Misconceptions

This week I researched the possible misconceptions associated with geology (specifically tectonic plates and plate boundaries), since that is what we will be teaching in our fifth grade class in a couple of weeks. Possible misconceptions that might occur during our lessons include the students thinking that:

· River valleys were created by earthquakes or movements of the earth
· Mountains and valleys have always been on Earth
· Earthquakes made cracks for rivers
· Earthquakes are caused only by explosions from volcanoes
· Volcanoes get hot because of the plates of the Earth

These misconceptions can be found at http://www.huntel.net/rsweetland/science/misconceptions/earthFeature.html.

Along with finding possible misconceptions, I learned this week that there are several different reasons for misconceptions to form. These include vocabulary, social experiences, and developmental reasons. Vocabulary can create misconceptions for several reasons. Students might misuse or misunderstand what a word actually means or represents. Also, each student is at a different level from others which includes their oral and written language. If a student is unfamiliar with a word, or learned it in another context, he/she may mix up the meanings easily. Social experiences also play a large role in how a student learns and whether or not misconceptions will form. Each learner has different social/learning experiences including family, friends, television, media, schools, and libraries. How and where a student learns something can affect what material they learn. Along with vocabulary and experiences, a child's developmental level may influence the chance of possessing a misconception.

Another factor that might affect what a student learns is how they feel about science. Students may think that science is boring, not important in their lives, or that they are not "good" at it. Teachers should work on bringing more excitement into the classroom. This could create more interest within the students which can allow them to see that they are actually "good" at science. Making connections to students' lives will also help them to understand science better.

Resources/Websites used:
http://www.huntel.net/rsweetland/science/stntResning/sources.html
http://www.huntel.net/rsweetland/science/misconceptions/earthFeature.html
http://undsci.berkeley.edu/teaching/misconceptions.php

Student engagement continued

I wasn't certain if we were supposed to research the same question we picked last week, but after talking to some students some seemed to think we needed to keep on researching our original question. A lot of the things I had posted last week came up in other articles, but I did find some new sites and will post the old links from last week as I hadn't done this. I would like to move on to a new question given that a lot of the 'tips' I have found are almost duplicate ideas, or maybe try to broaden the question more.

This is from last week for everyone's benefit:

http://www.inspiringteachers.com/classroom_resources/tips/curriculum_and_instruction/involve_engage_students.html

Edutopia @ http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-student-participation-tips

Suggests active learning and getting rid of 'dead time' as students tend to zone out during these small breaks of 'dead time.' The activities take a lot of time in planning but is said to be well worth the time and effort spent. The site gives 10 Rules of engagement:
1. Start Class with a Mind Warm-Up:
2. Use Movement to Get Kids Focused
3. Teach Students How to Collaborate Before Expecting Success
4. Use Quickwrites When You Want Quiet Time and Student Reflection
5. Run a Tight Ship When Giving Instructions
6. Use a Fairness Cup to Keep Students Thinking
7. Use Signaling to Allow Everyone to Answer Your Question
8. Use Minimal-Supervision Tasks to Squeeze Dead Time out of Regular Routines
9. Mix up Your Teaching Styles
10. Create Teamwork Tactics That Emphasize Accountability

The nice thing about this site is that it basically tells you how to do these ten strategies and offers modifications for younger and older students (some times). There is also a link to a book that is used that teachers can look in to if they like these ideas to incorporate other active learning ideas.

Science for ELLs

I chose to focus on ELLs in the classroom. I am an ESL minor so I thought this would be appropriate to focus on. I also know there is a lot of difficult vocabulary associated with science, so I wanted to see how teachers work that into ELLs lessons. On the other hand, science is a very visual subject (a lot of diagram, experiements, charts/graphs, pictures) so that can help ELLs tremendously.

Some strategies to use with ELLs (and even other struggling students) include:

• make outlines of the lectures/materials
• differentiate lesson presentations and teaching styles
• focus only on key science terms
• build off of student's prior knowledge and background information
• assign group projects to help ELLs understand

Some other strategies to consider to prevent ELLs from becoming overwhelmed include:

• do not force ELLs speak in front of the class
• stick to a routine/schedule to keep them on task
• teach laboratory safety
• hands-on activities!
• allow adequate wait time and make sure they are getting a chance to contribute in their group
• when deciding the seating arrangement, have ELLs sit closer to the front or by their peers

It's important to remember that ELLs should be treated the same as every other student. Just because their English may not be strong, does not mean that they are stupid. In fact, many of these students know and understand these processes and experiments but they have difficulty communicating their thoughts in English. It's important to see what they know to cater the lesson to them, hopefully incorporating some English skills.

Sometimes it is also helpful for them to work with peers that speak their L1- if they are uncomfortable communicating their thoughts in English, they can use their L1 to speak. Although you don't know what they are saying, you could have the other student translate, if possible. It's also important to remember that ELLs (all students actually) can communicate through other way than just words. They can write, draw, act, point, etc.

Tying science into other subject matters can also be incredibly helpful. Although this is important for all students, this is especially helpful for ELLs. Sometimes seeing science tied into another subject area helps to enforce the idea as well as make sene of it. A student can better connect to an idea if it is tied into their everyday life.

http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/english-language-learners-in-science

Science...It's not just for nerds!!

Hello Everyone,

I really struggled to come up with a good blog topic. After reading all the great ideas everyone else posted it made it even more difficult to find an issue that was current, relevant, and interesting. I finally settled on the following:

I was wondering how we can go about connecting the student’s classroom experience with possible careers in scientific fields. Kids, and unfortunately too often girls, say, “Why do I need to know this stuff, I’ll never use it again.” If they think this is true, how much effort will they put into their learning? Can we do a better job showing the students how many different careers are science based? Can we push more kids toward careers in science? Do students realize that science and technology sectors show the most potential for job growth? Students need to know it’s not just the nerds and brainiacs that go into science-related careers.

Possible ideas…
- Bring in professionals from different disciplines that can talk about their jobs and how they apply current scientific methods/knowledge. For a unit on human physiology bring in an orthopedic surgeon or cardiac specialist. For a chemistry unit bring in a professional chemist that works in research, or possibly pharmaceuticals. For a geology unit on shoreline processes and erosion bring in a civil engineer that deals with these issues. I guess this is a form of Career Day, but more specifically it would focus only on science-based careers.

- Take the students on field trips to see professional scientists at work. Some good examples would be power plants, manufacturing firms, agriculture related businesses. Go to a college or university and tour a research facility. This gives kids a chance to see students and professionals at work together.

- Use web-based activities to bring professionals into the classroom. Connect with professionals using live video feeds and do Q & A sessions. This would be a good way to showcase professionals that might not be available in your immediate area: astronomers, marine scientists, meteorologists, wildlife biologists, petroleum engineers,

Does this make sense?? I’ve been bouncing around the internet and I think I can pull together some good information. I look forward to your comments.

Help Me, Help You

The only thing that I can remember about elementary Science class is the textbook!  First of all, it scared the heck out of me because it's monstrous size.  Up until that point in elementary our textbooks had been much smaller and therefore less intimidating.  I don't remember being introduced to the textbook or how to use it, so needless to say reading it was quite boring and confusing.  As a teacher I know I will have to use a Science textbook eventually in the future and maybe this research topic will grow in to using science textbooks effectively, but for now I'm interested in finding good supplementary materials for the Science classroom.

My initial thoughts were to research educational science websites that were fun for kids, but still provided them with information to learn and connect to textbook topics.  Also, I wanted these websites to be helpful for the teacher.  These sites provide Science articles that could be used to introduce or enhance a topic, activities, and a type of connection component.  More specifically, what are other Science classrooms doing, how can my students connect or share a Science learning experience with them?  I have found two websites to kick of my research.  The first is more kid user friendly and the second is very useful for teachers.  Let me know what you think!

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org

There a lot of fun things kids can do at this website, but my favorite element is the short science articles.  If you look down the left had side of the home page, there is a list of Article Archive topics.  These would be a great supplement to textbook curriculum for 4th grade and above.  The images are a plus and so is the option to comment about the articles. 

http://www.howstuffworks.com/

This website is more than just fun.  It shows that Science is exciting and that it is more than lab work and test tubes.  There are a lot of options, which may be too much for kids, but offers a lot for us teachers.  So, this is what I suggest.  At the top look for the Animals and Science tabs.  The Animals tab has great videos, pictures, and would be useful during any type of animal unit.  My two favorite parts of this tab are the Wild Animal videos and the Animal Fact page.  The Science tab offers interviews from scientists around the world, so students can see that science is all over.  I also enjoyed the Forces Of Nature videos and information.   

While researching for this first blog, I already came across another site that I'm excited to share.  I need to do some more digging before I suggest to use and how to use it in your classroom.  Stay tuned!

Student Misconceptions

After writing a research paper on misconceptions in probability for my Math 490 class, I thought it would be interesting to see if there were any misconceptions that show up in students' thoughts when learning science. Misconceptions can be anything from preconceived notions to conceptual misunderstandings. In science, "these are cases in which something a person knows and believes does not match what is known to be scientifically correct" (New York Science Teacher). Once students believe something to be true, it is very hard to convince them otherwise. This makes it very hard for teachers to correct misconceptions.

From my research so far, I have noticed that there are many misconceptions that students possess throughout the elementary, middle, and high school grades. Some adults may still have misconceptions if they were never brought up before. Since there are so many examples, I decided to pick a few from only some of the topics/themes.

Astronomy:
1. Stars and constellations appear in the same place in the sky every night.
2. We experience seasons because of the earth's changing distance from the sun (closer in the summer, farther in the winter).
3. The earth is the center of the solar system. (The planets, sun, and moon revolve around the earth.)
Atmosphere:
1. Rain comes from holes in clouds.
2. All rivers flow from North to South.
Color and Vision:
1. The eye is the only organ for sight, the brain is only for thinking
2. When white light passes through a colored filter, the filter adds color to the light.
Energy:
1. Energy is a thing.
2. The terms "energy" and "force" are interchangeable.
3. Things "use up" energy.
Forces and Motion:
1. Only animate objects can exert a force. Thus, if an object is at rest on a table, no forces are acting upon it.
2. Acceleration always means that an object is speeding up.
Forces and Fluids:
1. Objects float in water because they are lighter than water.
2. Mass/volume/weight/heaviness/size/density may be perceived as equivalent.
Light:
1. A mirror reverses everything.
2. Light from a bulb only extends outward a certain distance, and then stops. How far it extends depends on the brightness of the bulb.
Magnets and Magnetism:
1. All metals are attracted to a magnet.
2. Larger magnets are stronger than smaller magnets.

All of these misconceptions (and a lot more) can be found at http://www.amasci.com/miscon/opphys.html.

Now that I have done some research, many new questions come to mind when I think about misconceptions. A couple of these include: Since there are so many misconceptions when learning science, how does a teacher address and reverse them all? Especially when time is limited and not all students think the same way? What happens if a teacher possesses a misconception? How is that addressed?

Websites:
http://www.newyorkscienceteacher.com/sci/pages/miscon/index.php
http://www.amasci.com/miscon/opphys.html

Low Budget But Effective

Let's face it, we're going to be teachers and we are most likely going to get hired into a poorer district that will be faced with plenty of budget cuts. The question I chose to research is: How do I keep my science classroom current and effective on a low budget? Science is always changing and materials can easily become out of date, and ineffective equipment/materials can really hinder the teaching and learning that takes place in a classroom. I looked things I could do to enhance my classroom on a low budget, here's what I found:
- I have to be dedicated and creative
- I have to become best friends with my local butcher who can supply me with free hearts, kidneys,lungs, etc.
- I must become an avid rummage sale shopper: graduated beakers from empty jelly jars, balance from a peg board, a nail, a piece of soda straw, and scraps of wood, gram weights from nuts and bolts
-I must have a relationship with my students and their parents, they can bring in materials from home
-I have to be willing to do fund raisers