Lesson Implementation/Reflection

After dealing with a flair up of my oh so not wonderful bladder disease (interstitial cycstitis) it has been rough getting back into the swing of things.

Anyway, I am back and ready to rock.

I had fun with my Modeling Earth Science instructional plan.  The use of a model to teach the water cycle was a good experience for me and my students.  I used a "Biome in a Baggie" to demonstrate the processes of the water cycle.  As I began implementing the lesson I soon realized that this model would have been better used after building background knowledge and viewing more real-world applications of the water cycle.

Basically, my thinking was I would have students plant grass seeds in a containier and have them place the container in a gallon Ziploc bag so they could observe what happens.  That did not go as planned.  We ended up planting the seeds on a Friday and when we came back on that following Monday the grass was growing and there was water droplets on the bag.  The students were excited, yes.  However, we did not have enough background knowledge built up before exploring the how the water cycle is represented in the "Biome in a Baggie."  I wanted them to be able to tell me how the "Biome in a Baggie" demonstrates the water cycle, but instead of them telling me, I ended up telling them.  They did a good job of summarizing the processes of the water cycle, but they struggled in making that connection to real-world application.  That is why I say that "Biome in a Baggie" needs to be saved for the end of the water cycle unit as opposed to kick starting the unit.

This activity also provided insight as to the writing skills we need to focus on, such as organization and providing evidence to back up our findings.

Considering this is the first time I have ever used "Biome in a Baggie" in relation to the water cycle, I don't think it was a complete disaster.  I think with a few nips and tucks, I can make it an awesome end of unit assessment.

Lisa

Helping with Natural Disaster Relief

Natural disasters are a part of everyones life either directly or indirectly.  I think that we can develop more scientifically literate and compassionate students by teaching our students about natural disaster relief as well as the disaster itself.  One idea I had to get students more involved with disaster relief was to start by having students bring in non perishable food items, toys, cloths, toilet paper, candles, soap, and any other item folks might need during a disaster.  We could then package these items and send them to the area in need via our local Red Cross or other organization that helps in disaster relief.

Web 2.0 Cool Tools for Schools Journal Entry

OMG!!  WOW!! I had no idea there were so many types of presentation tools.  Talk about information overload.

Even though my eyeballs feel like they are going to fall out of my head, I have to say that the presentation tools I liked best were Prezi and 280 slides.  Both were free, both were easy and fun to play around with, both allow for collaboration to occur, both allow the presenter to insert videos and/or pictures, and both could be accessed from the internet so as to avoid losing a jump drive.  I liked 280 slides because it's like a souped up version of PowerPoint.  I am most comfortable with using PowerPoint and I tend to be somewhat of a linear minded person.  I have to admit though, after being subject to PowerPoint after PowerPoint during all my professional development time at school, I am bored with PowerPoint.  It's time to move out of my comfort zone and use something different.

After playing around with Prezi, I think I have found a new favorite toy.  I can still present my information in a linear fashion, but it will be less boring than the average PowerPoint presentation.  I like the way Prezi allows the viewer to see the big picture and then as the presentation moves on, the presenter can zoom in on the details.  I am looking forward to using Prezi.

Hello

I hope all of you are well.  I look forward to working with each one of you.

Technology

The topic I chose to work with is a topic that I am familiar with because I have taught it in the past.  It is the topic of mixtures and solutions.  One of my greatest resources that I like to use in my classroom is http://www.unitedstreaming.com/. This is the link to Discovery Education and it provides a great variety of videos, images, and usable documents for teaching not only mixtures and solutions, but any subject matter.

These tools are important in developing scientifically literate students in the 21^st century because they expose students to the technology that is available.  Even if the students cannot have their own individual computer in the classroom, they can still experience the benefits of these resources when the teacher uses these sites with an Interactive Whiteboard in the classroom.  These tools help to create awareness.

One of the activities I have used with Discovery Education is to show videos of how mixtures and solutions can be created and how these mixtures and solutions can effect the environment.  The videos help to build that background knowledge and help to bring in the real world context.

One of the challenges faced in using the technology is the fact that sometimes the Internet server can be down or the LCD projector bulb can blow.  You just have to work around it.

Hot Stuff

I think that the materials used in this week's experiment discouraged the conduction of heat.  According to Tillery, Enger, and Ross (2008) conduction is the transfer of heat from one material to the other.  The materials used in this experiment that were the best insulator were those materials that prevented this heat from escaping or being conducted.

If I were to repeat this experiment I would test glass and rubber.  I believe the rubber would be the best insulator.  I am basing this belief on the knowledge that when I put my hot coffee into one of those plastic coffee cups with the rubber wrapped around it, I feel less heat though the rubber than I do through the plastic.

Because I don't teach heat transfer with my 4th graders I would have to do more investigations and research on this topic before I approached it with my students.  I say this because my knowledge of this topic is limited and I want to make sure that I develop my knowleded base before trying to explain it to my students.

Engaging Guided Inquiry

The focus question chosen to for this guided inquiry experiment was “How do different surfaces affect the momentum of marbles?”  In order to test this question, the learner set up two ramps.  The ramps were made by using four science textbooks and stacking them in two stacks of two.  A grooved, twelve inch ruler was placed on each stack of books so that one end of the ruler was on the books and the other end was on the surface to be tested.  The grooved ruler aided in keeping the marbles traveling in a linear path.  In order to create a fair test the only variable changed was the surface the marbles would roll over.  The same size marbles were used and the stacks of books were both placed onto the smooth tile floor.  The only difference was that a carpeted rug was placed at the end of one of the rulers.  In order to determine how surfaces affect momentum, the focus became to observe and measure how far the marbles would travel over a carpeted surface versus a surface with no carpet.  The discovery that was made confirmed the hypothesis; the smoother surface caused the marble to travel farther than the carpeted surface.  Momentum, in this case, is not affected by the marbles mass or velocity because both of these variables were constant until the surfaces changed.  When the surfaces changed friction became a more noticeable player in that the momentum of the marble rolling over the carpeted surface slowed much quicker than the momentum of the marble rolling on the smooth surface.

Engaging in a guided inquiry experience helped the learner further understand the scientific concept because it allowed for hands on investigation using familiar materials.  This experience also motivated the learner to apply the skills necessary to conduct an experiment to explore the concepts of momentum.  This process also enveloped critical thinking strategies such as making inferences and drawing conclusions.  The activity was engaging and the learner was not stuck reading about a science concept, but was instead applying the concept to a particular design.  It is easy to follow an already created procedure to complete an experiment, but to have to actually design the procedure and then put what you design into action is a challenging way to make the learner think about the process and not just the science concept being learned. 

One of the challenges faced in this process was the minimal amount of collaboration that took place.  Both the inquiry process and the engineering design process call for an extensive amount of collaboration and teamwork to get the project or experiment accomplished.  The learner found that without collaboration, ideas in design of the experiment were limited.  This confirms the old adage that “two heads are better than one” in some instances and it drives home the importance of collaboration amongst any group of learners.

This kind of experience will be a huge benefit to any science student.  This kind of guided inquiry gets the student thinking outside the cookie cutter recipe of doing science demonstrations and experiments according to a preplanned set of procedures and it gets them to creating, thinking, and designing.  It helps them to reach that higher level of thinking skills that all learners need.  The biggest challenge students will face in using this kind of instruction will be getting them used to thinking for themselves.  This process needs to be scaffolded so that all students, struggling or not can participate successfully.  Overall, this guided inquiry experience drove home the importance of doing the science as opposed to reading about the science.

Brand New Course

It's great to be starting a new course with familiar folks.  I am fortunate to be able to participate in this program and gain such wonderful ideas and insight from so many wonderful people.  I know taking on a Master's program is a challenge, especially with the demands of teaching our own kids, but it has been so worth the extra effort.  It has kept me going and given me so many new strategies to apply in my own classroom.  It has also kept me fighting to get science education back on the forefront of our classrooms.  I am enjoying the collaboration and I feel more confident as a professional.  I appreciate all of those educators out there that are in it for the kids and because they are just as passionate as I am about teaching.

I will continuously send out thoughts and prayers for each and every one of us.  Lord knows we need it.

Student Work

Okay,
So after a week of trying to figure this out, I think I got it.


Student Work


Student Work 2

Lesson Reflection

My students had a blast with the inquiry lesson on building a series circuit.  They loved the hands on learning and I think their explanations were better with the hands on experience than they would have been had we only read the text.  They enjoyed using the materials.  They were more interested and engaged.  I plan to continue using hands on approaches in my classroom.

We did have to work on putting our explanation in a paragraph.  This lesson really brought to light the area of weakness for my students, which is writing a good scientific explanation.  Since this lesson I have included writing scientific explanations in my writing block.

Melting Iceburgs Experiment Q#9

Like many folks I have mixed emotions/views about the melting of our polar ice caps.  Mainly because I have very limited knowledge of the issue and because, through my Native American spirituallity, I have seen and heard the devestation to Mother that humans have already caused.  I have listened to many medicine men speak of Mother Earth and I have watched many National Geographic and Discovery Channel specials on this issue.  Just the other night I viewed the PBS special that was referenced in our resources for this week.  Veiwing these specials and seeing the effect that humans have had on our great planet leads me to believe that it is plausible that our ice caps are melting and will eventually be gone.  I don't know if I agree with the time period that the scienctists stated on the PBS special.  Nineteen years seems like such a short time, but at the same time if we continue to pollute the Earth and the atmosphere at the rate we are going it seems plausible.  I know scientists and government officials are working to come up with solutions such as renewable energy, but if we waste time debating the issue it may be to late.  We know we need to protect our Earth, we need to stop worrying about how we are going to make the next dollar and worry about keeping Mother safe.  I know Mother Earth is important and I know the need for money, but there has got to be a way that we can compromise.  There will be serious consequences if we don't figure something out.  We may not lose whole continents with flooding, but there will be a rise in the waters.  We will lose precious ecosytems that are needed for people's survival.  Mother Earth will not stand still and allow humans to continue to degrade her and use her without respecting and replenishing what we use.  I know that we have to keep science and spirituallity seperate, but the Native Americans had the right idea.  Use what we need and no more.  Respect Mother and she will take care of us.  Disrespect her and she will destroy us.  Mother is a powerful spirit and she will do what she needs to do.

I don't know that I have questions at this point, but I do have concerns about our future.  Our children will inherit this Earth when we no longer walk it.  What kind of example are we setting for them if they see us continuously polluting and being greedy?

Lesson Plan

For the most part, I enjoyed creating this weeks lesson plan for our application.  I chose to create an electricity lesson because that is what we are currently studying in science this month.  I say this month, because our adminstrator purchased three FOSS kits for 4th grade in an effort to improve test scores.  She has required the 4th grade teachers to rotate the FOSS kits over the next three months.  For the month of January I have Electricity and Magnetism.  Our standards include Light and Electricity so this FOSS kit has been useful for the electricity part.

For the lesson, the students will be given a D-Cell battery, 2 wires, and a smal motor.  They will be required to use these materials to create a circuit that will make the motor run.  Other than our safety procedures, there are no specific procedures the students will follow.  In other words, they will be required to create the circuit and then create their procedures for replicating the circuit they created.  I think this fits well with the 5 E's we studied this week, mainly because the students are creating a finished product and the teacher becomes the monitor as opposed to the instructor.  Once the investigation is complete we will discuss what they learned and they will have to write a summary of what they learned, draw a schematic of their circuit, and write an essay comparing their circuit to the circuit created when plugging up and appliance.

I am looking forward to doing this activity with the students and seeing what knowledge they gain from it.  I did a similar activity with them in which they made a light bulb come on.  I am hoping that this will reinforce what we have already discussed as well as lead into a discussion of series and parallel circuits.

As I prepared this lesson, I noticed that the 5 E's we used in our plan is very similar to the way the FOSS kits and our science text book is set up.  Meaning there is an engage, explore, and ellaborate component in the FOSS kits as well as the science text.

The most trouble I had with this lesson was finding and identifying the NSTA standards, the NBPT standards, and the NSE standards.  I found that getting to these standards was difficult because I had to sift through the organizations trying to sell books.  There was not a direct link to the standards.

I always enjoy learning about diversity.  Teaching in a very diverse and low socioeconomic setting keeps me on my toes in my strategies and methods.

Snow Days

Wow!!  South Carolina has been blasted with snowy, icy weather these past couple of days.  God bless all you folks that live in the North and West that have to deal with it every year.  We had 2 snowfalls in 2010 and just got hit with another this week.  Very unusual weather for us.  Two snow days and a 2 hour delay today.  Fun stuff. :/  I'm not complaining, it was nice to have snow for a little bit.

Anyway on a different note.  If you're like me grades were due today and report cards go home next week.  No rest for the weary.  :)  I hope all of yall are having a great week.

Back to School

I hope everyone has a super safe and productive work week. If your like me, grades are due and report cards go home soon. Have fun!!!

My First Blog

Hope this works.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and is ready to rock and roll through a brand new year.