techer tech talk [part 3]
Science.
Science and writing.
When I think about making in my general education classroom my mind immediately shifts to the subject of teaching science. As I began last year, my first year of teaching, I quickly learned that science would be nearly impossible to teach straight from a textbook. It took about three minutes for my students to grow impatient with paragraph after paragraph of words. This may seem obvious, but it was part of my learning process to put the text books away and create a plan B. This included one-session long whole group projects. Additionally, we began to explore science using science notebooks. I used the textbook as my guide and began to pull information, and synthesize it into concepts my students could concentrate on. My overall focus with this endeavor was to keep the idea of scientific inquiry in mind. Alaska State Science Standards (2013) state, "A student should understand and be able to apply the process and applications of scientific inquiry." So we began to ask questions and make observations. We wrote down our observations. We talked about our observations. We found out what hoarfrost was, learned about platypuses, dissected jello cells, measured seed sprouts, and observed erosion in our community.
As I reflect on that year of science, I want to grow this process. Last year’s learning methods were scratching the surface. In the coming year I would like to emphasize the importance of inquiry and be more deliberate about building understanding of the scientific method. As the description of the Alaska Science Standard (2013) goes deeper it states students should, “develop an understanding of the processes of science used to investigate problems, design and conduct repeatable scientific investigations, and defend scientific arguments.” I feel that I have established the first part as the base and this year I want to bring in the second and third aspects. I see “repeatable scientific experiments” as a playground for making. I would like to take these concepts in science and pull them into the culture of my classroom. Our investigations and questions should come from their natural inquisitiveness. Making allows students to realize the questions and ideas they have are the most important questions and ideas. I hope to spread these ideas, concepts, and methods to be more than subject specific.
To grow how they think and reflect on the questions, I would also like to use their constructions to open a platform for nonfiction written reflection and writing. What if the written reflection was also a platform for making...graphic panels?! Having that individual buy-in seems a solid space for building writing skills.
Sources:
Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. (2013). In Alaska Standards: Science. Retrieved from https://education.alaska.gov/akstandards/standards/Science.pdf
Science and writing.
When I think about making in my general education classroom my mind immediately shifts to the subject of teaching science. As I began last year, my first year of teaching, I quickly learned that science would be nearly impossible to teach straight from a textbook. It took about three minutes for my students to grow impatient with paragraph after paragraph of words. This may seem obvious, but it was part of my learning process to put the text books away and create a plan B. This included one-session long whole group projects. Additionally, we began to explore science using science notebooks. I used the textbook as my guide and began to pull information, and synthesize it into concepts my students could concentrate on. My overall focus with this endeavor was to keep the idea of scientific inquiry in mind. Alaska State Science Standards (2013) state, "A student should understand and be able to apply the process and applications of scientific inquiry." So we began to ask questions and make observations. We wrote down our observations. We talked about our observations. We found out what hoarfrost was, learned about platypuses, dissected jello cells, measured seed sprouts, and observed erosion in our community.
As I reflect on that year of science, I want to grow this process. Last year’s learning methods were scratching the surface. In the coming year I would like to emphasize the importance of inquiry and be more deliberate about building understanding of the scientific method. As the description of the Alaska Science Standard (2013) goes deeper it states students should, “develop an understanding of the processes of science used to investigate problems, design and conduct repeatable scientific investigations, and defend scientific arguments.” I feel that I have established the first part as the base and this year I want to bring in the second and third aspects. I see “repeatable scientific experiments” as a playground for making. I would like to take these concepts in science and pull them into the culture of my classroom. Our investigations and questions should come from their natural inquisitiveness. Making allows students to realize the questions and ideas they have are the most important questions and ideas. I hope to spread these ideas, concepts, and methods to be more than subject specific.
To grow how they think and reflect on the questions, I would also like to use their constructions to open a platform for nonfiction written reflection and writing. What if the written reflection was also a platform for making...graphic panels?! Having that individual buy-in seems a solid space for building writing skills.
Sources:
Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. (2013). In Alaska Standards: Science. Retrieved from https://education.alaska.gov/akstandards/standards/Science.pdf
Sharon,
ReplyDeleteI agree that maker-projects could be used with reflective journalling in almost any subject area to increase literacy. I also agree that it is often easiest to see making as it relates to science standards since science is inherently inquiry-based. Other subjects often suffer from being dissected by the standards. As a math teacher primarily I see a danger in the standards of taking students away from holistic thinking and problem-solving. There is too much curriculum-based material that presents a process or method and expects students to "just do it." I am guilty of teaching this way, as that is how I learned. but you said it very well "Making allows students to realize the questions and ideas they have are the most important questions and ideas." Students have to realize that their curiosity will serve them well for a lifetime of learning.
Sharon,
ReplyDeleteGood post! I use some journalling activities in my 5th grade classroom. However,if I am to have a true makers space, I will need to step it up. I believe you are correct in your assessment of journalling opportunities. Like David stated, science is a grand opportunity to use makers space. Giving students an over-arching, broad problem to solve and watching them progress through it step by step. As you know, elementary teachers teach all subjects. Thus, we might have a bit more control over integration across disciplines,like science and language arts. I also believe that this methodology would be more effective with frequent jounalling across the curriculum.
Thanks, Great post!
"I would like to emphasis the importance of inquiry" - and isn't that REALLY what it's all about? I think the retainment of facts is all well and good, but the ability to form probable questions and know how to seek the answers is pretty much what the idea of education is founded upon. We need more thinking and less reciting. In that I think making and writing really do go hand-in-hand.
ReplyDeleteLoving this!!