies they could add, all the while closely observing the water to take note of its behavior. We decided to just do one central demonstration of the phenomenon.
We started off the class asking the students for a definition of the word sticky and some examples of sticky things. The students were pretty eager to participate and there were lots of suggestions (gum, glue, poster stick’em, syrup, etc.) We then asked if the class thought water might be sticky. And as expected, no one thought it would be. To further the idea, Jason told a short story about how when he was a boy, he was always mystified by the way his father would lick his finger before turning pages in a book. Then, we wanted to give a demonstration of how water might be sticky. We wet two pieces of heavy construction paper. We first demonstrated that they do not naturally stick together. I wet one piece and asked for predictions about what the class through might happen. Most did not think it would stick, and, unfortunately, they were right. I should have tested this out with the specific paper I was going to use, but as it happened this paper was too heavy and impermeable, for the water have a sticky effect. So, I tried the experiment once more with two pieces of paper towel, and this time, it was more effective (whew!)
Then we moved on to the cup of water experiment. We asked the student to predict how many pennies we could fit in to the full cup of water without it over flowing. The predictions ranged from a few to in the 30s. As we added the coins, the class counted along and you could sense the classes excitement (and my host teacher’s anxiety!) with every additional coin. Finally at 57!, a drip fell down the side of the cup. At this point, much of the class had migrated from their seats to try to be scrunch up as close to the table with the glass as possible. We wanted everyone to have a chance to see the water piled over the rim of the glass, so we had them file by the glass to have a close look. They were able to observe the arching water. One other interesting reaction from the students was that many of them rushed to change the prediction on their forms to 57, so that they would have the right answer.
The pay-off to the experiment came when we started the discussion about why they thought this might have happened. Most of the comments did not relate very closely to the experiment, but once we reminded them about the idea we started with (sticky water) one boy, Malichi, suggested that it was because “the water parts are sticking to each other.” Bingo! After that came one other interesting comment from Jane. She wondered if the failed paper experiment from earlier might work better if we had wet both pieces of paper, presumably because then both pieces would have sticky water pieces on them. Unfortunately we were at the end of our class day and could not try this out, but I was impressed with the connection she was able to make between the two experiments.

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.

One idea about the human body that I would explore with a class of science students is what makes an athlete strong. I would introduce/frame the lessons by thinking about a few famous athletes like Ray Lewis or Michael Jordan, as use their training as a way to frame an interesting story. I could also use my personal training for a half-marathon as an example. What changes might have occurred in my body that made me a stronger/faster runner or make them better athletes? What are the physical differences when an athlete trains, or are there any? We could list all of our ideas on the board. Towards the end of the introductory discussion about the body of athletes, I would try to focus the students in upon the ideas of oxygen and lung capacity (unless the students came up with and were interested in another physical difference that could be examined through experiments). Eventually I would hope the students could come up with ways to measure the differences between people’s lungs and how it relates to being an athlete (blowing up balloons, sucking water up through a straw in order to determine lung capacity, measuring water that is displaced when breathing, etc.). Depending on what else the students are interested in, students could also try to examine the differences in breathing/oxygen consumption when an athlete is exercising as opposed to when the athlete is at rest.

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.

I find the hardest part of teaching science for me is deciding what to teach. Since I don’t know anything about the human body and most definitely don’t know how to teach something about the human body, I chose to write this science notebook entry in the abstract. I believe that effective science lessons will all have some of the same components. In order to make sure that the activity planned truly gets at the big picture and that I am conveying clearly what I want my students to learn, I feel the lesson needs three components.

The first component is scaffolding information and making sure that the content is on the appropriate level for my students. I will focus on building on what my students already know to help them achieve the next level of understanding. This will require thoughtful, purposeful planning on my part. The second component is the introduction. In the introduction I will set my students up for success without giving away the answers. The introduction to a lesson not only excites the students to learn, but provides key background information needed to complete the activity. The third and last component is the closing or discussion. This piece allows students to process what they have experienced and learned. It also allows for me to clear up any misconceptions and provide input. All three steps require great thought on my part. I will need to be explicit in my instructions and my language. I will also need deep relationships with my students.

All three elements are a key to success in and of themselves, but when they come together a lesson can truly be amazing. With careful planning, a clear setup, and time to debrief any lesson has the potential to be truly effective.

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.

I’d be interested in working through a lesson that combines both the human body and similarities/differences in genetics. More specifically, I’d like to discuss dimples and their evolutionary significance. I know that dimples are a dominant gene, so if one of your parents has them…you will too. But in addition to that, the number of people with dimples is far less than those without them. The big idea in this lesson would be to discuss what dimples are for. The topics could touch on other parts of the human body that are not used or seemingly unimportant, such as wisdom teeth and/or the appendix. But this topic moves beyond just the presence of dimples and into genetics and dominant/recessive genes. I would like to have the class explore one another to test how prevalent dimples are in our own society and potentially compare these “statistics” to other nations/peoples. The big idea for this lesson would fall under state standard 4. 3. C. 1. d. Develop a reasonable explanation to support the idea that information is passed from parent to offspring. The things that I find interesting are theories I have gotten just by discussing this topic with friends and not being trained in the topic. These theories include: dimples are a sign of a more advanced genetic make up, dimples are dominant so if someone in your family has them you will, dimples make you attractive to potential mates.

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.

I have been thinking more about the idea I had in class about a genetics lesson. In regards to a story I started thinking about an art project I did in my senior year of high school. My senior show was based around the idea of paying homage to the strong women in my life. One piece stands out in my mind. I took a photo of my sister’s face, my face, my mother’s face and my grandmother’s face. I started morphing the faces into each other creating new pictures. As I did this I noticed the similarities and differences we all had. I have always been told that my sister and I look alike, almost like twins. My brother has always been the child that looks like my mother. Through working on this project how I found that my face actually is shaped almost identically like my mothers, it’s the specific features that are different. I also figured out that my sister and I have an identical nose—a feature that is noticed almost immediately by strangers it seems. I thought that this would make a nice story to begin our conversation on genetics and facial features with my class. My students always like to hear stories about my personal life, especially my siblings. Most of them have siblings that they could relate this idea too as well therefore increasing engagement before the activity and lesson even began.
I then began to think about how my class would react if we redid my photo piece but with their faces. I could take pictures of them that they would compare to their peers. Notating the difference in the shape of noses, eye shape, even how chins are shown. This lesson could be integrated with math by graphing or plotting results, looking for patterns, coming up with theories.
I truly think this would be an engaging activity. Too many times our students are given tasks that have absolutely nothing to do with their life. Science is all around them, every day, just so many science experiments are never related to real life. If they are it’s through the use of a word problem that are usually canned and overused. Genetics is a part of the actually student, it’s their body. I know my students love to talk about their lives, their family, and their friends and this brings science into that dialogue.

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.

Reflections on the Teaching of Science

To summarize my thoughts about teaching science, I’d like to list some of the key understandings that have solidified for me during our time together:

1) It’s okay to learn from and enjoy the journey, and not focus on the destination.

There have been many times in science class that I ask myself “Where in the world is he (Lou) going with this?” and the fact of the matter is, I need to focus on the process more and worry less about the product at the end. As a science teacher, you need to guide your discussions in a way that the pieces fall together, in a way that students are required to analyze the material and make connections between topics that are seemingly unrelated.

2) You don’t have to be a scientist to engage students in the scientific process.

It’s okay if you don’t know all of the answers.The scientific process is based on an initial question! If everyone knew the answers, there would be no reason for science to exist. With minimal preparation, you can guide students to do what they do best, to question, to create their own explanations, and to challenge their own thinking. This realization has really increased my comfort level as an elementary school science teacher!

3) Science is NOT the memorization of facts. (You can have fun with children)

My insecurities with science are due to this idea that I don’t know facts. Science doesn’t have to be textbooks and workbook experiments. Drilling students with facts that are illogical does not constitute science instruction. Students will learn more when they are engaged because of the fun they are having. They will enjoy having their voices and ideas heard.

4) Plan your science lessons based around an interesting conundrum.

Science lessons need to focus on explaining something troubling or illogical. I feel as though I’ve just absorbed so many random facts and I have never learned to question what I’ve been ‘taught’. This is definitely the most challenging aspect of science pedagogy for me. I don’t want my students to be walking random knowledge prodigies. I want them to question and to explore the world around them.

Although I’m still developing my own style and plan of action for teaching science next year, I think these four key understandings are a good start to becoming a science teacher who can engage students in constructing understanding. It’s difficult because of my own experiences as a student to go from a very traditional textbook model to something inquiry based… but without this science class I would have been hesitant to question textbook instruction with a few random experiments throughout.

Thanks Lou,

Danielle Rayford

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.

It is my belief that learning is an experience. It is not something that can be just given to a person. Learning can happen through many different experiences; individual experiences, group experiences, and collective community experiences. I feel it is my job as an educator to provide all of these experiences for my students. I believe students should be in charge of their learning. Student choice in very structured, prearranged ways is essential. This helps to create an intrinsic motivation in my students. I believe a classroom should be filled with talk. Students are not having good experiences with knowledge and truly committing things to memory when they are filling out worksheet after mindless worksheet. Students should be collaborating and bringing their ideas together to expand the knowledge of the entire group. I do not see myself as a well of knowledge from which I will fill up my student’s brains. I see myself as a facilitator, someone who sets up an experience where my students can build upon their knowledge. I will have the content knowledge to help my students, but it is not my job to lecture them.

I also believe that students should have true authentic learning in all content areas. I do not believe in teaching to the test. I want my students to be well rounded and well educated in all subjects. School should not be about math and reading. These are essential skills to success in school and life, however so are science, social studies, and writing. School is not just about getting a good education so that they can get a good job. This is important, but school also prepares students to be good, active members in their community. I believe it is my job to provide experiences for my students that they probably will never have the opportunity to do on their own. My students will experience other cultures and different beliefs so that they can truly be productive members of society here at home. I want my students to be able to make educated decisions about their lives and their community. I feel it is my job as an educator to be constantly collecting data (mostly informal) so that I can assess where my class it at, and where we need to go. I also believe it is my job to create a welcoming environment where every student feels safe and cared for.

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.

Fieldwork #2- Finally!!!

It was my intent with this lesson to have my students think about how different scientific advances come together to create new things. I wanted them to realize how big advances in science depend on small advances made by other people. I wanted them to see the connectivity of science and how science is a collaboration among other people and learnings. I wanted my students to think about what they know about computers. Then I wanted them to think about and come up with as many things that would have been needed to be discovered before a computer could have been put together.

I pulled a small group of students (3 boys and 1 girl) during lunch. The way I approached this was to have my students simply start by visualizing and discussing what they knew about computers. One student said “I know a lot about computers, I’m gonna be an engineer”. Some of the things they listed as knowing about computers are as follows: They have the internet, they have a mouse, the Mac is the most powerful and best computer- No Windows 7 is the best!, you can watch videos on youtube, computers have a battery- you have to charge it, you can type on them, some people video chat, use facebook, and play games. Then I asked them to imagine all the inventions that would need to happen before someone could invent the computer. Their responses are as follows: Someone would have had to make a battery; a screen; all the cords and the insides; yeah someone would have had to figure out how the inside works; in order to have videos, someone would have had to invented the camera; you would need a mouse. At this point, I asked them “What is something really big and important for computers, what do you do when your battery dies?” You need electricity!; yeah, Ben Franklin used the kite to do that!

Then I proceeded to ask them to think about knowing all that they know about computers, and all the inventions needed to build a computer, what types of sciences are involved in building a computer. They responded: metal work; engineers-yeah electrical engineers; someone would need to do blue prints and scale models. I then asked them if putting together a computer would be easy, could they do it on their own. They responded: No!; it would be really hard and take a lot of time. I asked them to think about knowing all they know, what can we say about science? They said: The world would be a mess without it; with all sciences you have to use things other people have invented first, you need to work together; science is responsible for everything we do-bathrooms, computers, everything!

After reflecting on this lesson, I feel that we accomplished what I set out to do. We had a really nice conversation and I feel I led them to see and understand a relationship within science that they had never thought about before. I feel that this lesson was a complete stretch though. I have no experience with science, and there is no curriculum at Friendship. It definitely does not connect to anything they have learned in science this year. I also really wanted to do a physical science lesson, but the constraints of my school and host teacher just would not allow for this to happen. I am really concerned for next year if I am responsible for teaching science. My biggest problem is figuring out what to teach. I hope I can gain access to some type of curriculum, so that I have something to build off of. If I were to do this lesson again, I would come up with some kind of an extension activity for them to do. We had a nice conversation, but I would have preferred to connect it even deeper to something a little more significant.

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.

Water Rockets
With all the heat that we have been facing over the last couple of days I believe that a lesson on water rockets would be educational yet refreshing for my 9th grade students. I found instructions for a bottle rocket experiment that I believe would be an experiment that would help my 9th graders explore physical science. I would first start the lesson off with explaining Newton’s Laws of Motion. We would explore each law and I would have the students figure out which law rocketry relates to. After a day of exploring the laws I would then give the students balloons and have them blow them up and then let them go. As we all know when this is done the balloons will shoot out. I would then ask them why they think that the balloons shot out. What would happen if they blew a lot of air in them or if they blew a little air in them? Next, I would move onto the rockets. After building the rockets I would have the students explore different methods to shooting the rockets off. I would guide them to figuring out that the amount of water and how much they pump air into the rocket will determine how high their rockets will go. As a math teacher I would then have the students chart their performance in a table and then graph how high their rockets went. The students can then see the relationship of the amount of water and the thrust that they had on how high the rocket went.

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.