Dianne
Forum Replies Created
-
Michelle, I agree! I love the idea of empowering our students as scientists and looking to them for solutions. Thanks for sharing, Dianne
-
As I reflect on the Educators Key Practices recommended by UC Davis to maximize youth learning, I am intrigued by all three. Position Youth As People Who Do Science, Frame the Work Globally & Locally, and Attend to the Unexpected, each have merit and each have a place as a best practice. I enjoy the thought of even furthering developing my students as scientists. As sixth graders this year will be the first time they will have science every day for the entire year. In elementary school it is rotated with social studies every other day for half the year. In the beginning of the year, I introduce science to my sixth graders as 'Who is a scientist?' 'What makes a scientist?' 'What does a scientist look like?'. I further discuss, 'Am I a scientist?' and 'Are you a scientist?'. They leave knowing scientists are all around us and they could be scientists, as well. I feel that CS will feed into this and support my teaching. My students, our students, are the promise of tomorrow. I constantly tell my students, they are here to fix our world problems. I love the idea of framing the work globally and locally, and how minor changes can effect a much bigger result both positively and potentially, negatively. Their ideas and suggestions are the solutions of tomorrow. When running a lab, one thinks they know how the data should look, but there are surprises. For me, they are always welcomed. I tell my students, I do not know all and they are here to discover and teach me! So I welcome the unexpected, that is joy of science! I think I model all three of these practices, but I hope to further develop my students as people who do science. I strongly believe that all people are scientists. If you recycle, sign a petition for clean water, or rescue a turtle stuck in the middle of the road, you are a scientist, you find value in our Earth! I feel that as we develop, we are all citizens of science and the sooner we empower our youth as leaders in science, the better our Earth will be!
-
Yes, I also like your idea of opening it up to the family. It makes me pause and want to brainstorm more ideas to support learning from home...just in case, we are still teaching and learning home in the fall of 2020.
-
Unfortunately, I have not used any of the citizen-science projects with my students. However, I look forward to incorporating some of them to my daily classrooms or to an after school group. At my school, we have large windows and we have a beautiful courtyard with a working pond. I would like to try the Project Feeder Watch, Monarch Larva Monitoring and/or Project BudBurst. I think these projects will be fun and interesting, and will allow my students to work in pairs to observe, identify and record data. The best part is getting outside and experience nature! I also know many of my previous students who will love these activities. I would love to start an after school science club and have some of my older previous students mentor my younger students.
-
Michelle, I like adding the 'What If' or 'I Wonder' questions and having the students share within their groups. It provides more thinking and reasoning to the activity. Nice job, Dianne
-
Johanna, Thanks for sharing your activity. I agree that for most of my students I would need to spend time in the lower levels of inquiry before heading into Open Inquiry. I often find students saying, 'Did I do this right? or 'Was it suppose to look like this?'. They want to do it right the first time, even though I encourage them to experiment, try it out. It may have to do with their level of confidence. Thanks, Dianne
-
In the activity, Melting Ice with Salt, students explore the physical changes of melting and freezing. Students will use salt to melt ice by demonstrating and observing the effect that salt has on the freezing point of water. Students will develop their understanding of science topics and practices such as states of matter, properties of matter, physical changes ( freezing & melting), elements & compounds, mixtures (solutions) through scientific inquiry. Students are given two cups of ice and to one cup they add salt. Every five minutes they measure how fast the ice melted by measuring the amount of water at the bottom of the cup. I believe the level of scientific inquiry is confirmation, because I provide the question, procedure and students know the solution, in advance. To modify this activity, first I would change the name of the lab to provide more of a challenge, How Can We Make Ice Melt Faster? I think adding another material to the lab besides salt will provide more inquiry. I think adding something like such as another white crystal substance such as, sugar, students will have to predict, gather data and provide results and reasoning. Other science practices this may support is the melting point, the temperature at which the solid turns to a liquid.
-
Laura, I agree questioning is a HUGE component of inquiry! The basis of science is questioning! Nice job on your concept web!
-
Nancy, I liked your concept map on INQUIRY especially including collaboration...nice job! Sometimes we forget the importance of collaboration, but I would not be where I am without it! Thanks for the reminder!
-
Taylor your map was detailed and very interesting. I thought your arrows provided a nice visual of the multi-dimensional layers of INQUIRY.
-
Inquiry is the process of exploring something interesting. It is opening yourself up to the world around you just as we did as infants! For me, it is a process of questioning, investigating, discovering, understanding and then finally, knowledge! Which then drives us into more INQUIRY and the process goes on and on!
Inquiry is the process of exploring something interesting. It is opening yourself up to the world around you just as we did as infants! For me, it is a process of questioning, investigating, discovering, understanding and then finally, knowledge! Which then drives us into more INQUIRY and the process goes on and on!