First Day Of Fieldwork!

Fieldwork Day 1

On Thursday, my class had our first day of fieldwork at Sacred Heart Catholic Elementary School with the sixth grade class. I have never been to this school before, so it was fun to be in a new setting. This class consists of 19 unique students. 

For this class, our group's goal was to get to know our 

students and see what they know about rocks. To accomplish this goal we first introduced ourselves and then asked the students to say 

their name and something about themselves or a hobby they like to do. Next, we had each student write down a fact they knew about rocks from their prior knowledge and then place it on the poster we made consisting of a bubble map about rocks. Then, we shared the pictures from the book A Rock Is Lively and asked our students what they observed as scientists. The students were very observant and pointed out the fact that rocks can be classified based on their characteristics. The students found the rock that looked like a watermelon the most intriguing because they had never seen that before! Finally, we had each student draw on one half of a paper a picture of a rock based on their prior knowledge and what they had seen in class that day. Eventually on the other half of the paper we will have the students write down something they have learned about rocks to go along with their drawing. 

This was a successful first day of fieldwork and our students enjoyed the activities that we did! I am looking forward to working with this class throughout fieldwork and watching them reach their goals while having fun exploring science!

What is the Difference Between A Unit Plan and a Lesson Plan?

Unit Plan v.s. Lesson Plan

During class we have learned a lot about the difference between a unit plan and a lesson plan. As an aspiring teacher it is important for me to understand the difference between the two so that I can provide the proper education for my students to reach their goals!

I have learned that the major difference between a unit plan and a lesson plan is that a unit plan is less specific in comparison to a lesson plan.  Also, a unit plan is made up of many different lesson plans that are taught over a longer time span. We can see that a unit plan covers many different topics or chapters, whereas a lesson plan is geared towards one specific topic. A unit plan is crafted in a way that at the end of the unit the students should have a new understanding of the entire topic taught as a whole. The objective of a lesson plan is that at the end of the lesson the students should be able to demonstrate a new skill. The goals of a unit plan are not very specific and tend to be very general because it covers a lot of material. The objectives of a lesson plan are extremely specific and contain a condition, behavior, and criteria. 

I have written lesson plans in my math methods class and my english methods class, but I have never written a lesson plan for science before. I have also never written an entire unit plan before. I am looking forward to creating lesson plans and a unit plan in this class and being able to teach it to the 6th grade class!

Adventures of Week One

Week one is in the books and I have already learned so much!

The first thing we did in week one was create our own portrait of a scientist.  Everyone in the class brainstormed ideas of what they thought a scientist looked like and we each drew a scientist in action and gave him/her a name.  After we were all done, we took a walk around the room and observed everyones portraits. The first thing I noticed was that most portraits contained a male scientist. Other things that I noticed were in most portraits the scientists had spiky hair, eye goggles, chemical tubes, and a science lab coat. After we discussed everyones portraits, we then uploaded our portraits to our class slideshow.  This is a place where we can share everything we create, such as our blogs! This was a fun activity because I was able to see the similarities and differences between everyones portraits! I think it was interesting to see that although most of the portraits followed the stereotypical idea of a scientist, every portrait had something different. I think this is a great activity to do with my students because it allows students to share their thoughts on what a scientist looks like as well as see their classmates ideas! This is a great opening activity for students!

The next thing we did during week one was everyone in the class used a different tool to create a presentation to share information about ourselves with the class. The tool that I used is called EMAZE! This tool is very similar to PowerPoint, but it has 2D and 3D templates that are pre-made and ready for you to fill in! EMAZE is a fun and engaging presentation tool that is perfect for teachers to use when creating presentations for their class! Teachers could also have their students create their own EMAZE presentation to share with the class.  While watching everyone in my class present their tool the one that stood out the most to me was Kahoot!  I believe this is a very engaging and exciting activity to use in the classroom. This would be great to use as an opening activity while getting to know your students!

This week we are focusing on working in our fieldwork groups and creating our unit lesson plans! I am very excited for this journey and I cannot wait to learn more!

Scientific Me!

I am very excited to learn how to make science fun for my students!

To me science means: learning about the behavior and structure of the physical and natural world around us through observation and experimentation! My past learning experiences have shaped my attitude towards science because I was able to understand that science is not all about experimenting, it takes a lot of observations as well.  Following the scientific method and acting as a scientist throughout my education has helped me form my definition of science!

I have had many different experiences with science throughout my education. When I was younger I enjoyed learning about science because we did fun experiments that kept me engaged and willing to learn.  My first experience with science was in first grade when everyone in my class each got a small plant to take care of. As a class we each watered our plants everyday and we kept them on the window sill of the classroom to receive sunlight. This experience was great for me because I was able to learn and observe the way plants live and grow. I will always remember learning that plants are just like us, because they also need water, light, nutrients, and air to survive and grow! I feel that I was very successful in science during my elementary school years because I had great teachers and had a lot of fun learning and experimenting.

When I was in second grade I went to a Mad Science assembly at my elementary school. There, they performed a hydrogen balloon explosion. The instructor poured pieces of Magnesium into a bottle of vinegar. The two reactants created a chemical reaction that produced hydrogen gas as a product. A balloon was placed over the bottle and allowed the gas to fill the balloon. Once it was filled, the instructor showed us what would happen if fire was a factor in the reaction. The lit candle stick was placed next to the balloon and when it popped there was a small scale explosion, due to the fire reacting with the hydrogen gas, which I learned was highly reactive.

When I was in fifth grade I remember participating in the science fair at my school with my friend from class.  This was my favorite experience that I journeyed through in science. We did an experiment on how plants growth is affected by different colored lights.  My friend and I followed the scientific method to do our experiment. We kept one plant under regular lighting and three other plants under different colored lighting.  We then each made a hypothesis and collected data over four weeks on whether the growth of the plant was affected by different colored lights.  After we had collected all of our data we made a presentation to give at the science fair.  This was an enjoyable experience for myself because I was able to do an experiment that I was interested in and then share the results that I found with my peers and the judges.  Although my friend and I did not win, we had a great experience and were able to learn a lot through our first journey at the science fair!

As I got into middle school and high school I did not enjoy science as much.  The material began to be more challenging and the experiments we were doing were not as fun and interesting. I also noticed that as I got older and was learning science the teacher would leave us to do the experiments on our own instead of guiding us through the process. The teacher would give us the lesson and then move on to the next topic without making sure we fully comprehended the concepts from the unit. This was hard for me especially because I did not have a passion for science.  I constantly found myself feeling behind and lost in the material. I have never had a passion for science, but I have always been interested to learn more.  

In my sophomore year of college I took astronomy and I found this class to be interesting because I learned about the stars, planets, and space! The most interesting thing that we did in this class was we went to the planetarium at SUNY New Paltz.  We took a class trip to the planetarium during our discussions about the planets.  This experience was very intriguing and helped better my knowledge on the solar system.  The teacher in the planetarium was very helpful and energetic about the material we were learning about.  He guided us through the solar system and shared ancient stories about the stars.  

I am very excited to begin my journey through the science methods course! I am looking forward to learning about fun and exciting ways to engage my students in making new discoveries through science. I want my students to enjoy learning about science and feel like actual scientists.  I hope to inspire my students to look forward to exploring science!