Brainstorming Science-Oriented Unit Plans

Brainstorming Science-Oriented Unit Plans

       Although a Unit Plan appears to be simple enough to throw together, an effective teacher must organize and thoroughly plan out each lesson to assure that each student will undergo a memorable experience that will have an impact on their educational career and further enhance their knowledge. For Science Methods, it is obvious that we will be designing a unit plan that revolves around some sort of science-related topic or theme. Before starting our field work experience, we were given the general information that the theme we would be molding our lesson plans around revolved around the concept of Earth Day. After given the topic, it didn't take long to actually think and come to the conclusion that my group was going to tackle the issue of pollution and how recycling is important to acknowledge when taking care of the earth. 

        Pollution is an important concept to gather and bring to the attention of students. The lesson plans that my fellow colleagues and I are going to create revolve around air pollution, land pollution, water pollution, and recycling. All of these concepts complement one another and should be taught in discussion with each other so it would be a wise decision to discuss them in the same unit plan. The two types of lesson plans that my peers and I are going to create focus around direct instruction and inquiry/indirect instruction. Both of these types of instruction are necessary within a lesson plan to allow the students to think critically, collaborate, and gain knowledgeable information on the topic at hand. 

Bloom's Taxonomy for Teachers (Revised)

       The video above discusses the concepts, definitions, and examples of Bloom's Taxonomy. Bloom's Taxonomy is such an important, resourceful starting point when designing lesson plans. Bloom's Taxonomy reinforces the "action" that the students will engage in during each lesson plan and what the students should be expected to be doing. To get a better understanding of how to use Bloom's Taxonomy in lessons, I watched the above video that explained Bloom's Taxonomy in a way that teachers and future educators can interpret it. I like the way that Bloom's Taxonomy provides the user with verbs that are complex and that aid to adding specific emphasis on what the goals and objectives are for a lesson plan. 

It's important for teachers to be able to determine the differences between facts, concepts, and generalizations while understanding that each topic corresponds with another. It is a cycle within itself. Factual information develops concepts and concepts enhance the ability to form logical generalizations that also refer back to the factual information in time.

     Throughout my fieldwork experience, I am interested in jumping into the teaching experience. I'm looking forward to creating lesson plans: direct, inquiry, and cooperative around the concept of pollution. There are so many things that can be done to teach pollution and I can not express how excited I am to get this process underway. I know that it will be a lot of work to include all of elements of a completed unit plan, but I know with my dedication that I will be successful yet again!

Understanding the difference between a Lesson Plan and a Unit Plan would be the first step in developing my unit plan. I believe that this is an essential piece to creating an effective unit plan because it is important to know that the unit plan consists of multiple lesson plans and without lesson plans, there is not unit plan. The lesson plans need to flow with one another when referring to concepts. The major similarity between the two is that lesson plans and unit plans are both developed plans for teaching students information and the major difference between the two is that a lesson plan is just a single lesson while a unit plan is numerous lessons combined to be taught over a length of time.

Can I really create a unit plan? Do I have the capability to design and teach a full unit plan in science? I am confident that I can do it. I created unit plans for other school subjects, so why wouldn't I be able to make one for science? I think that I will be fully prepared to design and implement this unit plan by the end of this course, but if I had to do it right now, I think I would be equally as successful. I have knowledge on some science factors, but not all. Depending on the scientific topic, I may have to do research, but that won't prevent me from designing an effective unit plan.

Looking Back at the Inner Scientific Me

Looking Back at the Inner Scientific Me

       Whenever I hear the word "Science", I always think about my time spent in Elementary, Middle, and High school classrooms. Science has been one of my favorite subjects in school ever since I can remember. It was a time in which I was able to engage into learning kinesthetically which is my primary choice of learning. I have not taught science before, but that is one of my goals by the end of this semester. I want to be able to successfully teach science with complete confidence in explaining factual information to students through the use of creative, eye-catching experiments. 

       In Elementary School is where I gained the love for science experiments. Whenever we had the opportunity to engage into an experiment, my teacher used to reinforce classroom management and focus with regards to the science experiment by saying "Put on your thinking caps" or "Are your thinking caps on?" As children, we were overly excited to put on our imaginary thinking caps and I truly believed that it helped for us to think outside of the box. One science experiment that I remember adoring was the butterfly life cycle. In third grade, my teacher had purchased larva caterpillars and gave one to every student in the class. We raised the caterpillars and recorded our data every day of the caterpillars life in a journal. Once that caterpillars had become butterflies, we even had a celebration in which we went outside and one by one our teacher let us release our butterflies to venture on their journey. I also liked doing the basic battery, wire, and light bulb circuit to see how many light bulbs we could actual manage to get to turn on. 

         In Middle School, I remember working primarily with microscopes for the majority of my science experiments. Most of the experiments revolved around examining cells up close. The first experiment had to do with the parts of a cell in an onion skin. This experiment made it easy for students to identify the parts of the cell and what they look like. The second microscope experiment was when the students had to pluck a strand of their own hair to look at the root of the hair particle. It was pretty interesting to see the exact components of one single strand of hair. The last experiment was when we put foot dye in the stem of a white carnation than examined the discoloring in the petals and stem using the microscope. By using the microscope, we were able to look at the world different. Below is a video that briefly shows what the first experiment looked like:

Onion Cell Microscope Slide Experiment

          High School is where science became more complicated in subjects like biology and chemistry. I hated dissecting things in high school. It was very disturbing for me and it made me nauseous, but I enjoyed working with chemicals and looking at chromosomes in High School. It was interesting to see how everything folded together to transform into something new in the world. My favorite experiment in High School was when I helped replant the school garden and we recycled water bottles by using them as a chain system for flower pots along the school windows. We did this activity for Earth Day and it was a relieving feeling to know that we can recycle something as easy as water bottles for a different purpose. Below is a video of how we created the hanging bottle garden:

How to Make a Hanging Disposable Bottle Garden

         With that said, I look forward to learning more about science and how to teach science effectively to students while gaining their attention and interest into the subject. Let's see what types of science experiences that await in the future!