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....