I Feel Like a Science Teacher Now!!

Well, this adventure in third grade science is over and a lifetime of teaching awaits!  We wrapped up our unit with a very exciting jeopardy game.  We split the class into two teams and they competed against each other for science pride.  We had categories like science process skills, science tools, science vocabulary, and science experiments.  The students did and amazing job and it was evident that they learned a lot in this unit.  They were able to answer all but one of the jeopardy questions.  The game cam down to the big double jeopardy questions at the end to determine the winner.  The students loved this game and it was a great way to assess their learning for us!

This experience teaching our changes unit in the third grade has been invaluable.  It was a pleasure getting to know the students and help spark their curiosity of science and build their foundation of science concepts.   I feel like I learned so much from the teacher, the students, as well as my teaching partner Debi about teaching science.  I have learned and grown so much and my confidence in teaching has grown by leaps and bounds.  I feel like have been given the knowledge and the tools necessary to take on any classroom and have success.  After this experience I feel as though I am way more confident and prepared to have my own classroom.  I am now aware of how important planning and preparation are to successful lessons.  I am also more aware of how important good classroom management techniques are to a successful learning environment.  Most importantly I learned that for students to retain and learn from they need to be motivated and excited.  It is our job as teachers to not only provide the concepts and the tools for our students, but to excite them and motivate them to succeed.  The more memorable you can make each day the more likely they will learn what you are trying to teach.    

I am very thankful to my teaching partner Debi for working so hard with me to teach our changes unit to our students.  We were a great team and because of this teamwork we had a very successful semester.  We put in a tremendous amount of work each week and it all paid off in our final lesson when we played  solids, liquids and gases jeopardy with our students and they shocked us with how much they learned throughout the unit and how excited they were about their new knowledge.  I am also very grateful for the feedback from our supervisors during this experience.  Each week I felt like I grew more confident and became a better teacher with the constructive criticism that I received from our observers.  This feedback helped me see myself from an outside looking in perspective and recognize areas that I need to focus on in future lessons.  Furthermore, the teacher we worked with was very helpful and supportive during this whole unit.  She helped us with classroom management and useful ways to get the kids to quite down and focus on the task at hand.  We found the "thumbs up" method especially helpful to keep the students attention on the task at hand and to move the lesson along at an appropriate pace.  She was also very helpful in showing us just how motivating and fun hands on learning can be, especially in science.

I am also a lot more confident in solids, liquids and gases than I was before this experiment.  I would be very confident in moving forward and teaching this lesson again.  I often times had to go home and research more about this content area because the students came up with so many great questions and I wanted to be an expert.  This also taught me to be on your toes as a teacher and that content knowledge is very important.  The students will come up with a question that will leave you feeling stumped.          

I have also learned that teaching science cannot be successful without teaching process skills.  The students needs to know that science is all about asking questions and then searching for answers.  In this search they will use a wealth of process skills from observation to classification.  Our students used many different process skills each week and I was pleasantly surprised at the end of the unit that they understood and new how we used all of their process skills!  Yay Success!!  The only thing I can say about doing this again is maybe setting up a time when the teacher has some free time to talk with us before we begin the unit.  We had only a few short minutes to talk with the classroom teacher upon our first visit and she was very busy.  It would be helpful to have a little more time to touch base with her and discuss the classroom dynamic, get to know some kids names, and learn the teachers expectations for the lessons.  Other than that this experience was awesome!  It taught me more than sitting in a classroom at the university could ever teach.   

Overall I have learned from this experience that teaching science is challenging and very fun.  It brings with it inquiry and excitement.  If you share this excitement with your students you will be successful.  The more they are curious and excited the harder they work and the more value the lesson will have in their lives.  It was very sad to say goodbye to the students.  As they handed us cards and gave us hugs i just wanted to stay with them forever.  What will stay with me forever is that I made a difference in their educational lives.  They learned a lot from me and I learned a lot for them.   

I really enjoyed writing this blog for our science teaching.  I have always enjoyed keeping journals of my life experience and blogging is a great way to share experiences with others.  I feel like this blog was a great way to help me reflect on my teaching and how to improve future lessons.  I also enjoyed reading the blogs of my fellow classmates.  I felt like it gave me a connection to my classmates and helped me learn from their techniques and experiences.  Blogging was a great way to share with each other and created a network of support

    

THANKS FOR A GREAT SEMESTER EVERYONE!!

A Spoonful of Sugar!

Our sixth science lesson was oh so sweet!  My partner Debi and I really decided to test our students this week and challenge them to be "real" scientists.  Their challenge was to formulate a hypothesis.   I really thought the students were ready for this challenge so we focused our science process skill this week on formulating a hypothesis.   We asked them to consider the science question of the week, "Which solid would dissolve faster in water, sugar granules or a sugar cube?", and formulate a hypothesis.  We gave our students a few minutes to think about their hypothesis and explain why they made this educated guess.  I was very impressed with their hypotheses.  They used their prior knowledge and background information they had gained through our experiments with salt and other solids and liquids to formulate very strong hypotheses.  This was very exciting to see!  I am glad we gave them this challenge.  They certainly lived up to it.
After we discussed their hypotheses, reviewed our safety rules and discussed the experiment for the day, the students were ready to begin.  They were racing sugar granules and sugar cubes against each other to see which would dissolve faster in water.  Debi and I thought this was going to be a breeze; of course the sugar granules were going to dissolve faster.  Boy were we wrong!  All but two groups dissolved their sugar cube faster.  We had to quickly convene to decide how we were going to talk through this lesson even though the results were not what we had expected or tested.  We discussed with the students why we may have gotten mixed results when performing our experiment.  We also talked about how we go about making our science experiments fair so that we get reliable results.  Even though the students got mixed results in doing their experiment, it really was a well worth it lesson for them and us.  They got to learn about how you must do experiments over and over to get real reliable data and results and we learned that sometimes things just don't go as planned in the classroom and you have to be ready and willing to change and adapt in these situations.  It was a very valuable lesson for us to learn!
We wrapped up our lesson tying in the engineering frameworks.  We decided to have an open discussion with our students on the different tools used in science and how these tools can help make our science experiments better.  We used a computer to present to the students different science laboratories and how specialized tools and equipment help different people in different professions use science, engineering and technology.  The students used critical thinking and thought about tools that might better help them do their experiments that they have been doing with solids and liquids.  I was very happy with how they could think of different tools that may help them.  I thought they did very well thinking of the different laboratories and how people in different professions use science.    
     I feel much more confident now walking into the science classroom than I did when we started this unit.  I can hardly believe we only have one more lesson to go.  I really feel like we have made a connection with these third grade students and I hope we have taught them just as much as they have taught us.  I am looking forward to one more great lesson with them.

Getting Serious about Separating Solids and Liquids

I feel so proud of our third grade science students!  They are working so hard and learning so much about solids, liquids and gases.  I think they are really enjoying this changes unit.  This week we were challenged to incorporate writing and technology into our lessons for the week.  We began our class period with a writing prompt for all our students that they worked on in their science journals.  We asked them to talk about their favorite science activity we have done so far.  While they worked on their writing assignment Debi and I prepared our materials for the class.  My partner Debi did a tremendous job this week organizing all the materials for this lesson and all we had to do was lay them out for the students.  This preparation has proven to be a blessing!  There is a lot less stress and the lessons run much more smooth with good preparation.  This is a lesson I will carry with me in the future for sure.  We began our lesson reexamining predictions the students made at the end of last weeks lesson.  They predicted that the gravel and salt mixture would be the easiest to separate and that the salt and water would be the hardest to separate.  These predictions helped us explain how important predictions are as a science process skill.   After discussing our predictions and reviewing our lesson from last week we were ready to embark on our separating solids and liquids experiment.  The students were using their mixtures from last week to separate back into the original solids and liquids.  The students worked with their materials very well and did a great using a funnel to filter their mixtures.  They separated each mixture and recorded their observations on a record sheet.  They are definitely working better in their groups and starting to communicate their ideas more effectively with their group members.  I am very excited to see this growth in our students in just a months time.  Once their experiment was complete we revisited our big science question of the day, "How can we separate solid and liquid mixtures?"  The students were able to tell us they could use a sieve or a filter to separate mixtures.  We then passed around an information sheet and led a discussion on evaporation to explain to the students how we might be able to separate our salt and water mixture.  Debi passed around mixtures that she had left out for a few days to give students a visual of how heat will cause water to evaporate.  They really seemed to grasp the concept of evaporation with the examples we provided and from our discussion.  We wrapped up our lesson with all of our students sitting on the rug and watching a video/song by "They Might Be Giants"that our professor shared with us.  I thought this was a great way to incorporate technology into this lesson and the kids loved it.  We watched the video once and they begged me to watch it again.  It was nice to use so many different methods of teaching today from lecture, hands on experimentation, discussion, to watching a science video.  Overall I think this lesson went very smoothly and was executed very well.  I am very pleased with how we have improved at classroom management and content teaching over the last five weeks.  I am looking forward to our last two science lessons and I think our students are as well.                                                                                           

Gravel, Tissue, and Salt... Oh My!!

      

Wow this semester is flying by and I cannot believe
we just completed our fourth of seven lessons in our third grade science unit on Changes: Solids, Liquids, and Gases.  This week's lesson really made my anxiety levels rise upon preparation for the lesson.  The lesson was complex and required many materials and this made me sweat just a little.  But I am very excited to report that Debi and I ran a great lesson that I am very proud of.  Again, planning is definitely the key to success.  We knew going into this lesson that the key would be to monitor this experiment very closely and guide the students step by step through this lesson.  It was also very important to make sure they handled the materials very carefully.  Anticipating these issues was definitely our key to a great fourth lesson.  

After a great introduction and review of last weeks lesson by my partner Debi, we discussed our Science Question of the Day which was "What changes can occur when we mix solids and liquids?"  We also talked about our science process skill that we would be using throughout our lesson which was observation.  Our students really understand observation and how using our senses to describe our solids and liquids has become an important skill in all our experiments.  Today we also provided our students with a vocabulary glossary to help them keep track of all the important new science concepts they have learned during our science lessons.  We also introduced them to solutions which we would be working with in our experiment today.

We were now all set to get to our experiment for the day.   The materials were already carefully set up for all the students so we assigned one student from each group the task of picking up the materials from the distribution center we had set up.  We then showed the students how to set up all the materials on their desks as to make sure there would be no spilling of materials.  We then led the students step by step through this experiment of mixing solids with a liquid.  They carefully placed gravel in water and observed its reaction, placed tissue paper in water and observed this mixture, and did the same with salt.  Once they had mixed all three solids with the liquid, they got a chance to stir each of the liquids and observe any changes that occurred.  I was very impressed with how well the students listened and followed our directions carefully.  They made great observations and even thought more critically about the mixtures.  Using the "thumbs up mouths closed" method of classroom management allowed Debi and I to monitor closely the flow of the lesson and the timing of the experiment as well.  This made us aware of when students needed more time or when they were ready to move on to the next step.  Once the experiment had concluded we had an open discussion with the students about their observations.  We again were very impressed with their insightful observations and their knowledge of mixtures and solutions.      We revisited our science question of the day and the students were more than able to answer this question.  I  think they learned a lot from this lesson!  I think my partner Debi and I did a great job with the three criteria for the week flow of the lesson, vocabulary, and misconceptions and I think the students are really having a good time with this changes unit.   They were even able to make predictions of if we would be capable of separating these mixtures which prefaced our next lesson which is separating solids and liquids.  

I do feel as though we are getting stronger and stronger each week at anticipating the issues that students may have and the misconceptions they may face in doing these activities.  This is helping make our lessons run more smooth because we almost know what to expect.  Class management and materials management I have found to be especially important when executing a science lesson.  I will definitely keep this in mind for our future lessons!

Science Lesson Three - "Mixing" Science and Fun!

                                                          
This week was our third lesson in third grade science.  Our changes unit, working with solids and liquids and how they change has been going quite well.  The students are learning more and more each week and seem super excited when we come every Monday.  This week we focused our students on the science process skill of classification while we worked with mixing and separating solids.  Our big science question of the week was, "What is a mixture?"  The students were not very familiar with mixtures at the beginning of our lesson, but by the end of the lesson they were able to tell us that the properties of the solids in a mixture remained the same when mixed and were again able to be separated. I think giving the students a question of the week really helps the students understand the reason behind performing their experiments and helps them focus their attention on the task at hand which is trying to answer the science question.  I think my partner Debi and I are a great partnership and definitely feed off each other and help each other throughout the lessons.  Our preparation for the lessons has definitely  

helped us keep our lessons focused and organized.
This week Debi gave a great review of last week and an introduction for our lesson this week.  After we reviewed our science safety rules our experiment got underway.  I definitely think material management is our strong suit.  Preparing our students' materials has helped us manage our time and get our students into the activity quickly and effectively.  We took our students step by step through this experiment in mixing two solids: gravel and salt.  I definitely think this helped us manage our time and keep the students on track to answer the science question.  With the help of a record sheet prepared by one of our classmates, Becky, the students made great observations of the substances they were using and were able to practice using their science process skill of classification to classify the substances as solids.  We worked on our classroom management this week by asking our students to put their materials down and give us a thumbs up when they are ready to move on to the next step.  This helped us keep the flow of the experiment moving and also allowed us to see which groups needed more help.  Upon conclusion of the experiment the students were able to answer the science question of the day, "What is a mixture?" by telling Debi and myself that a mixture is a combination of two or more things that when mixed retain their properties and can be separated.  I was thrilled to hear their answers!  After this experiment they understood so much more about mixtures and the properties of these solids.  I was especially excited when one little scientist asked if we would get a different result if we mixed a liquid and a solid.  This was the perfect introduction into our next lesson which is going to involved mixing solids and liquids.  What an inquisitive little scientist!  I am very excited to get the opportunity to answer this question for our students!
I feel like we are getting better each week with our lessons and becoming more and more confident in our teaching ability.  I think I could get stronger at being more clear with the objectives for each lesson and making sure the students are aware of these objectives.  I also think I could do a better job at being clear with instructions and getting the students excited without allowing them to lose focus.  I am sure by the time we make it to lesson seven we will have worked the kinks out!

 

A Lesson for All - Freezing and Melting

     

After our second lesson on changes with our third grade students I can't help but wonder, are we giving the lesson or learning the lesson?  I feel like I am learning so many valuable lessons in this process.  It is truly amazing that I can give so much to these students in science knowledge all the while they are giving me valuable lessons in teaching.  It is definitely a learning experience!  I began today's lesson in a small panic because the teacher had done a review of last weeks lesson with the students while my teaching partner Debi and I prepared the materials for this lesson.  This meant I had to think quick and pose an introduction to this lesson on the spot.  I started by asking the students for properties of solids and liquids and we made a chart on the board of their answers.  I was very pleasantly surprised by how much information the students had retained from last weeks lesson.  We then asked them to recall how we ended our lesson the week before.  Their hands shot up and they all remembered pouring water into and ice cube tray and putting that ice cube tray in the freezer.  The students had predicted that the water would turn to ice over the course of the week in the freezer... and use enough their predictions were accurate and our second lesson kicked off on a good note.  We discussed how the water froze because heat was removed, and in today's lesson we would be trying to return the ice to its liquid state.  We tried not to give away any information of how the students would do this because we wanted them to think of creative ways to melt their ice with their partner.  After our lesson introduction which covered everything we had discussed about the properties of solids and liquids and how we would be working with a solid and changing its state to a liquid, we reviewed our science lab safety rules.  Again we talked about using our senses to make observations in our science lessons.  We reviewed the wafting technique for smelling and reminded the students that we will never be using our sense of taste during our science experiments.   We then talked with the students about being careful with their bags of ice and make sure they melt their ice cube without tearing, ripping or opening the bag.

Like last week we assigned each student in the pair a role: one student was the recorder and the other student was the materials gatherer.  Debi and I found that this method works really well and eases the traffic flow around the materials table and gives each student an equal part in the science lesson.  Once they gathered their materials and we recorded our start time, the students were off on their melting experiment.

I was very impressed with the students efforts and varied methods in melting their ice cube.  I saw the students trying many different ways to melt their ice.  They were holding tight to the bag, sitting on the bag, wrapping the bag in their sweatshirts and even crushing their ice cubes.  The students understood very quickly that adding heat to the ice cube would turn it back into a liquid.  They got more and more excited the closer their ice was to completely melted.  This lesson was a bit challenging because some of the students had a hard time making sure their bags didn't break and were not showing as much care as was asked of them at the beginning of our lesson.  Some bags ripped open and a few spills happened throughout the lesson.  I think in future lessons we need to be more proactive in stopping the students when their experiments are getting off track or they are not listening to the rules of the experiment.  Overall however, the students were able to melt their ice and had fun in the process.  This experiment was in line with the state frameworks for the third grade which asks students to describe how water can be changed from one state to another by adding or taking away heat.    

  While groups were finishing up Debi and I had word search puzzles for our students to complete.  This proved to be a good activity for students who finished their lesson early.  After the students finished we discussed their different methods in melting their ice and what they needed to do to melt the ice as fast as possible.  Again the students showed much knowledge by sharing with us that heat needed to be applied to the ice to get it to melt.  Mission accomplished!!    

                          For our next lesson Debi and I need to focus on the students process skills and make sure they are aware of the skills they are using in these science experiments.  We also need to make sure they are aware that they are answering important science questions in doing these experiments.  

Our lessons have gone very well so far and have been a remarkable learning experience and we look forward to sharpening our class management skills and strengthening our instructional directions to our students.  

Stay tuned for next week...MIXTURES!!!                          

         

Third Grade Science - It's all about CHANGES! (and a little about pickles)

Well yesterday was our first lesson with our third grade class and what a blast it was!  My partner Debi and I were totally thrilled by our first experience working with our third grade scientists.  We began our lesson by discussing their ideas of matter and the different states of matter.  We examined some pictures of changes that occur in matter everyday and I was very impressed with their predictions of how matter changes in our world.  It also sparked some interesting conversations about pickles and the changes that occur in the life of a pickle hahaha!!  After discussing important safety rules of the science lab and distributing the science materials the real fun began.  The students were fully enthralled in their observations of matter.  They were asked to observe a cup of water and an effervescent tablet.  Once they made some observations they placed the tablet in the water and..."WHOA... Its fizzing!!  It DISAPPEARED!"  The students loved watching the reaction of the tablet in the water!  They were very into this science experiment.  Watching their reactions and listening to them work with their partners makes me very excited to continue this unit with the students.
This first teaching experience was really great and my partner Debi was great to work with.  We worked hard preparing for this lesson and it really paid off.  I think we commanded the attention of the students while providing them with an interesting and fun lesson.  We met our content objectives and executed our lesson plan as we had wanted and we worked extremely well together.  This was a tremendous first class and I am very much looking forward to lesson two!

PLOP PLOP FIZZ FIZZ Oh What a RELIEF It Is!!