Effecting Change

As a science teacher leader for my school district I am constantly in contact with other science teachers.  We attend monthly meetings together to collaborate and share ideas with one another.  We also communicate through email.  We talk to one another about quality science that is happening in our classrooms and around our schools to encourage one another to spread the word.

The main challenge that I have continued to encounter is the lack of time to talk with colleagues and the lack of time to spend teaching science.  My district puts a big emphasis on teaching reading and mathematics, with district assessment in these areas every three weeks.  I continue to talk with colleagues about integrating science and technology into our reading, writing, and math lessons. 

What's our Sputnik?

Friedman makes some excellent points in his article.  I agree there is no reason to waste all our time, energy, money, and our lives on trying to help countries who do not want to help themselves.  There will be no long term change unless they want it to take place.  So instead of focusing on the "war on terrorism" what should Americans do? 

I say they should place a higher value on education.  We need to do more to promote STEM careers.  Science teachers alone can not make the difference for our country.  We need everyone to buy into the fact that if we don't get our students understanding science, technology, economics, and mathematics at high levels we will continue to fall behind.  The internet has really changed the way the whole world gets information and communicates and no one can say what will be next.  If we don't prepare our young students to understand how to solve problems and collaborate with one another using our current technology we are preparing our students for jobs that do not exist.  I think that Americans need to teach our students to read and write, but we need to place a higher focus on science and technology in our classrooms.  Students will learn to read and write and use those skills when they are working through different scientific inquiries.  I believe that we could change the destiny of the United States by changing to a focus on science education.  Teachers can not teach science without teaching students math, technology, reading, writing, social studies, and every other content area.   

Earth in a Bottle- Model

This week I designed an earth science lesson where my students conducted a guided inquiry to learn more about earth materials. On day one my students worked in small groups and put the earth materials in a two liter bottle. Students shook the bottles up and then drew the observations of what they saw. Students discussed and wrote predictions as to what they thought the bottles would look like the next day. One day two students observed and drew what they saw in their science journals. Students then compared their drawings to the drawing from the previous day.

       This lesson went very well with my first grade students. They were very engaged and excited about putting the earth materials in the bottle and shaking them up. My students worked together well and actively participated with one another throughout the lesson. My students were highly motivated during this lesson. Students could not wait to see their bottles when they came in the door the following day to see how the earth materials settled and if their predictions were correct. I heard students say things like, “Look, the water is clear” and “I can see the rocks”.

I was a little disappointed in the quality of my students work in their science journals. Some of my students had a difficult time actually drawing what they saw. I noticed that some students drew the earth materials all the way to the top of their bottles when they were actually only about one-fifth full. Some students also used colors in their drawings that were not there and some students did not label the earth materials in their bottles. More students labeled their drawing in day two because I discussed the importance of labeling their observations.

My students needed more prompting than I expected to predict what they thought would happen as the earth materials settled over night. Some students were not able to come up with any ideas as to what they thought might happen. I was surprised that one of my very bright students predicted that the rocks would be gone the next day. I thought that was interesting, and I would like to have a conversation with him now that he has observed that the rocks are still in the bottle. I learned that this student has a misconception that the rocks could disappear from soaking in water. As I plan more investigations and inquiries I will be sure to discuss this further and make sure that my students all of my students know that water will not make rocks disappear.

I learned more about earth materials in implementing this lesson with my students. I was unsure of the difference between a gravel pit and a quarry prior to planning this lesson. After discussing this with my father, Chuck Carson, who owns a trucking company and regularly hauls dirt, sand, gravel and stone, I learned that sand and gravel are dug out of a gravel pit. After the sand and gravel dug up it is sorted into large piles according its size so that it can be sold. Stone comes from a quarry, where it is broken into smaller pieces. Stone is blasted into smaller pieces so that it can be used for different purposes (personal communication, December 1, 2011) .

The goals of my lesson were met, but my students required more prompting than I expected. My students were able to come up with some predictions as to what they thought might happen as the earth materials settled. My students did not seem to know what it meant to predict or hypothesize. I had to give my students examples of what predictions could be to get them think on their own. My students were able to draw the bottles with the earth materials, but some students struggled with drawing them accurately.

My students loved creating the model. It was messy and students had to get their hands dirty. Our classroom was noisy and students had to work together, but every student participated and was actively engaged. Creating this model was an effective way to show my students how earth materials are found in the real world. Students were able to see how the sand settled to the bottom of the bottle. Students saw a mud or silt layer that was on top of the sand. They observed the rocks and gravel settling on the sand. Students saw the earth materials in the water settle to the bottom of the bottle. This was an especially effective way to teach my students with diverse needs because it was hands on and students were given the opportunity to work with each other. All of my students gained a deeper understanding of earth materials from participating in this lesson.

       Overall, I was very pleased with this lesson. The excitement I saw in my students was priceless. They loved this lesson. This was a great opportunity to see where my students are working independently. I learned more about my students as scientists. I now know that my students need to practice making predictions and drawing their observations accurately. I plan to design future inquiries with my students to address these two areas.

Natural Disasters

Encouraging our students to watch the news and stay current on events that are happening around the globe is one way to get students involved.  If students are learning about natural disasters that happening around our world they can not only learn more about Earth science behind the disasters, but they can aslo plan ways they can help.  Students can organize drives to raise money or gather necessities to send to communities in need after a natural disaster.  I was student teaching when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and the students at the school that I was working in raised hundreds of dollars by collecting pennies for the victims.  Students can learn important lessons from these events.  They can see that much more can be accomplished if everyone works together to help.   

Check out my Prezi on Interior Least Terns.... an endangered species in Indiana

I really enjoyed creating my Web 2.0 presentation.  Enjoy!

http://prezi.com/-cnpf0qe2ia6/least-tern/

Ask a Scientist

I asked a scientist, What happens if a person starts to outlive the one hundred billion brain cells they are born with? (Bryson, 2008). I am curious if people who start to get Alzheimer’s disease are starting to outlive their brain cells. It seems to me that most people who live up into their eighties and nineties end up with Alzheimer’s. I also wonder, what causes people to lose their brain cells at different rates. Bryson says that some people lose five hundred brain cells in an hour (2008). Do people who lose one thousand brain cells an hour develop Alzheimer’s disease earlier in life than a people who lose only four hundred brain cells an hour?

I was not able to find an answer to my question in the “Ask a Scientist” archives and I have not received and feedback from my question yet.

I think that students would enjoy using this site to find answers to their questions.  There are so many answers to questions that other students have asked already, I think my students would have some luck finding some of their answers here.  I also think my students would be thrilled if they were able to email a scientist their question and they actually received an email back with an answer to their question.  However, it would probably be disappointing to first graders if they did not receive an answer to their question in a timely manner.

Reference:

Bryson, B. (2008). A really short history of nearly everything. New York, NY: Delacourte Press.

Online Presentation Tools

I played with two presentation tools this week. 

Prezi.com

I really liked this tool, and best of all it is free.  It is easy to use.  After viewing the tutorial, the website walked me through creating a simple prezi to practice my skills before making my own.  I would recommend using this for our course project because it has many multi-media capabilities that will be engaging for learners.  I am excited to start using prezi.com to motivate my students to learn. 

Prezentit.com

I was not a big fan of this tool.  It too is free, but it was not very easy to use.  When I typed in my words on the page and clicked off of them I could not see them.  I was not able to figure out how to see them again, although I could still see them on the little slide on the left side of the screen.  Also, I tried to upload a photo, but was unsuccessful.  I waited a couple of minutes and eventually gave up because it was taking a long time.  I would not recommend using this tool for our course project because it is not user friendly and it seems slow.