Hey, so I thought the last post was going to be my final post, but here was an ebook one of my classmates created. I think it is important to find connections between different sources of media and music to course content to provide instruction to the students. This ebook does just that so you should check it out.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Final Reflection for ESCI 310
This class has taught me a lot about science education. Whether it is how to complete an experiment, how to plan a unit r a lesson, or how to incorporate aboriginal content into my science classroom. This class has shown me so many examples of different things to incorporate into my classroom, whether it is the outdoor activities from the Project Wild manual, to the variety of engagement activities that I can simplify or extend in order to use in my classroom.
I think two of the largest lessons I learned through this course are that science doesn’t have to be scary and everything you do can make a difference to your students. Science used to be an intimidating subject area for me with lots of labs and equipment required to complete the experiments as well as a lot of set up time and preparation going into each activity. While being prepared and having things set up before the class starts are important, I realized the equipment required to complete an experiment doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated. Using household items from Dollarama is a great idea because it’s cheap and easy and very inexpensive.
I like to believe that every teacher can have an impact on their students’ lives, it just depend show much you are willing to work with your students and help them as individuals. One video that showed the impact that one person can have on many people is shown below. It is with David Suzuki’s daughter and what she taught some world leaders about saving their own environment and being conscious of what they are doing to the world not only their world, but the world for their children and grand children.
This class has taught me so much about education and teaching science in the classroom. I know if it weren’t for this class I would not be confident with my abilities to teach science. Not only is it important to understand some basic concepts of science, but it’s also important to be able to share the knowledge you know with your students. A large part of science education is sharing what you know with you students as well as allowing them to share what they know or what they have learned with you as well as their class. Science is best taught when the students get to learn and experience things for themselves, rather than being told what to expect and what to know. While this blog does not show everything I have learned throughout this semester, there are many more things I have learned and embraced that they have now become a part of me and who I am as an elementary science educator.
Final Project Reflection
One of the final assignments I completed for ESCI 310 was a unit plan. This was the first unit plan I have ever completed and it was definitely a challenge. I don’t want to place blame for the way our final product turned out, but I was not 100% satisfied with it. It was challenging choosing a topic because we did not want to do the same topic as another group, but we had chosen our topic on the very first day only to find out part way through the semester that two other groups had decided to choose that topic, so we chose another topic, only to be told a few weeks later that a few other groups were doing the same topic and the same grade level. This was really frustrating so we chose to do Grade 3 magnetism. As soon as we chose that topic and wrote it on the presentation sheet another group had said they were going to do magnetism, which was really frustrating I feel like we had planned out our lessons and ideas multiple times yet were too nice and not wanting to do the same content material.
Another challenge, which I believe was the largest hurdle for myself was my group mates. Cooperative learning groups are great when you work with them throughout the semester, but I feel like we rarely ever worked with our cooperative learning groups. This project seemed to be the only one we were fully required to work with those groups. I think by having us work with our partners more throughout the semester would have provided more of a cooperative learning experience throughout the class and specifically on this project. I felt like my group was a little divided, with two of us completing most of the work and the third group member completing her later and not to my satisfaction. By the time the third group member had submitted her work it was too late for me to go through and fix it and make it something I would be proud to hand in. Handing in a project that was not to my standards was really frustrating for me and is something I never had to deal with until now. This planning experience taught me a lot about who I would want to work with in the future as a group mate and who I would never want to work with again.While this planning experience was a great learning experience with many ups and downs, it was definitely a worthwhile experience. I learned a lot about people in my class, my group mates, and how to deal with certain types of people in the future. While I was not completely satisfied with the final product we submitted, I feel like it was adequate and my group mates felt it was adequate as well. I know for the next time I complete a group project like this that I will allow for more time for the final editing of the entire project so I will be satisfied with the outcome. I feel that my participation in the group was essential in getting the project done, even though it was not completed to my standards.
Dancing Spaghetti Engagement Activity
Part way through this semester I had to complete a short presentation in front of my class. This presentation had to be related to any grade in the Saskatchewan curriculum for science. I chose to do an experiment relating to the Grade 5 Curriculum. This experiment had a bit of magic in it when two “liquids” were combined.
Below is the lesson plan I used.
Dancing Spaghetti
Purpose: Allow the students to hypothesize what will happen
Allow students to observe a chemical change
Allow the students to develop explanations to explain what they observed
Allow the students to predict what was in the water and what the “mystery
liquid”/magic potion was in order to create the effect
Assess the ability of the students to consider the possible chemicals used in
the experiment without being told based on their observations
Entertain the students and get them excited about learning about chemical
changes through a hands-on experience
Through these actions I hope to teach the students about chemical changes by providing
them with the ability to take what they have previously learned about combining different substances and chemicals, the changes that occur, and helping the students make educated guesses about what else could be in the water.
Objectives and Indicators for Grade 5:
MC5.1 Investigate the characteristics and physical properties of materials in solid, liquid, and gaseous states of matter.
e. Pose questions related to the characteristics and physical properties of matter that are suitable for investigating using processes of science.
f. Observe and record characteristics and physical properties (e.g., colour, texture, mass, volume, hardness, flexibility, absorbency, strength, buoyancy, melting point, malleability, magnetism, and solubility) of different solids, liquids, and gases in their environment.
MC5.2 Investigate how reversible and non-reversible changes, including changes of state, alter materials.
f. Differentiate between changes to materials that occur rapidly (e.g., wood burning, explosives detonating, balloon popping, and glass breaking) and those that occur over extended periods (e.g., bicycle rusting, paint fading, and newspaper yellowing).
Materials:
O A tall, clear glass filled with water
O 3 pieces (each approximately 3 cm in length) of uncooked spaghetti
O 1 tablespoon of baking powder
O 4 tablespoons of vinegar (or a splash of vinegar- for a splash you may need a few small containers for the students)
Set up: Mix baking soda with water
Pour vinegar into smaller containers
Provide each table of students with a beaker, a small cup of vinegar, and a few
spaghetti noodles
Demonstration:
1. Have the water and baking soda pre-mixed. This is important in order to add to the excitement and mystery of the experiment as well as allowing the students to think creatively as to what was possibly added. The tall clear glass will be filled with the baking soda solution prior to the arrival of the students. Ask the pre questions at this point in time (see below for the questions).
2. Ask the students if they think the spaghetti will float or sink. Instruct the students to drop the pasta into the glass and observe what happens. The pasta should sink to the bottom.
3. Next explain to the students that to make the spaghetti dance in the glass it needs something special. It needs some “magic potion”. Add 4 tablespoons/a splash of vinegar to the baking soda and water. The mixture should fizz and bubble, but if it does not fizz or bubble add a bit more vinegar. Allow the students to observe what they have done. The pasta begins to float up and then down in the water and it appears as though the spaghetti is dancing!
4. Ask the students the remainder of the of the during questions. Ensure that the students have the opportunity to answer every question based on their personal observations at their table.
Possible prompts for the questions:
Explain that a chemical change formed and ask the students if they can
think of any reasons why it is a chemical change. Was a new substance formed (yes, a gas was produced) and what did we observe to show that a gas was produced (hear the fizzing, saw the bubbles on the spaghetti)? Does anyone know what kind of gas? Why was a gas produced? What is so special about baking soda and vinegar (introducing acids and bases may be too advanced but the students may be curious)?
Describe what is happening to the spaghetti pieces. I would anticipate an
answer that there are bubbles attached to it, but they disappear when it reaches the top, causing it to sink back down.
Explain to the students that the spaghetti will continue to dance as long as the vinegar is able to react with baking soda.
5. Ask the post questions. Allow the students to guess what could be in the water or what the magic potion was. Everything used can be found in a kitchen. Explain that the water had baking soda dissolved in it, which is why it looked like normal water, and that the magic potion was vinegar.
Explanation: When the spaghetti is added to the water solution it is expected to sink. This is because it is more dense and is heavier than what the water could support.
When the vinegar is added it is expected that the spaghetti will begin to float. If the spaghetti does not float add more vinegar. This is a chemical change that occurs between the vinegar and the baking soda that is dissolved in the water. This occurs because the two substances(a base and an acid) interact to produce Carbon Dioxide (CO2). The CO2 gas is visible in the solution as small bubbles that appear to attach to the spaghetti, causing it to rise to the top. When the bubbles reach the top of the glass it appears as though the bubbles are breaking causing the spaghetti to dip down again before having more bubbles attach, brining it back to the top of the glass.
Since the gas bubbles are less dense than the water, they float to the top. When they attach to the spaghetti they then cause the spaghetti to float up. This entire experiment relates to the chemical reaction that creates CO2 gas, which is less dense than the solution it is created in, and the spaghetti that is influenced by the density of the gas.
Safety: Do not put anything used in the science lab in your mouth
Do not have your face too close to the glass/beaker when adding substances
If anything happens to end up in a student’s eye, rinse immediately with water
Questions: Pre: Joke: How do you make a Kleenex dance? You put a little boogey in it.
Do any of you know how to make spaghetti dance?
What is in the small container?
How do you know?
What is in the big container?
How do you know?
What will happen when the noodles are added to the glass?
Will they sink or float? Why?
What could happen when you add the “magic potion” to the glass?
Any predictions? Why?
During: What happened to the spaghetti when it was added to the liquid?
Why did that happen?
What did you observe when you added the contents of the smaller
container?
Were there noises?
What did you see?
Did you smell anything?
Did we create a physical or chemical change?
What happened to the spaghetti pieces?
Did it rise and stay at the top?
Did you observe any changes to it?
Post: Do you think it was just water in the glass?
What could cause the mixture to bubble?
Why does the spaghetti continue to “dance”?
If the spaghetti sinks, what could we do to make it dance again?
This activity was great. Starting the lesson out with the riddle was a great start and got the students intrigued. I think that also having the baking soda and water premixed so it looked like water provided the mystery for the students and provided them with the opportunity to think beyond what they could see and hypothesize about what could be in the water. Overall I think my engagement activity went very well and it provided me with the confidence I need to be able to teach science in an elementary classroom.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Role of the Teacher and Milieu in the Science Classroom
The teacher is the facilitator of the learning that occurs in the science classroom. They are the one who provides the environment that will support learning and provides the some of the leadership that promotes learning in the students. The context and environment in the science classroom is created by the teacher but must have the support of the students in order to maintain the cooperative and safe environment. While these statements can be generalized to any subject area, it is especially important for science.
Science can be a challenging course to teach because there are safety hazards and a lot of activities that help to facilitate learning, but require a lot of classroom management from the teacher.
The first science class I observed in my pre-internship placement showed how science needs direct supervision and direct instructions from the instructor. I was observing the science/art class. These two subjects were combined for the day because the students were learning about plants and growing conditions and needed to plant their grass seeds in their small group. There are 30 students in the classroom and there were 4 smaller groups of students. One group at a time joined Mrs. Parker, the teacher in the reading corner to start their grass seed. Even though the students were being directly observed by the teacher, there was still some confusion as to whether the grass seed needed to be buried, or how much to put in, and how much soil to put in the cup. The students were looking at different variables that influence healthy growth in a plant so each had a control pot of grass seed and potting soil while others had bad dirt, some only gave their grass 2 hours of sunlight/day, another limited the water their grass received, and the final group planted their grass in a large container and smaller container to compare the differences of space. The other students who were not planting their grass seed at that moment in time were doing leaf prints by placing a leaf under a piece of paper and using a watercolour pencil to colour over the leaf and show the veins. Next the students went to the corner to put a bit of water on their watercolour pencil design and the reaction of the water with the pencil made the markings look like they were painted on. I think this lesson could have taught the students about hydrophobic and hydrophilic reactions a bit because of the art concept, but the planting of the seeds was messy and stressful enough I understand why Mrs. Parker focused on that activity over the art aspect. Providing supervision to 30 students is difficult, but having 30 students who sometimes need direct supervision for an activity and only having one teacher is definitely a challenge. Integrating Indigenous Studies into the Classroom
The Saskatchewan Ministry of Education has emphasized the importance of incorporating Aboriginal content into the classroom. Below are a few links we reviewed in class that I found worthwhile making note of based on the resources and information contained on them, as well as the ability for myself to include some of the information and resources from these sites into lesson plans.
Another great way to include Aboriginal content into the science classroom is through oral stories. Inviting an Elder into the classroom is a great way to hear about Aboriginal content from a first hand experience. Check out the Office of the Treaty Commissioner's website for Saskatchewan to find out information about traditions to follow if you are asking an Elder to speak. There are also many great worksheets and activities available on that website that you can use in your own classroom.
Below are some resources I looked over for a Science class out of a list of many, and these websites provided the most relevant and useful information for myself, as an elementary educator.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
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