Final Vision Statement

In my experience as a student in the realm of science instruction I have learned and understood that science is not just disjointed experiments and monotonous worksheets; science is a long-traveled journey. In what way is it a journey? I realize as a applicant to be a teacher, while a curriculum will be placed in front of me, a FOSS kit and worksheets are not science. They are experiments that often are disconnected from one another. I understand now that science is based on inquiry. The core features of engaging the students, allowing for evidence collection, having students explain their evidence, giving the student an expert opinion in the form of evaluation, and pushing the students to communicate the final product are what progresses education and learning for a student in the science classroom. The following words will explain science as inquiry and my role in it along with the additions of important readings and my previous vision statement that will allow me to give a visual construction of my future science classroom.

The best way to shape the future is to understand the past. My past science experiences were lackluster and inefficient, meaning I didn’t enjoy the classes I took in elementary and high school and didn’t retain much knowledge from them either. My initial vision statement highlighted the mundane instruction that I received as an adolescent and it comprised of FOSS kits in elementary school and checklists or itineraries paired with experiments in high school. There was no freedom and before I took science methods at the University of Iowa I assumed that’s how science was supposed to be. I now understand science as inquiry is a process in which children truly understand what it is that they are learning. This means that if extra time must be taken on something then it must be so. The article Activitymania explains their concern with pre-packaged experiments in that… “conceptual understanding and scientific literacy are not facilitated with [this kind of] practice.” If there is something that holds true from science methods over any other is that you should not gloss over information. If you do students will likely forget you as a teacher and what they might have learned. Therefore effective science instruction must be based around inquiry. If a lesson does not have at least a form of all five features it is likely that it will not be impactful on the students and tools that progress them forward may be left behind.

My practicum experience helped me understand how to plan a lesson that includes the features of inquiry. It is explained in How Do I Develop and Use Benchmark Lessons? that students need to use the lesson as a tool to build their factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge. When you include these with the five essential features of inquiry it creates a classroom in which students are always processing information in a way they can access it best. This is an important feature of inquiry-based lessons. While many people think that you can’t reach every student in the best way that works for them individually in one lesson, inquiry allows the best possible chance for it to happen because it is student-centered, which allows students to obtain the information in a way that is unique to them.

Since my first vision statement when I believed that science was the same experience for everyone, I have realized that inquiry creates the best chance for students to not only learn information in the best way possible but it is also likely that they will enjoy their experience. Before the inquiry lesson can even begin, I have learned how important it is to identify misconceptions. In the article, Misconceptions Die Hard they highlight an example in which 75% of students believed that if two identical pieces of aluminum foil are measured and you ball one of them up and leave the other flat that the balled up one weighs more than the other. This is just an example of the misconceptions that students bring into class and without identifying them, before enacting the lesson, it is likely that those students will hold onto those misconceptions unless they are made knowledgeable so the teacher may address them. Without doing so a lesson cannot move forward to ensure understanding.

Assessment is a vital part of science as inquiry. In the article containing the Introduction to Classroom Assessment it explains how I would use assessment in my future classroom. It can begin with the pre-assessment probes that I intend to hand out often to not only discover what the students understand but also to discover their misconceptions. I have also practiced assessment during my classroom experience. The most likely of forms of assessment is that of listening to students’ vocabulary as they research and discuss the topic at hand but it can also range to a quiz and more. There are also different ways to map the assessment. You can have a chart with students’ names on them and write notes next to their names as you walk around the room; you can do the same with sticky notes. You can also form a concept/assessment map in which you have expectations, learning goals, and performances clearly outlined. This is a streamlined way to see if a student is grasping the concept or not. I plan on using some form of all of these options based on the lesson plan type.

My future classroom may seem simple on the outside but in reality it will be a complex machine. If you spend time in my science classroom you would understand what inquiry is and how it is the foundation of all the lessons. You will see the students asking meaningful questions to me and to each other and also smiling because they enjoy what they are learning. Inquiry will create an enjoyable experience that allows students of all types to form meaning and those students will be able to communicate their findings in ways that are challenging yet familiar. You will see me walking around the room asking questions to prompt responses while assessing at the same time. In my future classroom you won’t just see worksheets and science kits; you will see a place that is both fun and educational. It will be a science classroom that adults can only wish they had experienced at a young age.

SLPE Reflection

I personally believe as a whole it went extremely well. The first day was not as good as the second because we had a lot of information to give to the kids and in my mind we were all a little nervous so we rushed our explanations and probably talked to much. The actual lesson was supposed to be student-directed but our nerves made it seem more teacher-directed. What made it work extremely well was the second day. The first day we were giving them a lot of information and density was pretty new to them so it seemed like they didn’t really get it but the second day when they were allowed to pour the liquids themselves and have a visual representation you could really feel things going well and the kids enjoyed themselves a lot. The minor changes we made were mostly effective because it wasn’t a repetition of something they had done before. Our initial idea was actually being enacted by the other group that went earlier in the week so we decided to focus a lot more on density and gave them more information.

Students met the learning performance by explaining why they thought they had different densities and then by arranging them in some sort of order on the second day. They had a visual representation of their knowledge. The discussion that followed exemplified that they understood the main point that liquids have different densities because of their properties. I would say something that lingered for the ideas they had would be that most of them thought that water was the least dense liquid that was out there. On the worksheet most of them put it as the least dense. I’m not exactly sure why that was and when I asked them the next day before they poured the liquid they said it would be in the middle but didn’t have an explanation why. They more or less changed their minds without reason.

What actually happened when we taught our lesson compared to what was written down was not that different. It really did go smoothly and the only thing I would say that I really expected to be differently was the time. You always hear when you are creating lesson plans that you should have early-finishers and extra things for the students to do which of course is a good thing but if the students are engaged like ours were with the actual lab portion then it seemed like time was short. I would have liked to have more discussion at the end just to clarify a few more things but we made sure that they interpreted the learning performance, which they did, but it is crazy how fast time goes when you are teaching.

I learned a lot about time management and classroom functions firstly. This was really my first time being in charge of a lesson and you don’t really know how to manage a classroom until it really is your own and the truth of it is it isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I’m sure I’ll learn more about that the more I progress through the college of education. This really influenced how to create an inquiry-oriented classroom. I truly understand the difference between a FOSS kit and science as inquiry from this experience. While every lesson could have even more inquiry it was apparent that our lesson had a lot more inquiry than the kids are used to because of their level of engagement. It was almost as if they had never had the choice of how to do an experiment like they did with our lesson. The factors that need to be considered most when teaching inquiry is that it has to engage the learner initially and then they have to be able to research it and talk about it and then get a second or third opinion and talk about it again to show they understand. The five features of inquiry are branded in my brain because you can really see it work before your eyes if it is happening and that’s what this experience has taught me.

From what I learned in this experience the only thing I would modify for the first day is more time (preferably a week on density if not more) but on that first day to have something visual so they can put things together or take more time so the explanations have a chance to take hold instead of a lot of information all at once. I would probably use more visual aids such as video resources so they can understand that liquids and objects alike both have different densities over a large spectrum. I would also add a scale to the mix if I had more time because I believe kids should be able to at least calculate some sort of density. It doesn’t have to be challenging but they should be able to show they can thus making that a learning performance.

As far as anything else to address I would say that it is extremely challenging to teach with others and that is another great thing because I could have not done this project without them. This project really teaches you how to effectively collaborate with peers outside of teaching the lesson and inside. Outside it is important to make decisions and I loved my group mates for being vocal and for also being great listeners when I had something to say. Inside of teaching the lesson is interesting because I have a very different teaching style compared to the girls but since we are all laid back it worked great and I also like the aspect of working in a group to understand strengths and weaknesses. There are few projects that I feel make me a better student but this is one of the few.

School of the Wild

I participated in the wetlands portion of School of the Wild. I was working with Chad. He really made the experience enjoyable for me because of his immense knowledge of the area we were walking around. He said he had been doing tours and working through the University of Iowa Recreation Services and has been doing so for 9 years now out at Macbride. He had a great activity for the kids when we first started. We were going to another area of the park and he wanted to make sure that he could trust the students he was working with on the canoes because they would be using the canoes on Spider Pond in the afternoon. The activity involved him grabbing some life jackets and tying them tight. He then had everyone stand in a circle and had each student say their name. Then he would toss multiple life jackets to students but would say their name before he did it. The students would repeat the process. The whole point was so Chad could learn their names and also so they could practice not being so loud and excited out on the trail because he said he didn’t want our big group to “Scare the nature away.”

Then we went out on a pontoon and we were split in two groups because we didn’t all fit. So I used my activity (attached), which helped occupy our time. Chad picked us up while the other group was at the new sight waiting and we learned all about the depth of the lake and the changes that the community has made to help preserve it. We then walked a trail to Prairie Pond, which was completely dried up. Chad mentioned that there were a lot of organisms in the pond worth researching but since it was dried up we didn’t investigate it. The knowledge he told us about the prairie at this time was very interesting though. He mentioned that prairie grass doesn’t die easily because its roots go down on average thirty feet. He then told us about the sediment and water table that paired with the roots was a natural filtration system. I found this very interesting.

After looking at the dam that the community and park members had created to keep from shore erosion and flooding we went to Duckweed Pond. At this pond the kids were instructed to search for organisms with nets and one kid caught a small turtle and another kid caught a leopard frog. Chad had an immense amount of information about the both of them as well. He also explained about methane bubbles underneath the mud on the pond floor so kids wouldn’t think that there was constant air bubbles from animals.

I didn’t really understand that environmental education had branches such as conservation and outdoor education. I assumed environmental education was about nature and how we can keep it from being destroyed.

When the article said that environmental education is not only science but also “economics, math, geography, ethics, politics and other subjects.” I guess I don’t fully agree on these. I understand each of them but I feel that some of them are loosely associated with environmental science. I understand that sometimes it gets destroyed for economic purposes and numbers are involved when people fight over it [politics] and some people will think it’s terrible or not terrible [ethics]. But this is only if something gets torn down or is argued to be torn down for buildings or factories or something. I ‘m not sure that it is much more than science and geography, in my opinion.

I do agree with experiential learning. While many subjects that people take in college require a lot of preparation in the classroom before they go out in the world it makes sense that those interested in environmental studies get outside and experience it right away. Obviously knowledge of what you’re getting into would be good also but I do agree that you’re not going to learn as much if you’re just sitting in a classroom.

All in all I have no complaints about environmental science. I think it is very important but also broad. I want my students to believe that they are helping the community when they see trash in the grass and they pick it up and throw it away. I guess I’m struggling to decide, (besides a hike or nature walk or some sort of else outdoor activity) what is the best way to teach them about environmental science besides saying that littering is bad.

Nature Activity

In this nature activity, hawks birds present a fun challenge to the children.

When a bird hawk is hunting, the birds that survive are the ones that are most aware of danger. At a young age either they learn to scatter into the trees or back into the nest, or they become lunch for a bird of prey.

This is a fast moving game that children love. It is a good one to play with large groups, although it can also be used with groups as small as four or five.

Working with the 6 to 9 year olds at Spruce Pine Montessori School, we shaped it to a version that we liked, giving our hawks and birds a lot of freedom to interchange.

Start the game with one or two hawks. Everyone else is a baby bird. The bird’s “nest,” or safe place, is a bandana or other object placed on the ground. Make as many nests as necessary so that the birds are not too crowded.

The game begins when the baby birds leave the nest to find food. Then the hawks began to fly around the birds. When they raise their “wings” (arms) they begin the hunt.

When the baby birds see the hawks hunting they must get back to their nest or be killed (tagged) by the hawk. Once in the nest they must practice being still and quiet. If the hawk sees movement or hears noise, it can tag the bird and the bird dies.

“Dead” birds become hawks in the next round so that no one has to sit out.

If a hawk does not catch a bird in three rounds, then it “dies” and becomes a baby bird.

Helpful hints:

1. Hawks are not allowed to touch the birds in order to make them move.
2. Hawks are not allowed to hover over a bird. They must continue to fly.
3. Baby birds must leave the nest if hawks are not hunting.
4. Limit each round to 30 to 60 seconds.

Resource:

Courtesy of http://www.outdoor-nature-child.com/nature-activity-hawks-birds.html

Pendulums

What is your personal experience with swinging on anything like a trapeze?

- Probably just swinging on a swing or just swinging on monkey bars when I was a little kid. I used to jump off of the swing when I got as high as possible.

What application to "real life" do swinging objects have?

- Grandfather clocks, swing sets, trapeze

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 person switches to the other? Explain (in terms of mass)

- The mass will not necessarily be the same when the person switches. The other person on the trapeze may be heavier than the one on the previous trapeze. Depending on momentum the trapeze that inherits the new person may gain speed or more forward motion while the trapeze that loses the person may slow down due to lack of mass being forced in opposite directions. This is trivial though because it depends on if each trapeze is pumping their legs and other things to help propel it forward and backward.

What understanding or ideas do you have about the science of back-and-forth swinging objects?

-My understanding is that unless something is propelling it back-and-forth the idea is that the object will slow down and eventually stop. The amount the object moves in each direction also depends on the mass of the object and the distance from its stationary point to the object itself (example: the distance of a swing's chains in relation to where you sit).

BB&W Reflection and Lesson

I found Ms. Stone's lesson to be very teacher centered. It was a lot like my experiences were in elementary school. When I relate it to the exact lesson we used in science class last week I believe that that lesson was related a lot more to Ms. Travis' lesson. It was clear that Ms. Travis had a student-centered approach because she gave the kids the tools and asked them to write their findings. She didn't give direct instruction like Ms. Stone. Ms. Stone gave absolutely no room for error for the students and no exploration. She also, by using her teaching style, gave no reasons or explanations for how it works. She explained parallel circuits and so on and while I understood it, I can see kids walking away from that lesson not understanding exactly how it works and even worse the lesson would not have any of their own personal influences.

Lesson:

My lesson would reflect Ms. Travis' because I want kids to discover their own data and then be able to explain it. I would have the same materials that Ms. Travis had and I would add some as well. I'm really interested in water electricity so this would be a perfect opportunity for me to follow along and learn with my kids at the same time. First I would do research on water electricity and maybe incorporate in what settings it is used such as water wheels and so on. I have found an experiment online that I could use the same materials plus beakers, tape, and nails that are accompanied with the water. I would take the same approach as Ms. Travis and ask kids how they think they could light a bulb using the materials given to them. Do they think water can transmit electricity? If they do can they show me using the materials given? If they don't think so can they tell me why? (From here they would just go into having the bulb light without using water). All of these are possible scenarios and they can explain themselves by using the materials and trying to find a way to light the bulb. Here is my resource... http://www.pge.com/microsite/safety_esw_ngsw/esw/hurt/exp_water.html

Engage: The teacher gives students materials and asks the question: Do you believe water can help in the creation of electricity? If you do you can use the materials in front of you to try and show that it does. If you don't you should explain why not and we'll move on from there. TEACHER CENTERED- the question has been posed by me and I am creating the jumping off point for the kids to think.

Evidence: The learner, using the question, now investigates based of their initial prediction if they predicted correctly through trial and error using the materials. STUDENT CENTERED- the learner chooses how to manipulate materials and collect data.

Explain: Students formulate explanations from their own trial and error and interpretations of that. STUDENT CENTERED- gives students to elaborate on their findings and tell how it worked or have them justify why it didn't work.

Evaluate: Students research outside of the initial experiment to find explanations on why their initial ideas worked or didn't work. STUDENT CENTERED- students are independently researching and comparing to their data to evaluate their own thinking.

Communicate: Students explain their findings to classmates. STUDENT CENTERED- students can choose to pair their findings, along with their predictions and research to explain how they accomplished to light the bulb and why it works.

BB&W

I would say she needs two wires. My explanation of this is that each wire will connect to the light bulb on one end for each wire. The other end of each wire will touch the battery. One end from one wire will touch the positive end of the battery and one end of the other wire will touch the negative end of the battery.

Pink Sheet Strengths Pink Sheet Weaknesses

More student oriented Doesn't provide guidance is student is stuck

Encourages multiple ways to arrive at answer Doesn't provide explanation

Students arrive at answers themselves Students may not understand why it works

Students can form their own explanations

Yellow Sheet Strengths Yellow Sheet Weaknesses

Gives easy to follow instruction Very teacher oriented

Gives visual representations Doesn't explain why/how circuit is completed

Easy steps to see where you went wrong if doesn't light Does not allow students to try other ways

Students may not understand what to record

NSES Content Standard B: Light, Heat, Electricity and Magnetism

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

Learning Goals: Students should know how to complete a circuit by using a power source and something to connect the power source to complete a circuit (ex. lighting a light bulb with a battery and wire)

Learning Performances: Students can complete a circuit with a single battery, bulb, and wire.

Students can complete a circuit with a single battery, more than one bulb and more than one wire.

Magnets

1. What are some "real life" applications of magnetism?

A paper clip holder. A farm magnet for animals. I feel like space is a good example of magnets. Maybe this is far fetched but atmospheres pull things into them. The refrigerator is made for magnets of course. Magnetized tips for screw drivers.

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

I have had experiences with magnets being swallowed by cows to get metal out of their stomachs. I grew up on a farm and these were very prevalent. They are also extremely powerful so I would use these same magnets (clean of course) and would stick them to things all around the house. We used to have an old OLD Mac computer with the disks they had before they created floppy disks and I would stick magnets to that and just ruin it. My mother wasn't too happy if you can imagine.

3. What ideas do you have about the science of magnets.

I feel it has some very basic principles and some not so basic principles. Sadly I don't really know either. I think there are ions that are attracted to each other. So there are ions in the magnet itself and ions in the metal they are attracted to. This sounds good but probably isn't right. There is positive and negative attraction also know as attract and repel.

What I learned post-experiment:

Size does not decide the strength of the magnet. What is in the magnet decides the strength. It doesn't matter what is in between the magnet and iron as long as the iron is in within the magnetic field. Only iron can break the magnetic field. Magnetized=electrons are aligned to retain its attraction. Metal things do not stick to magnets. Iron and few other metals stick to magnets.

Content Standard B

Light, Heat, Electricity and Magnetism

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

Learning Goals: Students will be able to distinguish poles of magnets.

Students will be able to understand that North and South are attracted and like poles repel each other.

Learning Performances: Students have different shapes of magnets and will determine which poles are which by how they attract or repel each other.

(bar magnets, cow magnets, fridge magnets, what pole is attracted to iron, etc.)

Students will record their data and explain.

Future lesson would be explaining charges and why poles attract and how magnetic fields affect magnets and their strength.

Research

I learned about poles of magnets and that many things can be made into magnets. They use North and South poles and the North poles are attracted to the South poles. So opposites attract you could say. But I learned that South poles repel other South poles and it's the same with the North poles repelling other North poles. I found that interesting. I used the website http://www.howmagnetswork.com/ to learn this. It is full of great information including the Earth as a magnet and rare Earth magnets along with uses for magnets and electromagnetism. I found this very helpful. I guess a big thing I would like to know is more about the main part of magnetic fields. It talks about electrons be charged and causing motion for a magnetic field and that all sounds extremely confusing. So as a future teacher if I were to use the paper clip as their own magnets trick I feel I would want a succinct way of explaining how that happens. I still don't really understand that. I also would want more information on iron. When we did our experiment was the iron breaking the path of the paper clip because it was a bigger piece of iron? So my question is if i would put the same size paper clip through the path would it break it or attract them both or how would that work?