The Grand Finale

This course has given me so much in such a short amount of time. I will take the lessons and knowledge of science from this course and apply it to my own teaching of science in the future. I learned so many skills in this class like how to use a SmartBoard and how to create my own Prezi. I have learned that it is crucial as a teacher to pre-assess at the beginning of a lesson or unit, assess while doing the lesson, and assess once the lesson or unit is done.Or Diagnostic, Formative, and Summative assessment. It is important that we as teachers engage our students in the lessons that we lead them through. 


My knowledge of science has been contributed too by various activities that we have completed this semester. I will such activities like Jigsaw, Science Circus, Balloon Activity, and Float and Sink in my classroom when I am a teacher because these activities helped me to learn about science in a hands-on way. These activities just reignited the passion and zeal that I have for science, and I look forward to creating more science lessons for my students in the future. I really enjoyed reading our textbook  Science Stories, by Janice Koch. I have learned so much through this book especially from the different Science Stories in each of the chapters. I want to integrate the science stories into my classroom when talking about the different units of science and make them my own. My favorite science story was An Edible Solar System in which Mr. Johnston and his students created the planets using different fruits and vegetables, using a pumpkin as the sun!

The most memorable class projects for me were the Science Circus, Balloon Activity, and Jigsaw Activity. My favorite activity was the Science Circus, in which each group created an activity related to either earth science, physical science, or life science. Our group had physical science and so we created an activity exploring the property of gravity. What made it really fun was that we got to go around to the other teams lessons and test them out for ourselves. My favorite station was the one where we had to create the phases of the moon with marshmallows. It was really fun because no one in my group besides myself and Kira liked marshmallows, so we got to eat the marshmallows into the appropriate shapes.

In reality every single aspect of this course has helped me to grow as student and as a professional. I learned how to create a collage of lessons into a science circus, and how  to write objectives for my lessons. I learned how to engage students in an activity and learned that it is important to make the activities something that the kids can relate to and enjoy. I learned how to assess my future students and  how to become more comfortable in teaching science and understanding science through this class. I have learned how to write an inquiry based lesson plan, and how to reflect on myself and how I can become a better teacher.

It was great to be in a school environment, I believe that it is one of the most important experiences a pre-service teacher should have. It was a great opportunity to really see how a lesson is implemented, and how the planned matches up to the reality. Seeing my lesson work out wonderfully did wonders for my self confidence as a future teacher. I give major credit to the students of Ms. Benfers class. I never had an entire gaggle of older females intrude into one of my classrooms and attempt to teach me anything. They took it with stride, however and made the experience truly memorable. We were able to watch Ms. Benfer, and other groups present their lessons, all of which included inquiry. Everyone did wonderfully, the followed the steps of an inquiry lesson, engaged the students in the lesson and responded to any questions that they may have had at the end. 

The e-folio presentations were wonderful. Everyone had a page or two that they were very proud to show, and even though no one had their completely finished, it was obvious that when they finally are they will be a concrete sample of how far they have come during this semester. I really enjoyed the efolios that used the animations, and the ones that used pictures to show and represent their page. I really enjoy perusing through all of them, and I hope that my efolio is as esteemed in their eyes and theirs is in mine. 

This final project is definitely different then taking a final test in the fact that it is a much better way to see whether or not we understood the material and have grown from it. It is a collection of all the work that we have done, showing our mastery of all the skills and lessons we have learned. This project gave us the room to do what we wanted with it, making each one unique. It took a lot of time and effort to finish it, but I am really proud of the end result and I feel that it has helped me to grow as a professional.

I have learned so much about myself through this course. I  learned that blogging is a way of communicating with peers and colleagues and that it is also a means of self reflection. I have  learned that the journey towards improving myself and becoming a better teacher is a never ending process. I have learned to gracefully receive constructive criticism and using this feedback from my teachers and classmates in my assignments to better my future work and presentations. I have learned that we can learn a lot from listening to what others have to say, but that we can also learn just as much from looking into ourself and back at what we've done and seeing room for improvement. Both of these methods together have allowed me to become a reflective thinker in a community of learners, and I look forward to continuing my journey towards becoming a teacher.

Peanut Butter Fun Facts

At dinner tonight we had apple slices with our meal. I love having apples with peanut butter so I went to go get it off the shelf. Sugar Free Peanut Butter. I didn't know peanut butter had sugar in it to begin with. So I bring it to the table and open it up, and on top of the peanut butter is a pool of oil.  My brothers freaked out because they've never had natural peanut butter before so they thought the peanut butter had gone bad. I explained to my brothers that it was just oil from the peanut butter and that it was alright. Stirring it up I put some on each of their apples, faces looking skeptical, but both still deemed it edible after the first bite and put peanut butter on the rest of their slices. 


Here's an article about natural peanut butter that I thought was very informative and sarcastically witty.
All Natural Peanut Butter: A Survivor's Guide


This is a photo of the peanut butter before being stirred:

A Forest of Flora

When I arrived home I was pleasantly surprised by the many different types of flowers blossoming around my house and neighborhood. I love taking picture, so I thought I'd share these pieces of beauty with you. From my teacher perspective, I would love to be able to take children outside of the classroom to explore and take pictures as I have done today, it was really enjoyable and I ended up learning a lot about the different types of flowers, trees, and other plants around me.

Recommending Myself?

Writing a letter of recommendation was harder than I thought it would be. Looking back at all the work I did in this course made it difficult to choose the best highlighting points of my accomplishments. It was hard for me to find the right words to express my worth, and I still don't think it's ready to be sent out to future employers just yet. I still need to put a lot of work into finding the right balance of self appraisal such that future employers know my worth, but that I don't sound too haughty of myself. I do believe, however, that my thoughts as to how our professor sees me. I believe that she would be very proud of me and my work and how far I have come in her class.

Science and Technology

I had always thought that it was important to be technologically savvy, seeing as how most of our daily life is submerged in technology or the products of technology. I never realized, however, how many tools are out there on the internet for free. I have learned to use a wide variety of presentation tools, as well as how to find relavent and credible material to use while conducting research. I've also learned how to sort through most of the information out on the web, and find what I'm looking for in less time than it would have taken me before this class. Some of the technologies that I learned about were the Smartboard, in which I have taken a 3 hour class learning how to operate one counting towards my professional development. During the class we created activities using the Smartboard, and presented our work to the class. It's important to know how to navigate a Smartboard because more and more classrooms are being installed with them. They are a great tool and resource and thanks to this class I feel fully capable of using one to it's maximum potential in my classroom. I also learned about Google Docs and how it is a wonderful tool when you have to work collaboratively but schedules don't match up. I now use Google Docs for many of my assignments, because instead of being saved to the computer it is saved in the 'cloud' on the internet, therefore I can access my work at any computer with internet access. I also learned how to use presentation tools such as Prezi, and art tools like Queeky. The amount that I have learned from this class is staggering, and I still look forward to learning more and imporving my knowledge of the available technologies that many don't know about. Learning about all this technology has helped me to become more prepared in teaching my students about technology. It's important that I impart to my students how important and useful technology is, but that it is also continuously growing and that we can never stop learning more about it. I now feel confident that I will be able to give my students the necessary tools and lessons to become successful when they finish their schooling.

Reflecting on Reflection

I have learned so much about myself, the process of reflection, the role of feedback in teaching and communicating with peers and colleagues, student motivation, engagement, and how they all tie together. Throughout this class, I learned more about myself as a scientist, student, and teacher. As a scientist I learned that I enjoy exploring different possibilities and creating experiments to test my hypotheses. I grew as a student because I learned so much about the world around me, and also what's beyond just what's around me. As a teacher I was able to implement an inquiry based lesson successfully and learn from it what I should do differently next time. The process of reflection is constant. I am always wondering, "well how will this effect me, or those around me." I also think about what I can do to better myself, how I can improve my work, or what I can do differently for the next time. It's a long and time consuming process. Keeping a blog was probably the hardest thing to do for me in this class. I'm not in the habit of writing in a journal, and I had never had to keep a blog before. I honestly didn't like writing about every single little thing that happened, I believe that that took away from the independence a blog should have. If I could do it differently I would have like to keep a picture journal of my journey throughout this class, as I love to take pictures of my surroundings, or things that find interesting. Seeing a picture for me brings back more memories and thoughts then a passage about what I did in class that day does. The role of feedback in teaching is crucial. Without feedback, we don't know whether the lesson was successful or not, or whether the students really took anything meaningful from it. Feedback is how we improve our lessons and how we gear the curriculum more specifically towards our students. Communicating with our peers and colleagues enables us to go beyond what we can do on our own. Collaboration is necessary towards giving students a meaningful education. Feedback also helps us to motivate our students. By knowing that most of the boys like learning about bugs, or the weather, we can tie certain lessons into that topic. Feedback helps us learn about our students such that we can make the material more personable for them, allowing them to get excited about the material and eager to learn more. This task helped me to meet many of the INTASC and ACEI standards. Below are the exact standards I have met through my reflective practice.

Assessment.. Hooray!

Throughout this class I have learned so much about the different ways in which we assess students, and what sort of assessment we should be using. What I knew coming into this class was mostly about Traditional Assessment testing and quizzes and forms that aren't necessarily applicable to a situation. With these types of assessment children are thinking, but they are not necessarily using the higher order of thinking, in which they have to create, evaluate, and analyse situations. I have learned that Authentic assessment is the best way to make sure that we are molding our students into productive citizens. I now know about diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment, and examples of each such that I may implement them in my future classroom. The numerous ways that children can be assessed during these times covers multiple ways of representing information, and fits all different styles of teaching. Below are the standards that I have met as a future professional and that have helped my development throughout the semester.

What's this about Blogging?

Keeping a blog throughout this semester was probably one of the hardest tasks to accomplish for me. I'm not in the habit of writing something down almost every day like I have in this blog. It reminds me of keeping a diary, of which I could never do growing up or this very day. I was, however, already used to observing my surroundings and making observations about nature. Feedback in teaching is crucial for a successful classroom. There must be feedback from the students whether or not something is or isn't working, feedback from the parents regarding the work their children have to do, feedback from other teachers on where they are in the curriculum and how we can help to improve each others' lessons, and feedback from yourself. Questioning whether or not the lesson worked out as planned, why and why not, and what can be changed to make it a better lesson next time are all very important reflecting tools. Having students keep a science blog, however, can motivate them to explore more and to research what they are really interested in such that they can share with their classmates via their blogged what they've learned, or what they're interested in. Keeping a blog is a very useful that students can use to further their understanding of science and initiate them, if they haven't already been, into the technological community.

Writing my Educational Philosophy

This is probably one of the most important assignments that I have completed this year. I put a lot of thought into this statement, making it a statement that I would still agree with and support when I become a teacher. This is the type of classroom I want to have. I want students to not want to go home at the end of the day because they want to learn more about themselves, their peers, and the world around them. I want them to come in to the class in the morning ready and eager to learn, just as I will be. I want to leave a positive lasting impression on my students, as well as the school I work in. In the future I will be able to look back at this philosophy statement and realize how far I have come as an individual and as a teacher. I hope that in the future I will still have this want and need to give students the best possible opportunities to learn and the lifelong reasoning and application skills as possible. I want to see my students in the future as successful and happy individuals and have my own happiness in knowing that I was a small step in helping them get there.

My Educational Philosophy Statement

     I truly believe and know for a fact that the children in our classrooms are our future. They will be the ones to explore and discover the world after we have; to find the things we overlooked and to invent the things we couldn’t dream of. I want them to provide for them the knowledge and skills to be able to explore their world to the best of their ability. I believe each and every child has the potential to bring something unique and special to the classroom and to the world. I will strive to help children develop their potential by believing in them as capable individuals and by creating for them a community of learners as well as a safe learning environment. I will assist children in discovering who they are, so they can express their own opinions and nurture their own ideas. I have a mission to make the world a place where people learn to respect, accept, and embrace the differences between us and help one another to keep progressing.

     Every classroom presents a unique community of learners that varies not only in abilities, but also in learning styles. My role as a teacher is to give children the tools with which to build upon and evaluate their knowledge. To accomplish this goal, I will teach to the needs of each child so that all learners can feel capable and successful. I will present curriculum that involves the interests of the children and makes learning relevant to life. I will incorporate themes, integrated units, projects, group work, individual work, and hands-on learning in order to make children active learners. Finally, I will tie learning into the world community to help children become caring and active members of society.

     My classroom will be a caring and safe environment where each child will have the room to grow into a member of society. I will allow children to become responsible members of our classroom community by using strategies such as class meetings, positive discipline, and democratic principles. In showing children how to become responsible for themselves as well as their own learning, I will give them the tools to become successful in life, to believe in each other, and to believe in their own abilities and potential.

     Teaching is a lifelong learning process of learning about new philosophies and new strategies, learning from the parents and community, learning from colleagues, and especially learning from the children. Children have taught me to open my mind to all of the things that can be, and to reach out and strive for those things.  I want them to never lose this train of thought, that anything is accomplishable if they put the work and effort into making it possible.

Models Я Us

Certain things can only be explored through models. For example, if I were teaching my class about the digestive system I would not ask for a volunteer so that we can open them up and learn 'hands on'. Instead, I would have the students explore a medical model of the digestive system,  or manipulate a 3d virtual model on the computer. Lessons should always be paired with a visual model or presentation for the children. Often these models or presentations are the only way in which the students makes a connection to the material they are learning and what it actually means. If children are assigned to make a model, they often go out of their way to learn more about their specific project. In order to make a model, you have to know what part goes where, and often that leads students to ask the question, "why does it go there?" Thus making models is a great way to spur creative thinking and have students explore on their own. 

Making a Prezi

Creating a Prezi was really fun, but also frustrating at times. Being new to this presentation tool, I was not aware of all the little tricks and how to preform certain operations, even after taking the tutorial. However, despite my hiccups with the software, I found it to be a very interesting tool to use. It makes PowerPoints look dull and boring in comparison, and I'd rather more teachers use this type of presentation in the future. I know that I will use this type of presentation often in my classroom to start discussion and get the students thinking about the topic instead of just copying down verbatum what is on the slide. When students do this I feel like they don't fully comprehend the meaning or lesson of the presentation, and that getting them engaged in the lesson is the most authentic form of teaching.

Who is that in the mirror?

The last chapter was all about reflection and self-assessment. As teachers, reflection is an active and constant process. Being an effective teacher requires that we frequently reflect on our students' thinking and on our own teaching practices. Reflecting on how my students are responding to a lesson may lead to me altering my lesson plan and changing the course of subsequent lessons. On a larger scale, being reflective about my teaching practice will allow me to seek out additional means for professional development such as workshops and contacts with other teachers. With the help of this chapter I have started to develop my own personal teaching philosophy, as well as gained a deeper understanding of professional development. When I think of professional development I think of it as what I need before I student teach. However now I see that professional development never ends, and in order to become the best teacher I can be I will consistently and continually try to better myself.
I really enjoyed the poem at the end of the chapter!


Investigate and you will find,
New information of some kind,
Question all your observations,
Understand through your explanations,
Integrate what you have discovered,
Reflect and share what you have uncovered.
You are doing science!


By Carol Federico

What IS the Big Idea?

The main focus of this chapter was being able to match assessment to instruction. In this chapter we learn about the three types of assessment, diagnostic, formative, and summative. Diagnostic assessment is when teachers assess the students at the very beginning of the lesson, they do this by asking questions, or a quick recap quiz. Formative assessment is used to gauge students' understanding of a particular topic in a unit in order to judge their progress and adjust the rest the instruction accordingly. Summative assessment comes at the end of a unit or course and is used to document students' acheivement. Final exams are a typical example, but a more thorough example of a students understanding at the end of the unit would be something that they have to create, such as a portfolio. Assessment is not seperate from instruction. In reality the two join naturally together in the instructional context. Whenever we are doing science with students, we are engaged in assessment. Different types of authentic assessment are science notebooks, portfolios, science conversations, concept maps or cartoons, and electronic presentations. When we create our lessons it is important to keep in mind what kind of assessment we will be using, as well as how our lessons connect to both the national and state standards. 

Reflecting on Fieldwork

I have always felt that fieldwork experience was the greatest opportunity for those who want to be teachers to really understand what is expected of them, and what they have to look forward to in a few years. It helps many in deciding whether or not they want to really be a teacher, and often times helps a student decide whether elementary or secondary education is where they'd like to teach. I have always enjoyed fieldwork, I believe that it gives us a way to apply what we learn in the classroom in a meaningful context. It's one thing to write a lesson plan and know the components back and forth, but another to actually implement this plan and see how the students work with it. Knowing that I would get the experience with teaching children this early on in my college education is what solidified my decision to go to Mount Saint Mary College. Working with my student (as seen above) was a great experience. It showed me how fast children really learn about things that I have long since taken for granted as common knowledge. Being able to reword or create an example was my biggest challenge, but also my biggest victory and sense of pride. When I came up with multiple examples of what a mixture is versus what a solution is he really seemed to understand and fly through the work. What I thought was best, however, was working with half of the class in implementing our lesson. I have worked with students one on one, and in small groups (four to five students), but never before had I worked with so many students all at once. It was incredible the difference between teaching one student and teaching thirteen of them. I really do believe, however, that it worked out very well. Our cooperating teacher was great and very helpful in creating our lessons and working with the students. She was a great model for what we should do in our classrooms. I look forward to the next time I am able to implement a science lesson or activity.

Teaching a Science Lesson!

Today was a great day for me and my group. We presented our  5e lesson plan to Bishop Dunn Memorial School’s fifth graders and it went great! I was originally very worried because we had to share the 50 minute time slot with another group, giving each group little less than a half hour to conduct their lesson. Well we were the second group to perform, and the group before ran over the time they were given. Once the group before us had finished we technically had only 5 minutes to present our lesson (that can’t happen). We knew we were crunched for time, so we just started off the lesson as quick as we could. We couldn’t really do a quick warm-up activity with them as we had planned, so we just explained the assignment to them really quickly then split them up into groups. My group, since we were the last to present, decided to put together a culminating activity for the students to participate in as a way to present their knowledge of the chapter. We created four stations at which each group of students had a different assignment. There was a song/rap table in which the students could create their own chemical change rap, or sing along with one that we found online. Another group had to create a short skit about their favorite part of the chapter. Then there was one group that was giving a piece of oak tag with the letters that spelt out Chemical Change, in which they were to make an acrostic poem out of. And lastly there was a group that was assigned to draw and create a collage of all the important ideas that they learned from the chapter and put them onto a piece of oak tag. We gave the students approximately 10 minutes (probably less) to work on these projects. Myself and my co-teachers walked about from station to station to monitor the students progress and help out when needed. Each group of students was having a great time creating their masterpieces. At the end of the ‘creating’ phase we asked the students to come up and present their work and why they chose to do what they did. I felt that this lesson went splendidly, and if there was one thing I would change it would be to get a bit more time to actually engage the students instead of just throwing them into the assignment. However, given the circumstances I feel really proud of our lesson and of all the work the students were able to accomplish, presenting their understanding of the material in a variety of different ways.

Observing a Group's Lesson

Today at Bishop Dunn Memorial School we observed a group of our peers implementing their  lesson plan with Mrs. Benfer’s fifth grade science class. I loved how they first engaged the students,  giving them a problem to solve (what had more vitamin C, and orange or a vitamin supplement of  vitamin C?). This got the students really thinking about the problem. The group then asked the students  to give their answer and explain why they picked what they did. This introduction led into the main body  of their inquiry lesson, which was to discover whether the item was made with chemical technology or not. The students were broken into groups of four to five and each given a set of different materials to explore and ponder over. When the exploration phase was done the teacher candidates pulled up an activity that they had created on the smartboard. A representative from each group had to come up and drag the items that they were given into the ‘chemically engineered’ vortex or the ‘other’ vortex. If they were right the image was sucked into the vortex. This was a great use of technology in the lesson, and I really thought it made the lesson that more engaging and enjoyable for the students. The lesson was very well made and executed; I hope that when it is my turn to teach our groups’ lesson that I will be able to do as well a job as the group did today.

Getting to the Core

Chapter 12 just discussed the Big Ideas and Systems that a teacher will most definitely need to cover during the year. The information given is what we need to know to teach the subject, but I hope that almost everyone in college should already know the material mentioned in the book. The material covered was solar systems, human body systems, simple machines, the earth as a super-system, interactions and patterns of change, heat energy and matter electricity, light, sound, and magnetism. After covering these concepts, the book then goes on to explain how to develop these units, and what sort off activities would be appropriate for each unit. What I liked best about the chapter is that it gives a checklist at the end to evaluate the science curriculum that you create. It helps because if you know what to work towards, your units will be more centered, organized, and focused. 

Is that edible?

After class today there was a book fair in the Hudson auditorium that I volunteered to help work at. While walking around straightening up books, I saw a cookbook and thought to myself, "hmmmm I really want to start cooking more often, Aquinas food isn't always that good." So I bought the book and haggled one of my friends to drive me to our local Price Chopper. I had picked out a recipe during the car ride there and decided I was going to make a seafood avocado salad. Bad decision in hindsight, my advice to anyone reading this, if you have no experience in preparing seafood then get someone who does and watch them first. So I get all of the ingredients and I bring them back to school. I had already cut up the seafood and I was moving on to the avocado. I was REALLY surprised when I tried to cut through it that the knife wouldn't go all the way through. I was perplexed because I didn't think that avocados had a seed, well boy was I wrong. This is a picture of the seed from the avocado:

It was gigantic! I was thoroughly impressed with it. It was bigger than a golf ball, closer to the size of a lacrosse ball really. Oh and if people were wondering, the salad was horrible. So no, it was not edible.  :(

Of Electricity and Atoms

This chapter dealt a lot with the concept of energy and the alternative conceptions many students will have. However, these are not the only alternative conceptions that occur with this subject. It is found among teachers, administrators, creators of curriculum materials, and many others exist in the science education system itself. In the chapter two teachers are given science kits to use to introduce the unit on electricity. The kits even come with manuals for the teacher and the student. Wonderful!!! One might think this, but often teachers make the mistake of following these instructions thinking that this is the best thing for the students. It is a good idea to read the manual to get an idea of what you could do, but the true lesson planning should come from the teacher themselves. This is because we should be personalizing the content to our students and getting them engaged, not having them follow a how to booklet on how to make a circuit. The same goes for the molecule building kits that even I was fond of as a child. We should have the children explore using inquiry and if the little booklet doesn't include that little tidbit then it is up to us to create it. 

Meeting Ms. Benfer

Today our class for Science Methods in Childhood Education went to the elementary school right on campus, Bishop Dunn Memorial School, to observe the science teacher leading an inquiry based lesson with the fifth graders. We filed into the classroom before the students got there, and talked with Ms. Benfer quickly about what the students were learning at that point in time and what she was going to do with the students that day. She opened up the lesson by activating prior knowledge and asking the students to recall what they had been learning about in the previous lesson. She then proceeded to engage the students by providing concrete examples of what a mixture and a solution were. For a mixture she made a bowl of trail mix, adding m&m’s, banana chips, pretzels, chex, and other ingredients. She then made lemonade, and reinforced the knowledge that a mixture’s elements can be separated, while a solution cannot be separated because a chemical reaction had occurred. The students loved this lesson and were active and participating throughout the given time Ms. Benfer had. I was amazed because the class was on the larger side, and they had just come in from lunch and recess. This time of the day is hardest to get the students focus back on learning and work. I learned a lot today as to how to keep my students engaged and some ideas of how I would present mixtures and solutions if I were to ever teach a fifth grade science class.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie that's... a full moon!!!

Through this assignment, I learned a lot about the phases of the moon and how observable the waxing and waning of the moon is from day to day. Before completing the assignment, I had the basic understanding of why the moon waxed and waned and what it would look like, but looking for it every night with my own eyes was a completely new discovery for me. I realized that the weather conditions often make it difficult to see the moon, and that these nights were darker than most. This assignment really helped me to understand that teaching science does not just occur in the classroom, but that students should be exploring their environments and asking questions about things that interest them. Observation is one of the most important skills that children can learn and a skill that will help them in all areas of school and life. I would use this assignment in my classroom to reinforce the idea of cycles, or if we are learning about the solar system, or about the moon itself. Instead of the assignment being six weeks long however I may make it shorter such that the students will not be too deterred to complete the assignment.

What to do....?

This difference between a science activity and a science lesson is that an activity is the students exploring, whether they are experimenting with liquids, exploring atomic structure, or investigating earthworms. Doing these activities we can lead them toward critical exploration of their world. A science lesson, however, is the process of performing the activity and reflecting on it. It was in this chapter that we learned how to set up a scientific inquiry lesson. The segments of an inquiry lesson are as follows (according to the book): goals, science ideas, engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. Questioning is one of the most effective skills a teacher can learn and use. Open ended questions, those that lead to multiple answers, are especially important because they help students think critically about the investigation they are conducting. Teachers use questions for multiple different things. There are questions that invite students to action, ones that access a students' own ideas and prior knowledge, and ones that check for understanding. What I thought was great about this chapter was it addressed some strategies for doing science with students with disabilities. Modifying a lesson such that it is accessible to students with disabilities is crucial to keeping them engaged and learning in the classroom. It is also important because we want these students to feel like they're on the same page as everyone else, and not falling behind.

Around and Around and Around and Around......

Most science curricula are constructed so that science topics, and the key ideas associated with them, pop up repeatedly in different grades. This, known as a spiraling curriculum, is one way to develop depth of understanding of a topic. Spiraling does not mean that students engage in the same activity over and over. Rather, as they mature, they build on earlier science experiences and develop a greater depth of understanding about a topic. 

What I loved about this chapter was that they included science stories that accurately depicted a spiraling curriculum. Showing how density lessons can get more and more in depth. As children learn more and more on a topic, they will bring to the next lesson more prior knowledge then the time before, building up their understanding of the world and how things work.

Seeds and Dirt and Worms!!!! Oh My!!!

Even when I was little I've always had a bit of a green thumb. I loved to be able to dig in the dirt and plant my seeds, watering them every few day. I had a garden on the side of my house when I was little, I would grow carrots and green beans and strawberries, along with a few herbs. I would get really excited when I first saw the green sprouts showing, letting me know that my work was not in vain. To be alive, i believe that something must interact with it's environment, completing an action in a way. With this broad reasoning, not only animals are included in this 'alive' term, but also plants. These types of lessons are those than can be taught over the span of a few days, or even a few weeks. The point of these lessons is that you keep building upon an idea, or a questions throughout the days, discovering new things and going back to change a conclusion if proven wrong. Working in groups or with partners is a really important experience for children to have. By being in a group, students explore together throughout the lesson, and each has their own contributions or input to have. By working in groups, students may learn things that they would have missed if working by themselves, the collaboration is also an important skill for children to work on. Group work is essential in a classroom, in order to be successful  in life you have to know how to work well with others.

My Article Review Response

I believe that one of the most important practices in the field of education is being up to date with the latest research and technology. I don't want to be using a method of teaching science that later shows that it's ineffectual and does not impart meaning to the students. That's why using teaching methods that have already been tested and research is very important. This article made me appreciate how much work and effort teachers put in to giving students the most practical and meaningful education as they can possibly achieve. It made me think about how I would integrate exploring outside with my students, and how I would make sure that they are really learning from this experience. It's almost an impossible task to predetermine these activities, as the outdoor conditions of schools is vastly different throughout the country. I don't know whether or not i'd be teaching in a city, suburban, or country school, each of which having different outdoor conditions. If I were to teach in a city school then in order for students to get outdoor exploration work in I'd have to find a park and set up a field trip for them. If I were to teach in a suburban or rural location however, I may be able to take the kids right outside of the classroom and let them explore on the safety of the school grounds. There is a lot of work that must be put into these activities, but I look forward to implementing it with my future students.

Sink or Float??

This seems like it would be a really fun activity to do in an elementary school class. I do wish that there were enough materials such the groups could have been a bit smaller, such that everyone would have a chance to handle the materials. Also, I felt as though there wasn't quite enough time to fully use the lesson to it's potential. It was fun to be able to go through the process that our students themselves go through. I feel it's important to run through the experiments with the eyes of a students, to make sure that the lesson completes what the objectives of the lesson will be. Making sure the lessons are meaningful for students and that they reflect the national and state standards is, what i believe, to be the most challenging part of being a teacher. I look forward to more activites like this!

4th Grade Science Test.. Oi Vey!

It was interesting to take a fourth grade math test again in the beginning of the year. It seemed so easy, that it's hard to believe that at one point such common knowledge for me was something so new and foreign. I was incredibly nervous, however, that I would get one of the questions wrong. How embarrassing would that be to get a question wrong that a fourth grade student should know. Alas.. when I compared my answers with the answer key I did indeed get one question wrong. I was mortified, and still am to a certain extent, but at the same time I can give myself a pat on the back, and give credit to my teachers in elementary school. The fact that I can still remember some of the things that I learned in elementary school that aren't common knowledge, or used on a regular basis shows that my teachers did an outstanding job at making sure I would remember and comprehend what I was learning. I hope my students will be able to look back 10 years from now and remember what I taught them as I remember what my teachers taught me.

A Response to Chapter 2

Our scientific self is the aspect of ourselves that questions the world around us and goes out to look for answers to these questions. I feel scientific most of the day, when I take a shower I remember what I learned about air pressure systems in earth science, and when walking to class I think about the different types of clouds that I can pick out.

We always have the opportunities to explore nature, but often times it is only to a certain degree. Without the help of technology we cannot observe the difference between plant cells and animal cells. I can go outside and observe snowfall, or the sun moving across the sky, or the Hudson freezing over. I can feel with my hands how the soil feels or how different foods taste.

When I think back on my own schooling regarding science I only have fond memories of the teach and the class.I had so many great teachers throughout my schooling that I could probably write a novel if I were to talk about each of them, but my favorite teacher had to be Mr. Burowa. He brought his science classes to life with hands on activities and interesting videos that went along with what we were learning. His love of science was contagious and it was probably my favorite class for the day. It propelled me into taking more science courses, even when I wasn't required to take one any longer.

I drew a picture of a scientist, and I may have already guessed at the point the book was trying to make, but I made the drawing look like myself. I did this because I believe that everyone is a scientist in one way or another. When reflecting on this, it tells me that my attitude about science is very worldly and realistic. In my opinion, science is a subject that anyone of any age can take part in and enjoy.

Chapter 1 Text Responses!

•  What is an example of someone’s exhibiting a scientific way of thinking?

An example of someone exhibiting scientific thinking is when they want to know by how much the stars move every night, and then set up an experiment that measures this, or when they question how we know what black holes are.

• Can you think of a time when you had a significant misconception or alternative conception about the way things worked? How did you realize your thinking had to change?

 I had a significant misconception about the weather cycle when I was young. I thought that the sky just made clouds and that it produced new water for the world. However, I soon realized that things cannot just manifest into being, but that there was an entire cycle that water goes through in weather and that the amount of water we have can not just increase.

• Why is it important for students not just to recite what they have learned but to demonstrate it in a new context?

It’s important for students to demonstrate it in a new context because it means that they can actually comprehend what they have learned instead of just memorizing words. Words are meaningless unless you can give them meaning and have an understanding of what they are learning.

• In your own life, how, if at all, has technology helped you learn?

Technology has enabled me to look at things that would normally have been invisible to the naked eye. It has allowed me to collaborate on research projects and look things up that other scientists around the world have worked on. Technology has helped me because I’m primarily a visual and hands on learning, so through technology I can watch how icicles are formed or how a tadpole becomes a frog.

Getting Messy with Matter

In this chapter one of the big focuses was classifying. Classifying, one of the basic process skills, beings with the simple recognition of properties and matures into a grouping and sorting process. In elementary school science children often learn classifying skills by identifying the properties of materials through careful observation, and then comparing and contrasting those properties. I especially liked the part of the book that addressed messiness  with science. In the book the author dreaded coming to a silent class that was much too clean. I remember when I was in elementary school that the majority of my classrooms were the same way. I agree, however, that talking amongst the students is a necessary part of the classroom, and that a little bit of messy can bring the children a good deal of experience and knowledge. If the classroom happens to get a bit messy, then create a 'cleanup' time in which the students tidy up their areas. I remember a song that I learned as a child "clean up clean up, everybody everywhere, clean up clean up, everybody do their share." Perhaps this is the reason why I'm a bit of a neat freak at the end of a great messy experiment!

Microteaching Experience

This is my Microteaching Script -

Introduction: 
Draw attention of the class with a clap or “Good Morning Class!”
Explain that my topic is Science Corners.
Ask the class “Can anyone tell me what a science corner is?”


Body:
Show the class the different rocks.
Have each table look at them really quickly and write down their observations.
Confer in groups their findings. 
Present findings as tables.


Conclusion:
Explain why Science corners are important.
Explain what they should look like.
Ask for questions.



I feel that since I was one of the first to present this microteaching activity that I did a great job with no real example to go off of. It was difficult for me to come up with an activity for a science corner with such short notice, and I wish I could have gotten more time to work it out. If I could go back and change one thing it would be that the activity took too long. It was hard for me to try to show what a science corner was like in such a short span of time, and my activity ended up taking much too long. If I were to repeat my microteaching I would collect rocks such that each group has their own set to speed up the observation process, and I would give each table their questions at the beginning of the observation process. I would allow one minute for observations and then ask each table to present what they found, then wrap up the lesson in the last minute. I feel that this was a good experience to have, making me more aware of how crucial time management is. I look forward to teaching not just snippets of time in the classroom but for entire lessons!


Here is a photo of the rocks used for this lesson:

Carnivorous Furniture?!?

I saw the link for this article on my cousin's facebook and the title caught my attention right away. Reading through the article I was both awed and a bit grossed out. It brings up interesting ideas to consider though, will all of our electronics one day be self sufficient and not need electricity? If this happens how will we prevent the furniture from accidentally devouring our beloved pets? 

Check out these videos:

The World Around Them

One of the big topics in chapter five was how to explore a variety of informal science learning experiences and the ways in which we can develop them by using a classroom science corner and field trips. Informal science learning experiences are experiences that are unique and very personal to the students. One way to do this is with the creation of a science corner. The materials in the science corner need to be clearly displayed in a way that will engage the students. The book gave some great ideas for science corners, such as seasonal changes, materials related to the current science unit, or a class nature collection. I was really excited to read this part of the chapter because my micro-teaching subject was science corners, so I felt that I got a lot from the book and applied it to when I presented my science corner. Another part of the book that I enjoyed reading was the section on field trips. I always loved going on field trips when I was in elementary school, and learning how I can make the trips relevant and meaningful for my students has really helped me to see field trips from the teachers point of view.

The Circus is in Town!!!

Chapter four discussed science circuses, science notebooks, and extending our senses with computer technology. What I thought was very helpful was that the textbook provided an example of a science circus and gave an explanation of all of the stations. This is really helpful because when I make a science circus for my class I may need a few starter ideas of what to do. Knowing that these activities have been used before, I know that they will be worthwhile for my students. Learning about electronic probes was interesting, I hope that when I become a teacher I could use these in my lessons, especially about temperature and motion. I think it would be really cool for the students to use the probes to see the body heat of themselves and all of their peers in the classroom. You never know, they might find some other interesting things around the classroom.. hopefully not mice!!!! Another great thing about this chapter was the Family Science Night section. I believe that engaging adults in science experiences together with students is a way to not only bring families together, but also to encourage a deeper interest in science and science related activities. One helpful tip from the book says - the key is to engage students and their families in a genuine process of inquiry that relates to their own lives and challenges them to construct their own ideas.

The Weight of Knowledge- Letting Students Make Mistakes

Question 1:  What does the following quotation from an experienced teacher mean? “No matter how patiently I explain things to my students and no matter how often I repeat the explanations, I cannot learn for them.”

         The quote “no matter how patiently I explain things to my students and no matter how often I repeat the explanations, I cannot learn for them” primarily means that it is up to the students to want to learn and remember the information. It’s almost like the quote, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” What this quote is saying is that it is up to us to make learning engaging, fun, and understandable. We must hook the students into the lesson by making them pertain to things that interest them. Make it fun by giving them control of the activity, giving them a sense of ownership over their work. Making the information understandable means to be able to present it in many different forms, certain children learns things better from visuals while others are auditory learners. In addition to being able to present it in different forms we need to be able to reword the information if it’s just not clicking in one way, all of these skills are needed by a successful teacher.

Question 2:  Did you ever write something in an essay or exam simply because you thought it was the answer the teacher wanted? How common do you think that is?

Of course I have. I think that the majority of children learn that in order to get the best grade you put down what the teacher wants you to put down. I know that this is horribly wrong and everything we do is trying to give the children the opportunities to let them be heard, but the reality is that some students don’t care about getting heard, but about getting the best grade possible to bring home to their parents. It’s these students that we need to work most with in order to get them to put their original thoughts down on paper, one way to do this is to give them the option of how they do an assignment. Giving the students more choice more often will eventually have them putting their own words into their work and not the words the ‘teacher wants to hear’.

Question 3:  In the science story “Icicles,” when some students weigh the icicle incorrectly the first time, why doesn’t Mr. Wilson just correct the procedure? Many people think it is a waste of time to let students explore on their own. What might happen if Mr. Wilson stopped the students from proceeding with their plan? 

In the science story “Icicles,” Mr. Wilson does not correct the procedure for a few reasons. Mr. Wilson does not correct the students who weigh the icicle incorrectly the first time because the students need to learn from their own mistakes. It is important for students to correct their own mistakes and test how they are making the mistakes, finding why thier alternative conceptions aren’t working out. The teacher won’t always be there to help the students fix their mistakes and students need to find out on their own how to solve problems and their mistakes. Students can ask their peers to help them instead of turning to the teacher. One of the goals as a future teacher is to create a community of learners, such that they can look to each other for support and help. If Mr. Wilson stopped the students from proceeding with their plan then the students will never learn new things or won’t be able to create new ideas which will stop their creativity and problem solving. Students need to always be creativity and always problem solve. I think that it is important for students to explore their own way of doing things as long as the teacher is there to guide them if the students get stuck or confused or need help or have a question. When students explore they open up their mind to new ideas and different ways of looking at a situation. When exploring, students can find new things and new discoveries.

Question 4:  Considering where you live, what artifacts of nature might you bring into your class one day?

I live right on the coast of the Long Island Sound so I have plenty of neat things that I can bring into the classroom for the students to explore with. I could bring in fish, crabs, seaweed, water samples, and beachwood. There is also a bird sanctuary near where I live, so I bet I would be able to find nests that were knocked out of the trees and abandoned, or pieces of shell from hatched eggs. Since I live close to the beach, I could bring in samples of sand and rocks and explain erosion to my kids. I also live in a community with a bunch of different types of flora and fauna. I could bring in a few samples of these to teach about vegetation in certain ecosystems.