Science Methods - Blog 4

      This week in science methods I have spent a lot of time working on my science unit, and I am definitely the most proud of my work on that assignment this month. I am planning a science unit on sound that integrates the literacy concept of cause and effect. This unit has taken a lot of planning and a lot of hard work, but I believe this work will certainly be worth it since I have now created a unit that I can use during student teaching. The aspect of the unit I struggled with the most was creating the big ideas. Often, I struggle with creating the big picture ideas for students because I am very detail oriented. My big ideas tended to be much more detailed and focused to the unit than they were supposed to be. On the other hand, creating the performance task brought me a lot of satisfaction because I created something that I know the students in my classroom will love participating in, and that made makes me very excited to teach this unit. Since I just turned in my unit, I do not have any action steps for this assignment this week. However, I want to complete my edTPA commentaries for science methods over the coming weekend.
     This month, I contributed to the overall class by simply being encouraging. This week has possibly been one of the most stressful weeks of the semester, and I have become incredibly grateful throughout this week for the wonderful people I get to learn alongside. We have all become each other's cheerleaders, and we support each other as much as possible. I think encouraging and supporting my peers is the best way for me to continue to contribute in the coming weeks.
     The outside learning I have found this week is a book that was introduced to us in class called "Science Formative Assessment" by Paige Keeley. This book is full of wonderful formative assessments that are not only great for science instruction, but all curricular areas. This research has been incredibly helpful because it has added quite a lot of strategies to my bank of ideas for formative assessments. Now I will be able to go into my classroom and have an abundance of assessments to use in order to find what works for each student. This relates directly to the North Carolina Teacher Candidate Standards, specifically standard 4h, which states that "Teachers use a variety of methods to assess what each student has learned." In order to truly know what our students have learned, we must not only assess them multiple times in different ways, but we must also find the ways that students excel at displaying their knowledge. Some assessments may create barriers for students that hinder them from showing what they have truly learned, and we must recognize this occurring and try other methods or make accommodations. During my student teaching experience, I plan to implement many of the assessments I have learned about in order to find what assessments truly show what my students have learned.
     The current event in science that I read about this month involved the planets! Specifically, there was a spacecraft that was sent to Mars that successfully landed on the planet. This spacecraft did not . land in the area that was desired by scientists, but the spacecraft luckily landed in a crater filled with soil, which made collecting data extremely easy. The spacecraft will be used to study the interior of the planet to help scientists learn more about the planet. (Link to research: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/top-stories-shocking-crispr-claim-mars-landing-and-geneticist-s-take-gene-editing)


Top Tweets of the Month:


I chose this as one of my top tweets of the week because it reminded me that coding is a scientific/mathematic idea that should be incorporated into our classrooms! Coding is something that our students will likely be exposed to in their futures, and we should embrace this idea.



I chose this as one of my top tweets of the week because I thought it was a wonderful graphic that showed the levels of learning that our students are able to experience. Clearly, good teachers would want their students to go through each level of learning and eventually come out at the extended abstract learning.



I chose this as one of my top tweets of the week because it shows exactly what our goal as teachers should be. We aren't teaching students facts and things to "know," we are teaching them how to be successful learners.

435 - Blog 4

      This month in my student teaching placement, I have begun to notice the growing gaps between the students in my classroom. The students who have succeeded all semester so far are beginning to connect the dots on concepts, and connect similar concepts together, specifically in math. On the other hand, the students that have struggled all semester have continued to struggle, and have required more and more attention in order to catch up and continue to learn. Many of them are still working on concepts that the class has moved on from, and managing this is very difficult. My CE mostly works with these students, or has me work with these students, during WIN time, which stands for "What I Need." Although this is a great time to help students who are falling behind to move forward in their learning, it is not always enough. It has been very helpful for me to see how these situations are dealt with, and I have learned that each child and each situation is often dealt with differently. We have one child in this class who is in EC for math and reading who has been moved back in the curriculum and is often doing first grade work because the second grade work has been nearly impossible. This child is working on building the concepts he is lacking in order to be able to attempt second grade work. On the other hand, there are many children who are still participating in everything, and succeeding at most everything, but simply require extra attention in specific areas to be able to be on grade level. Each situation is different, but I have learned from my CE that you must do whatever the child needs, even if that means taking a step back from the second grade curriculum and finding the problems in the previous grades content.
     According to ASCD. org in regards to students struggling with mathematics, "Students may have a serious lack of background that requires reaching back to mathematical concepts taught in previous years. The focus should be on the underlying math, not on class assignments. For example, while others are learning multidigit multiplication, floundering students may need experiences to help them learn basic underlying concepts, such as that 5 × 9 can be interpreted as five groups of nine" (Link at bottom). As educators, we must sometimes set aside the concepts the class is learning in order to help students fix the underlying concepts that were never learned. Otherwise, they may never build a foundation and continue to struggle. Knowing what your students need, regardless of the curriculum, is strongly related to the North Carolina Teacher Candidate Standards, specifically standard 4a, which states that "Teachers know the ways in which learning takes place, and they know the appropriate levels of intellectual, physical, social, and emotional development of their students." Throughout my time in this classroom, I have learned how important it is to be aware of your students, and to understand not only what they need from you, but also what is absolutely not going to click with them. My CE knows for some of her students that the whole group instruction of certain concepts most likely won't be enough, and intentionally plans to support those students in other ways. It is extremely important to be in tune with your students, and pay attention to them at all times. In my future classroom, and during my student teaching experience, I hope to learn the signs and signals that students send at all times and be able to read those to understand what my students need and what I need to do for them to make them successful.
   

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov07/vol65/num03/Nine-Ways-to-Catch-Kids-Up.aspx

Science Blog 3

       This month in science methods we have mostly been focusing on our science fair projects! We completed and turned in these projects last week. My groups project consisted of pouring acid rain on three different types of plants to see which plant could survive the effects of acid rain. Throughout our project, we measured our plant's heights, and we made sure we administered the same amount of water to each plant. Once our plants had grown tall enough, we began putting the same amount of acid rain on each plant. As we watched each of our plants decay from the acid rain, one particular plant clearly died a lot slower than the rest. Throughout this project, I not only learned how to complete a successful science project, but I was also able to look through the lens of a teacher and see how a science project could be utilized in the classroom. One of the biggest struggles throughout this science project was the slow growth of the plants. Our project was not able to move as quickly as we would've liked because the plants did not grow as fast as anticipated. One of the things that my group was the most proud of was being able to keep data on our project in order to prove the effects of the acid rain on each plant. Being able to see our project develop and see the results of our hard work brought our science project group a lot of satisfaction. This project related directly to the NCTCS, specifically standard 3b, which states that "Teachers know the content appropriate to their teaching specialty." In order to be effective science teachers, we must understand how to create and administer science projects in our classrooms. Science projects are extremely important to integrate into the classroom. According to classroomscience.org, "Any teacher who’s ever guided a group of students through a science project can attest to the power of hands-on learning. Freed from the two-dimensional confines of the printed page, these projects routinely benefit students by requiring them to engage in the varied tasks that comprise the scientific method" (Link at bottom). In order to help students truly understand science and learn to the best of their ability, we must let students experience science in the classroom. Science projects will help me in my future classroom to ensure that my students not only understand science in a deeper way, but become scientists themselves. 
      Over the next week, I plan to work on my unit that I am planning for my student teaching experience. I am currently planning to teach a unit on sound. In order to continue working on this project, my smart goal for this coming week are to complete half of my unit by Monday. In order to contribute to the overall class this week, I have been working with my classmates to collaborate and help each other with ideas about our units as well as decide with others how much of our unit should be done by Monday, which is when our formative assessment of our progress is due. I will continue to contribute more with my classmates by collaborating with them on projects and assignments, and ensuring that we are all learning from one another.
     One current event that I learned about this month is a fungus that was found that can break down some forms of plastic. According to sciworthy.com, a scientist gathered plastic from a lake, and separated the fungi found on the plastics into thirteen groups (Link at bottom). Four of the groups were found to be able to degrade polyurethane plastic, while none were found to be able to degrade polythylene plastic. There was one particular fungus that was able to degrade polyurethane plastic the fastest, called "ladosporium cladosporioides." Teaching students about an event such as this could show them that scientists are still discovering different things in our world today, and are still conducting experiments just like they are in the classroom. Additionally, this current event could be connected to recycling, and the idea of a fungus being used to reduce plastic in the world. 


Top Tweets of the Week:
   

This tweet is one of my top tweets of the week because it hit on some of the key ideas I believe educators must have. The first idea is that children must be challenged to be changed into successful learners, and successful people. The second idea is that children must be taught how to think, not what to think. Teaching facts and requiring students to memorize material will not help students in the future. Everything we teach must be relevant to their future lives. We are teaching concepts and ideas that help teach students how to think differently. The purpose of education is to help students reach their full potential.



This is one of my top tweets of the week because in order to be successful teachers, we must teach in away that benefits our students. We can "listen" to our students my looking at their work, listening to their answers, and working as hard as we can to find the way each student learns. The days of expecting student to conform to the way a teacher is teaching are over. We must ensure all students learn to the best of their ability by finding their strengths, and utilizing these strengths to improve their weaknesses.



This is one of my top tweets of the week because in order to make our classrooms feel safe for students, it is vital that we teach students how to fail. Failure is an integral part of the learning process, and even though no student will enjoy failure, we must always ensure that our students know that failure will not permanently be part of them, such as a tattoo, but will simply be like a bruise that will fade as they learn how to succeed.
   

http://www.classroomscience.org/new-research-just-what-are-the-benefits-of-science-projects
https://sciworthy.com/can-some-fungi-clean-up-plastic-pollution/