What a semester!

Wow! What a semester! Over this Spring semester I was in both Social Studies and Science Methods classes and it was a lot of work to do.  I learned more then I ever thought I could about technology to use in the classroom. Along with technology I have also learned a lot about what kind of science teacher I want to be. I want the students to be able to experiment and come up with their own ideas of science rather then just giving them the answer. I will emphasize that in science there is often more then one answer and that sometimes there is no right answer. 


 This class along with my other methods classes left me with a lot of work to do. It was hard to complete all the assignments at times due to my time schedule between work and school, I tried to make it work the best that I could.

How can you change the world?

This is a very captivating video about Earth, how it came about, what is happening to it, how it is changing. This is a good way to introduce a class to a unit about earth.

Also with this video a class could brainstorm how they can help the planet. In the class that I watched this movie for, we came up with a petition. Here is the petition that we created.

The Keys to Unlocking Science for Kids

I have recently read the article Keys to Teaching the Nature of Science. In this article They discuss the nature of science (NOS) and how to use it in the classroom. They explain that a big part of science is interacting with one another, scientist work with one another to come up with answers and to solve problems.  Science is highly influenced by culture, society and history, so working with other people on science experiments will give more then one opinion and outlook on something.


Another thing that the article talks about is how all the types of sciences astronomy, physical, earth etc. are all different; all the sciences make a hypothesis, do an experiment to test the hypothesis. draw a conclusion. the article says that there is no universal rules for science however each science does each of the scientific method steps differently. This is what we need to teach our students. 

I chose this article because it seemed to have good insight on how to effectively incorporate science into the classroom.  
here is the article if you would like to read it!

Elephnats may be able to save the future

In recent news, it has been found out that "elephant genes may provide a crucial clue in the fight against human cancer." This news came from the Ringling Brothers Circus. They are retiring their elephants due to all the controversy with having such big wild life animals in the circus. These elephants have been in captivity for too long so can not be sent back into the wild. They are going to be used for cancer research and to help pediatric cancer patience so they still have a purpose. 
 

Scientific research has found that elephants should be much more likely to get cancer because they have so many more cells then humans do. However, scientists have found that elephants have an extra gene that stops and kills cancerous cells and tumors before they form. 

Scientists and medical professionals are taking blood from the Ringling Brother elephants to taking the extra gene/cell they have out of it, to try and see if it will work for humans! Medical professionals are also considering to make a medicine that mimics the cell. 


I chose this topic to talk about because if scientist and medical professionals are able to figure out how to use this gene/cell with humans, it can change the world and the future forever. When you are teaching, It is important to help the students understand that medicine is a big part of science and so are animals. This can also show students that animals can help humans. 

Here are the links in case you are interested in learning more about this topic! 
CNN
PBS
Fox
Ringling Brothers

Science is out of this world!

In my Science and Technology Methods class we learned a lot about astronomy and how to teach it in a classroom.

The first thing we did was make a collage of space pictures and websites about space for children.
here is the  collage I made using linoit

The second project we did was come up with a word cloud using words related to space, that were commonly found in our all of our websites and articles.
Here is the word cloud I made with my group using tagul

The third project we did was make a timeline about astronomy events using different websites.
here is the timeline I made with my group using timetoast 

There are so many projects and activities that can be done when doing an astronomy unit of study. Students can use lots of different types of technology and projects to enhance their learning. This unit of study is very interesting and easy to make engaging for students.  

trading thoughts about trrade books

Recently in class we created a project about trade books. These are books that can be used to teach about a science topic/unit of study.They are usually informative/fiction books but can sometimes be non fiction books. 

The project that we did was making a book talk and a book trailer about the trade book that we chose. 

I would use this activity in a classroom because it would help the children really understand the book. In order to do this activity the you have to know the book inside and out, so the children would really have to study the book. 

For my trade book I used the book fresh water animals.

If you are interested in learning more about this book:
Here is my book talk 
Here is my book trailer '

 

Explore and Explain about the earth

1. Consider the area of Earth’s surface, atmosphere, and weather about which you feel most knowledgeable. What ideas do you have regarding what you will do as a teacher to keep your knowledge current?
   I feel as though I am not that knowledgeable on this topic. If I had to chose one I know  the most about it would be weather. I recently took a geography class, which taught a lot about weather. However, I will have to view articles and websites to gain more knowledge. 
2. Consider the area of Earth’s surface, atmosphere, and weather about which you feel least knowledgeable. What ideas do you have regarding what you will do as a teacher to continue to strengthen your knowledge base about this topic?
   I am least knowledgeable
   about the earths surface, I would need to do extensive research to gain enough knowledge to be able to teach this lesson I will look through articles and texts and class reading to help me better understand this topic. As a teacher, I would also go to my collages and ask them for further information on how to teach this topic, what they have done and ideas they have. 
3. What resources are you aware of that will help you be an effective teacher of Earth’s surface, atmosphere, and weather?
   This scholastic website is one good resource for weather, it is an interaactive website for children to use. 
   This website has activities and information for both children an teachers . 
   
   
   This scholastic website has information for teachers about the earth and its surface.
   This website has information, videos and pictures on the earths surface 
   
   
   This national geographic website has a video along with information about the earths atmoshere 
   This website has all different kinds of information about the earths atmosphere for children to use. 
   

   
   

A lot to learn!

Over the last few weeks, we have been working in a 5th grade class.  The children in this class are very rambunctious, because they are in 5th grade, the teachers need to keep the students engaged which is hard to do, or they will lose them very quickly. The teacher candidates have done a good job keeping the children engaged, especially with the activities that they plan.  The only problem is that with some of the activities, the children got too rambunctious and the class got very loud a little out of control. What all of the teacher candidates (including myself) needed to learn is how to allow the students to do an engaging (fun) activity without losing control of the classroom. I feel as though we all did learn how to better control the classroom. 

My groups part of the unit was making model ponds and teaching the students about freshwater ecosystems. I would have to say that both of the lessons that I taught with my group did not go as we planned, but that doesn't mean they went bad. The students really enjoyed our activities.

When designing the lesson plans, there were a lot of parts that had to be included. It was hard to make one lesson plan between the four group members because we all had different ideas and not all of us were able to do the things we wanted to.   

The direct lesson, which was also inquiry because they created their ponds, was a little difficult to design because it was both. it was also difficult because we kept having to change it.  when implementing it into the classroom, we thought that we had all of the parts planned and that we eliminated chaos however, it was still a little bit chaotic. The ponds did get made and everything worked out, and it wasn't out of control. 

The other inquiry lesson was a bit more complicated to design. The activity that we planned was a web quest which alone takes a while to put together. Besides that, there was  more parts to it because we were having the students present their findings from the web quest, with the help of a teacher. When we taught the lesson, the students all seemed to know what to do, but we rushed a little bit. 

 

Science for the future

Today we went to Bishop Dunn and worked with a science teacher there. This lesson was both informative and engaging. The first thing we did was an experiment, this was the introduction which was designed to "draw us in" she offered to give us candy which was an incentive. Doing a small quick experiment is a good way to engage students, I would like to use this technique in my future classroom. After that we started discussing things about science, what we thought about it and what our prior experiences with it are.

One thing that the science teacher spoke about that really made me think was " not everyone is going to like science, but everyone is going to vote." What she meant by this was that not every student is going to like what you are teaching them and that is OK, but you have to inform them about these things such as space and climate change, so that when they get older they can make informative decisions to vote on. I never really thought about this, but it is definitely a good thing to think about while teaching, because I'm not too fond of science myself, but i have to engage the students anyways so they can learn important information for their future.

Second Teaching Day

well, this lesson did not go as planned, but it worked.

For this lesson we used technology, which is always risky because it may not work. along with the technology issue, we also had a time issue. All of this along with excitable students, became a bit chaotic... 

The lesson itself had a lot of parts to it, 2 worksheets,  research, a powerpoint, presentation and a homework assignment. This was a lot to accomplish in an even shorter period of time then we were given, which is why things were rushed.

Along with these issues, there were some group problems. A lot of our lesson was planned last minute because things kept getting changed, which caused confusion on my part. We were also missing a group member.

The outcome of the lesson was OK, the students understood the concept and were able to explain what they learned. It was just a bit unorganized.

From this lesson I learned that I need to speak up a bit more in groups or I will be spoken over. Something else I learned is that modeling what you want to be done helps the students tremendously. Our modeling part was rushed and the students became a little confused on what was expected of them. 

Science Fair

We were assigned to make a science fair project for our fieldwork school. Before doing this project, I had a little bit of experience with science fair projects because I did a few when I was younger. This project was a bit more in depth then the once that I did as a child, but I definitely learned a lot more from this one.

I decided that I was going to do an experiment on density. The experiment was called " Rainbow in a Jar."  What I did was put all different kinds of liquids( after putting food dye in them) into a jar to see which would sink and which would stay at the top (density).

I ended up doing a trial run with my class in the daycare (school age) that I work at. The children really enjoyed doing it. Then when I got home, I did the project again but with different colors, so you could see the "rainbow" better.

Through this experience I noticed that children (in my class) like to do science. It is both engaging and educational for them. with most projects they will just think "this is fun", but they will actually also be learning. When students are engaged and are having "fun" they learn more. 

When I did it in my class the children were all different ages. So I could see which grade understood density and which did not. However, no matter what grade they were, they really didn't grasp the density of liquids because they are a little harder to tell. So no matter what grade would do this with I would weigh each liquid after the lesson. 
For 2nd and 3rd grade: I would do it how I did it in my class as a whole group project, each student would have a part in the lesson but it would be done as a whole the students could understand it better.As a group we would come up with which liquid we think is the most dense and which is the least dense and put them in order according to our hypothesis. ( it most likely wont be right) so we will trial and error until we get them into the correct order (density, so non of the liquids are mixed)
for 4th and 5th grade: I would have them do the experiment in small groups. they would get the process sheet and follow the directions. Then as a group I would let them hypothesis what would happened if they did it out of order and allow them to put the liquids in out of order to see what would happen.
for 6th grade: I would allow the students to do the experiment in small groups. they would hypothesis what order the liquids should go in and them try it in that order. If the liquids mix, they will see that they did not do it correctly. They will have 3 tries to put the liquids into the correct order. 

This experiment will teach the students about the inquiry process because they would hypothesis which liquid is most and least dense and test their hypothesis through trial and error until they get it right.

here was the process:

 Materials: 

• A tall, see-through container (I used a clean mason jar.)
• Honey
• Light corn syrup
• Dish soap (either blue like Dawn or green like Palmolive)
• Olive oil
• Rubbing alcohol
• Water
• Food coloring

Steps:
1. Pour Honey into the middle of the jar
2. Dye corn syrup and pour into the middle of the jar
3. Pour dish soap into the middle of the jar
4. Dye water and pour it into the middle of the jar
5. Last pour Olive Oil into the middle jar.

In the field

Over the last few weeks, we have been working in a 2nd grade class. My group has not taught yet, but from my observations I have noticed a lot of things about this class. The children in this class are very rambunctious, because they are in 5th grade, the teachers need to keep the students engaged which is hard to do, or they will lose them very quickly. The teacher candidates have done a good job keeping the children engaged, especially with the activities that they plan.  The only problem is that with some of the activities, the children got to rambunctious and the class got very loud a little out of control. What all of the teacher candidates (us) need to learn is how to allow the children to be engaged and have "fun" without allowing the class to get too out of control.

First Teaching Day

Wow! I finally had my first day of teaching! Our groups lessons for the class was to create a model pond, the children were so excited to create their ponds.

The first thing we did was explain to the class what they would be doing with the ponds. Next each of us took one group that we would work with to help them create their pond. In the groups we assigned each child a job. I thought that this was a very good idea, because then there would be no fighting on who gets what and everyone got a chance; however, there was still a little bit of arguing (in my group at least) because not all of them got the job that they wanted.  

Once we started putting the pond together it became a little chaotic. All though all of the students were having fun,every group was on a different step and the students were all over the place.  
To change this we could have had all the groups stay together by doing only one part at a time, which was what we originally planned, but we didn't execute it fully. But In the end, the ponds came out great and the whole class had a lot of fun doing it. 

First Day at Fieldwork

Yesterday was our first day at fieldwork. We observed the first group from our class conduct a direct lesson. They did a great job, especially because they did not know what to expect from the children because they were the first group. While observing the first group, I was able to see the classroom dynamic and how the students are; They are a lively group with a lot to say! This is a good thing because they can be very interactive with lessons, but it can be challenging for direct lessons when there is not much interaction, its more just listening and learning. 

My group is doing the lat part of the lesson, which is making a model Eco-system pond. Our group is realizing that there is a lot that goes into this part of the lesson, we are working on coming up with a creative plan. As we are the last group, I look forward to learning from the other groups how we can better conduct our lesson.

Scientific Me

Sarah Lehrfeld

Throughout my life thus far, I have experienced science in many different ways, both good and bad. I feel as though my thoughts of science have changed over the years due to the teachers that I have had. This will help me to become a better science teacher. When I was younger, I would do my own science experiments at home, mostly mixing baking soda and vinegar and seeing what would happen when I mixed other ingredients into it. In elementary school I have fond memories of science. It was always fun and interactive, everything involving science was hands on.  In middle school science got more difficult and a little less hands on but I still enjoyed it. High school I when I started to lose interest in science.

My first memory of science was in 1^st grade, watching chicken eggs hatch. I remember each hour a different person got to check on the eggs to see if anything was happening and we had to log it in a book. During this process we learned about what the chicks looked like inside of the egg at that stage of its progression. Once the eggs hatched we got to watch them grow a bit and play with them which was a lot of fun. Also in 3^rd and 4^th grade we watched caterpillars turn into butterflies, and then released them. This was also enjoyable because we got to see them actually change and see the life cycle first hand. The only problem with this experiment was that many of the chrysalis fell and we lost a lot of the butterflies. In third grade we also learned a lot about rocks; I loved collecting rocks so I found this interesting. I remember after learning about them in class I would go home and look at my rock collection and try to relate them to what I had learned. I even got to bring my rock collection into class! All throughout elementary school we had a star lab come to our school and I always looked forward to it. It was a big blow up dome that would be put in the gym. We would have to climb into it through this tunnel-tube and inside it looked like a night sky. We would learn about the different constellations and how to find them. Also in elementary school, I was in a science fair where I made a light bulb light up, by creating a filament and connecting copper wires to it and a battery to it.

In middle school science was still fun because we did a lot of experiments, but it was becoming less hands on. In middle school the only topics I remember learning about were animal and human anatomy and human genes. While learning about the animal anatomy we dissected a frog. While learning about human genes we did an assignment where we had to figure out what color eyes and hair would be dominant in different circumstances.

High school is when I lost interest in science. All of my science teachers were very strict and made science extremely boring and difficult. However, when I was a junior in high school I was in an early childhood education program where I had an internship in an elementary school. During this internship I experienced different science lessons. One lesson was watching a live recording of a bird’s nest. We watched the eggs hatch live and saw what the mother did with the babies throughout the day. I also got to experience a “teachable” moment, from the teacher showing her children where salamanders live/belong. A student brought to class salamanders that they found at home. The teacher of the class brought the students outside to a small stream they had outside of the school and released the salamanders.

In college I’ve only had to take astronomy and the science class that I am currently in, exercise science and sports medicine. Astronomy was interesting but it was a very difficult course. It involved a lot of equations and terminology to remember.

Overall, I have enjoyed science both in and out of school when it was hands on. In elementary school I did fairly well in science however, as I got older and science became less hands on, it was little harder for me to understand. This made me become less successful and less interested in science.

In my opinion, science is based on hands on experiences and experiments. It’s about having students learn with their hands and their senses and making sense of the world around them.