Recap

This being my last blog, I thought it would be beneficial for myself to reflect on my research and in the process provide readers with a summary recapping my blogs.  I set out to research supplementary materials to use in the classroom in addition to or sometimes instead of a textbook.  My science experiences as a child were only from the textbook, which gave me an inaccurate understanding of how science works.  Science is active, alive, creative, and fun and we need to provide these experiences for our students. 

My first blog, Help Me, Help You, listed a couple of websites I thought to be useful in a science classroom.   Websites are great because they provide you with a ton of information and prove to be great inspiration for lessons.  If you find an effective website that you and your students like, use it as a 5 minute warm up to science class.  Have them read a short news article, watch a video, or read a science related current event story. 

Outstanding Science Textbooks, was my 2nd blog  and it touched on the collaborative efforts between the National Science Teacher's Association and the Children's Book Council.  Each year they put out a list of outstanding science focused children's literature.  For the first time this year the list was organized according to the National Science Standards each book best reflected. 

I am studying elementary education and therefore am always interested on how to best teach science to primary students.  For my 3rd blog I sought out the expertise of the NSTA once again.   NSTA has peer reviewed journals and the one specifically for elementary teachers is titled Science & Children.  An article I found discussed implementing science notebooks into primary classrooms.  I love this idea.  Read the blog for details, but the things I like most about the notebooks are: it makes students accountable, provides the teacher with student data over a period of time, and teaches students the importance of observations and data collection.

Readers Theater & Science was the focus for blog four.  I have seen Readers Theater being used in classrooms and worked with students myself to prepare for a R.T. performance.  These past experiences led me to believe that R.T. is used only during reading or writing time, or to improve fluency.  Luckily, I found a great article published in Science Activities that discussed the use of Readers Theater and science.  Teachers can use the information in the science textbook and turn it into a script or if the students are old enough (middle-high school) they can write their own script.  The focus of each script is science concepts and ideas.  Students do multiple readings of the script then perform to their class or others. 
 
Blogs five and six became a two part series focused on incorporating the arts into science teaching and learning.  Dance, music, poetry, drama, drawing, and painting are all ways to teach kids science.  Artists are always observing, exploring, are influenced by society, influence society, search for answers, and use creativity to share their discoveries with others.  Believe it or not Science and Art are companions.  I encourage all teaches to use art to teach science!
 
My 7th blog Filed Experiences & Hands on Projects discussed ways to provide students with science experiences outside the classroom as well as bringing hands on projects into the classroom.  Showing that science is all around us and careers in science are obtainable is an important job for teachers.  Giving students experiences that motivate and inspire are the most beneficial. 

Throughout my researching process, I realized a very important thing.  It is not possible to teach students how science works only through a textbook!  Providing students with a variety of experiences allows science to connect with all students preferences and interests.  If you end up teaching in a elementary classroom where science is not on the schedule don't let that stop you from teaching science to your students.  Use children's literature and the arts to prepare them for science concepts they will undoubtedly face in upper elementary and middle school.