Final Vision Statement

Final Vision Statement

An effective science classroom consists of many things including an enthusiastic teacher, engaging curriculum and a good learning environment. By having all three of these incorporated the students will be able to have an exemplary learning experience in my classroom. I want my students to want to come to school, and I would hope that they begin to love learning new and exciting things.  Allowing my students some freedom with their learning, they will not only be able to learn about what interests them, but they will ultimately have a more enjoyable experience in my class.

 In the beginning of the each unit or new section, I would like to pre- assess my students with discussions, probing questions and activities, or ungraded pretests. For example when looking at Batteries, bulbs and wires, we were given the opportunity to look at an experiment and take down our initial thoughts and ideas before we were asked to work on the experiment.  This gives me a chance to see what my students already know about the subjects and what I am going to have to focus on.  In an article called “Misconceptions Die Hard” by Joseph Stephens, Ronald Beiswenger, and Steven Dyche, there is a quote that made me think about my future students’ misconceptions, “Students will dress up a false idea in a new terminology rather than abandon it.”  This opened up my mind to the ideas that I am going to have to teach my students not to think. As humans, we all have misconceptions about everything, but getting rid of them is the difficult part. While creating a relationship with each of my students So along with the unit pre-assessments, I would like to have one in the beginning of the year that may help them remember what their science class was focused on in the previous year and help them remember all of the things that they had forgotten over the summer.

 “Shifting from Activitymania,” is a wonderful article that discusses the issues with teaching using just activities and promotes the use of inquiry based teaching in the science classroom. The article stated that, “In order to promote inquiry, teachers should clearly define conceptual goals and the relationships to students’ lives and interests prior to selecting classroom activities.” Involving my students lives in their learning, is truly the only way for them to relate and fully understand the topics. This idea will be one of the main goals I plan to refer to when I am considering the different activities and topics that I will choose from the curriculum.  Creating a classroom that almost solely inquiry based will be difficult to do with our current school system, but I truly believe that allowing the students’ ownership of their own learning is the most beneficial to them. As a teacher, I should be able to have the patience and flexibility to work with the questions that my students will ask me, even if they aren’t related to the topic. This can help me and the students create a more engaging and appropriate curriculum.  

The article, “Five Good Reasons to Use Science Notebooks” by Joan Gilbert and Marleen Kotelma, is one article class that definitely inspired my aspects of future classroom. Having notebooks in all subjects including science will give me as the teacher insight into how my students are thinking and how they are learning the material that I teach them.  The article calls the notebooks “thinking tools” that allows them to express their thoughts and ideas, as well as giving them the opportunity to fully explain in a way the suits them best. Helping my students organize their thoughts in a way that we can both understand them will be a key component of my classroom. Not only do I want to use these notebooks in all of my classes, but I would really like to incorporate as much technology into my classroom as possible. Much of the technology that is available now offers new learning experiences for our students, especially in science. According to Krajcik on page 17, “Technology tools extend learning by helping students perform cognitive tasks.” They allow our students to further pursue and gain knowledge that no teacher would ever be able to teach them. Our world is going down a full technology path; why not introduce our students to them as early as we can.

Being a teacher is a tough job, while simultaneously being a complete honor. We give students a place to come to further their knowledge and inspire their future passions. My classroom will have a positive atmosphere and learning environment, where I hope my students will be able to thrive and succeed to their fullest potential. Supporting my students and encouraging them to push themselves, while keeping them engaged and hope they find a joy in learning is what I will strive to do as a teacher.

Teaching Reflection

The lesson I think went very well, definitely different from what I was expecting. There was definitely some lesson changes while we were there and in the moment of teaching. That I thought added to the experience. All of the changes that we made to our original lesson worked a lot better than the original lesson would have. I really do believe that the lesson was effective and that the kids took something away from it. The kids definitely met our learning performances. They asked great questions and really tried to learn what we were trying to teach them. They were able to stay engaged which was great and were a great class to work with. The student’s questions definitely led to a greater discussion. We ended up leaving our teacher density column in the classroom because they were curious about if it would separate or not. Our enacted lesson was different from our planned one, mostly because of time. The discussion was so good that it changed our time frame, which is never a bad thing. We went all the way to the end of class every time which was also a really good feeling. When some of the student’s density columns didn’t work, it caused new conversation about why it didn’t work and why some of the other groups didn’t. teaching science as inquiry is not only better for the students learning, but it is more fun for them and the teacher as well. Giving them the options to do what they want in order for them to figure out gives them ownership over their experiences and their learning. You definitely need to look at the actual lesson and make sure that it’s not too hard for them to figure out and that it’s not too messy. We definitely had an issue with mess, and if I had to change anything about the lesson I would only change the procedure for the second half of the lesson, the density column. We had a major spill at one of the tables and probably should have been walking around and monitoring what the kids were doing. I maybe put too much trust in them because they were in 6^th grade, but now I know not to do that!

School of the Wild

I had a ton of fun at School of the Wild. It was such a great experience, volunteering there on a regular basis would be great! I had so much fun working with the kids that were there and I got to work closely with two that were in my group. At first when I got there my specific group, the Wetlands, were still eating lunch and no where near the rest of the groups. I got to work with two other groups and did another one of our student's activities with them. We played a game that was a combination of Rock, Paper, Scissors and chase. Me and another student from our class were put on opposite teams and we were able to play against each other which the kids got a kick out of. It was great to see the competitive side of the kids come out and how important it was to them that they work together to try and beat the other team.

After I got to play the game with the first two groups, I was taken to my group down by the docks. I wasn't sure what to expect when I got to my group, and I wasn't sure what the activities were going to entail. The kids looked a little confused by me when i got there and it took a little time for them to get used to me. Right when I got there I was left with them by myself and my teacher instincts kicked in. They were told to be quiet since we were right by Spider Pond, which is where we spent all of our time. Spider pond is a small pond no deeper than three feet, that has ropes connected across the pond in the shape of a spider's web. I wasn't expecting to get into a canoe with the kids, but I was really happy that I got the opportunity to bond with two of the girls. Teaching middle school was my original plan, but I realized that when I work with kids that age I act more like a friend to them than an adult. I am so used to be a camp counselor and acting like a kid with them that it would be too hard for me to discipline them, when and if it was needed. I always connect with the girls instantly, and am harder on the boys. The boys were also messing around a lot more than the girls were, which is normal.

When we got to Spider Pond our main goal was to catch turtles. We didn't end up catching any, although it would have been cool too.  When I was out on the pond with the two girls we had to work as a team to move the canoe around the pond. The ropes that were around the pond were what we used instead of ores, because the pond was so shallow that we would have disturbed anything that lived there. While working with the girls it was nice to get to know them and talk to them about school and other aspects of their lives. I feel like School of the Wild not only uses hands on to get students to learn, but it uses the hands on activities to help the students learn about themselves and what they are capable of doing. It pushes the students to do things that they have never done before like canoeing or catching birds. Its a great experience and I wish more schools had the opportunity to do it.

Unfortunately I was not able to do my activity, there wasn't enough time. My activity wasn't very complicated and was more focused on observations and discussion. I wanted the students to pretend that the state of Iowa had hired them as wild life researchers to survey the area of the wetlands that they were visiting, aka Spider Pond. The state had special requirements for the researchers to look for, and I had a list of questions that they were supposed to follow and answer.

1. Locate and name two birds? What are they doing?
2. Locate and name two insects? What are they doing?
3. Locate and name two other animals? what are they doing?
4. What are ways we can protect these animals?

These questions were supposed to be looked at throughout the entire time I was there, and we were supposed to discuss the different things that they found while they were out on the water. The discussion would have taken place after we had gotten off the canoes, but unfortunately we didn't have time to do any of the activity.

Pendulum

What is your personal experience with swinging on anything like a trapeze?
The only thing I have real experience swinging on is swings, monkey bars, and I can't really think of anything else.

what applications to "real life" do swinging objects have?
Metronome, grandfather clocks, swings

what is your prediction about what will happen if two people are on one trapeze and only one is on the other and the one switches to the other?
I have two ideas about what will happen. I think that maybe when the one person switches to the other trapeze the now two person trapeze will slow down because of the added weight that is vertical of the swinging bar. Another option is that the added mass will add to the speed of the now two person trapeze and make it go faster and higher.

what understanding or ideas do you have about the science of back and forth swinging?
that the more mass pushing down on the object like a swing will produce a faster higher swing?

Predictions for Pendulum Experiment
I think that with less weight, which means less washers, the pendulum will move faster. The more the weight, the slower it would move.

Own Experiment: Changing the length of the string will result in less full swings. We still did four trials four each length.

20 cm and 4 washers- Average: 10.625 swings
25 cm and 4 washers- Average: 10 swings

We found out that the weight of the washers has no affect on how many full swings the pendulum has. What causes the change is the length of the string.


Quiz Question:
the swinging experience would be awkward. string length affects the amount of swings and if the strings are two different lengths the swing itself won't move forward and backwards. it would swing awkwardly and wobbly.

Batteries, Bulbs and Wires

Question: How many wires for one bulb and one battery do you need to light up the light bulb?
-two wires, one connected to each end cause you need both sides of the battery to make other electronics work.

Correct Answer: You only need one wire to light the light bulb. You have to have one end touching the bottom and the light bulb touching the battery and you have to have the wire touching the side of the bulb. As long as the circuit is complete the bulb will light, no matter how many wires and batteries you use.

Pink Lab:
Strengths: Gives the students ideas to try and to see if they can get them to work. It also gives them a chance explore their own ideas.
Weaknesses: It will be hard for the students to understand what a correct circuit setup consists of, and like us they might struggle with the descriptions that were given to them.

Yellow Lab:
Strengths: It is easily set up so that the students can figure out the correct set up of the circuits and what is supposed to go into each one.
Weaknesses: It resembles an Activitymania project, where there is no room for student exploration and only one answer is needed. Their is no inquiry in the process for the students to apply the concepts that they already know or have just learned.

Standard:
Physical Science: Content Standard B
- Light, Heat, Electricity and Magnetism

Benchmark:
Electricity in circuits can produce light. Electrical circuits require a complete loop through which an electrical current can pass.

Learning Goal: 
Students will understand how and why a wire, battery and a light bulb is able to create an electrical circuit.

Learning Performance: 
When given diagrams with different forms of circuit layouts students will be able to decipher and create which ones will successfully light the light bulb.

BB&W Reading:
After reading the story about Ms. Stone's class, I realized that learning about electricity and circuits can be extremely boring to students. As she is teaching, all of the students are becoming restless, especially the ones that aren't actually working with the materials. In her lesson there was no room for inquiry from the students. They were given specific directions to follow, and definitions to focus on and write down. I do agree that students do need the major definitions for the topic, but she should have incorporated them into the lesson better than just putting them on the board for the students to copy. If Ms. Stone would have let the students play around with the materials, the students would have learned the topic in a more meaningful way. They would have been less restless and more excited about learning the material.

Lesson Plan:
When searching for lesson plan ideas it was hard to find any other way to teach that electrical circuits require a complete loop through which an electrical current can pass. I would have taught it almost the exact same way as we did in class. I've only ever been taught that way, which is what makes it harder to figure out a new way to teach it.

To begin my lesson I would like to give my students a similar question to the one we used in class, but give diagrams that they can choose from that either show a working circuit or one that doesn't work. In a sense I would like to give my students a pre-assessment to see what they might already know about the electricity. This way I can better tailor my lesson to what the students want to learn or don't know yet. The question will mainly focus on "how do we make a full electrical circuit with a wire, a battery and a light bulb?" In this process we will have a class discussion about how students think that the light bulbs work with the wire and battery. I want some students to go to the board and draw an example of what they think a full circuit looks like and others to draw their ideas on the worksheet that they will be given. This will not only help them explain their ideas, but help me understand their thought processes. After we have discussed as a class, (every student would have a battery, wire and light bulb, and holders for both light bulb and battery ) I would like the students to try their own explanations and to record whether they worked or not. Then in their groups they would discuss what they think works and other ways, using all the materials that the students have, that they could figure out to get the light bulb(s) to light. I want to encourage the students to challenge themselves and try to use the least and most amount of materials to light the light bulbs. In the end we will have a classroom discussion about the correct way to get the light bulb to light, how a light bulb works (much like the explanation we had in class), and how many light bulbs they were able to light. I would ask the students individually to do a small free-write (drawing, etc.) in their Science journals about what they learned from the experiment and how they now understand electrical circuits. I would also encourage them to include questions about what they still don't understand. Then they will turn their journals in for me to look through and I will be able to bring answers to the questions that were most frequent and we can discuss them in the next class.

5-E Criteria	Part (s) of lesson that addresses this inquiry criterion	More teacher-directed or student-directed?  Explain.
Engage	Allowing the students to look at their own explanations, as well as, challenging themselves to create other circuits	Student-directed; they are working out their own ideas to see if they work before they are taught the correct way.
Evidence	Students are given a light bulb, battery, a wire and holders for both the bulb and battery and are encouraged to discover what it takes to light the bulb.	Student-direct at first; they are given the materials to find the answer out, then are given the answer after they have worked it through themselves.
Explain	They explain with the groups their findings and in a classroom discussion.	Student-directed and Teacher-directed; students give their own explanations based off of teacher questions
Evaluate	Students evaluate their findings by working with more materials and their groups to figure out what else works to light the bulb.	Student directed; they are evaluating as a group their findings by attempting to work with more materials
Communicate	They communicate in their science journals what they learned and what they still don’t understand.	Teacher-directed; they are answering to somewhat of a prompt.

Magnets

1. What are some real life applications of magnetism?

At garbage dump, when they are separating the metal from the non-metal (like in toy story 3); in certain screwdrivers; magnets on the refrigerator; clippy magnets

2. what experiences have you had with magnets in your life?

playing with magnets in class, using a magnetic screwdriver,

3. what ideas do you have about the science of magnets?

positive and negative attracts; positive and positive don't attract.

Standard B - Physical Science
- Light, Heat, Electricity and Magnetism

Benchmark : Magnets attract and repel each other and certain other kinds of other materials.





--If I was a teacher how would I help a student that is stressing or overwhelmed:

This past week was a very tough week for me. I had many things going on not just with school, but with my personal life that I let affect my school work. I am so thankful to have such understanding teachers and I hope to be that type of teacher to my students. I would expect most assignments such as this blog to be done on time like most teachers, but as teachers we need to understand that sometimes life takes a turn for the worst and is overwhelming for our students. If I had a student who was struggling in school because of things that are going on in their lives that they don't have control of, I would be as understanding as I possibly could. Students need to know that the classroom is a safe haven for them and that their teachers are a source of support that they can come to when issues arise. I truly feel that making myself available to my students in more than just the classroom is an important aspect of being a teacher. Things happen in life that nobody can control and we need to be as understanding as we can so that our students can succeed in not just our class, but in life as well. When things happen in my life, I pray that my teachers understand why I couldn't get homework done on time and many teachers don't, which is not only aggravating, but adds to the stress that is already there. I hope to be that one teacher that makes a difference in my students lives because I was understanding to their situations.

Activitymania

Before I started reading the article, I was thinking that this was going to be about ways to make activities apart of the curriculum. I wasn't expecting the title Activitymania to mean that there are packages of activities that teachers recieve that are able to teach science, but have nothing to do with one another. As I read more of the reading I discovered that the article was really about science as inquiry-based learning.  This picture below is from the article and I really liked the quote. I think that comparing science to the student's lives gives the students something to be interested about. It involves there lives and makes them want to learn and explore the different concepts.

 I like that the article gives ways to use the activities in the classroom and making them inquiry by giving questions that teachers should ask about the activities, so that the students understand the concepts as well as get to explore the concepts.  Another part of the article that I liked was the chart that explains the differences between activity and inquiry based learning. Before reading this article, I assumed that they were the same thing. But now I know that activity is shorter, can be pre-planned and has a definite answer. The section in the chart that discusses "Teacher Feelings" I thought was a great addition. It gives once again some idea of how i should feel as a teacher, while I'm teaching this to my kids.

Added:
- Activites aren't related
- just because the kids are having fun doing the activites doesn't mean they are learning everything that they are supposed to be.