Teaching Science in my classroom

Honestly, Science and Math as a teacher intimidates me just a bit. However, I am excited to teach it because I feel like I am wanted to learn more and extend myself with these subjects. In my classroom, and when science is being taught I don't want my students to think it is now specifically "science time". We may be focusing on the Science Standards but pulling in so many activities students don't really know they are learning. Interactive and Inquiry based Science learning is key inside my classroom. I want students to have the responsibility of a scientist and feel like they have a job like scientists do. In the beginning of the year and while creating my classroom community, I want to introduce the idea that they are ALL scientists and they have jobs as students and children to help the grown up scientist investigate specific ideas.

Ms Frizzle, gave responsibility to her class of their own learning. She had many magic tools to help with that however in the end she let the students scaffold it for themselves. I want to be my own Ms. Frizzle in my own way. I might not have the Magical Bus but I do have Red Curly Hair! :)

Science Notebook

Science Notebooks in the classroom are a PERFECT TOOL for students to have! All you need is a bunch of composition notebooks (most of them you can find super cheap everywhere) where students throughout the year can put all there science work into. This also can provide a portfolio for them throughout the year to show off to their parents, faculty and stuff, etc. Science Notebooks are a great tool for inquiry based learning in your science classroom. Looking on Pinterest there are millions of ways to set up a science notebook for your students.

This specific one I found is by a kindergarten teacher in Texas and she blogged on her blog about the way she did it in her class. I liked how clean and cute hers was for her classroom.



Here she has labels on all the notebooks with the kids names on it
(The only thing I might change it for kids to possible create their own science covers, it might be harder for younger ones but older ones it would be great!)



Here is Science Expectations, that she goes over in the beginning or the year and gets students to glue this in their notebook. Also each student has to sign off on a science contract to have in their notebook as well.

This is great way for students to feel responsible for their own stuff beginning at a younger age. In the early grades, I would keep the notebooks in the classroom just so they won't get lost or messed up. However, in the upper grades, you could use this for homework assignments, parent communication, etc. Science notebooks and any subject matter notebooks have endless possibilities that students can do in the classroom.

Source: http://www.kindergartenkindergarten.com/2010/07/getting-my-science-notebooks-ready.html

Screaming Frog outside my window

So my husband and I have a built in pond in the back of our house. My husband and my father in laws bright idea!! I was encouraging at first but sometimes my husband has bright ideas but eventually overtime once they are finished he doesn't keep up with them. GOT LOVE HIM!! He is extremely tech savvy but wasn't born with a green thumb. Any who....the past couple of nights working on class work or reading my new obsession of a book called FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green (I always like to read the books before I see them in the movie theater) I have been hearing right outside my bedroom window this extremely annoying sound coming from a frog. It sounds like he or she is screaming. It is extremely annoying and carries on through out the time I am trying to concentrate on either school work or reading my book. I think being 5 months pregnant things irritate me faster then they used to...hormones,oh well!! Since I have been in science class, and blogging about science topics I decided to research this frog. Unfortunately, he only does this at night so I couldn't get a picture of him to see what he looks like. I was just curious to see why he does this extremely annoying sound if there was a reason behind this characteristic of this frog.

I found this researching...

"Frogs communicate with others of their species. Their "calls" fall into categories of attraction calls and aggression calls, as well as release calls, which are used by both males and females to signal non-readiness to mate. Some frogs emit their attraction calls separately and others join a group in an immensely loud "chorus" of calls.  For some frogs, making a call inflates and pulsates a conspicuous vocal sac located on their throat, which you can see in the photo to the right."  (welcomewildlife.com)


I figured it was some type of call to signal something for other frogs. This little part I found was interesting to me because it explain why why frogs do this.

As teachers, there are so many types of animals just in our backyard. As teachers, we can create a whole lesson around backyard species and get students really into it because they can investigate it more in depth and hands on (CAREFULLY OF COURSE and with Instruction) about these animals in everyday backyards that we have in Tennessee.

Learning Science Vocabulary in a Fun Way

I was researching different ways to learn science and came across a fun way for teachers to get their students to learn science vocabulary in a fun and creative way. It is called Science Pictionary where students play the game of Pictionary but use science vocabulary words they would be using in that unit. I remember when I was in school, I hated science because of the dreadful vocabulary words we had to learn. It was just memorizing the definition and taking the test and then dumping the information after taking the test. In the classroom playing Pictionary with science vocabulary can be a fun way to review as a class or can be used to review pairs where students create sketches that represent the science vocabulary. As a class after the game, you can discuss the sketches to help remember complex concepts in science in a simple sketch that students created. Also it is great because it is the students way of thinking and understanding and also can help the teacher see if there is any misconceptions to help go over.

EXAMPLE:

Children are scientist

I mentioned this in my last post, how children are scientists before they came out of the womb. Knowing this and talking about Pinterest in class I found a cute drawing on there. I will definitely have this up in my classroom.



This was created in the same style as "Parts of a Reader" and " The Parts of a Writer". However, this includes words that are specific to scientists and what they do. The information on here can be used in the classroom and through lessons to show students how to observe, hypothesize, investigate, research, explore, question, and conclude. Also like scientists do, they (according to Dr. Kat they go to science conferences and drink ;)) but scientists share their thoughts with other classmates. This will help build a teachers classroom community!! AHH, LOVE THIS POSTER!!  TOO CUTE!

Developing Assessments for Science

Children are around scientists before they come out of the womb.. (I would know this because I am 5 months pregnant) My child is learning and discovering before he is even born. I think science is very difficult to assess sometimes. There are different types of ways to assess students however, I believe that sometimes science is a continuous assessment for students. Teachers present the background and preparation for students to think, investigate, and discover in science however like scientist there is continuous research and debate that can go into it. That is why I think a checklist or rubric to make sure we know students are on the same level we want them to be is a good assessment for science instead of the typical right or wrong assessment. When I was school, my science learning was mainly from science tests that had no creative thinking behind it and you either knew the information or didn't. We received a grade and learning the material was reading the chapter and answering the questions. As teachers, we are starting to change that by using more creative thinking and by making sure that our students know that they are scientists with using hands on activities which have more for the teacher to evaluate the students learning instead of just giving a grade in the grade book.

Misconceptions in Science....

I found this list of Misconception in Science from different subjects in science that children might have. It talks about misconceptions in astronomy,atmosphere, biosphere, color and vision, electricity, energy, forces and motion, forces and fluids, heat and temperature, light,  and the list continues. Here is an link to the website...http://amasci.com/miscon/opphys.html

I reviewed the list and found some that were interested and how some students might have misconception about them and research the truth behind them. So below are the misconceptions and my findings.


Space 

"The Sun disappears at night" 

-The sun does not go anywhere. What makes the sun look like it disappear is the Earth's rotation. The sun continuously shines on the earth, however it cannot provide sunlight to all parts of the world at the same time. That is why in different parts of the world it night and other parts it day time. Also creates time change.
Source: http://planetfacts.org/where-does-the-sun-go-at-night/

"Seasons are caused by the earth's distance from the sun"

Source: http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/seasons/en/


"The sun is a star"
-This is true, however there is differential between the sun and other stars.
Source: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Sun

"The Sun will never burn out"
-Yes, but not for a very very long time!

Source: http://www.space.com/14732-sun-burns-star-death.html

Light

"A mirror reverses everything"
No they don't reverses up and down but left and right
Source: (cute blog) http://www.wired.com/2011/08/why-do-mirrors-reverse-left-and-right/

Heat

"Heat rises"

Yes and No... here is blog that is more chemistry complex

Source:http://misconceptions.science-book.net/2012/05/07/chemistry-versus-physics-why-does-heat-rise-part-1-of-2/