My Successful Adieu of Science Methods

My Successful Adieu of Science Methods

       I'm graduating this semester and I could not be happier to say that I am glad that I am ending this semester with Dr. Smirnova and Science Methods. Thinking about science as a topic, I didn't doubt that I was capable of learning the material and implementing lessons, but I wasn't confident. I felt the same way in Social Studies. Upon reaching the ending, I can honestly say that I am about ten times more confident now than I was before. The picture to the left reflects on my Unit Plan for this class because pollution and recycling are such a major issue especially when thinking about the purpose of Earth Day. I'm thankful for this learning experience in an after school program because it taught me that just because it is an after school program, it doesn't mean that the learning stops. The learning must continue on.

Personal & Professional Growth: 

       In my opinion, my knowledge of science as a whole has been strengthened due to this course. I can also see how all types of sciences share relationships and it depends on the way that the

information is presented or taught that reflects on how well your understanding of the relationships connect. I've learned how to successfully develop and implement an inquiry lesson in a classroom that reflects on the concept of science-based inquiry learning. I feel that I've accomplished a milestone knowing that I created a unit plan that I feel is effective to use while teaching pollution to young students. I've used technology in all of my lesson plans for the unit plan and I truly think that I understand the significance of using technology while teaching not only science, but all content areas in Elementary School. 

       Unfortunately this is where I say goodbye. I am moving on to the next chapter in my life and I will always be grateful for experiencing such a thrilling Science Methods course. I'm prepared and I am ready to get out there and create memorable science experiences for future generations. 

Thank you, Dr. Smirnova and my fellow colleagues for such an amazing experience!

Check out some of my colleagues blogs below!

• Kathleen Trapp
• Jill Oldenburg
• Bryanna LeBron

Inquiring Minds Learning about Inquiry

Inquiring Minds Learning about Inquiry 

Comparing My Scientific Me to Why do Scientists do Science?

         While reading the article, I came across a paragraph of the reading that described the appearance of a scientist that the author interviewed and talked to. My original visualization of a scientist was contradicted by what Jennifer DeMichele described. When I think about the word scientist, I think about someone wearing glasses or goggles, a white lab coat, with a beaker or microscope in their hand. Ms. DeMichele had stated that she had similar visions of a scientist like the one I described when she was little girl. She mentioned that the whole vision was wrong, she visited scientists who had offices and the appearance that unassumingly could have belonged to a classic, English professor. I was impressed!

BSCS 5E Instructional Model

           I also learned about the 5E's as an inquiry-based instructional model of teaching inquiry. I think that the 5E learning model is a good approach to use especially when teaching science. I think that if teachers followed this framework, they would be able to reach out to students more often and the students would be more involved in the learning process. The inquiry process gives the students the opportunity to go through the scientific method, but the 5E's allow an opportunity to include the inquiry process and cooperative learning in which the students help each other learn. I will use the inquiry process and the 5E instructional model in the future and maybe I will even refer to it for my edTPA.

Fusing Science & edTPA

Fusing Science & edTPA

        EdTPA is something that I am not afraid of, but nervous to confront. I have heard that it isn't hard to comprehend, but I have heard that it is a lot of work. There is a lot of paper work that correlates back to edTPA. I didn't know that there was a science section necessarily for edTPA, so I am a bit surprised to see it. to further learn about edTPA and how it corresponds with science, I turned to looking for student teaching videos on the internet that show potential teacher candidates teaching a science lesson for edTPA. I watched a lot of the videos. Some people were dressed professionally compared to others. One video that I watched is the video below:

Science edTPA

          I have confidence that I will pass edTPA and I am hoping that I will pass edTPA on the Mastery Level because I know that one day I will be considered an effective Elementary School teacher and my students will look up to me. 

Pulling through Physical Science

Pulling through Physical Science

       Physical Science is a topic that I have not covered since Elementary School. It's something that I think should definitely be more emphasized in the school environment. Although it may seem like it is self-explanatory, it is more complex than some people may think. 

Matter and Motion

The concept of matter refers to anything that occupies space and has mass. The concept of motion refers to Newton's laws of Motion. I remember learning about this in 4th grade when we transitioned from classroom to classroom for about 45 minutes a week in the last two months of school. I remember different experiments every week that relied on Newton's laws of Motion such as the concept of gravity. We had to try to figure out how to slow down the time that it took for a small steel ball to hit the floor. 

Energies and Machines

     There are all types of different energies and machines. I remember learning about machines when I was in the 4th grade as well, but we only learned about simple machines. I didn't start talking about different specific types of energies until high school. I think that the understanding of energies and machines are important for young students to understand because energy is a source of motion and the machines are operating to create the motion. 

What are the most effective ways of teaching Physical Science?

           I believe that the most effective ways of teaching Physical Science is by creating hands on experiments for the students and simulations. By working with materials for hands-on experiments, tasks, or projects, the students can gain a visual of exactly the steps of making something in motion and develop an understanding personally based their experience. I think that simulations work well in this type of situation because sometimes it's difficult to implement all hands on experiences, but it is possible to show simulations through Google Cardboard or Virtual Reality that can change anyone's point of view. 

Loosening up with Life Science

Loosening up with Life Science

In Middle School, I remember learning about animal cells and plant cells. We used microscopes a lot to view all kinds of different cells that belonged to different animals and plants. In High School, I remember learning about life science in biology. We learned about animal and plant cells as well chromosomes and genetics. Personally, I like life science, but I can't imagine Elementary Students have to learn the complexity of life science. I was proven wrong when looking through life science themed lesson plans where I found that 2nd graders are learning about plant and animal cells now. I was so surprised!

     For our project on Life Science, we were going to go through the Jigsaw Method. The Jigsaw Method is a collaborative learning method in which students are separated into expert groups to

become "experts" on a particular topic and then are separated into base groups in which they share the knowledge they gained in their expert groups. I like this way of learning, but I do feel like it has it's flaws. My one critique of this method is how is the teacher so sure that all of the students are learning sufficiently. I feel like the teacher can not rely only on this method as the main teaching style. The teacher can combine this method with another, but it should not be used alone.  

Click here to view our presentation on the Plantae Kingdom.

          The topic for my expert group was the plantae kingdom. I remembered learning about this before college, but have not revisited the topic since. We briefly researched basic information about plantae to teach our classmates. We looked up information like the definition of plantae, the cell type of plantae, the number of cells in plantae, the source of nutrition for plantae, the characteristic of the cell wall of plantae, and how the topic of plantae relates to New York State Standards. Instead of splitting back up to our base groups, we just presented in front of the whole class. I would have liked to present in our base groups to have the whole experience of the Jigsaw Method, but I still enjoyed the experience. 

Sequencing Space Science

Sequencing Space Science

        When I think about Space Science, I think about the planets, stars, and astronauts. That is exactly what I gathered while exploring the depths of space through reading the course text and my course experience. We conducted research to gather space-related articles. We constructed a list of space-related articles individually and we were instructed to find the most common words between our articles and the most common concept that we configured was space, stars, and astronauts. So, we decided to use astronauts as our topic for our project. 

         For our project, we were instructed to create a time line based on our topic of our choice. So, we created a time line based on the history of astronauts. We then conducted research to find important points in history where astronauts were involved. There has been a lot of times in history where astronauts were the highlight of events. 

Click here to view our Timeline, Exploring Astronauts through Time!

           The above picture is a snapshot of the time line that we created using Timecoast. This is an easy website to use and it's simple to understand how to work. Personally, I like how it looks. It seems dull with the inability to change the background, but I like how all of the tabs are close together, they state the date, and they show an image with the title for that tab. When you click on the tab, basic information can be posted in the description section of the tab. I would use Tiki Toki or Timecoast in my future classroom just to make the experience more intriguing. When I was in Elementary School, I remember how I didn't focus when my teachers used time lines because they looked boring with no pictures, just writing with years on the board. With the use of technology, I can bring time lines to life and I'm looking forward to that opportunity.

Enhancing Knowledge of Earth Science

Enhancing Knowledge of Earth Science

        I took an Introduction to Earth Science last semester and while reading the course textbook on Earth Science, I was surprised to say that I actually knew about what was mentioned in the textbook. Earth Science in High School was difficult for me because I had three different teachers that year teaching Earth Science to my class, but when I took Earth Science for my general core requirement in college, I didn't think that I would need to know the information to teach in Elementary School. I'm so glad that I took it now. I felt pretty strong with all of the concepts revolving around Earth Science, but two members in my group did not feel as confident with the layers of the Earth and the Earth's surface, so we created an infograph based on that theme. Below is the infograph that we created:

       I enjoyed working with my group members to make this infograph because it reflect on our learning styles and presented the information that we needed to cover effectively. We focused primarily on the rock cycle and the three types of rocks. Although the links don't work for the image, we focused a lot on finding different kinds of lesson plans that could be used to reinforce or introduce the concepts of the infograph in the classroom.

       We were also instructed to create a quiz using a digital tool based on Earth Science. I am familiar with Kahoot and Socrative which is why I decided to go out of the box and look for a different quiz digital tool that I could use. I stumbled upon a tool called Quizizz which is a quiz website for teachers to make the quiz similar to a game while emphasizing the individuality of the quiz. The students have the questions in front of them and can work at their own pace. 

Click here to view my quiz that I created using Quizizz!