I am very excited to say that I am teaching fourth grade at Burton Glen Academy in Burton, MI. We will be working on the Scientific Method. This is exciting because the students get to step into the shoes of being scientists. Stay tuned for lesson plans and pictures!

Keeping up with Global Competition (For Science 6664)

This week in class, we were asked to read and article called, What's our Sputnik? by Thomas Friedman. Basically, the article made a lot of sense. It spoke mainly about how our country is focusing on the wrong things, rather than the right things. Things like concentrating on how to become independent of imported oil and pulling out of the war on terror would be things that could help us save money as a nation and become independent. These things would help, but also focusing on education and integrating STEM lesson plans into our classroom will help our nation.
     To paraphrase Timothy Emhoff in this week’s resources, elementary students have a natural curiosity, which is the perfect opportunity to introduce STEM lessons. Through regular lessons, students eventually become bored, but with STEM lessons, the curiosity continues throughout their education, as does their love for Science. Also, I know through experience that it is important that all elementary teachers get on board with incorporating at least some STEM lessons into the classroom because with collaborative efforts with colleagues, eventually comes support from families, administration and the community. The students also see the importance of STEM education and begin to see connections everywhere in the outside world. Although it is difficult to transition some colleagues, through asking for a few minutes at staff meetings and sharing lesson plans, it has been easier to get colleagues to begin incorporating these lessons. Also, I have invited colleagues to attend a science education course in the summer that focuses on building and incorporating STEM lesson plans in the classroom. With collaboration with teachers, the community, students and teaching the importance of STEM education, I believe that we will have growth in the engineering, science and math fields. This is crucial because according to Educational Leadership, “Our students live in a world increasingly dominated by science and technology. To be responsible citizens, they will need to have informed opinions on all sorts of issues, from global warming, to stem cells, to the storage of nuclear waste. We can only speculate on what issues will arise in the future, but they're sure to have a scientific or technological component” (Trefil & O’Brien,  p 28, 2009). There is a saying that children are the future, and in this case and the case of getting the United States back on board with being competitive and self-sufficient, this has never been more true.

Laureate, Education, Inc. (2010). Promoting STEM Education in the Classroom. [Videowebcast]. Retrieved from http://www.courseurl.com

Trefil, J., & O'Brien-Trefil, W. (2009). The science students need to know. Educational Leadership, 67(1), 28–33.
Retrieved from the Walden University Library using the Academic Search Complete database.

5 E's Model for Science Lesson Planning

This week, I taught a science lesson using the 5 E's model. If you have never heard of it, according to Enhancing Education's website, the  the 5 E's model is:
 
"The 5 E's is an instructional model based on the constructivist approach to learning, which says that learners build or construct new ideas on top of their old ideas. The 5 E's can be used with students of all ages, including adults.
Each of the 5 E's describes a phase of learning, and each phase begins with the letter "E": Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. The 5 E's allows students and teachers to experience common activities, to use and build on prior knowledge and experience, to construct meaning, and to continually assess their understanding of a concept" (Enhancing Education, 2012).

I love this teaching model and found it has put the learners in the driver's seat of education. It helps them to become 21st century learners by teaching them how to inquire and explore during a lesson. Rather than just memorizing data that they are given, they find answers and work like real scientists. I love this model.

As for my lesson, I was a bit worried because I taught the lesson to a group of kindergarteners. Many say it can't be done because the students are so young, however, it worked extremely well for me. Granted, because this was a new learning model for them, they were not sure what to do and are used to being led by the hand in activities. So, I had to walk them through what to do.

When the students walked in, they saw on their tables different tools for measuring the weather. For example, they saw thermometers, rain gauges and pictures of some things. (I couldn't bring in a weather vane, but they saw pictures and recognized what they were). They came to the carpet and we discussed what we had been going over in Science recently. Our unit has been in weather and we spoke about seasons, temperatures, clothing that they have been wearing outside, etc. We tied past experiences to what we were discussing, too.
 Then, they sat down at their tables, passed the tools around and talked with their friends what the lesson could possibly be about. This was the Engage portion of my lesson and interested them enough to want to move onto the next portion of the lesson, which was Explore. Next, I read them a book regarding tools for measuring weather. The students were very engaged during this lesson and loved to relate their knowledge of weather measurement tools to the book and to our conversation, this lead to the Explain part, where we discussed by using a chart that had pictures the different tools from their tables and their purpose. Next, we measured the temperature inside the classroom and outside the classroom for the elaborate portion of the assignment.
Finally, for the evaluate portion of the assignment, the students coloring pictures of a couple of the tools we discussed and drew the rest of what they remembered. Overall, the lesson went extremely well and the students were very engaged. I had a great time!

Reference for this post:
Enhancing Education. (2012). The 5 E's. Retrieved from http://enhancinged.wgbh.org/research/eeeee.html

This week for class, we had to answer the following regarding the affects of a scientific phenomena like a hurricane. :
What might you do in the classroom to help your students understand these scientific phenomena, appreciate how the natural laws of science influence lives, and consider what they can do to help those affected by such a tragedy? How might you connect your students to community organizations to learn about relief efforts and help students see how they might contribute by working together as a school or community to help during a disaster?

In my classroom, I would help my students understand this phenomena and what it entails by studying past hurricanes such as Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina. I would go and get clips from news reels like interviews with victims who have been interviewed regarding the devastation that occurred to their homes. Also, I would study hurricanes with them so that they can see how they are caused and what happens during a hurricane. Then, I would have a penny rally in the school, to have classes compete with who can collect the most pennies. In the end, we would send what we have collected to the Red Cross to support hurricane victims and families. Perhaps, we could Skype with a Red Cross member who has been helping with Hurricane Sandy or someone that has gone to help those in the Eastern United States where the hurricane hit. 

Hurricane Sandy

Prayers to everyone that is being affected by hurricane Sandy! During this time, our students and even my five year old son have a ton of questions regarding why this hurricane is going on. Although it is unfortunate and can be frightening, this is a great teachable moment to take advantage of as teachers.

Ask a Scientist

This week, we had to ask a scientist a question. I never knew this website existed and would have loved to use it last year with my fifth graders. The website link is: http://www.hhmi.org/askascientist/

My question this week that I asked was: "If cancer is just a growth of irregular cells and seems so simple, why is it so hard to find a cure for cancer?" However, this was too complex of a question for the search engine on their page. So, I had to email it to a scientist and have not yet received a response.

I thought this was an incredibly cool page, however, that would be wonderful to introduce to a class during computer lab time. This would give students an opportunity to find a resource where they can find answers to their scientific questions.

Lastly, the interactive website I love to use is called Kidwings and I like to introduce this during computer lab time and during our Ecosystems unit. In this unit, we study animals, the food chain and many other things. One of the fun activities (and messy) I like to do with students is dissect owl pellets with them to see what type of rodents their owl ate. After we do the dissections, I take the students to the computer lab and we virtually dissect owl pellets and utilize prior knowledge of our lessons while doing this. It is really a great experience and one that is hard to forget. The website address to this is:

http://www.kidwings.com/index.htm

Check it out this week and also the Ask a Scientist website for a fun time!

A classmate and I recently discussed the difference between identical twins (monozygotic) and fraternal twins. Below, is a picture of my monozygotic twin and I when we were kids and also adults. There are differences, but a lot of similarities. :)

I believe I am the one on the left, but the jury is still out on that, since mom forgot to put the names on the back of the picture.

Now that we are older, I KNOW that I am on the left. LOL. My sister is tanner in this picture than me, and our personalities are pretty different. However, we still have the same mannerisms, voices and some aspects of our personalities. Therefore, people still get us mixed up.