When conducting a science experiment or any kind of science project or activity with students I like to do a KWL chart. This stands for what do we know about what we are learning, what do we want to know about what we are learning, and afterwards what did we learn from our activity. For one activity I brought in a giant sunflower head. From this I allowed the students to create their own science activity. For the first column I asked them what they knew about the sunflower, and then we continued on to the column about what we wanted to learn. They wanted to learn how many seeds a sunflower had, how tall a sunflower can grow to be, if they actually follow the sun, how sunflower seeds are made, and many other things. From here the students decided that what they wanted to learn the most about was how many sunflower seeds each sunflower had and how sunflower seeds are made. We counted the sunflower holes on the sunflower head i brought in and did some research from books and the internet to find out how many sunflower seeds sunflowers typically have. From there I brought in different kinds of seeds so children could taste them and we did a taste graph about which ones they liked the best. We also researched how sunflower seeds are made with books from the library. If I did this in my own classroom I would take a field trip to a farm where sunflowers were grown so that children could direct their questions to a farmer and learn even more. For the last column we filled in the blank about what we learned from our activity. The children asked and answered questions about the topic at hand directly applying this activity to the above standard.
STANDARD B- Acquire information about people who have contributed to the development of major ideas in the sciences and learn about the cultures in which these people lived and worked.
When I was the school age teacher at Kindercare Daycare we had a week devoted to learning about the scientists of the kids choice. Most kids wanted to learn about Albert Einstein, Jane Goodall, and Isaac Newton so those were the three that we focused on the most. I went to the local library and rented books so that they had more areas for research. I split the kids into 3 groups and they were given a bulletin board that they had to fill with pictures and information about the scientist of their choice. The kids were in varying age groups giving them many different opinions and areas of interest. At the end of the week during our large group time the students taught eachother about the scientist of their choice. It was a really fun week and great to watch them learn on their own!
STANDARD C- C.4.6 Communicate the results of their investigations in ways their audiences will understand by using charts, graphs, drawings, written descriptions, and various other means, to display their answers.
I did a lesson about hypothesis and graphs for a group of 5 years olds. I asked them to talk to me about what they thought a hypothesis was and how we can create a hypothesis. I then asked them to think of topics that they wanted to learn about their classmates. They came up with things like eye color, number of family members, how they got to school everyday, and their shoe size. They decided that shoe size would be the funnest. We all then made a hypothesis about things like who had the biggest shoe size or the smallest shoe size or what the average shoe size would be. We also made a graph to show our results to their families when we were done. Our graph went from size 5 shoe to size 10 shoe. Each child was given a picture of themselves to place on the graph. They each took their shoe off to read the number on the bottom and then placed their picture on the the graph on top of the proper number. If they didnt have a number we measured with a ruler and placed it next to the number we thought was closest by comparing with another shoe. After all children shared we looked over our hypothesis to see if any were correct and talked about why or why not.
STANDARD D-D.4.3 Understand that substances can exist in different states-solid, liquid, gas.
It was our weather unit and I had a group of children who were asking where rain came from and what happened to it after it hit it the ground. I thought this would be a great time to have the chidlren do the water experiment where they can see what go from a solid to a liquid to a gas. First I gave each student a bottle of water and we put food coloring and glitter inside so they could shake it and see how water was in a liquid state. We then poured some of that water into little cups and put them in the freezer and waited to see how long it took to freeze. While it was in the freezer we discussed how water goes from being in the ground and then it evaporates into the clouds where the clouds hold it until they are "full" and it rains. Once the little cups were frozen we took them out and put them in buckets to unfreeze. Once they were back to a liquid we poured them back in to the water bottles so the children could see they were full again and it was indeed the water from their bottles. Afterwards we put a some water into a pot and put it on the stove. We watched it boil, and let it boil until there was little to no water left so that the children could understand when water it gets hot it evaporates or to the children "disappears"!! It was a fun science/magic trick!
STANDARD E- E.4.4 Identify celestial objects (star, sun, moon, planets) in the sky, noting changes in patterns over time.
This activity happened when I worked at KinderCare in the school age room as well. We had a lesson on planets and the star and so I decided to have the kids make paper mache models of the planets and we would make our own solar system while learning about the planets orbit and each planet individually. The children split into groups again each getting a planet to make. We blew up balloons and made paper mache that we then put on the balloons. From there each group had to research what color their planet was, if it had rings, or anything else that would be beneficial to the creation of their planet. From their the children were given any materials they needed to make the solar system for our classroom. We then hung them up in our classroom in their order. After that we took about a week to learn about each planet during our morning meetings. Children had been given time to learn information they wanted to share and we learned more together as a group.
STANDARD F- F.4.3 Illustrate the different ways that organisms grow through life stages and survive to produce new members of their type.
I observed in a second grade classroom for about 2 weeks last fall. Each student was given a meal worm to observe for the course of this science lesson. They were each given a journal that they would write observations in about their meal worm each day. For the first couple days their journals consisted of questions about where the meal worms came from, what they ate, how big they grew, if they were boys or girls, etc. As the days progressed the meal worms began to change. They eventually turned into beetles. They started as a larvae, turned into a worm, and then turned into a beetle. In one class the children even watched a meal worm chance into a beetle. They saw first hand how the beetles changed and recorded their observations and questions during the weeks. It was a great way for children to get hands on experience.
STANDARD G- G.4.1 Identify the technology used by someone employed in a job or position in Wisconsin and explain how the technology helps.
There are almost always lessons on community helpers and hereos in classrooms. On the lesson that I taught about community helpers and the tools that they used to help them. For example, a police man and all of his tools he uses in his car to track how fast people are going when they are speeding or computers they use to check information on license plates. We also talked about how 911 operators have computers that can figure out where someone is calling from so they can help someone quickly. This also related to fire fighters and having them help people quickly because of the 911 operator. We then talked about doctors and all the machines that they use to help people get better, or to help figure out what is wrong with someone. We talked about how many years ago they didnt have machines to help figure out what was wrong with people or to help get better and we didnt have a 911 operating system to help police find us quickly. We also talked about machines people use in factories to make things that we use everyday and how if we didnt have these machines it would take twice as long to make goods. This lesson focused on the importance of learning about technology and how it works in our world and how it has evolved over many years.
STANDARD H- H.4.4 Develop a list of issues that citizens must make decisions about and describe a strategy for becoming informed about the science behind these issues.
This activity corresponds with the above activity. When we talked about community helpers/heroes we talked about what policeman stand for and what laws we as citizens have to follow. The children came up with ideas like stopping at stop signs and red lights, paying for things, following the speed limit, being nice to others, and so forth. We also talked about what happens if we dont follow those rules. As a class we then discussed things that we have to choose between like who to vote for, or whether to stop at the red light or not. They were curious as to why we had these rules and asked if a policeman could come in and talk about it. If it was my classroom I would definitley have children write down their questions and ideas about laws and decisions that children have about being a citizen. I would then bring in a policeman, and anyone else children think would help have their questions answered, so that children could direct their question to him and have them answered.
No comments:
Post a Comment