Week 7 - A Day in The Park

Hello Scientist Friends!

This week we had an awesome day in our very own CSUF Arboretum!  The Arboretum is a wonderful resource that many people do not even know exists.  As for myself, I know that it is there and have been there before, but found myself wondering why I don't go more often. 


Before our class, we got together early and had a picnic lunch.  It was fun to relax and enjoy each other's company!

 

 

Then we went off to explore the different environments at the Arboretum, I visited the deciduous forest and the chaparral, to "adopt" a tree.  I chose a Redwood tree to adapt.  Redwood trees are known as "California Giants," but are found across North America and in some parts of Europe.  Here are a few pictures of my tree:

 

 

A Haiku to my tree:

 

 

The giant Redwood

Towers in the thick forest

Gently protecting

 

 



 We were reminded that we share our Earth with many other creatures....




Our text for this week reminded us of the importance of the informal science curriculum, that is those things that happen in nature right in our own backyard that we need to investigate.  One highlight of the chapter that I was particularly interested in was the information on "Green Science," which highlights the importance of conservation and leaving a lighter environmental footprint.  Chapter 5 also listed guidelines and helpful tips for creating a science corner in the classroom and tips for outdoor science experiences.

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These past few weeks have flown by so quickly and as I look back on this blog I can really see just how much we have done and grown.  I have learned so much about the importance of inquiry based learning and seen just how excited students get when they actually get to put their hands on the materials and explore with them.  It has been such a rich experience for me and cannot wait until I will be able to use the new skills I have learned in the classroom.

I leave you with a quote and another picture of the beauty at the Arboretum...

 



Nature does not hurry,

yet everything is accomplished.

~Lao Tzu







Week 6 - A Day in Your Classroom

Greetings Fellow Scientists!

We are back again for another round of fun science adventures, this week we visit a day in the classroom.  But we did go outside for a little hands-on (the best kind) science action. 

Our engaging science activity was to discover what happens when your put water and one alka seltzer tablet into a film canister (In today's digital world, I'll bet some kids don't even know what that is!).  You place the items in the canister, close it up quickly, and place it on the ground with the lid down.  Then....step back.

This is my canister, patiently waiting....

 



Then, POP! or fizzle...depending on how much water you put in and how tight of a seal your canister lid provided.  I'm not going to give away the secret, you'll have to try it on your own :)

In the classroom, we reviewed assessment and discussed the different types of assessment.  I love the idea of science notebooks, but it needs to be a notebook that the students make their own entries in.  Some of us discussed observing science notebooks being used to simply copy what the teacher has on the board, rather than the student writing it in their own words.  The latter, of course, would be the more appropriate use of a science notebook.

 

*** Field Trip ***

 

 

We all shared our Community Resource project that was created with power point.  There are so many opportunities within a short distance to provide our students with wonderful hands on science learning.  Here are some of the sights that were visited by our class:

 

Ralph B. Clark Park - Interpretive Center

Pretend City Children's Museum

The Ocean Institute

The Huntington

La Brea Tar Pits

Fullerton Arboretum

Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary

Cinnamon Productions

Crystal Cove

 

There are so many wonderful opportunities for exploration near to us, as we are exploring these learning experiences we need to be mindful of the definition of inquiry from the National Science Education Standards: 

 



•Posing questions

•Planning investigations

•Gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data

•Proposing explanations

•Communicating the results

 

 

We also need to be sure we are using the process skills needed for science:

            *Observation*Inference*Classifying*Measuring*Recording Data*Predicting*

                            Comparing & Contrasting*Planning an Investigation*

               Chapter 4 of our text outlines these skills and gives specific definition to them. 

               This information will definitely be helpful to me in the classroom!  The chapter

               also extends the science learning the to use of technology, specifically software

               and digital video.  

The chapter concludes with a reminder of the importance of Family Science Night at
the elementary school and we all know, from first hand experience, how important
that is to the school, students, teachers, and families!!

             These past few weeks have come and gone like a whirlwind and I have come away

             weary, but convinced that the ONLY way to teach science to students is through

             the use of hands-on, engaging presentation of the concepts!

 

        Always remember....

 

 





Week 5 - A Day in the Forest

Hello my science friends!

We are back together again to collect some additional tools for our pedagogical toolbox!  We began our lesson with some inquiry about forests, reviewing the different kinds of forests that there are; rain forest, sequoia forest, redwood forest, etc.

We enjoyed some more hands-on science activities with an investigation into tree cookies.  A tree cookie is a cross section of a tree, or tree branch, that is about 2-4 inches in diameter.  Here are some of the samples we examined:

         

           

At our next station we listened to a book on the iPads, The Trees Grin Beside Me.  This is a beautifully illustrated book about a girl and the nature around her, trees in particular, and beauty, strength, and peace that there is in both.  We wrote a little story about trees at this station.

At the next station we used some of the Project Learning Tree (PLT) activities to continue our exploration of trees, completing a worksheet with the names of the different parts of a tree.

 



Our last station was to make a personal tree cookie, here is mine:

 

We've done so much and yet, there is still so much more fun to be had!
We took some time for journalling and started a reflection page on the differences between Linda Vista and Rio Vista.  Even though they are very different in SES, in the end kids are kids :)

Now it was time to embark on some new stations and we conducted an investigation into owls.  At my first station we discussed owls and started a KWL chart, then we looked up information on the iPads to get the answers to what we wanted to know about them.  At the next station we read a book about owls called Owl Moon.  In this book a little boy went out "owling" with his Pa.  Jenny and Peter did a fine job reading the book for us, especially the "whoo, whoo, whoo, whoot" of the owl!

Then the grand finale.....OWL PELLETS!!
For those that don't know, owl pellets are the undigested parts of what an owl has eaten that has been regurgitated.  Fun stuff!

                                     

This concluded our Day in the Forest, but it was a perfect companion to our reading for the week about living things.  The chapter focus was on living things, growing a seed into a plant and learning about earthworms.  The chapter gives great resources to accompany both of these adventures, in print and web based.  Additionally, we read a chapter about assessment and the key to matching your assessment to the instruction.  In science, most of the assessment types are the same as other areas of study, but keeping a science notebook is an additional way to assess the students learning.

Today was another day of learning how to incorporate the 5 E's into the classrooms that we will one day have.  After our lesson we went and taught our third graders (actually Doug & Cherie did the teaching) about Matter, next week it's on to Changes in Matter.

After our class, we all relaxed with a little pizza and conversation then on to....

 

Family Science Night

 



Break the Force was the activity that Jessica and I facilitated and we had a steady flow of attendees.  It was a fun night and it was fantastic to see the families enjoying the science together!

Whew...it's been a long day!

 

 

Leaving you with a quote from Carl Sagan (astronomer and author):

 

 

"Science is a way of thinking

much more than it is a body

of knowledge."



Week 4 - A Day in the Garage

Good Day Fellow Scientists!

Today in Science class we learned about electricity.  I also learned a new pedagogical skill to add to my toolbox.  I learned that a great lesson can be launched from a simple toy....



Peep, peep....



The first E (engage) was used to start this lesson rolling, the toy was introduced and the question was asked, "How does it do that?"  This set off the the next E (explore), as we tried to decide just how it did work, discovering that an entire chain of hand holding people can keep the pet peeping.  Continuing to the next E (explain), we discovered that it had something to do with the circuit and electricity.  We were sent to the the following E (extend) with the assignment to cut up strands of lights and figure out how to make them light up without plugging them in.  Below is our exploration of this:

Exploration....

Success!!!

Then there is always room for fun!

 

 

Our text reading focused on electricity and atoms, explaining the difference between a series circuit and a parallel circuit, and the in's and out's of an atom.  There was also an introduction to the periodic table, which we will be doing with our 3rd graders this week.

 



 

 

In a review of the powerpoint that we viewed from our portal, I learned that gifted students vary in their learning pace, the depth of their understanding, and that their interests are deep and varied. 

We also learned about another approach to differentiation, which is to look at the dimensions of Depth and Complexity.

There are key questions that can be asked in a variety of areas in order to improve thinking skills in several areas.

 





Family Science Night!

 

In class, we reviewed our science kits for Family Science Night - me and my partner are going to "Break the Force!"  You should come and join us:

Rio Vista Elementary School - Anaheim
Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 6:00 to 8:30pm


I leave you with another Albert Einstein quote:

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has
never tried anything new."



 

 

 

 



Week 3 - A Day in Town

Hello Fellow Scientists!

Today we did more hands-on activities...Are you seeing the pattern here?

However, before we got into the hands-on fun we learned about a fabulous program called, Project Learning Tree, or PLT.  It is a program of the American Forest Foundation that existed to promote environmental education in order to ensure that everyone appreciates and understands what a vital role forests play in our lives.  The best part is that because we have an awesome instructor, who is sharing this program with us, we received this great book:

 

 

 

Our first hands-on activity was "Tree-rific!"  We learned about the parts of a tree.  Did you know that sap is made in the leaves of a tree?  Yep, it is!  Then it travels down the tree to nourish it.  Then, we received a mystery bag full of a variety of items:

 

 

 

Do you know which of these items comes from a tree?

.

.

.

.

.

ALL OF THEM!

 

In the words of the late Huell Howser..."Isn't that amazing!"

 

 

From trees we moved to diapers.  Our investigation began with a test to see how much water a diaper would hold.  We hypothesized that it would hold 2 red solo cups (our measuring devise) worth of water.  Here is our process:

 







We began filling the diaper, and filling the diaper, and filling the diaper. 

 

 

Believe it or not, the diaper held nearly 3 red solo cups worth of water.  We could hardly believe our eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is our diaper with all that water in it!

 

 

Diaper Facts:

* They are made from a polymer called sodium polyacrylate CH2--CH(CO2Na)

* This substance can hold 200-300 times it's weight in tap water

* A diaper will stay in a landfill between 250-500 years

* 24 billion consumed annually in the US alone

 

Below is our diaper with the inside material exposed along with a new diaper and the inside material:

 

The material in the wet diaper absorbed the water and becomes a gel-like substance.  The unused diaper material is like cotton and tiny crystals.  The crystal is what absorbs the water and swells to the gel material.

 

 So, let's see what we did:

 

Engaged * Explored * Explained * Elaborated * Evaluated

 

Yep, we covered all the based!

 

 

I'll leave you will a little knowledge about students that was imparted by a teacher, and shared with me by my cohort Danica:

 

They don't care what you know;

if they don't know that you care.



Week 2 - A Day at the Ocean

This class was another day filled with hands on activities!  I did a few things that I never thought I would do:

1.  Dissect a squid
2.  Eat the squid.  Yes, that's right...I ate it!

But, I'm getting a little ahead of myself, we began class with some facts about the ocean.  Did you know that oceans contain nearly 80% of ALL life on Earth?  Isn't that an astonishing fact!

We investigated facts about a sand dollar, here are a few:
     *The "star" on the back is pores for gas exchange
     *They live in shallow water and like sandy bottom
     *They are related to the starfish and the sea urchin
     *The hole on the bottom is it's mouth



Sand Dollar Bottom Side

Here are a few pictures of the sand dollars, the up close pictures are taken with the ProScope:


Sand Dollar on the Beach

Sand Dollar Mouth



Next, we investigated facts about squid, here are a few:

     *They are invertebrates

     *They can propel themselves, by pushing water through

     *They have a beak and tentacles

     *They are related to jellyfish

 

Then, we began our dissection of the squid.  I was not as brave as some in the class and chose to wear plastic gloves.  After we dissected the squid, we fried them up and had a little calamari snack!

Here are a few pictures of this fun!:

Everyone is a little nervous!

That's the beak in the middle >>>

It was a little slimy!

<<<That is the cartlidge from it's spine.

Ready for the batter!!

Prep station

Almost ready to snack on!!

 

Here are a few important points for this week:

     *Think ahead about questions that you will want to ask your students during a lesson

     *IRE - Initiate, Respond, Evaluate

     *Give time to allow students to talk out loud and think so they can absorb the information

    

I'll leave you with this great quote that we were introduced to:

 

"There are only two ways to live your life. 

One is as though nothing is a miracle. 

                The other is as though everything is a miracle."                 

A. Einstein

Week 1 - A Day in the Kitchen

This class reminded me of just how much I like science.  My goal is to learn strategies for creating interesting lessons that will spark students to reach for a deeper understanding of the subject.  The Wonder Stew that we made in class is a perfect example of a hands on project that will get students asking questions.

Wonder Stew:

 

I want to make Science fun for students and the best way to do that is to get, and keep, them engaged.  Higher level learning always takes place when the students are completely engaged!  Once they are engaged, the learning cycle has begun:

                *Engage*Explore*Eplain*Elaborate*Evaluate*

Our text describes science as a process, a set of ideas, and a way of thinking.  The process can be referred to as the scientic method.  The set of ideas are the theories, definitions, and explanations that exist to explain things in the natural world.  Lastly, a way of thinking refers to the ability to be open-minded and cooperative in your science journey.

Here are a few important points from this week:
*Inquiry is imperative
*Hands on activities
     *Connect to students
     *Give opportunity to reflect
     *Clearly define goals
*Address misconceptions
*Familiarize yourself with the Standards
*Technology is important in science