Overall Field Work Experience

By teaching science I learned that it’s easy to see why science, especially hands-on science, is important for every child. Science uses observation and data to understand the world. It’s open to interpretation. In that sense, science skills are a lot like life skills. Believe it or not, teaching science can also reinforce key skills in math and reading. Many science experiments require math. Science applies mathematical concepts to real situations in everyday life.  Science reinforces language arts such as reading and writing as well. 


What I learned about students learning science, was that they most definitely need hands-on activities and fun and engaging experiments to help them learn and understand the different concepts of science, especially when it is new content to them.




What I learned about myself teaching science and teaching in general is that teaching is one of the most challenging, underrated, and yet often deeply rewarding professions you could go into. It's good to have a lesson plan in place, but if you veer off from it, that's OK, its always good to have flexibility in which you can adjust throughout the day. It is important to remember as awkward as criticism can be, being critiqued is often the best was to grow. Finally, things never go as planned and that is completely fine, but as long as you have energy, creativity, and the differing opinions of the students it makes teaching a fantastic learning experience.

  

Collaboration is key when it comes to effectively teaching a group lesson. It is important to work together to increase student learning and achievement. I feel like me and my group members worked extremely well together and we came up with great ideas for our lesson. We all contributed and worked really hard on putting everything together. Although we ran into time constraints, I think we did a good job at providing detailed information on the 5 senses.

Direct lessons provide low level skill of repeating and memorizing information on new content to be learned. For my groups direct lesson we had prepared a PowerPoint presentation to help guide us. We gave detailed information on the 5 senses and provided  multiple checks for understanding. We also incorporated Plickers, Quizlet, and a Kahoot game, to keep the children engaged and to evaluate student learning and understanding.

Inquiry lessons are based off of a problem, in which you give children a challenge to take using the steps of the scientific method. Higher order thinking is provided in this lesson, as students get to display their knowledge and show how they are moving forward on a higher level. For my groups inquiry lesson we gave the students a problem of: Does sight influence taste? The students performed their experiment by observing and tasting 4 different color liquids. They made predictions of what they thought the liquid would taste like and the wrote down what it actually taste like. We created higher-order thinking by having the students create a FlipGrid video message to the principal of the school explaining what they learned.

Overall, my fieldwork experience at Bishop Dunn Memorial School went extremely well. I learned a lot of different techniques that I would like to implement in my future lessons as an educator. I can't wait to use all the resources that Dr. Smirnova provided for us. I now know that it is important to provide checks for understanding throughout a lesson and to provide different forms of assessments that students can relate to, like kahoot, quizlet, graphic organizers, or a Jeopardy game. Not only did my colleagues and I create fun and engaging lessons that the students enjoyed, but we were able to build off of and learn from one another .

Science in the News

Climate Change/Global Warming

The article that I chose is from www.readworks.org, called Climates-Global Warming and the science issue involved is obviously Climate Change. Climate change is a change in the usual weather found in a place. This could be a change in how much rain a place usually gets in a year. Or it could be a change in a place's usual temperature for a month or season. Climate change is also a change in Earth's climate. This could be a change in Earth's usual temperature. Or it could be a change in where rain and snow usually fall on Earth. Weather can change in just a few hours. Climate takes hundreds or even millions of years to change. I chose this article because it is an important science topic that has been taken place for a very long time and is still affecting our earth and home in a huge way. We all should be thinking more about clean energy and why droughts, flooding, fires, and other extreme weathers are happening more often. We need to realize that the world is changing and what it will be like for us in the future. We ALL need to contribute and save the earth!  This topic relates to the classroom discourse as it is part of the Earth & Space branch of science and because Dr. Smirnova had some videos up on e-class that relate to climate change:

News articles can be used to teach science in many ways. They can be used to introduce a lesson topic or as an assignment. They can be used as a source of an engagement and a way to make science fun. And most importantly they can be used as a way to create experiments. Students can read an article and then go on a scavenger hunt, create diagrams and models, or even play games, like Jeopardy based off the content provided. Overall, they will help students dig into a topic more deeply, following their scientific curiosity.

Here is my Science in the News Article:

Climates---Global-Warming

If you aren't able to access the link above, here is the passage:

Climates can change a lot over centuries. Sometimes a region will be warmer than average for 100 years! Until recently, warmer temperatures have occurred for natural reasons. Today, humans may be changing the climate and making it warmer.

Human activity can have a negative impact on the environment. Humans destroy the habitats of animals and plants when they build cities and cut down forests. When people burn oil, coal, and natural gas, they can also change the climate. How does this happen?

Pollution from factories and cars adds toxic gases to the air. These gases rise to the Earth’s atmosphere. As the sun's rays warm the Earth, the gases work much like the glass in a greenhouse. They help trap the heat in the atmosphere, which makes the Earth grow warmer. That's why they are nicknamed "greenhouse gases."

If the Earth continues to warm up, all of the ice on the North and South Poles could melt. Global warming would cause the oceans to rise and cover more land. Many places along the coasts of every continent, including the city of New York, would be underwater.

Many people do not believe that global warming is a real problem. But in the last 100 years, average temperatures have risen 0.7 degrees Celsius, or about 2 degrees Fahrenheit. This may not sound like a lot. Yet, this change is more than twice as much as previous temperature increases. The average temperature rose only 5 degrees Celsius over the last 5,000 years. Scientists think the average temperature could rise another five degrees in the next 100 years.

  

The Blind Men and the Elephant Book Trailer

Teaching Science Through Trade Books offers an ideal way to combine well-structured, ready-to-teach lessons—with strong curricular connections—and books your students just may remember, always. 

When Dr. Smirnova said we needed to create a book trailer project as part of our lessons, I thought, Oh no I'm not good a creating a movie and students won't enjoy this---I was complete wrong! After I read the article on book trailers and checked out the site, to my surprise not only is it educational, but a fun and engaging way to start off a science lesson. I actually enjoyed this project and I can't wait to implement into my classroom and become a digital teacher!

Below, check-out my book trailer and the synopsis of the book. I also included how it relates to science and how it can be used in the classroom. Enjoy!



Book Trailer

Life Science/The 5 Senses 

  By: Honora VanAmburgh

The Blind Men and the Elephant

Karen Backstein, 1992, Scholstic Inc
ISBN Number: 0-590-45813-2

Synopsis of the Book 

This is a retelling of the fable about six blind men who each get a limited understanding of what an elephant is by feeling only one part of it. The illustrations are colorful and the narrative is short and good for beginning readers. This book does a wonderful job showing children that people can sometimes experience the same thing but have different perceptions of it. Each blind man learned that you must pay attention to everything, not just the portion you encounter first. 

Science Connections

LS1.A: Structure and Function

Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction. (4-LS1-1)

LS1.D: Information Processing

Different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information, which may be then processed by the animal’s brain. Animals are able to use their perceptions and memories to guide their actions. (4-LS1-2)

• This could be a good story to read when doing a science lesson about the five senses and ways they can be used.
• Can be used to discuss blindness and demonstrate similes.
• Can be used to teach children that people with disabilities are able to live happily despite their limitations.
• Can be used to introduce a lesson on the human body/organs

Teaching Connections

• This book can be used to discuss the 5 senses and how important they are to us. Also, this book highlights teamwork and how important it is to work cooperatively with others. In addition, this book shows the importance of effective communication.
• This book can be used for K-2 students, since it is written at a first/second grade level. It can be used to encourage students to see “the rest of the picture” in a situation. It creates a foundation serving as a launching pad for students to explore multiculturalism within a community, whether that be in a school, neighborhood, town, or national or global setting. Ultimately this provides a tool for avoiding conflict stemming from misunderstanding and even misinterpreting events. 

Resources

• Here is a website that provides an activity on reading comprehension for 3rd grade:

https://www.k5learning.com/sites/all/files/reading-comprehension-worksheet-grade-3-elephant.pdf

• Here is another website that provides a 20 minute lesson in which students will develop sensitivity to others' points of view and students will understand the importance of having as much information as possible before coming to conclusions. This lesson also provides extension ideas.

http://www.kaumualii.k12.hi.us/technology/science/PDF/learning/The%20Blind%20Men%20and%20the%20Elephant.pdf

Energy and Renewable Energy

Today my colleagues taught a lesson on Energy and Renewable energy. They did an awesome job! They started their direct lesson off with pictures of different energy sources, in which the students had to choose which type of energy it was. They did a great job of presenting information and introducing vocabulary terms, especially with having the students repeating chorally. Their checks for understanding techniques were effective as they used the thumbs up/down method. Their guided practice was creative and different as they incorporated a Jeopardy game, which the students enjoyed very much. Their inquiry lesson started off in a clever way with the "Breaking News" video. They did a great job of introducing the problem and modeling/demonstrating the inquiry process and windmill making project. They provided an abundant amount of materials to support the students' experiment and data collection. They did a great job of helping the students fill out their investigation reports and loved how they brought the children together as whole, so they could share their finding with one another. I thought writing a letter to the mayor was not only different, but another clever idea. The students were very engaged with these lessons and had fun experimenting. Overall, group 4 you had great teacher voices, time management skills, and very creative ideas. Your lessons were a huge success, congrats!

An interesting video campaign I found on Energy Sources, check it out!

Weather and Climate Lesson

Today my colleagues taught the students about weather and climate. They started their direct lesson by providing the students with an agenda, so they knew what to expect. They also explained the pencil icon and that every time the icon was displayed on the slide, it was important information to write down in their science journals. My colleagues gave great information on each topic of weather and climate and they provided awesome checks for understanding; especially with the use of a cloud or lightning bolt manipulative to answer the questions. They kept the students engaged by working on a Venn diagram together and offering a Kahoot quiz for fun. The students really enjoyed both of these activities.  Their inquiry instruction was very creative. My colleagues had the students become Meteorologists for the day, in which they had to break up into groups and become experts on a certain severe weather topic. Each of the groups investigated their severe weather topics by answering 7 questions on a sheet provided to them. They used books and videos to help them find the information. Once the students were done investigating they made posters to display the information they learned. After they completed their posters, they became teachers and taught their classmates about their sever weather topics. The students were extremely excited to present their posters to their classmates. My colleagues ended their lesson by having the students complete a tweet, which I thought was a really cool and creative idea. The students had to tweet about one thing they learned about sever weather. Overall, they did a fantastic job, had great classroom management skills, and used unique techniques to make their lessons fun.

Gravity Lesson

Group 2's lesson on gravity went very well. They were able to fulfill both of their direct and inquiry lessons. In their direct lesson they used a program called Mentimeter, which I thought was an absolutely brilliant idea. Mentimeter helped guide them through their lesson and kept the students engaged during it. As my colleagues were teaching and providing information to the students, Mentimeter prompted the students with questions for them to answer. The questions being prompted from Mentimeter had me confused and I was unsure if my colleagues were pre-assessing or if they were checking for understanding, but Alyssa had stated that they way they had their PowerPoint set-up, was for both lessons, so the confusion was cleared up. The only suggestion I have for them, was to incorporate transitions into their lesson, other than that they did an exceptional job!

 I loved how they set-up stations and utilized more than one room for their inquiry lesson. This idea of separation really helped with keeping the kids focused, engaged, and made for less distractions. Each teacher fulfilled the 5 E's perfectly and the students really enjoyed each experiment at each station. My colleagues had great classroom and time management skills, they were able to stay on task and control the students by regaining attention without any issues. I liked how they brought the students together at the end to go over what they accomplished at each station and I thought the extra packet of experiments was a nice touch for the students to leave with. Overall, I really enjoyed this lesson. 

Life Science Fieldwork Lesson

  Today my group (group 1) presented our lesson on the 5 Senses. We had such a great direct and inquiry lesson planned for the students, but unfortunately it didn't go as planned. The students came to us very late, which made us run out of time for our direct lesson and made us rush through our inquiry lesson.  We had a lot of information for the students to learn and go over in our direct instruction, which would prepare them for the inquiry instruction. For our direct instruction we did an overview of the 5 senses and then we were going to focus on the sense of taste. In our direct instruction we had planned for a quizlet, plickers, and a kahoot game to check for understanding and to keep the kids motivated. We also planned to show two videos to help keep the lesson fun and engaging. Check out our direct/inquiry lesson and videos below:

Lesson on the 5 Senses

Here is our first video (Engagement)

Our second video (Scientific Method)

The sense of taste was our main focus for our inquiry instruction.

We wanted students to become "Sense Detectives" and work through the scientific method in a fun way, so we decided to have the students try different flavored liquids and decide if sight and color influences the way things taste to us. We made science journals for the students to record their data and we set-up stations with 4 different flavored drinks for them to try. The students were able to rotate through the stations very quickly and try each drink. One of our drinks was water and it was dyed with orange food coloring. Ultimately we were able to conclude that sight and color doesn't  

 influence they way food and drinks taste.

At the end of our inquiry we lesson we wanted the students to make a Flipgrid to Mrs. Benfer and tell her what they learned in our lesson, but we were extremely short on time and we weren't able to fulfill this activity.

Take Away

• TIME MANAGEMENT (make sure you have enough planned, but not too much where you can't get through it all)
  
• Don't overload students with information in direct instruction, make it quick and simple, but teach what is necessary for inquiry
• Teach/Go over vocabulary
• Make lesson fun and engaging
• Don't say, "Good Job!" or the word "Guys", instead use "boys and girls" and "who agrees/disagrees?"
• ***** Remember: Teaching doesn't always go as planned and that is part of Learning*****

Most importantly, my group worked extremely hard and we put a lot of hours in trying to make our 5 Senses lesson the best it could be. Dr. Smirnova was with us the whole way and gave great feedback and helped us in every way possible to make sure our PowerPoint and Lesson was a success. 

Hopefully from your observations you enjoyed our lesson and got to learn a little bit more about the 5 Senses!