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?

Activitymania

Sounds like my elementary experience. Kind of. In fact my elementary science experience was almost all out of the book. Not fun and not interesting. The worst part about activity boxes or things of that nature is that it seems like they are good. The article is right, they are just and extension of the direct instruction textbook. I hated things like this. I would sit in class and not know why I was doing the next thing. Well the sheet tells me to so I'll just do it to get it over with was my thinking in this. Or I would sit there and think, the last part wasn't even that interesting why am I continuing with this. I'm not learning anything of why it happens I just know that it happens.

This is a perfect example of why inquiry based learning is so important. Kids need to see it for themselves. Kids shouldn't have to think the things I thought when I was going through a pointless activity. There should be no pointless activities and they shouldn't be disjointed from each other. There should be some form of relate-ability with all of the inquiry we do. If you don't know why you're learning it then it isn't fun. I had a thought that when a student teacher walks into my classroom in the future or a substitute is subbing for me when it comes to class time they are going to see interest right off the bat. They might not even understand nearly as much as the kids because the kids will be the one getting down and dirty and learning things through their own exploration. It's a pretty awesome thing to think about. Kind of hard to keep a smile off my face.

INSES Chapter 1 and 2

I liked this article a lot. It showed a lot how the science standards go in line with inquiry based teaching. Personally I like the inquiry based teaching came from a lot of trial and error in the beginning. It was discovered and I like that a lot. Really in the first chapter with the trees example I think that was the best decision that teacher could have made when she decided to roll with it instead of wait until the unit on plants. That's what they call a teachable moment and she seized the day on that one. When kids have the chance to be hands on you have to do that in my opinion. Inquiry based teaching sounds easy but that's not what it is at all. The teacher has to make a lot of effort and help drive the kids in the direction but that really is all the teacher needs to do (besides get background information on the subject so that the students can be driven in the right direction). The students are the ones finding the data and it will be so much more memorable for them if they are getting in there experiencing the work themselves. Finally, I really liked the "engaging from scientific oriented questions." Kids are creating hypotheses and predictions and they are following up on their own predictions from the data they have explored and corrected. As a teacher I get to set it up and oversee (kidwatch) but that's the most important part of my function. Oh, and enjoying them learning!

Challenge Me

When I think about what I've learned so far it just makes me think of how much responsibility teachers have. I like the idea of having responsibility and using the knowledge that I'm gaining from college to teach kids but at the same time that responsibility that the school system will soon bestow on me is filled with red tape and gray area with no one good way to do things. Looking at the standards Tuesday seemed like a lot of things you have to accomplish with a system that is open for so much interpretation. Standard A when it was talking about setting short term and year long goals made sense. In the next paragraph (in the description) it says that teachers must also remain flexible and be able to make time for assessment and kids' questions to not gloss over it all. When I said this aloud to the class the first thing Ted said was, "Just toss the whole damn thing out. If not take 40% of it out and really spend time engaging the kids on the 60% you have left. Don't gloss over it all because then they haven't learned anything in the first place."

That spoke to me because I really feel that teaching isn't about the content. It's about progressing the learner to where, at the end of the day, I know I did a good job. When I hear all of these standards though I am bracing myself for a lot of stress in the few years. Patience and doing the best I can will get me through though.

I think where I'm at in this class is probably the most excited I've been for science than I have been for any other science class I've had. It's starting to take hold that now I can be the outlet in which kids learn and teach things my way (hopefully) instead of being taught content in a boring mundane way. That's the exciting part and I feel excited about it!

Iowa Core Curriculum

Grade 3

Earth/space Sciences

Content Standard 3: Students can understand concepts and relationships in Earth/space sciences.
	Benchmark : Students can understand ideas about Earth's composition and structure.
		Grade Level Indicator : Describe and understand Earth's composition and structure
	Benchmark : Students can understand changes in and around Earth.
		Grade Level Indicator : Identify and explain changes in and around Earth
	Benchmark : Students can understand concepts relating to the universe.
		Grade Level Indicator : Understand concepts and relationships of the universe

The previous benchmarks are pasted in from the Iowa Core Curriculum website. This reminded me of the Private Universe video that I have seen twice now. First of all I find these standards very vague. This can be positive and negative. I like it because I can interpret them how I want to and be able to teach kids about Earth and space in a way that I see best (assuming I'm not told to follow a textbook to a T). I am surprised at how (based on the video) young the grade level is to be learning about seasons and phases of the moon, which I assume it's touching on when it says "identify and explain changes in and around the Earth."

So the question I'm supposed to answer is how would I make my instruction effective in my classroom if I have to teach the ICC on Earth and space sciences. To me I feel my students should know how the moon and sun rotate around the Earth. How this effects the seasons and lunar phases, and how a lunar eclipse works. Also I would like them to have a general idea of the planets in our solar system and their properties. For my students to learn this effectively it makes sense to me that they have visual representations of how our solar system works. That is the best part about our solar system is that each planet is so unique in look and how it goes around the sun and rotates and moons that there is so many objects you can use to make visual representations and incorporate them into a lesson. These can range from the contraption used in the video with the sun, moon, and earth that you pull a handle and the chain makes all of them rotate simultaneously--to a bunch of different shaped playground balls and a lamp. I would hope that with the proper amount of time spent on this that these visual representations would give kids a great idea of how it all works and that they would pass the benchmarks for 3rd grade Earth/space sciences.

Mosart Tests

Colby Wegter

Mosart Test

I like the effectiveness of the Mosart tests and how it can benefit both my students and me as a teacher. By having the multiple-choice tests it makes it simple and cuts out the gray area. Students may be thinking something closely related to a misconception and if they put down one of those misconceptions as an answer then you know what the student’s thinking could be. It keeps it quick and organized that way. I like that as a teacher I can focus on who put what and then be able to explore new possibilities for the kids that hopefully through this exploration they find the currently accepted answers on their own.

I also like that the tests aren’t just for a certain type of child. The tests would be good for any classroom because those who get it will still be challenged and those who don’t get it as well will easily show you that when you see their answers. No one is wasting his or her time and no one is getting left behind. I think that balance is what a teacher is looking for.

Teaching for Conceptual Change: Confronting Children’s Experience

Colby Wegter

Teaching for Conceptual Change: Confronting Children’s Experience

Once again the question lingers: How do you teach science? Do you follow the book and teach a lot of facts with little depth or do you teach fewer things and really focus on them, go in deep and let the students decide for themselves, based on their discoveries, what is and what isn’t?

I really believe that students need to experiment and manipulate things. They need to do things, not be told what is. This argument will go on forever because there are arguments for both sides. If you think you should go by the book that is OK because you are preparing kids for the standardized tests that states will never get rid of and you are giving them as much information as you can in the school year. These are true, but when I look back on what I learned in science (or any other class) it wasn’t what I learned out of the book that I remember. It was when I used my hands, when I saw what was being taught, when I was able to experiment and have my own preconceived thoughts and test those thoughts.

To me students have to remember. And to remember they have to experience. There is little to no experience when you are getting lectured out of a book and are told what is fact and what isn’t. So what if you don’t touch on everything that the book offers. There are teachers down the road who will not be bold enough to teach any other way than by the book. I want to be the teacher students remember because they will be able to tell you years later what they learned. How can they remember if they don’t have an experience.

Let’s go in depth!

Classroom Assessment

Colby Wegter

Keeley’s Classroom Assessment

To me the most important part of this article was the relationship between the students’ thinking and the teacher’s instruction. When you are talking about formative assessment elicitation is a key factor in progressing in learning. Without knowing the students’ thoughts and notions before hand it is a lot harder for the teacher to move forward. Elicitation is also a great tool for the students because it gives them a heads up on what they will be learning in the future part of the lesson and it allows them to make their thoughts explicit, which, once again help the teacher and the students move forward. This is also complemented by the exploration and concept development stage in which the students actually learn as a group.

The probes were a big part of this article and the nice part of them is that the article only highlighted the paper-and-pen option but they can also be used orally to. They can be predetermined or simple short answer questions that allow the students to articulate what they are thinking. I really like these because you can get the range of all your students’ thoughts. Especially when it comes to science, because you can catch misconceptions. Also it’s good to do it orally to make the students have a rationale for their answer.

Finally I believe the most important part of this article was how it helps the teacher and I agree with the article when it explains: “Probes... ‘turn the spotlight from examining students’ work to examining teachers’ work.’ In other words they help you understand student thinking so that you can develop more effective ways of teaching.”

Private Universe

How the phases of the moon occur?
The phases of the moon occur twice a month in other words there are two new moons every month. The shadow of the earth causes the moon to look like it is getting smaller or larger.

How do the seasons occur?
The earth is rotating around the sun. This is not related to the moon. The path that the earth takes is not a perfect circle and since the earth is not on a 90 degree axis the seasons change.

What causes a lunar eclipse?
When earth aligns in between the sun and the moon. It's shadow passes over the moon making it disappear for a few seconds.

I had seen this video before a year ago. I still got them all wrong. It is confusing but I guess I have had proper instruction in this but just chose not to accept it or keep forgetting it.


NOTES
Galileo heliocentric "sun center"
Church believe geocentric "earth center"
Receive more indirect sunlight when 23.5 degrees tilted away from the sun = winter
Opposite is summer
Tropic lines are the lines that are furthest north and south parts of the earth that receive direct sunlight
Equinox = equal amount of sunlight and darkness in a day
Earth always tilted to north star

Misconceptions

Colby Wegter

Misconceptions

I thought this article was interesting because when you are asking questions or testing students on their understanding there are not always clarifying questions to help with following up. Perhaps students had and idea of what the answer was but if they weren’t asked to clarify they could have simply guessed wrong and vice versa. Maybe they guessed right and had no idea what they were answering. This is wrong. Students should have to back up their answers in almost any setting so a teacher can clarify whether they have gotten understanding or not.

I like the idea of keeping track of misconceptions by noting them in the textbook margins. You can never get rid of misconceptions by just choosing and up to date textbook. But if you find the misconceptions and write them into the margins you can give warning to future classes about theses misconceptions.

Labs were also a good idea. If you are closer to your students and explaining things yourself it will help you as a teacher to cut down on these misconceptions. If the words are coming out of your mouth then you might have a better chance of answering questions.

Finally, I thought it was very interesting that just because a student’s scientific vocabulary increases does not mean that they understand in full the words they are using. With the results from the test in the article that is clear. So there has to be a better way to teach terminology. While terminology has never been my strong suit I would be interested to see if there are more effective ways to teach this terminology to students. Perhaps more experiments and interactive activities would help with this.

Theoretical Foundations for Constructivist Teaching

Colby Wegter

Theoretical Foundations for Constructivist Teaching

Piaget and Vygotsky are pioneers of constructivism for a reason. I agree with their thoughts and ideas about how children learn. While they both agree on a lot of things I am more inclined to side with Vygotsky because I personally believe that learning does lead to development and that spontaneous concepts when paired with schema that the student already possesses actually leads to further development of that student.

Students have to interpret their surroundings and they don’t just add to their personal knowledge by simply looking at things. They have to use their previous schema to look at something and compare it to something they already know and if they have never seen anything like it they have to somehow make meaning of it by whatever means necessary.

I agree with the constructivist view simply because of learning leading to development and because of all of the sharing that is involved. Sharing before, during, and after the phenomena helps students predict and reflect and make sense of things. They remember things better with constant discussion about what they are seeing or hearing. This would be great to be paired with science notebooks so that they have all of their thoughts at their disposal. It would really enhance discussion, which means it would enhance their learning.

The Social Constructivist Model of Teaching

Colby Wegter

The Social Constructivist Model of Teaching

When I look at the constructivist way of teaching in the Krajcik article it lines up a lot with how I plan on teaching. I believe wholeheartedly that it is very important to show kids and let them interact with the information as opposed to just telling them the information. This is supported when Krajcik talks about using concrete materials.

One hallmark of social constructivist teaching is that students mindfully interact with concrete materials. Children retain more of what they are taught if they engage in more active, concrete types of learning. In fact, it is estimated that the more active and concrete their learning, the more they retain.

Using manipulatives and experiments in the classroom allow for students to get a visual idea and an interactive idea. I was a big fan of the features of the social constructivist model of learning as well. It reminds me a lot of the scientific method. A student being able to discuss and predict what will happen is a vital step in the process. They can hypothesize, see the experiment happen, and then reflect on whether they had a good hypothesis or if they were completely surprised.

Finally, the thing I was the biggest fan of in this article was the idea of improving their own world. For elementary kids this idea is not an international one usually but one to improve the world around them in their own community. I liked the idea of a litter clean up day or putting up bird feeders. I really do agree with the article when it says, “When learning includes taking action to improve their world, children see the importance of it and the action solidifies their knowledge.” Well put.

Five Good Reasons to Use Science Notebooks

Five Good Reasons to Use Science Notebooks

For this I just made comments on each of their bullet points.

1. I agree with their argument about science notebooks that it encourages students to “use writing for thinking and empowers them to be interactive in their own language.” I can see the notebooks as a good tool because students can write down exactly what they are thinking when they are thinking it. If they wait to speak up until you’ve asked them they may have forgotten how they felt and what they thought at the moment.

2. Including what I said in part one it is also true that this benefits not only students but teachers as well. If the notebooks are collected by the teacher the teacher can see if there is a common question and branch off from there. Making use of a “teachable moment.”

3. Notebooks do have a benefit for students’ literacy, I agree. I believe that writing is a fantastic tool to use in any subject. By getting students thoughts on the page right away it is easier for them to communicate it later. They will have more detail and emotion in their sharing and there is nothing bad about that.

4. Maybe one of the best parts is that if I’m teaching a science class that utilizes notebooks then I know that those notebooks do not discriminate or not allow anyone to use them. It is simply the individual students thoughts being written down and if it is in another language or illegible as long as there is a way after for me, as the teacher, to find out what it is they were thinking then there is a great benefit to that for both sides.

5. I liked that all of the teachers of the school got into the effort. They all realized that notebooks were a simple and effective way to understand what the students were thinking and it allowed the teachers to collaborate about their findings. Personally I would like to be a part of something like that. that made me feel valued and made me understand my students better.

Environmental Education in the Schools

Environmental Education in the Schools

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 “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.

Initial Vision Statement

Initial Vision Statement

Colby Wegter

When I look at science and my experiences of it, it helps provide me with some ideas for the how I want my future science class to feel. As I’ve never been an expert in the science area and have never been that successful in it there are a few things that I enjoyed about science in both elementary and high school. When I pair my experiences with the Methods of Science class I am taking I’m sure I will be better prepared and more excited to present it to students in my classroom when I become a teacher.

To sum up my science background really only one word comes to mind. That word is average. I would consider science to be one of my least favorite subjects but I would also attribute that to the teaching I received. In elementary my best memories are of Marsville, this is where we were assigned committees in groups of three or four and the entire class was to be a large group that would inhabit Mars. I was on the recreation committee so we created magnetic checkers so that the board and pieces wouldn’t float away in outer space. We also had an egg drop experiment in sixth grade where we put an egg into any device we wanted with hopes that if dropped from a ladder it wouldn’t break. We also made catapults in sixth grade that enjoyed. In high school it was biology and chemistry and the instruction was lack luster. The teachers themselves didn’t seem interested in the subjects they were teaching making the experience less than memorable.

Some of the major components of a science education would be to understand how science can explain almost anything and using real life examples to help students understand. For example, if in chemistry all you do is talk about elements and compounds but don’t apply them or compare them to something in the real world, chances are only the people who want to use chemistry in college will enjoy what they are learning. Also an important component, partnered with ways to make it more understandable, would be making science fun. There are so many experiments that can be done to make kids get close and say, “That’s awesome! How does that work?” It is after you have their interest that instruction would be most effective.

I anticipate that I will teach my science class in a fun oriented way. My goal as a teacher is not to overwhelm them with facts that after I’ve lectured they maybe have absorbed one or two things that I have said. Science is a very visual subject and I personally learned best when I could use my hands and manipulate things or use my eyes to see the actual things that are being spoken of. I think experiments are key and if you are going to have an interesting science class you can’t have one experiment every couple weeks. In my opinion there has to be an experiment every other day at the minimum. This doesn’t have to be a large-scale thing. Even the simplest and smallest visual aid can make understanding so much easier.

By making science fun and interactive I believe my students will be able to not only understand exactly the message I’m trying to teach them but also be able to practice safe and exciting experiments outside of the classroom. By showing why things are, instead of just explaining why things are, students will have a much better chance of actually being able to understand the importance of science and everything that it provides them.

Rise to Greatness

Colby Wegter

Rising to Greatness Blog

There were a lot of concerns for me about this article because it has so much impact on me as a student of the system my entire life. As I prepare to be a teacher I had a lot of questions as to how Iowa could have fallen so short in the last 10 years and as I think about the future words I write I still don’t know. These were my thoughts:

There is a over a 20 point difference in proficiency for students that don’t qualify with a free and reduced lunch and for those that do. So if kids are eligible and they can technically not have to worry about if food is on the table then why is there still such a big difference? What are the possible other factors? Does the parents marital status effect it, or the amount of children in the household, maybe the neighborhood in which they live in, their race, or if they are from another country, or is it a combination of some or all of these things.

Some questions that I don’t know the answers to but were thinking as I was reviewing the article were: Is Iowa not doing well educating minority students because they are 82 percent white? Is it that there are few role models that are of the same ethnicity or race of the minority students? Is it because crossing races, as a teacher is less effective than if a teacher was of the same skin color as the students they are teaching? Have the results not caught up with the numbers yet since minority students are rising and their test scores are not?

When Jason Glass said “… [it’s] not embarrassing…it’s intolerable” that says to me that there is not enough effort of Iowa teachers on the classroom as a whole. This makes Iowa teachers seem lazy. The gaps in proficiency for race and those with disabilities is annoying and pathetic that Iowa has fallen so much in the last 10 years. Especially with reading, when I saw that Iowa was leading in fourth grade reading in 2001 and are now 13^th I couldn’t believe it. Since reading is my focus I don’t see how it could have dropped so much in 10 years. This makes me wonder if this is for lack of schooling for prospective teachers. It could be that or it could be some form of jurisdiction or legislature is faltering but it shows that there is not nearly enough resolve in the Iowa school system to begin fixing things like this. A steady decline for the last 10 years is pitiful. NCLB was 10 years ago so maybe it does have some form of a legislative issue but as a student of the Iowa school system for the last 16 years and a future teacher this has a lot of concern for me. I don’t want to be a part of a state that can’t keep up with a changing world because it’s only going to continue to change.