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!