Sabrina

I envision using rubrics for assessments and ensuring that the students have access to the rubrics while completing the project as well as making sure I go over each component before they start. I also think each student's project will be different and I believe that the most important part of the projects are to see individual growth amongst students. This is important because rather than comparing each student to each other, students are compared with their own progress.

I researched a citizen-science project called Reef Check. This project does ecological surveys of the number and composition of marine species in different parts of the world's oceans. The data is available to anyone who requests it. Someone who has not participated in the program can access the data, including students. My students could use the project data to conduct an investigation about the health of the marine ecosystems over time or to determine how individual species of animals or algae populations are doing.

I did the bird feeder citizen-science project. I watched a bird feeder and recorded the number and type of birds that I observed over a period of time. I know a few species of local birds but I would need a guide for any species I did not recognize. The only challenge is that there were periods of time during my observation period where there were no birds on the feeder. For my students participating in this project, a learning outcome that I would expect would be for the students to come up with a question to investigate and be able to collect data that will help them answer the question.

The most impactful thing about creating my sound map was the way that I was able to hear and focus on each individual sound without distraction. Typically if you are outside, you are hearing all of the sounds blended together. I can encourage my students to use their senses to observe the world more fully by helping them develop their observation skills. Using activities such as this can help students focus on using their senses for observation.

Of the three practices, the one that I would most like to model in my teaching is sharing findings with outside audiences. I think this practice is important because it provides purpose and significance for the students complete the work. I would like to practice this by either having the students give a presentation of their findings to other staff members around the school or by having them write a letter of their findings to an institution or entity that it may affect or be relevant to.

A lesson that I teach which I believe falls along the spectrum of the levels of inquiry is where the students work together to discover how to determine whether something is living or not. The students begin by using their prior knowledge to brainstorm what makes something alive. They make an initial list of criteria. The students are then given a set of cards with images of different things on it. The students are asked to sort the piles into categories of their choice regarding each items status of living. The students can make categories such as "living, non-living, dead, never alive". Once the students create their categories, they will use the images to list out criteria they used to determine whether something falls under each specific category. From there, the students discuss their results as a class and work together to come up with a list of requirements for something to be considered living. I believe this activity falls under the level of "Structured Inquiry". Through this activity, the students develop collaboration skills. Not only do they have to decide on criteria within their small group, they then have to work with the entire class to agree on a list of requirements. The students also develop analyzing skills. They must thoroughly analyze each item given (what it is used for, what it does, how it moves, etc.) to determine what category it belongs to. They must also analyze each grouping to decide what criteria applies to each item in that group. I could modify the lesson to make it more inquiry-based or more open-ended by having the students choose their own items to categorize. The students could use their own ideas or search for items around the school. The students could also come up with their own investigation methods to determine criteria for something to be considered living. By making these changes, it would support the science practice of investigation because the students will be using their own investigation methods rather than following a procedure.