Final Vision Statement

Despite all my studying, reading, and practicing teaching in the last five years, I managed to make it through my education degree having given very little thought to myself as a science teacher. If anything, I was more excited about how to use science cross-curricularly by having students write in a science journal. At the beginning of this term, I knew that I wanted to challenge students intellectually and enrich their learning through hands-on activities in science instruction. Unfortunately, upon self-reflection I realized that I had no idea how to implement this idea. Through many conversations, articles, and even hands-on activities, I now have a much stronger opinion on science instruction. I know that these newer ideas will change too, as they should, but now I have somewhere to start.

Science is not just a set of information that needs to be acquired. Science itself is discovering. Understanding. Thus, more science classrooms are being centered on “inquiry.” Inquiry can be most concisely defined as “investigation.” Just as science is not facts and equations, inquiry is not one activity. Inquiry is a process. I have come to learn that if I want to challenge students cognitively, I need to walk them through this learning, inquiring process, and eventually they will be able to do it on their own. This is the end goal, as schools strive to teach children to think, not just to regurgitate.

In my science classroom, I will first establish what my students already know, because they know a lot! I cannot give them knew information (and they cannot discover and internalize it for themselves) until they have confronted any misconceptions they may have and torn them down. Since students will loyally nod their heads as a teacher explains a new concept that contradicts their own understanding, teachers may never know the misunderstandings that are lying beneath the surface. Until these are addressed, it is just like building a beautiful structure on top of a cracked or uneven foundation. The building may last for a few years, but eventually it will crack and crumble due to the integrity of the foundation. In the famous sweater experiment, one teacher spent days letting her students try to prove that sweaters and hats create heat to keep children warm (Watson & Konicek, 1990). Students were so convinced that winter clothing created heat that they invented endless trials to prove their theory. Over and over again they rationalized the failed results (the temperature of the bundled up thermometer did not increase) to support their own theories. It was difficult, but the teacher let them continue to experience disequilibrium. Piaget proposed the term disequilibrium to explain the event “when a child’s conception of a thing or event is no longer adequate and the child seeks to establish a balance through” new learning (Peters, 2002). Finally, students were ready for new learning. The teacher offered a new theory that “warm” clothes are trapping body heat, and most of the students were ready to abandon their preconceptions. However, this brings up the question, when is it appropriate to move on? I want to differentiate instruction for all the learners in my science class, but we will not always be able to wait for 100% of the students to understand fully. The teacher in the sweater experiment decided to move on to the actual lessons about heat, hoping that the two boys still sticking to the “hot hat” theory would gain understanding with further instruction. I, also, will have to move forward with the majority of the class, but I will still pay special attention to my students who are struggling. They may receive extra help and I will have different expectations for them. Accomplished learning is not the same for all students. In the same way, it will take extra work to challenge my highest achieving students. They could have excellent grades but not be learning anything new. It takes time and energy, but I want to tweak assignments and activities to challenge these students as well. Maybe they can be given less information to start with, making it a puzzle, or maybe when they have finished an experiment, I can challenge them to think of other materials to try, variables to test, or just ways to change up their experiment.

Although addressing misconceptions are an important first step in inquiry-based science instruction, there are still lessons and activities to lead! In “Shifting from Activitymania to Inquiry” Moscovici and Nelson explain that pre-packaged science activities

“can be engaging for students and easy for the teacher. The outcome is usually defined and most students are successful in achieving the expected results. [Their] concern is that conceptual understanding and scientific literacy are not facilitated with this practice. Students follow procedures, usually without questioning the reasons for their actions” (Moscovic & Nelson, 1998).

Inquiry, on the other hand, is all about the questions. Together students and teacher develop a question or questions to answer. It may look like activities to an outsider, but the teacher is actually guiding students to create evidence to support their claim or answer their question. Students are not just doing activities to see something “cool” happen; they are actively working together to observe what is happening and ask why. Based on evidence collected in the classroom or in research, students can then make explanations based on what they see. Learning the difference between observations and inferences, and learning to explain inferences is very hard for many students, but will help them to not only think critically but metacognitively. Many sciences lessons or units would end here, but it is so important for students to complete the last two steps of inquiry. Questioning, finding evidence, and creating explanations are great, but students need to know that their own findings may not have been completely accurate. As scientists, they must compare what they learned or proposed with other classmates, schools, or professional scientists. Only then can they communicate what they have learned to peers, adults, or just in their science journal. Through this process students learn that scientific discoveries are based on hard evidence and collaboration.

            At the end of the term, I had the opportunity of team teaching a science lesson in a local Kindergarten classroom. Applying all my visions of inquiry was both eye-opening and relieving. We received a pre-packaged lesson on teaching Kindergarteners to weave. It was very detailed, and certainly engaging for the students, but did not stress any key science concepts. There was questioning, observation, and comparison going on, but we wanted to make it better. As a team we shifted the focus from activity to inquiry. Students eagerly learned to weave and then experimented with weaving various materials, observing their qualities, and testing the strength and functionality. They still had a great time, but they also hit 4 out of 5 steps of the inquiry process. This was eye-opening to me because I learned that science does not always look a certain way. Sometimes it looks like art, and sometimes it looks like chemistry. I was also relieved because adjusting a lesson to be more inquiry-oriented was not as hard as I thought it would be. At the beginning of the semester I would have told you that teachers who “did inquiry” were lofty, creative, flexible super teachers (and a little flakey). I like structure and planning, and I was afraid that inquiry would remove all that control. When inquiry is student-led, the teacher does relinquish some control, but I was relieved to see that inquiry could still be accomplished through a more teacher-guided lesson. As I grow as a teacher and as my future students gain responsibility and self-efficacy, we will try more student-led discovery, but I am comforted to know that inquiry is not an “all or nothing” idea. Any amount of discovery-based science is better than drilling facts and equations.

            I have not changed my original vision for science much but I have certainly filled in the gaps. I have been able to put a name to my style of teaching – social constructivism. For science instruction, one of the major ideas is that “children construct understanding in science by actively engaging with phenomena. …Students ask and refine questions related to phenomena, they predict and explain phenomena, and they mindfully interact with concrete materials. Active engagement, then, is both mental and physical” (Krajcik, 1999). I now know how to articulate how I want to teach science, a little practice teaching it, and plenty of time to grow as a teacher and create science experiences that are more inquiry-based and more student-oriented. 

• Krajcik, J. S., Czerniak, C., & Berger, C. (1999). Teaching children science, a project-based approach. McGraw-Hill College.
• Moscovici, H., & Nelson, T. H. (1998). Shifting from activitymania to inquiry. Science and Children, (January).
• Peters, J. M., & Gega, P. C. (2002). Science in elementary education. Prentice Hall
• Watson, B., & Konicek, R. (1990). Teaching for conceptual change: Confronting chidlren's experience. Phi Delta Kappan, (May).

SLPE Reflection

Overview

                Overall I feel like the lesson went very well. I started Day 1 by doing a picture walk of the book with the students so that they could make predictions, get a chance to look at pictures, and to help them look for context clues before reading. For example, I guided them to identify colorful leaves and the sheeps’ thick coats in the illustration , and we concluded that it must be fall. A few students also shared information or personal experiences about sheep and weaving, giving us a general idea of their prior knowledge of the content. Then, when my teammate read the entire book, students had a schema for understanding what they were seeing and hearing. They behaved very well and were engaged in the shared reading. Although some of the weaving vocabulary was rather technical, I feel that students could comprehend the main ideas of the story due to the previous picture walk and accompanying illustrations.

           For the rest of Day 1, my two teammates, myself, and the classroom teacher each sat at one of the four table groups. Each table group weaved with paper strips through slits on a paper loom while discussing vocabulary and patterns. The pacing of the lesson was great, since the Kindergarteners did need 25 minutes to weave the paper for the first time.

On Day 2, I was a little late and thus very flustered. This seriously affected my teacher presence and ability to manage whole-class moments. Thankfully, my teammates graciously covered me and kept things running smoothly. The students, at least, were unaware of any problem! We started the day in table groups, inspecting authentic items. The items rotated through the groups, so that each student had an opportunity to touch and discuss every object. I really enjoyed the low teacher-to-student ratio that would not ordinarily be achievable. Next, each table received one strip of foil, wax paper, tissue paper, and plastic straws. We pulled and twisted our materials to test their durability and flexibility. The group worked together to come to conclusions and mark their results on a checklist.

            The bulk of Day 2 was spent in “expert groups.” Each table received new paper looms and strips from one material to weave with. We told students that they would be the experts on that material. My group had foil strips and we started by reviewing our information about foil from our checklist. I asked students how we should manipulate the foil based on our knowledge. Students supplied that we should be gentle because it tears easily. As students weaved, I questioned them on the properties of foil and the difficulty of weaving with foil. One student decided that the task was “heasy - hard because it tears easily and easy because it was easy to weave.” I was very proud of the students for backing up their observations with evidence! When all the expert groups were done weaving with their special material, it was time to communicate their findings. Each table had a turn standing up, showing off their work, and describing the physical properties of their specific material. For example, students observed that foil is shiny, tears easily, and does not require tape because it folds over. Wax paper was slipper and hard to glue. Tissue paper was easy to glue, tears easily, and pretty (colorful) when complete. The plastic straws were very strong and easy to weave with but required tape to hold them into the loom.

Learning Performances

This final communication as well as informal discussion at table groups on both days made it clear for me and my teammates to assess whether students met the learning performances. Students were definitely able to “weave a simple paper loom with teacher modeling and assistance” on Day 1. Then on Day 2 when students weaved again with a different material, fine motor skills and patterning were reinforced. The concept of alternating the over-under sequence with each strip was difficult for some, but all students successfully weaved over and under with paper strips and their expert material on Day 2. Students were also able to “verbalize that different materials have different properties that affect their use.” All students successfully identified physical properties of their expert materials, and many were able to connect those observations to the ease or difficulty with which they weaved the material. For example, the students who said that wax paper was hard to glue because it was slippery. This shows that all students are at a different level of understanding, but all students could be successful in achieving the basic learning performance.

Modifications

            I am very pleased with the modifications we made to the classroom teacher’s original lesson. Instead of just weaving with paper, we also read a book, tested materials, became experts, and communicated results! All these activities were engaging to the students and effective in guiding students to discover that different materials have different properties. We were able to respect the teacher’s plan while still adding to it and enriching the activity.

            A few things went differently from the lesson plan when we actually taught the students, but I feel that they were all good adaptations that showed our discernment “in the moment.” First, on Day 1 after students finished weaving with paper, I thought of a fun little “game” for the students to do, to reinforce the over-under pattern. I asked the teacher if this would be okay, or if it would just distract/confuse students before music. She was game for the idea, so I went ahead. I lined up the class in two rows facing each other. Each pair of students across from one another was to either link their hands together to make a “bridge” or sit on the ground and put their feet together, making a “wall.” This was very difficult to set up spontaneously, as almost every child needed to be physically guided to their position. Then the students at the front of the line got to go through the “tunnel” created by the class’s bodies. I asked the class to call out help to the students going through the course. “Under the bridge...over the wall...etc.” After students went through the tunnel, they lined up at the door for Music, so the tunnel got progressively shorter until everyone was through. It was pretty crazy and spontaneous, but the kids had fun and got to move with their whole bodies.

On Day 2, several adaptations were made. For example, we compared the weave of a crocheted scarf with a cashmere scarf instead of looking at burlap during the opening discovery rotation. This was a last minute change, but students did not mind, and it was easier for all students to participate in touching a long scarf than a smaller section of burlap. Then, we reduced the original five materials in the lesson plan to four materials (wax paper, tissue paper, foil, straws) so that there would be a one-to-one correspondence between special materials and expert groups. I think that if we had tested five materials, students would have been preoccupied with the missing fifth material during the expert group activity. In our lesson plan we chose to have students weave with the expert materials in pairs instead of individually because we thought it would be too difficult, but based on their success on Day 1, we felt comfortable giving each student a paper loom to weave with on Day 2. Thanks to this adaptation, each student was fully engaged and occupied during the lesson, not waiting for their turn, and every student had a product to decorate and take home.

            Finally, instead of closing the lesson with testing the strength of a large sample of each material at table groups, my teammates and I improvised a demonstration in front of the whole class. We held up our own sample of each material and asked students if they thought it was strong or weak and how we might test it. We led students to agree that we could test the woven product by seeing if it would hold a heavy water bottle. Each sample was held up, students made predictions, and we carefully placed the water bottle on top. Depending on if the sample held or bowed and the water bottle fell, we asked students why they think the water bottle fell or didn’t fall. This whole-class prediction, observation of a test, and then discussion worked out very well. Since students had spent most of the hour in table groups, they were ready to handle whole-class focus.

Future Instruction

            If I were to teach this lesson again in the future, there are a few things I would change. I do not feel that we adequately differentiated instruction, so we were fortunate that no students finished significantly before or after the whole group. I enjoyed improvising a movement activity on Day 1, so I intend to research games that emphasize patterning or parts of a whole.

            These two lessons would also not be the end of our discussion on properties of materials. I would love to guide students through further discovery of properties in the following weeks. Just like the weaving lesson, other “required” Kindergarten lessons can be reworked to teach foundational skills and scientific principles.

               

Science as Inquiry

During this experience I learned about what Kindergartners are capable of - physically, academically, and behaviorally. It was a good reminder to see what great observers they are! Even the youngest of students have great potential to engage in meaningful scientific inquiry. In some ways, they are the “best” for science because they are willing to take risks and are constantly adjusting their pre-conceptions as they discover the world around them on a daily basis.

It was also very helpful to be reminded that scientific learning is still important in its simplest skills and concepts. Upon first considering weaving, I thought that it was purely a fine motor skill activity. Now, I understand that young students are still learning that parts make up a whole, and that materials have properties. This does not always look like physics, biology, chemistry, or earth science, but they are still engaging in science.

After this experience, I feel more confident that I can have an inquiry-oriented classroom. It may be more or less teacher-directed depending on the age and responsibility of the students, but it can still be inquiry. By practicing over and over again, I feel comfortable that I can evaluate my own science lessons and activities by the 5 essential features of inquiry to check my teaching.

Pendulums

Pre-Assessment

1. What is your personal experience with swinging on anything like a trapeze?
swinging on a swing
swinging on a trapeze bar (on kid's playlets) by your knees
swinging on a rope out over a lake/river

2. What applications to "real life" do swinging objects have?
pendulums on clocks, metronomes
swings

3. What is your prediction about what will happen if 2 people are on one trapeze and only 1 is on the other and the second switches to the one?
The one who "gave away" a person will lose momentum? The new group of 2 will have more weight and swing "harder." ????

4. What understanding or ideas do you have about the science of back-and-forth swinging objects?
kinetic energy is the energy of movement
potential energy is the ...potential (the lull before it swings back)
potential energy= mass*gravity*height?

Predictions

I think lower weight will swing more times in 10 seconds than higher weight.
I think doubling the weight will half the frequency, but double the total length of time that the pendulum keeps swinging (if we didn't stop it after 10 seconds).

Experiment

COntrol: Length (15 cm), angle of starting swing (22.5 degrees), time (10 seconds)
Variable: # of Washers

1 washer: avg. of 12.25 swings
2 washers: avg. of 12.375 swings
3 washers: avg. of 12.25 swings
4 washers: avg. of 12.25 swings

Conclusion: Weight does not affect frequency of pendulum swings

Our Experiment

Control: Angle of starting swing (22.5 degrees), Time (10 seconds), No. of Washers (4)
Variable: Length of String

20 cm: avg. of 10.625 swings
25 cm: avg. of 10 swings

Conclusion: We predict that the longer the string, the fewer number of pendulum swings per 10 seconds. --> An inverse relationship to pendulum length and frequency of swing.

BBW Lesson Plan

Learning Goal: Electricity requires a complete circuit for the current to flow.

Learning Performance: Students successfully light a lightbulb and communicate why it works (orally, written, pictorial)

NSES
Physical Science
Content Standard B: Light, Heat, Electricity, & Magnetism
Benchmark: Electrical circuits require a complete loop through which an electrical current can pass.

Activity:

Give students flashlights to take apart and explore. (Rearrange parts, identify sequence, just play)

Ask students what makes the light bulb in the flashlight work?
(Write and draw findings is Science Notebook.)


Give students batteries, bulbs, wires (already stripped for younger children) and ask them to see if they can light the bulb from what they learned with the flashlight. (1 bulb, 1 battery, 1-2 wires) If (when) students are struggling, give them bulb holders to screw the light bulb into. Make sure they know it does work without the bulb holder. (Some students will be determined to do it without, and that is okay. The bulb holder just helps with fine motor abilities.)


As students are successful, take a break and ask students to tell you how to (or have students) draw their construction on the board. Battery-wire-bulb-(wire)-battery.


Point out that in order for the light bulb to light with a battery or with a flash light, we need to have a continuous pathway, circuit. Introduce electric current.

Ask students to evaluate if they have been good scientists. Did they look at evidence? Ask them what their evidence was. (Trial and error.) Was this a good experiment? Why? Write in Science Notebooks.

Next Day

Ask students to guess/explore where the full circuit is in a flashlight.
(Write & draw in Science Notebook.)
With help or alone, students need to figure out and see visual/physical representation that the flashlight creates a full circuit also.


Ask students how they think the inside of a flashlight must look.
Draw on the board what they have so far (simple circuit), and guide students in figuring out the inside of a lightbulb.

(Further lesson on what is inside batteries by experimenting with different fruit, vegetables, and other objects to light a lightbulb.)

5 Essential Criteria	Example	Explain	Teacher- or Student-driven?
Engage	Teacher asks what makes the bulbs light up in a flashlight.	Scientifically relevant question	Teacher
Evidence	Students take apart flashlight and explore why it works. Try to recreate evidence with BBW.	Experience trial and error of what works	Student
Explain	Students record findings of a complete “circuit” by drawing diagrams or explaining the concept verbally	Making explanations based on results	Teacher (requires drawing or writing in Sci NB)
Evaluate	Teacher asks students to evaluate themselves as scientists and the validity of their experiment	Evaluating evidence and explanations	Teacher
Communicate	Write/draw conclusion of findings in Science Notebook	Upgrade spoken explanations to written &/or pictorial form.	Student (no specific questions to answer)

Moving Beyond the Science Kit: Explorations of Electricity & Atoms

I really liked this reading because it provided a clear non-example of inquiry juxtaposed* with an awesome example of guided inquiry! "Ms. Travis" still used the same BBW kit, plus some extra supplies, still arrived at the same vocabulary, and used inquiry-driven exploration of electricity. Even her classroom managment was better - her activities allowed for maximum participation whereas "Ms. Stone's" students were fidgety and bored because only a few students could use the materials at a time.

For the sake of practice, and because I really thought of this while I was reading: Did Ms. Travis's BBW unit really follow the 5 essential features of inquiry?
Engage in a science-oriented question: Yes, students were encouraged to explore how flashlights work, and then asked if they could light a bulb with one battery and one wire.
Priority to evidence: It's hard for me to tell, because trial and error is certainly a form of evidence, but they weren't using any outside resources. They did experiment with what worked and what didn't, so I think evidence was rather vital to the process. (Just not labeled as "evidence" or "data.")
Formulate explanations: Students determine that unscrewing a bulb or disconnecting a wire in a series circuit makes all the lights go out. They explain this by concluding that the pathway (circuit) must be broken.
Evaluate explanations: I don't think the students really evaluated their explanations. I guess evaluation happened, but in the form of the teacher confirming explanations as correct or incorrect.
Communicate & justify proposal. Students jumped to the next step (or the first step again) of inquiry - asking new questions. Did they orally communicate explanations when Ms. Travis helped them assign terminology to their new knowledge?

I would call this successfully meeting the 5 essential features of inquiry, but that's also because I think it looks like inquiry, and smells like inquiry and barks like inquiry. But true Inquiry is all or nothing with these 5. I am still trying to determine if I am being to lenient with the qualifications or if I am actually figuring out that inquiry can still be accomplished even if the teacher is providing some of the steps.

*I had to work it in sometime. 

Parallel Circuit

Simple Circuit

with Alligator Clips

Series Circuit!

(extra battery needed for more power to light both bulbs)

Simple Circuit!

Batteries, Bulbs, & Wires

Kirsten has a battery and a small bulb. She wonders how many strips of wire she will need to connect the battery and the bulb so that the bulb will light. What is the smallest number of wire strips Kirsten needs to make the bulb light up?
A. One strip of wire.

Explain your thinking about how to light the bulb.
Battery-> wire -> spirally part of bulb -> bump on bottom of bulb -> battery
I can't remember which side +/- it needs to go on.

NSES
Physical Science
Content Standard B: Light, Heat, Electricity, & Magnetism
Benchmark: Electrical circuits require a complete loop through which an electrical current can pass.

Yellow Lab "Explore Together"
Very teacher directed
Detailed outline of procedure.
DOes not provide or ask for an explanation.
Students can be successful, no frustration.

Pink Lab "Explore Independently"
May not successfully discover 3 types of circuits.
Q: See if you can light the bulb. A: Students might say, No, I can't.
Teacher provides engaging Question.
Students explore on their own.
Students experience disequilibrium with any misconceptions.

Magnets

Pre-Assessment (Know)
1. What are some "real life" applications of magnetism?
Electromagnetism uses the push and pull of magnets to run things...right? Roller coasters?

2. What experiences have you had with magnets in your life?
I use magnets to pick up tiny metal things (needles, nails). I play with magnets.

3. What ideas do you have about the science of magnets?
Only some metals are magnetic, right? Nickel, iron, and lead? cobalt
Magnets have poles. Opposite poles attract. Same poles "push" repel apart
Compasses use magnetic fields. Birds use magnets to know north and south...

That's all I got.

Post-Activity (Learned)


How do the results compare with your predictions? Explain.
I predicted that metallic objects would "channel" the magnetic force. :( And non-metallic items would break field. BUT I know that magnets can "go through" paper, etc. Strong enough magnets can go through your hand. So. I basically guessed.

National Science Education Standards:
Physical Science: Content Standard B Light, Heat, Electricity, & Magnetism
Benchmark: Magnets attract and repel each other and certain kinds of other materials.

Research:

(Source: www.howmagnetswork.com )

History
Magnets were discovered/talked about by the ancient Greeks and Chinese. Greeks thought that magnets or "lodestones" had magical capabilities that attracted iron. They believed that there were islands entirely made of magnetite that pulled in ships by their iron nails; this was one of the explanations for ships lost at sea.

In 1269, Perigrinus wrote the first scientific report of magnetism, trying to understand science over superstition. In 1600, Gilbert figured out that the earth was a giant magnet and that the north and south poles are magnetic poles just like a small magnet. Since simple compasses already existed, this explained why they worked.

In 1820, Oersted discovered that there is a relationship between magnetism and electricity by putting a wire with an electric current near a magnetic compass. The electric current caused a "deflection" of the compass needle. We now know that this is because an electric current (or movement of a charged particle) creates a magnetic field also.

In 1862, Maxwell established the foundation of today's theories of electromagnetism (which I have yet to understand), thirty years before the electron was discovered.

Earth's Magnetic Fields
The geographic "North Pole" of the earth is actually the south pole of earth as a magnet. It is called the north pole because it attracts the north pole of other magnets (opposites attract). Thus the geographic "South Pole" is actually the magnetic north pole of the earth.

Magnets do not actually point perfectly north/south because the magnetic poles are not perfectly lined up with our geographic locations of the poles. This is because the axis of the magnetic field is different than the earth's axis.

Cause: It is now believed that the earth is a giant electromagnet because of a flowing current in the earth's core.

Electromagnetism 101
The "magnetic effect of a current" just means that an electrical current has a magnetic field. (Oersted, 1820) This magnetic effect of a current is called electromagnetism, as oppose to "plain" magnetism of a rock. :)

Feature of Inquiry #3

Summary: Learners formulate explanations from evidence to address scientifically oriented questions.


Focus: The path from evidence to explanation.
Scientific explanations based on evidence and logical argument.
Explanations go beyond current knowledge, by building on it to create new understanding.

What would this look like in the classroom?
-Students learn to tell the different between evidence & inference as the teacher asks deeper questions.
-Observed and/or measured data are evidence. Students use science notebooks to record observations.
-Looking at real evidence drives investigation and then solutions/conclusions.

Examples from video:
Evidence-observed phases of the moon. Explanation-none discussed in this lesson
Question-What causes craters? Evidence-Experiment with activity & look at/record results Explanation-may have been final discussion after activity.

Group 3
Danielle
Megan
Megan
Elizabeth
Rebecca

School of the Wild Reflection

See my informal lesson plan here.

Student Learning

I feel that my MM Lesson went well, but I don’t think they were quite ready for the concept of natural selection. I sprinkled MMs in a grassy area before the students came over, and then explained the activity to them I explained that there were MMs or “animals” hidden in the grass and they (the students) were the predators. On my word, the students ran into the grass to find as many MMs as possible before I said, “Predators freeze.” At that point, I asked them to show me and each other the MMs that they found. Unlike my prediction, the bright green MMs had been very easy to find (along with red, orange, etc), but luckily the students had very few brown ones! I compared the brown MMs to well-camouflaged animals and explained that camouflage helped them “survive” the “predators.” I tried to briefly explain the idea that the brown “animals” survived and would have more babies with good camouflage, but the brightly colored ones did not “survive.” The group was fading fast, so I asked for other suggestions of traits that might help animals survive. One student suggested size; large animals will be stronger and win in a fight. I tried to relate his example back to natural selection by reiterating that the large animals would continue to survive and reproduce just like he said, and the weaker animals would not survive. I think the students enjoyed the activity and related it to camouflage, but did not take away any new concepts that they did not previously know.

My Learning

Although natural selection is a pretty high level science concept for sixth graders, I definitely think the fault is mine. They could easily have understood the concept if I had planned better. It seems so obvious now, but since I did not know the students and felt like I had little control over the group, I ended up telling much more than I questioned. It would not have necessarily been an inquiry lesson, but if I had asked students, “How can you relate this to real predators and prey?” or “What will happen to the brown population if this keeps happening? What will happen to the red, orange, and green population? What then? What does this mean?” Even those questions are not excellent because they have rather specific answers I am looking for, but it would have been better than just telling. I also realize that under stress I reverted to teacher-talk instead of engaging the students! This helps me to know that in unfamiliar situations I need to plan, plan, plan. I admit that I did not do that in this case because I “planned” to go with the flow and just have fun with the kids. Which, I guess if that was my goal, we accomplished it. I should have focused myself on a learning goal and decided how I would assess their understanding.

Future Teaching

This short activity helped me to see that Environmental Education is not hard. (It takes planning, but it is not impossible.) Despite my short mini-lesson/activity, I was also able to observe Meredith teaching the students in one of her “outdoor classrooms.” She did tell them some information, but asked a lot of simple questions. She was also not afraid to let kids tell about experiences and share knowledge that they had. By connecting what they had to say (which I would probably have deemed irrelevant), they felt valued and probably made a better connection to what she was teaching about. Braus and Wood point out in Environmental Education in Schools that “in many places, outdoor experiences are not a regular part of instruction; instead of occurring throughout a student’s schooling, outdoor experiences are often limited to a few outings in primary grades” (9). As soon as I read this I instantly knew it to be true. At very best an intermediate or high school teacher might conduct normal class outside on a sunny day. I do prefer to teach early primary grades, but my comfort with upper elementary students is growing, so I may very well be the responsible for creating environmental education opportunities for students who have not experienced it for several years and certainly not in any of their other classes. I agree that environmental education is a beneficial practice, but I am going to need to research and find solid go-to resources and lessons if I am honestly going to implement it.

Braus and Wood also explain that “many educators link environmental education exclusively with science education. …it also requires an understanding of economics, math, geography, ethics, politics and other subjects” (8). It is certainly my tendency to associate the outdoors with science, but I do not know how to truly integrate math with the outdoors. If not measuring and calculating for science exploration or just using outdoor materials for math manipulatives, how would I fully integrate all those subjects with environmental education?

I am somewhat overwhelmed by the whole idea, but I am also relieved that an environmental education is better than none, and I do have the flexibility of cross-curricular application in the outdoors.

Activitymania

In this article, the chart really helped me to see a clear comparison of activity-based science instruction and inquiry-based science. I was able to see Teacher Prep, Assessment, Student Involvement, etc. side by side. In some ways it made inquiry seem overwhelming (obviously) for me as a first-year teacher (long preparation, major flexibility, no deadline)


I do appreciate that the article gives teachers permission to start modifying activities to be more inquiry-based. However, I feel like this is an article that tells you WHY, not HOW. Ok, I'm a believer! But tell me HOW to modify activities to be more inquiry style. Because frankly, I'm not ready for pure inquiry!

I suppose a good middle ground would be to guide  the students in a discussion, and then ask them how we should test it. If they don't have much experience with inquiry, or just want to have a free period, I might have to insist that we are going to test our hypotheses, but I am going to let them choose how. Like the article said though, that only allows for general planning; I might have to run out and buy all sorts of odd materials for their experiment. (Or better yet, "What can we use that we already have at our homes to test our hypotheses?")
Then, when we do an activity it was more student-planned and hopefully more exciting for them since they got to design the activity.

Oh but I do love planning. And organization. And control.

INSES Ch. 1-2

I found both the story of the geologist and the 5th grade class very interesting, and their comparison helped me to put Inquiry on a continuum, instead of pass-fail. I've always thought writing letters to the city council was hokey, but writing a letter to the janitor was appropriate for the situation and the kids had an authentic audience. How neat that they got to see their hard work confirmed the next school year! Talk about memorable.

This article also clarified the "steps" of inquiry that I have been wishing for.
Question.
Use prior knowledge.
Investigate. 
Confirm theories or disprove theories. (Go back to investigate)
Act!

Although Mrs. Graham's class did spend 3 weeks investigating the tree problem, she still maintained some structure (worked in different groups) while letting them explore. I might not be able to do three weeks, but I could walk students through these steps of inquiry without feeling like I can't plan ahead at all.

School of the Wild mini-lesson

Natural Selection
Sub-concepts:  predator, prey

Materials: MMs (make sure they have green and brown, not weird easter MMs)
outdoors (preferably grass & dirt)


Ask students to think of an animal (eg. birds).
Ask if anyone knows what predator or prey means. Explain that the MMs are going to be the prey (the animal we picked) and we are going to be the predators. What would an appropriate predator be? (Silly answers are ok, but make sure to think about real food chains too.)

Toss the MMs on the ground. Give students 15-20 seconds (dependent age and speed!) to "capture" (pick up) as many "birds" (chosen prey) as possible.

When the time is up, have students compare which "birds" got captured. Hopefully, students will have mostly brightly colored MMs. Ask students which were the hardest to find (green & brown) and which were easiest (brighter colors). Explain that the predators found the brightly colored prey the easiest and "ate"/killed them. So, the green and brown MMs lived on to have more green and brown babies. Eventually most "birds" would be green and brown because they are the mostly the only ones that live. This is natural selection.

Ask students to brain storm other traits that might help animals escape from prey and live on to reproduce.
Speed - antelopes (fast ones live) or cheetahs (fast ones get to eat)
Color/Markings
Height - tallest giraffes found the best leaves
Poison - animals with the strongest poison usually "win." The weaker poison don't always win, so they die off. Maybe that's why some animals are SO poisonous, because all the worst ones were the "green and brown" because they were the hardest to kill by predators.

See my reflection on this lesson here.

Braus & Wood: Environmental Education in Schools

I welcome the idea of using environmental education to not only teach science. Honestly it had not occurred to me before. You always go outside for science lessons. And mostly only in Primary grades to walk around the school grounds. If science can teach reading (journals) and math (measuring, calculating, experimenting) IN the classroom, why not teach all those things in the environment? It had also not occurred to me to teach social studies through the environment -- politics, economics, class debates.

I have to say, I'm sure all teachers were told at some point to use environmental education (if not by another name) and thought it was great. And never did it. I hope to carry out at least some of these ideas for a few reasons. No 1. I find Iowa's environment fascinating! I'm certainly used to the wildlife and geography of my home, but Iowa! Iowa has different animals, birds, (corn) plants. Things grow when you put them in the ground. Right before your eyes. And for goodness sakes. There are not two, not three, but FOUR seasons. What's not to love? I will want to go play  discover and learn in the snow just as much as my students. At the same time, I'd probably be in the same old never-go-outside rut as other teachers if I was in Texas. Because to me it is boring. To kids in Iowa, this is the normal and un-interesting for them. I know better. My glee at crunching through snow in boots will either wear off or not be enough to get me out of the classroom on a frigid day. Much less actually plan activities for outside. No, love of Iowa's seasons won't be enough. I need to make a conscious concerted effort to plan environmental lessons throughout the school year. I will have to set standards for myself like, once a month spend a day (or most of it), outside. After the snow melts, spend a week outside. That's the only way it's going to happen, because I know I'm not any better or magically enlightened than all the teachers who don't.

Challenge Me

How is your view of science teaching changing as a result of viewing the “Challenge Me” videos and thinking/making posters about National Science Education Standards about teaching?


I am definitely getting a more solid checklist of science classroom best practices, if not a great mental image. The National Science Education Standards were helpful to me because they reminded me that learning environment, special guests, technology, and classroom community are necessary for science too. I know the topics: earth science, life science, space, physics, chemistry, but these videos are helping me put together the HOW, not just the WHAT.