Science Teaching Philosophy

At the beginning of this class, I thought that the entire basis of science was to promote scientific discovery and the best tool was through experiments and hands-on experience.  I still believe that to be a valuable aspect of teaching science, but I have been opened to the idea of including other tactics.  The development of science skills and the important processes of scientific inquiry and design process have shown me new aspects of science that I have never considered. The idea of using essential questioning to help shape a unit plan will definitely be beneficial to my teaching practices.  I come from a strong science background and I thought I knew a lot about science and how to teach it, but this class proved that I didn't really and I will take a lot from this class.

STSE Implementation - Appreciating the Natural Environment

I think that if I was to address an issue in my Grade 1 class, I would look at the destruction of natural environment and how mankind has affected that. 

1-1-14/B5: Show respect for living things in their immediate environment

1) Fort Whyte Alive Field Trip 
By taking them on a field trip to a designated area that contains elements of the natural environment, students can appreciate the habitats of their favorite animals.  Students will be able to better grasp the needs of these animals and develop compassion and want to help save the environments.

2) Little Earth Charter DVD
Showing students this DVD will demonstrate the eight basic principles needed to coexist with animals and the natural environment.  Also this DVD will introduce the concepts of human rights and in turn can be related to the rights of animals in our community. 

3) Demonstrations of Man-Made Occurrences that Impact the Natural Environment
By either conducting a hands-on investigation or showing pictures/video of a recent event, students will be able to connect the affects of mankind and the resources we take for granted to the impact those actions have on certain animals and their habitats.  Students' compassion for the natural environment will continue to grow.

By introducing those three resources and others students' will grasp the concepts of protect our natural environment, not only for the animals that live in them but for ourselves.  Students will recognize that they have to rely on the natural environment as much as the animals, creating a deeper compassion and connection between the two worlds.

Learning Centre Experience

Below is the lesson I created and a picture of the learning centre set up:

The Path of Light

Grade 4 - Light

Goals:  The goals of this learning centre are for students to observe how light travels and be able to make better, more descriptive observations.

Outcome:  4-2-07: Observe and describe properties of light

                   4-0-5c: Record observations in a variety of ways

                   4-0-9c: Report and record what is observed, not what they think they ought to observe, nor what they believe the teacher expects

Materials: 4 pieces of cardboard (with holes in the middle), flashlights, stands (for cardboard pieces), instructional poster, “The Path of Light Record Sheet” worksheet

Timeframe: 35 minutes

Adaptations: Have pictures and words for instruction on the worksheet and poster board.

Strategies:

            Activating:  Read a non-fiction book about light and explain that books are a good resource for learning about light. Find pages in the book that discusses the movement of light and how it moves through different objects.

            Acquiring: Discuss that light travels through the air, just like a car or a spaceship.  Have the students predict whether they think light travels through the air in a straight line or a curved line. Tell the students that they will be going through three learning centres that show how light moves through the air and through different types of objects. Explain all three centres.

            Applying: For “The Path of Light” learning centre, describe how one set has the holes in the cardboard lined up, but the other doesn’t.  Reinforcing that the students have to observe what happens to the light as it travels through the holes in the cardboard.  Then have each student test how the light travels through the holes of each set of experiments. Get the students to communicate and describe what happens to the light in each set.  Then have the student draw and label the diagrams of both experiments on the worksheet provided. (This would include “Raindrops and Rainbows” and “Translucent, Transparent, Opaque” learning centres)

Assessment: Observe how students participate at each learning centre and take in the worksheets given.  The students will then create posters that showcase how light travels and how it travels through different objects, demonstrating they know how light travels and can use the appropriate language.

Resource: S&S Learning Material – The Path of Light (pg. SSB1-103)           

Creating a Design Process Experiment

Protecting from Soil Erosion

4-4-13 Use the design process to determine an appropriate system for controlling soil erosion in a given situation.

Scenario:

Sitting alongside the Red River, down at the Forks, you notice that river is brown and murky not clear and clean like you have seen at the lake.  Why is the water so brown and murky, why not clean and clear?

"SOIL EROSION!"

The soil has runoff into the river from wind, rain and human disturbance.  The City of Winnipeg has employed you to create a system that would protect the banks of the river from further erosion. Having already learned about the different methods for protecting against soil erosion, you must design a system using the materials given and demonstrate its use in a model of the river bank.  How would you design an effective system?

Materials:
plastic sheets
sticks
felt
strainers
plasticine

Implementation: 

If I used this in my classroom, I would first discuss the process of erosion and all the contributing factors to soil erosion.  Also I would introduce some systems that have been used around the world in order to combat this problem.  Then I would give my students the situation with a list of materials they could use and have them design a contraption, based off the given examples, and then test its results. Clearly stating that no one system will be better than the other and that science is all about trial and error.  I would allow them the opportunity to do further research on a particular system and give them guided instruction if they feel frustrated.
Its important to encourage students to formulate their own design process and make it unique to the situation. Design process is a integral part of science and scientific discovery.

My Own Science Inquiry

Mysterious M&Ms

If I were to teach this in my class, I would introduce this activity by discussing the properties of water and how they can dissolve certain items.  This activity did have its own initiating story which would help with self-discovery and independence but I would preface it by discussing dissolving.  This activity did not focus on conclusions since it just was a re-testing of someone else's experiment, but did offer up a possibility for more investigation and determining different variables in this experiment.  The site that I found this inquiry on had a lot of chemistry based experiments, at different levels, I would definitely use these in my classroom.

Essential Questions for Lesson Planning

Grade 1
Cluster 2 - The Senses

Essential Questions that I would ask regarding this cluster would be:
1) How do our five senses help us in examining the world around us?
2) Why should we protect our eyes/skin?
3) Why/How does everyone else smell/taste/touch/hear/see differently than me?
4) Why is knowing our five senses and how they work help us with science?
5) Why is using our senses important when doing certain jobs?

I would teach these questions in that order because it follows the direct chain of instruction.  The students first need to learn what body part goes with which sense and how those five senses help us to examine the world around us.  Then we get farther into the critical thinking of the five senses and how they would relate to science as a whole.  In order to teach Grade 1 students you need to first introduce them to the topic with basic essential questions and then broaden their knowledge to include the world around them and the world of science.

Non-Fiction Science Book Questionnaire

Wow! The Most Interesting Book You'll Ever Read About the Five Senses
By: Trudee Romanek

Questions for Students to Answer After Reading:
1) When we get older, what can happen to some of our senses? (pg. 5)
2) What do cats and some other animals have over their eyes to protect them? (pg. 6)
3) How does the position of eyes help protect certain animals? (pg. 11)
4) How do you pinpoint the source of a sound without your sight? (pg. 16)

Some of the questions I created are pretty basic, but can create more challenging and thought provoking ones by having the students conduct the experiments given in the book. Students will have to return to the book and use the book to search for the answers.

Questions for the Teacher to Ask While Reading:
1) Who is nearsighted or farsighted in this class? (pg. 9)
2) If you close your eyes and plug your ears, do I sound differently?  (pg. 15)
3) Do you listen to music at a high volume or at a low volume? (pg. 18)
4) Do your parents like some foods that you don't like? (pg. 20)
5) When you smell certain foods does it seem like your tasting them too? (pg. 25)
6) By looking at the table of contents, where can we find the topic of sight? (pg. 8)
7) In the glossary, can we find the definition for  nearsighted? (pg. 30)
8)What are the little bumps on your tongue called?  (pg. 20)
9) How do taste buds separate tastes? (pg. 20)
10)  What are the different parts of the ear, how do they help us hear sounds? (pg. 19)

The questions I would ask while I'm reading would be survey questions in order for the class to experiment as we read the book together.  This keeps the kids engaged and helps the teacher determine whether or not the students are interested in the topic of the book.

Sample Lesson with Connection to Science Skills

Grade 1: Daily and Seasonal Changes Lesson Plan

This lesson is an experiment showing students the effects of hibernation and how it helps some animals stay warm during the winter. This lesson starts by introducing the term and a list of materials that could be used to keep the animals warm. This activity must be meet the six science skills that are required for teaching and learning science. Those are: Prediction, Observation, Measurement, Classification, Communication, and Inference.

Predication occurs in this lesson at the introduction of the experiment.  Students are given a list of materials and they must than predict what materials would be best suited for hibernation.

Observation occurs in this activity by conducting a science inquiry and then observing the reaction of the gelatin in ice.

Measurement occurs when the students must measure out the amount of water and gelatin is needed for this experiment.

Classification occurs by classify which of the two bags of gelatin would be beneficial to animals in hibernation.

Communication could occur if you had the students example the evidence supported by their observations and what they concluded about animals and hibernation from this experiment.

Inference occurs when the students must determine which of the two bags of gelatin would keep an animal warm during winter months.

This lesson meets most of the skills required for science but could be expanded upon in order to fully examine each skill.

Nature of Science Profile

I found that most of the results of the questionnaire were true to my views an ideologies of science.  I am completely deductive and realistic in my logical thinking of science as a process driven subject.  I was surprised to discover that I was de-contextualized when it comes to connecting science to culture and social setting.  I believe that some scientists or scientific discoveries are motivated by the politics or social beliefs surrounding them, when they really shouldn't be.  But I believe that this questionnaire was a very indicative representation of my feelings of teaching science.

The statement I want to discuss is that "science proceeds by drawing generalizable conclusions (which later become theories) from available data."  Not all scientific inquiries result in generalized conclusions but instead result in specific, concrete facts that are meant to be taught.  In connection to the curriculum, A2 - recognize that scientific knowledge is based on evidence, models, and explanations, and evolves as new evidence appears and new conceptualizations develop - best describes the importance of evidence and explanations and that they are evolving.  A specific learning outcome that best demonstrates the value of evidence is 3-3-03, which discusses the concept of gravity.  I am a firm believer that scientific discoveries are concrete and are, upon discovery, fact.

My Positive Science Exprience

DNA Testing in Biology Class
When it comes to my class, I intend to promote the values of experimentation and adventurous attitudes toward science.  Allowing students to have the same hands-on experience that I have had with science, and encourage them to stretch the experiment beyond the curriculum expectations.  Science is meant to challenge the physical and chemical make up of the universe and experiments definitely demonstrate that.  Sometimes they work out as expected, but more often than not they result in something completely different from what knowledge you had previous to the experiment and what you expected.  Those missteps are the basis of scientific discovery.  I will promote that ideology in my science class and make sure the students understand that science is constantly changing and adapting to new discoveries.