Final Blog

This course has taught me a lot about science. I will take my knowledge of science from this course and apply it to my teaching of science when I am a teacher. I learned many skills through this class like how to use SmartBoard and action buttons on the PowerPoint. I also learned that it is important as a teacher to pre-assess at the beginning of a lesson or unit, assess while doing the lesson, and assess once the lesson or unit is done. I learned that you as the teacher have to always engage the students in the lesson. I learned about science from various activities we did in the classroom. I will use these activities like Jigsaw, Science Circus, Balloon Activity, and Float and Sink in my classroom when I am a teacher because these activities helped me to learn about science in a hands-on way. Throughout these activities and labs I have learned to love science. I really liked reading the book Science Stories by Jane Koch. I learned a lot of information from this book especially from the Science Stories in each of the chapters. I will try to use the science stories in my classroom when talking about the different units of science. The links listed below in purple are from my blog where I wrote about at least one science story for each chapter and about the other information discussed in the chapter and how I would use this information and the science stories in the classroom.
Science Stories Chapters 1-9   Science Stories Chapters 10-13 I advice you to check out the link and learn about a science story and the other information also discussed for each chapter. The two science stories that I liked the most where The Bottle Balloon and Shapes of the Moon.

The most memorable class projects where the activities that we did as collaborative projects which were Science Circus, Balloon Activity, Float and Sink, and Jigsaw Activity. My favorite was the Science Circus because each group got to plan a circus and then each group got to do the other groups circuses and learn from each circus something new and do an experiment at the same time. As a future teacher I would definitely use Science Circus in my classroom. It is a great hands-on way for students to learn.

The course aspects that have helped me grow as professional and learner are as follows. I learned how to put together experiments thanks to the Science Circus. I learned how to  challenge students and how to write objectives. I learned how to engage students in an activity. I learned how to assess students and  how to become more comfortable to teach science and understand science through this class. These are just a few aspects that I learned from the class.The class in general taught me about how to teach science to the students and how to start with direct instruction and then to engage the students in experiments and hands-on activities.This class and all of its components have helped me to learn and grow as professional and also as a learner.

My fieldwork experience was for eight hours at Bishop Dunn. The link from my blog will explain about my experience at fieldwork. Fieldwork Experience 

The e-folio presentations went really well. I liked all the e-folios that were presented. I did give feedback on some of the e-folios that were presented. I did not like one e-folio design or presentation of my classmates more than another. I liked how each person including myself put a different spin, design ,or way of presenting the e-folio and what goes on each page. I like that each person put their unique touch to their e-folio which shows that each person is creative and also their teaching style.

This final project is different then taking a test in the fact that we can be more creative and show how much we learned in a visual way. It is different then taking a test in the fact that each of my classmates can show what we learned over the course of the semester and how we would teach or use this in our classroom.

I have learned a lot about myself through this course. I have learned that blogging is a way of communicating. I have also learned how to improve and become a better teacher from listening and using the feedback from my teachers and classmates in my assignments and  when I am presenting something. By listening to their feedback and using their feedback I will be a better person and better teacher.

Microteaching

Sandra and I did our Microteaching. Our microteaching was done of the topic of biomes. We used action buttons in our PowerPoint Presentation. It was nice to teach the class. I enjoyed using the action buttons.
It was a nice teaching experience. I thought that the presentation went well except a few technology problems.

I would use this Powerpoint in my class to teach about biomes in an unit about our environment. I would also include ecosystems, abiotic factors, and biotic factor as well as biomes. This website http://www.mbgnet.net/ is very helpful to learning about biomes and ecosystems and students can explore this website and learn a lot about each biome and each ecosystem.



This video is educational. This video explains about what an abiotic and biotic factors are. This video explains what abiotic means and what biotic means. This video also gives examples of abiotic and biotic factors. Kids will like this video. It explains how an ecosystem is created. This video would be good to use when starting a unit on the environment especially when talking about biotic and abiotic factors with the environment and ecosystems.





This video is an educational video for older students. It explains what an ecosystem is and it explains about biotic and abiotic system in an ecosystem. I would use this video with fifth or sixth graders. This video goes into a lot of detail. It is very informative.



This video is about ecosystem. It explains what an ecosystem is. It is an educational video. This video explains all the ecosystem. Biomes are general ecosystems. This video talks about biomes and ecosystem. I thought that this video would be very helpful for students to see the different ecosystems that we learn about in class through this video.

Fieldwork experience

Now that field work is over I have had some time to reflect, working in Mrs. Benfer's 5th grade classroom. At first I was a little worried because it was very sudden, but when I got there everything seemed ready for us in the classroom. Mrs. Benfer was prepared for us and had all of our sessions set up. When the fifth graders entered the classroom they were overwhelmed that all the college students were there standing in the room. Mrs. Benfer told the students to not be overwhelmed and that the college students will be working with you today and some other days in the future. The college students are here to work with you today as your college buddy. Our very first session we were able to watch Mrs. Benfer introduce a lesson, which was on mixtures and solutions through a demonstration of a trail mix. We got to see how she engages her class and then lets them work on their own. Mrs. Benfer engaged the class by asking questions and challenging the students to think about mixtures and solutions. After we watched her introduce the lesson and she allowed the students to observe, we got to work with them one on one.  We each got a student or two and we watched them do the lab assignment based off what they saw on mixtures and solutions. I liked working one on one with my student Matthew. During this session Matthew and I read the chapter to help him come up with the answers to the explanation questions and Matthew and I went over what each term means and I read him the questions to the worksheet/ lab assignment. We were there for the students if they had questions but other than that we didn't really help them with their lab. When Matthew had a question or needed something explained with examples I was there sitting next to him to answer or explain any thing to him about mixtures or solutions in more detail. The next session we helped them prepare for their open notes test that was coming up. Mrs. Benfer started the class by showing us her online textbook and how she practices with her students. It was a review game, girls vs. boys. This game was a fun way to get the students to activate their minds with some competition. Mrs. Benfer told us that the questions on the review game are their test. We did the chapter review with them that day. The chapter review was good for the students to do to review sheet and Matthew and I worked together on this review. Matthew and I came up with different examples and also discussed each question and what the answer would be before writing down the answer. By talking about each question, Matthew will understand what the test is about and what the test is going to be on so that Matthew will be prepared to do well on the test. We were able to sit with them later that week when they took the test and we were there for questions and to encourage them but we could not tell them the answers. During the test we could help explain the word in a question that the student did not understand but not give the student the answer to the question. Mrs. Benfer was a very good and willing to help if anything and explain anything to us and to help with our lesson if we had any questions we could email her.  After that session we had to teach the class a lesson based off chapter 12.  The first day two of my groups in my class presented lessons on chemical and physical change. As a observer it was nice to see these two lessons and to learn from these two groups about teaching a lesson.  My group went on the second day of presenting lesson. My group’s lesson was on chemical technology which is lesson 4 of chapter 12. It was nice to teach the lesson and to engage the students. It was a great learning experience to teach the students the lesson. It was nice to also see the other two groups’ lessons the next time that we were at fieldwork. It is a great experience to learn from observing others. I learned a lot from this fieldwork experience. I learned a lot from observing Mrs. Benfer and the other groups do their lessons.

Class 31 - April 6, 2011 - taught today

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Cu1zI-vOwVZcDQ3Qek0M8xHmFomsKSUakF9yW9U_2dg/edit?hl=en#

My group taught today. We started in Miss O' Leary's classroom with groups D, E, and F. The lesson was on chemical technology. It was a fun lesson that involved the use of a puzzle to start the lesson and also a Smart Board vortex game.  In my group, my job was to hand out the name tags for the different jobs like the reporter, time keeper, the presenter, and task manager. Each name tag for the different roles included a description of what the role entails for the student to do.

• Each student in the group will be assigned a role.  
• The task manager.  This student will keep the group focused and will ask essential questions to get the group thinking.  
• Time keeper.  This student will keep track of their time because they will only have five minutes to discuss the objects.  
• The reporter.  This student will write down everything the group says. This student will record the observations, different opinions, conclusions and reasoning.  
• The presenter.  This is the student who will present the group’s findings to the class.

Before handing out the article I asked Mrs. Benfer if this article would be good for the students. Mrs. Benfer said that the students would like the article because some of the students play different sports in the classroom. Once the lesson was completed and all the presenters presented their results for their groups. I explained the homework was to read the article I handed out and it was important for the students to complete. The students were to pick a sport and write about the sport and how the sport uses chemical technology in a journal entry that has to be at least a paragraph long. The students really enjoyed the lesson. 

Here is the link to the homework article that the students used to write a journal entry for. 

http://portal.acs.org/preview/fileFetch/C/WPCP_011042/pdf/WPCP_011042.pdf

This was a good experience for me to get up in front of the class to teach the students. It was nice to see and learn how to engage the students in the lesson. It was a great learning experience for me to know what works and what does not work in the classroom. Through teaching this lesson I learned what to do for next time to improve the lesson and what not to do for next time. I also learned that it would be a good idea to hand out the name tags individually to each student instead of putting them in the middle.This experience has taught me a lot about teaching and what you have to do as a teacher.

    

Science Stories Chapters 10, 11, 12, & 13

I enjoy reading all of the Science Stories in the different chapters of theScience Stories book. I find the Science Stories to be the most interesting parts of the chapters that I read. It is very interesting to see what different experiments are being shown in each chapter. I find the Science Stories to be very well explained and easy to follow. Science Stories which are the experiments are easy for a teacher to explain to her class and to do in the classroom. 

     The following is what I would incorporate into my classroom when I am a teacher. For the Science Stories listed below, I would probably follow the instructions and explanations that are listed in the book Science Stories by Jane Koch. 

For chapter 10, I would definitely incorporate the Science Story of Batteries, Bulbs and Wires in my classroom. Chapter 10 talks about terms like electric circuit, series circuit, and parallel circuit.








I would definitely incorporate and show this video to my class when talking about circuits, batteries, and electricity. This will help be a visual aid for students to see how a battery is made and how electricity is shown.  This video talks about voltage and a battery and how this lemon citrus and two metals help to make a battery by using cooper and another metal. This video talks about LED. I would only show part of this video to my class at a young age of second and third grade but if in fifth or sixth grade then I would show the whole video. I think that the students will learn a lot from this video about electricity.


I would show the second video to my class when talking about circuits, batteries, and electricity. It is cool for the students to see how easy the experiment to do and to see how this little experiment shows electricity. I would show this video to any age group from second grade and above. This video talks about voltage and a battery and how the lemon is the circuit with the nail and copper being the positive and negative. This video explains about positive and negative electrons. Positive electron is copper and negative electron is nail. I think that the students will learn a lot from this video about electricity. This would be a great video to start a lesson with.

For chapter 11,  I would definitely talk about lesson plans and how it is important to your plans for the lesson will help you to engage your students in a meaningful science activity. It is important to include goals, the 5es: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate, and to include science ideas in a lesson plan. The role of questioning is very important for teachers. Open-ended questions are good to use in a lesson because they can lead to more than one answer and then you base your lesson off of all these different answers. As a teacher it is important to know the accommodations for different learners and how to accommodate different learners and their levels in the classroom. This is important to know as a teacher.

For chapter 12, I would definitely talk about the different systems discussed like the human body systems, the solar system,and  interactions and pattern changes which include electricity, sound, energy, and many more. These are important topics and concepts for students to learn. 

This video is a video about the solar system.This video is about the beginning of the solar system.I thought that it be a good video to show since this chapter in Janice Koch book mentions about the solar system and asteroids, meteriods, planets. This video will help students understand the solar system better and all the  parts of the solar system. I thought that I use this video at the beginning of the lesson when introducing solar system and how it occurred or at the end of the lesson as a review to help students remember the birth of the solar system that we have been discussing. 


For chapter 13 I  would definitely talk about the water cycle. 





This is a cute video about the water cycle. This video explains what happens to Bob through the phases of the water cycle. It is a great starter video to introducing the water cycle to the students in my class. This video will help students understand the water cycle and all the different phrases and changes that happen to Bob all he goes through the water cycle and explains each cycle. It is a visual way of learning about the water cycle.  

Class 32 - April 8, 2011

Fieldwork at Bishop Dunn. Today was our last day. It was nice to work with the fifth graders.

Group two did a lesson on chemical changes. Group 2 started the lesson by showing a chemical change video which was very good. It (the video) talked about fireworks, burning paper, and other examples of chemical changes. Then group 2 asked what is alka seltzer?  Then the teachers  my classmates explained the inquiry lesson about how each group had to assign a time keeper, observer, recorder, and speaker. It was important to do one cup at a time. It was important to keep the time and to see how long it would take to make bubbles  for each temperature of water:  for the cold, warm, and room temperature.  Then each group shared their results.

Group six did a lesson on math and science. Group 6 start with asking if there is a connection between math and science. Some of the answers were: math and science both have equations and show how math is related to science. Group 6 went on to show a simple problem before doing a word problem. The simple problem was x-40 = 180 and x = 220. The word problem  was: If 6 grams of hydrogen is combined with oxygen to form 54 grams of water. How much oxygen would there be? x+ 6 =54 and  x= 48. Then group 6 assigned each group problem number 6 in  the textbook and another problem to each group to solve. Then a member in each group went up to the Smart Board and solved the problems and explained his/her work and how he/she got their answer. After all the groups presented, then the teachers my classmates asked a question: why is there math in science?: some answers were: connect to find mass of object, use equation, and  math is everywhere. 


I would definitely use group two's lesson experiment in my classroom. I really liked the idea of showing a chemical change through using water and alka seltzer tablets. I liked that the group used three different types of water: warm, cold, room temperature.  I would definitely have the students work in groups like this group did. It is a cool experiment for the students to see chemical change and it is not too hard for the students to do. I would have the supplies in my Science Corner. This experiment is a great way for students to remember chemical change. This experiment was very interesting. This experiment impacted me and got me thinking about adding a fourth cup and seeing what will happen.  I was thinking that I would try this experiment with four types of water: warm, hot, cold, and room temperature or warm, frozen, room temperature, and cold. I will also have the students make predictions about which cup of water temperature would make the most bubbles. I would have the students make hypothesis and see if their hypothesis comes try by doing the experiment. I would also have the students give me feedback about the experiment what the students liked about the experiment, what could be improved ,and what the student did not like about the experiment. This is how I use the experiment in my classroom and this is my thinking. 

Week 13

Week 13: What’s the Big Idea? Matching Assessment to Instruction

During this week you will discuss how teachers can best assess students’ science understanding and their abilities to employ scienceprocess skills. A central objective of the week is for you, prospective teachers, to understand that assessment—this process of learningabout students’ understanding and performance—must match instruction. 

If we want to know what students know and are able to do, we have to give them opportunities to show us using techniques that match the type of instruction in which they have been engaged. Hence assessment and instruction are intertwined. A good assessment is a good instructional task.

Assessment is very important for a teacher to know. Assessments that teachers should know and use in their teaching is diagnostic, formative, and summative. Diagnostic is important for students to use at the beginning before starting a lesson or a unit to see what the students know on a topic or concept. A good diagnostic assessment is to use KWL charts. Formative is important for teachers to use to make sure that the students are keeping on track. This should be done half way through a unit. It should take place in the form of a quiz or a journal entry to see how much the students know.Formative assessment should be a short quiz or a journal entry that has students answer questions based on what the students have learned so far. Summative is important for both the student and teacher. A good summative assessment is a unit test or project. It may be good to switch off for each other unit to do a unit test one unit and a project for another unit. A project and an unit test will show what the students have learned throughout the unit and if the students comprehended the information.  Teachers and students both learn from the  different assessments listed above. Teachers learn what went well in the unit, what to improve on for next time, and how the students learned from this style of teaching and the teaching methods used like a powerpoint or Smart Board or lecture vs. hands-on. Students see what they have learned and how well the students have learned by being assessed through doing projects or tests by getting a grade.