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. 

Hi there, everyone from Investigating the Living World (SCIE - 6662S - 1)

I hope you are all enjoying your evening. I just realized as I was looking through my wall that I failed to post the blog address that I had created. My apologies. I am excited to create a presentation and look forward to using Prezi. Although there are many other options to use as a presentation tool, I would like to try something new. In the past, I have made Powerpoints with my students and have used them at staff meetings while presenting. However, I would like to add another "tool" to my teachers "toolbox" with learning Prezi.

As far as science goes, is anyone following what is going on with the Curiosity rover on Mars? Pretty cool stuff if you ask me!

Curiosity rover lands on Mars!

Image Gallery

IS there life on Mars? Was there ever life on Mars? Looks as if the rover called Curiosity may be able to tell us some answers! I am excited to follow this project. I think it is amazing how many variables had to be orchestrated perfectly for this to happen. How cool. Stay tuned into Nasa.gov. I love that site!

It's summer time! People are complaining about the heat lately and global warming a lot, yet I drive past trash dumps and get sad, thinking, "Are we all doing our part with recycling and what is within our control?" Remember to recycle, people! :)

If you check on NASA's website, they are celebrating Apollo 11 today. It's pretty fun to navigate around the website if you never have!

Mars in Opposition, Grand Rapids Museum Time!

Today, I am taking my five year old son to see the Mars exhibit in Grand Rapids, MI at the Grand Rapids museum. We are so excited, we can barely stand it! I have always loved astronomy, but this March (2012) was the time in my life when I couldn't learn enough. Five planets (Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn) were visible in the night time sky! It was something that will not happen again for quite some time and was something that we will never forget.
www.mlive.com/entertainment/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/...

    Happy Earth Day, everyone! This week at my school, I have declared it Earth week! After collaborating with our PTA for their generous donation and Mr. Randy Baker, a conservationist from our community, I was able to gift a Maple Sugar seedling to each of our 90 fifth graders! I began with reading them The Lorax and asking them how we can make a difference. After handing out the seedlings, I told them, "Although each of you only has one tree, imagine if 90 trees were planted today and what a positive impact we will have on our environment!" This was an exciting thing to be able to do and incorporate into my science lessons.

Science Fair 911 – What If My Results Are Wrong?

I found this blog today, although I have heard of Steve Spangler before. I was thinking about doing a science fair at the end of the school year. We shall see!

Science Fair 911 – What If My Results Are Wrong?

Week 6 Science 6661 with Bianca Garner

• This week, my students are working with Newton's Laws of Motion. To engage the students in the idea of Newton's Laws of Motion, I have been using my smart cart to show videos to watch examples of each law. Some of the most powerful web resources for this that I have found are as follows:
• United Streaming.com (they have a wonderful kids video that uses all of the laws of motion and things related to that, such as centrifugal force, gravity, relative and kinetic energy, etc. It is on a funny topic, however, called Punkin Chunkin, which the students have found to be fascinating and humorous.) This tool is wonderful for getting the students interested in the subject and showing them real-world applications with the concept of Newton's Laws of Motion.
• Teachnology.net has been another website which I have used to make rubrics for the students' reports that they have been doing for this unit. This is a wonderful 21st century tool because the students know the expectations of the teacher in order to get their desired grade. 
• Edhelper.com has been another website which I utilized to print off books for the students as we go through the unit. This is beneficial because it pulls different lesson plans and ideas than what I already have.
• Atlasrubicon.com is a great resource that my school district provides to us. A subscription is needed to access this blog. However, on this blog, teachers throughout our county have shared countless lesson plans that are written by using the 5E method. Basically, this encourages inquiry based lessons and I believe is the most beneficial tool for preparing 21st-century scientifically literate citizens. This method of learning allows students to learn how to constantly operate on a deeper level of thinking. It encourages inquiry, working in collaborative groups and fosters real-world applications within lesson plans. It is a great resource that I have utilized a lot with Newton's Laws of Motion.
•  Blogger.com (This site) is free and I utilize this site with my students. We weekly blog during computer lab time. Whether it be a response to what they are doing in a particular subject in class, or talking about their favorite books with their peers, this is another thing that is beneficial to tie into lessons. Not only is it incorporating another avenue of learning, but allowing students to blog and utilize technology in the classroom is what needs to be done. Our society is very technologically savvy and moving toward doing everything online.

Amazing! Please read!!! Kepler's First Earth Size Planets!

Astro Did You Know?: Kepler's First Earth Size Planets!

Week 2 Science 6661 with Dr. Bianca Garner

For this week, the focus of my guided inquiry was the question, "Which pendulum will come to rest more quickly-a lighter pendulum or a heavier pendulum?" To gain insight, I reflected back to doing this experiment with my students a month ago. When I first introduced the concept of a pendulum, the students had a difficult time visualizing what it was. The challenges I face with inquiry-based learning is my students are not used to this type of teaching. They are used to being spoon fed the answers and are almost afraid to ask questions and be curious. However, they have grown a lot since the beginning of the year and are well on their way to being inquisitive scientists.

    For the engage part of the activity, since they were having a difficult time visualizing what a pendulum was, I took them out on the playground to re-enact a version of the experiment in the book regarding Newton's Second Law of Motion (Integrated Science, p 41). I chose the smallest student in my class and we both sat on a swing. We then swung back and forth several times until we picked up some momentum. When I had us both stop pumping our legs on the swings, I instructed the student to come to a halt naturally, without touching her feet to the ground. My students found that the lighter of us (my student) came to rest more quickly. However, they could not quite yet explain why.

    For the next step, we wrote down vocabulary words in their science notebooks that had to do with pendulums. Words like: momentum, pendulum, variables are words that had to do with the unit and that I thought would help with understanding the concept of pendulums. Next, we had a conversation as a class to try to tie the vocabulary words to what they witnessed with the swings. Again, my students pointed out great concepts and we had a great discussion. However, they failed to make the specific connection between the weight of a pendulum and momentum.

    Students then worked in pairs and received materials (string, paper clips and pennies) to make their own pendulums. They recorded their information on charts as they conducted several fifteen second trials of swinging their pendulums. As they did this, they gradually increased the weight by adding a penny to their paper clip on the string with each trial. In the end, we graphed the results as a class on the smart board and discussed their findings. After the experiment, the students were able to explain in their written reponses and also in class discussion that the lighter the pendulum was, the more quickly it came to rest.

    Overall, this type of experiment and inquiry-based learning greatly benefits my students. Not only does it make learning more interesting, but it encourages students to become more inquisitive and independent. Rather than just teaching students how to pass a test, this type of learning helps prepare the students to pay attention to the world around them and to become critical thinkers that can make every day, real-world connections.     

•     When I reflect back on this lesson, I would not change a thing. I actually love it that my students were having a difficult time at first understanding the concept of the pendulum and the real-world application. It forced me to get more creative. Based on my past experiences
  with scientific inquiry, the modifications I could make to this experiment to get a different or modified result would be to change different variables in the experiment. For example, if I wanted to show the students that a variable in this experiment that I could change to get a different outcome would be, I could change the starting point of when I began to swing the pendulum. I could have the student and I not go back all of the way on our swings and see how many times we swung back and forth before coming to a halt. As oppose to starting as far back as possible on the swing and then going. I would also have the students do this (and I did) where the students could do a couple of trials where they release their penny from the middle rather than all of the way at the top of the paper clip. The students saw in the end that it picked up less momentum when they did this.
  

References

Enger, E., Ross, F., Tillery, B. (2008). Integrated Science, Fourth Edition. United States of America: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The Science Center. (2003). A Case For Inquiry Based Learning. (2003) The Science Center. Retrieved from http://www.thesciencecenter.org/InquiryBasedLearn

 

Astronomy.FM now on Google+

Astronomy.FM now on Google+

Found this tonight! Should be fun to listen to!

Solar Flares and Full Moon Today!

I am interested to see if the solar flares today will effect us. Read the NASA article to check out more about it!

Check out the night time sky this month, everyone! There are some amazing things occuring! Last night, Mars showed up in the night time sky (an orangish-reddish "star") in the Eastern sky. It hasn't been this close to Earth since 2003! Also, all through the month, there are different things occuring. Check out the NASA website (on the bottom of this page) for daily images and for a planetary calendar of what is going on. It's pretty sweet!
Some links below are those that you can check the images out on and read up on what will be in the nighttime sky this month...

http://earthsky.org/tonight

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/whatsup2012March.html

Teachers, I had a sky viewing party with my students on the evening of March 19th. It was one of the most beneficial events I have ever organized. Over 150 people attended and we had a line up of telescopes that evening. I set up different stations for the students, but the most popular station was the telescope station. Ironically enough, the most powerful telescope was a children's telescope I bought for my son. We saw the surface of Venus and it was amazing! That evening I thought, "THIS is why I went into teaching". I encourage anyone to try the same event if they love astronomy or love science. The families and students loved it, too. 

Solar System

Right now in my class, my students are learning about the planets and the solar system. We just finished moon phases, which was a blast. At the end of the unit, we re-created the moon phases using oreo cookies. If I can, I will post a picture of this. It is always helpful when you can include food in a lesson because it ties in the senses to the lessons and proves to be something that they will never forget!