Module 5

S5E1. Students will identify surface features of the Earth caused by constructive and destructive processes.

c. Relate the role of technology and human intervention in the control of constructive and destructive processes.
Examples include, but are not limited to

• Flood control, (dams, levees, storm drain management, etc.) 

Problem: You are at a school that has a river that flows through the property. There is a problem with flooding on school grounds and we need your help to figure out the best way to fix this problem. You are asked to apply your skills as scientists to study the problem and present your ideas to organizations working to solve these problems. 

Authentic Assessment: Students will use the internet to research different types of technology and human intervention to prevent flooding. They must research atleast 4 different types and describe how and why each of them are used by using some form of graphic organizer or concept map. They will come up with a list of best places for each of the interventions to be used. From the information collected they will decide which intervention or technology would be best for the school property and must create a presentation to convince the school board to implement this type of intervention. The students can use powerpoint, prezi, or glogster to present their information. They will then present this to the class and at the end of the presentations the class will take a vote on what the best intervention would be based on the information presented. 

Rubric for Assessment 

	Needs Development	Approaching	Meets	Exceeds
Information gathered	only 1 intervention is researched with little to information provided	2-3 interventions are researched with basic information provided	4 interventions are researched with basic information that is sufficient to make a decision provided	information presented on all four areas is complete with examples of where to find them and how they are created/used.
Graphic organizer/Concept mat	only 1 intervention is present	2-3 interventions are present	4 interventions are present	4 interventions are present and connections are made between the different types
Technology use	No internet resources are used to gather information	Minimal technology used	Various technologies are used to find information	Information gathered from internet, books, and personal interviews of specialists in the area
Presentation	Lacking all parts to make an educated decision from presentation	Presentation is satisfactory but lacks excitement and engagement	Presentation is engaging and information presented in an easily understood manner	Presentation is engaging with various types of multi-media used

Article #3

http://proxy.kennesaw.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ904926&site=eds-live&scope=site

Is the crisis in Science education continuing? By Grady Venville

Summary: This article was written for Australia in 2007. This article summarized why Australia's science education was in crisis which the four reasons were that students were creating negative attitudes towards science, the lack of students joining in higher education science, shortage of skilled science workforce, and a shortage of qualified science teachers. The article goes on to analyze the decrease in students taking higher educational science courses in the Western World through the years 2002-2007. The trends of enrollment in the last year of high school decreased in all areas except for psychology. The three areas of most decrease were Biology, Human biology, and Physics. On top of that the students entering college were decreasing in the amount that were entering for science courses. This same trend applied to some art courses as well. It was noted that students were choosing to enter the workforce rather than to get higher education. What was most difficult was the needs for science education workers in the workforce was increasing throughout all of Western society when it came to technology and engineering fields. The main reason students weren't choosing these fields was due to poor grades, difficulty, boredom, or disengagement to the curriculum. The age in which you had to stay in school for also increased which may have had a factor on what students chose to study that were wanting to enter the workforce right after high school. It was found that 15 year-old Australians were ranked in the lowest in the world for science interest. The author sees the gap widening due to the increased need for science personnel. 

Reflection: The reason I chose to read this article and write about it is because I find it interesting to learn about education in other parts of the world. I realize that it was published in 2007 but that doesn't necessarily mean that the same trends aren't occurring today. I graduated in 2007 as well which made it more relevant to how I was feeling back then. I know from personal experience that I didn't enroll myself in any difficult sciences my senior year because I knew I wasn't going to go into a field that was science intensive in college. From what I noticed with many of my peers they did the same thing that year. I think by the time you get to your last year in high school you are burnt out and see light at the end of the tunnel so you choose courses that might interest you more. I think students get rejuvenated again when they get to college because you have every decision in what you take in college. If you don't want to have a lot of math courses you pick a field that doesn't require that many. The same is obviously true in other parts of the world. This is striking to me though because of all the advances made in technology and science over the past 10-20 years that people aren't wanting to head into science fields. It has been changing constantly which I don't see slowing down anytime soon which I find to be very exciting. What I take away from this article is that as a primary school teacher it is my job to get my students excited and interested in the study of science. I am helping to lay the groundwork for what they will one day become. Science education needs to also continue to be engaging and meaningful the older our students become in order to keep them interested. 

Article #4

http://content.ebscohost.com.proxy.kennesaw.edu/pdf25_26/pdf/2011/ESF/01Jan11/55811382.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=2010882037&S=R&D=rzh&EbscoContent=dGJyMNXb4kSeqLQ4yOvsOLCmr0uep69Ss664S7eWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMOnb7Em549%2BB7LHjfPEA

Science and medical education: is it time to revisit Flexner?
By: David Weatherall 

Summary: Flexner was someone who went into medical schools in the USA in the early 1900s to research how they were running and what they were teaching. His first stop was Johns Hopkins which was structured similar to some schools in Germany due to the first president having spent time overseas. For most of the 20th century medical schools had a very similar structure but at the end of the 20th century it went through a reorganization to include an organ-based curriculum. In 1993 even more changes were evolving in the medical teaching world. The change was to have students exposed to more patients and patient families from the beginning to help build communication among doctors and their patients. This was happening because with higher technology advances they saw the communication of doctors starting to decline. Medical advances with DNA and the human genome project have made it possible that in the next 20 years people will be able to know their susceptibility to diseases and that prescriptions will be set based off the genetics of a person. Many advances in cancer treatment have arisen too but the understanding of how people react to different infections is still of major concern in relation to the environment. Evolutionary biology is going to become even more important in the coming years due to the spread of disease in the future. The question is why do you think doctors need to have more biological background than in the past. The struggle is that medical education is already so long and costly is there time for biological sciences to play a huge part again as originally proposed by Flexner. It is going to become more prevalent for doctors to understand and be knowledgeable on the genome transformations as to guide their patients through it. A huge part of being a doctor is not only the knowledge of science but the art of compassion towards patients. For the future years this article suggests an introductory course of about 6 months for biological sciences alongside patient care could be the start to helping medical doctors progress alongside the science. Harvard has introduced this idea into its first year medical introductory courses which have been very well received by the students and staff. The learning of biological sciences is said needs to be continued throughout their studies whether it be in small group sessions or large group. These ideas would continue throughout the years in school to best prepare the future doctors of our world. 

Reflection: I chose to read an article on Medical education because I find the function of the body to be very fascinating. I never felt strong enough in school to go into the medical field but I enjoy reading about advancements made and new understandings as to why things happen to people. I didn't realize that when you went into medical school that you didn't have a basic biology course to start off your career in medicine. I guess it would make sense to go right into understanding the anatomy and how it works but as we have noticed over the past 20 years there are lots of diseases that we don't know the origins from. This leads us into the importance of having a good background on biology. As with many other fields of study, medicine is constantly evolving and new information is coming to the forefront. I have several friends in medical school currently and I would be interested in hearing from them their experiences with the biological sciences introductory courses. I also can understand why there is an emphasis made on bedside manner with doctors because no one likes to go see a doctor they can't relate to or feel uncomfortable questioning. I know I don't teach anatomy in fifth grade but I do teach life sciences. Again as I said about the earlier article, as a teacher of young children we are responsible for building interest and understanding in the basics of our world and science. I want to be the teacher my kids look back on that got them excited about school and curious about our world. This is something I really want to work on this year as I get to focus on two subjects with science being one of them. 

Bonus Blog: Homework

Do you (or would you) give homework? If so, why and what format would you use.

I have always given homework due to this being an expectation in my school and among my grade level. I usually assign homework in math and reading/language arts. Mostly math to keep practice going but I try to keep it as review of concepts in the past and not something we just learned that day. This way students have had time in class to become proficient and the homework is there to reinforce tools learned previously. I don't like overloading the students with homework because at the end of the day they are kids. They work so hard during the school day that they need some down time when they get home to build social skills and enjoy outdoors when they get home. I don't find it particularly beneficial to give them homework on a new concept learned that day because they might practice it incorrectly when they get home. I do find it beneficial for students to have some sort of reading homework each night to force them to read. I don't always trust that students will read every night when there isn't an assignment attached to it. Whereas this way they are having to read and keep working on their literacy skills. There is research around the importance of reading at home and so this part of "homework" I put a lot of emphasis on for my students. As a teacher, I try to get as much done during the school day as to not to overwhelm my students when they get home. Because of the setting I teach in, my students often times just don't do their homework because they don't want to or their parents aren't home at night to make sure they do it. This is a terrible cycle because they don't care that they have to miss out on a few minutes of recess because they didn't do their homework. I haven't quite figured out the right trick to motivate those that don't take homework seriously. I feel as though if homework is done the right way and presented correctly than it can be beneficial to student learning and instruction. 

Module 4

Reflect upon your beliefs about using constructivist techniques in the elementary science classroom and how you might allow students to construct knowledge in your science class.

When I am teaching I try my best to use the constructivist techniques because I believe that students should guide their own learning to make the most meaning from what is being taught. I think especially in the science classroom, students should inquire more about the topics being taught. As was stated on thirteen.org, students need to engage in their learning to formulate questions that can be discussed through peer discussion and experiments. It's important to provide opportunities for our students to explore the world they live in so that they construct their understandings and aren't doing rote memorization about our world. I think a way I could bring some of these techniques into my classroom I could start by providing the new standard for that day to the class along with some materials on each table. Then allow my students to explore the materials or manipulatives provided to get open dialogue going about what it is we might be moving into for that days learning. What questions they might have about the items on their table or have them try to connect the materials to experiences they may have with them. This opens the classroom for communication and entices the students interest in the new topic. Experiments don't have to be on a large scale for students to gain meaning and understanding from it but as long as they have the opportunity to explore and discuss with their peers it will be beneficial to their learning. I don't think that textbooks are necessarily a bad way of reinforcing ideas that have been learned but I don't think they should be of the most use in a science classroom environment. 

When I was reading through the online workshop I realized how much my school and previous education classes were trying to form my teaching into being more constructivist. When we discuss the evaluation system now for teachers in Georgia, in order to be considered a proficient teacher you must be incorporating ideas from constructivism. Rigor is defintely a way of doing this because if you have open-ended projects that there is no clear end product it allows students to collaborate with their peers to guide their understanding of the material. The teacher is there to help when needed and to facilitate questioning but the teacher shouldn't be handing over all the information. This leads to more rich engagement and discussion among the students in the classroom. If students haven't been in a classroom like this before you must take the time at the beginning of the school year to establish their understanding of what you want from them through modeling and exploration. I can understand how more traditional teachers might be skeptical or critical about these ideas but once you see the excitement in students through your teaching I don't see how you could revert back to traditional teaching. 

Although as a teacher I may not be a constructivist teacher every hour of every day but I strive to lead my students through this type of instruction. It takes more thought out lessons and preparation to help guide this type of classroom but I can see how the results would be amazing! 

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index.html



S5E1. Students will identify surface features of the Earth caused by constructive and destructive processes.

b. Identifyandfindexamplesofsurfacefeaturescausedbydestructiveprocesses.

• Erosion (water—rivers and oceans, wind)
  
• Weathering
  
• Impact of organisms
  
• Earthquake
  
• Volcano ( I will focus on this one)
  
  
  
  
  Excite: Show the baking soda/vinegar experiment in a water bottle

  - have students journal about what they observed 

  
  
  
  
  Explore: have students research different volcanos in our world 

  - journal about the different explosions that take place with different volcanos

  
  

  - develop a  volcano hill in our schools yard with the water bottle experiment to show what happens to the land around it. 

  
  
  
  
  
  Explain: Journal entries about what they see and learn from experiments

  - draw pictures of the progression of volcanos

  
  
  
  
  Expand: Use the internet to explore the differences between earthquakes and volcanos

  - create different models for the different types of volcanic eruptions (gaseous ones vs. lava types)

  
  

  - research how volcanos are formed  

  
  

  - partner with someone in the class to discuss their findings and how their findings may have differed 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  Extend: Explore how volcanos can not only destruct our world but how they are constructive
           - research where volcanos have been constructive and compare those results to where they                have been mostly destructive. 
  
  

  
  

  
  Exchange: Challenge the students to find new and interesting facts about volcanos to add to the             grade level wiki
  
  

  - challenge students to be the first one to have found a past volcanic eruption and how it changed the earth

  
  
  Examine: wiki, models, reflective journals, and observations 
  
  

  - a comparison between volcanos in different parts of the world

  
  

  - discuss if there was a volcano to form near Georgia where would be the most logical place, why, and how might it react when it erupts with evidence to explain their calculations.  

  
  
  

Module 3

5th grade group members are Lisa Williams, Katie Robinson, Anne McKown, and Sally Bocarro. We made a wordle for the process standards associated with 5th grade science and we identified the process standards in a science lesson on Physical and Chemical changes.

ECE 7514

Module 3: Lesson Plan

Standards:

S5L3. Students will diagram and label parts of various cells (plant, animal, single-celled, multi-celled). 

b. Identify parts of a plant cell (membrane, wall, cytoplasm, nucleus, chloroplasts) and of an animal cell (membrane, cytoplasm, and nucleus) and determine the function of the parts. 

Objectives: Students will:

• Collaborate in groups
• Label the parts of a plant and animal cell 
• Complete a chart showing the functions of each of these parts
• Construct a model of a plant or animal cell with their group. They will then present their model to a group who has made a different model. 

Essential Questions: 

• What are some of the parts of a cell that do work? 
• How are plant and animal cells different?

Learning Activities: 

• Students will be placed into groups of 3 or 4. The groups will be heterogeneous. Students will begin by watching a Brain pop video on cells: Even Your Parts Have Parts. They will receive a written information sheet with cell parts and definitions. They need to be familiar with the membrane, cell wall, cytoplasm, nucleus, and chloroplasts.  
• Students will gather in their groups then complete a table on the functions of the plant cell parts in Google docs, which will be accessible to the whole class. As students complete the table, they will be able to check one another’s work. They will use this to help them label the plant cell diagram.
• They will then do the chart and diagram for the animal cell.  
• Students will use the diagrams, and worksheets, to create a model of a plant or animal cell out of Playdoh. These will be divided between the groups. Students will be required to present their model to a group with a different model. They need to discuss 2 differences between the plant cell and animal cell. This constitutes the closing activity. 
• Students will be graded on their ability to work within their group (observation), and to contribute to the finished product. 
• A short quiz will follow, which will be done individually. This will be a formative assessment, to indicate whether students need more time with these concepts.  

Information Sheet for Plant and Animal Cells

• NUCLEUS: This organelle directs what happens in a cell. It holds DNA, which us what gives living things their traits, or qualities.
• CELL MEMBRANE: A thin, bendable cover that is wrapped around all cells. It lets food, water, and gases into the cell, and it lets waste leave.
• CELL WALL: Found only in plant cells, it is a stiff outer layer around the cell membrane. It protects the cell, and helps a plant stand up.
• CYTOPLASM: Found between the nucleus and the cell membrane. All the organelles float in this thick liquid.
• CHLOROPLASTS: Found mostly in plants. They contain chemicals called chlorophyll, which gives green plants their color. 

                            Instructions for creating your plant/animal cell model

1. Using Playdoh, create a shape for your cell. 
2. Use Playdoh, or find objects to represent parts of your cell. 
3. Use the picture to help you- there are a few more parts in this picture than you need, but make sure that for your animal cell you have a cell membrane, a nucleus, and cytoplasm. If you are making a plant cell, make sure you have a cell wall, cell membrane, nucleus, chloroplasts, and cytoplasm.

In this lesson plan, the process skills include communicating, as students had to work collaboratively in groups, and also present and explain their models of the cell to others. Also, classifying was involved, as students had to recognize the differences between the plant and animal cells, based on the difference in their parts. 

This lesson could have been changed to include more of the process skills as follows:

• Observing: Instead of reading about cells and their parts, this could have been an observation in the science lab. Students could have been given a plant and an animal cell to examine, and be given questions about the two cells which would lead them to classify the cells based on the different parts of the cells. 
• Inferring: Once students had observed plant and animal cells, they could have been asked to infer why a plant cell had different parts, for example, why does a plant cell have a cell wall, but an animal cell does not? Why does a plant cell have a chloroplast, but an animal cell doesn’t? This would lead to further research and inquiry. 

Article 2

http://www.icr.org/i/pdf/imp/imp-375.pdf

Summary: This article discusses what science education is and why it is important. This article discusses the idea of evolution in the education world. The article focuses in on the Kansas State School Board ruling of taking evolution out of the teaching of biology. One school board voted to take it out of curriculum because "the fact is a group of closeminded science educators were determined to put in place curricular standards that held up Evolution as the most important concept in all of science," and "What the State Board did do was take input from all constituents and develop a set of standards based on good, qualifiable science." The school board member who said these statements was trying to explain why the decision had been made to take evolution out of the textbooks and curriculum. The articles author goes on to discuss how these ideas shouldn't necessarily be taken out of education but shouldn't be considered the "right" way of science due to many religious freedoms in our country. In our countries law it states that evolution can be taught as long as there is no coercion going on when it's being taught. Throughout this article very controversial questions are posed and discussed in relation to the teaching of creationism and evolution in the science classroom. The final argument made is that public school students should be taught both ideas of evolution and creationism. 

Reflection: I found this article to be interesting because I didn't realize that this debate was still occurring in 2004 when it was written. As an educator you just are always told not to bring religion into your teaching and I've never taught evolution so according to this article I am doing a disservice to my students. I would have to disagree because I am teaching my students the standards that were set aside for their best interest by the state and I teach the information necessary for them to be successful without bringing my religious beliefs into play. I realize that this probably relates more to high school teachers of biology but elementary teachers tap into ideas that are background for biology. I felt as though the author of this article was very biased and so the ideas on evolution were very much argued with. When I looked more into the author I realized that he works for the institute for creation research. I'm glad I read this article to be aware of issues still occurring in the science and teaching world when it comes to evolution and creationism. I didn't know about Kansas City schools taking evolution out of their curriculum. Found this article to be an interesting read. 

Article 1

History of Science and Science Education:

Brush, S. G. (1989). History of science and science education. 20(2), 60-61. Retrieved from            http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01807048?LI=true

Summary: Stephen Brush writes about how the history of science hasn't always been part of the science education curriuclum but has evolved to be incorporated. Science education is a way of explaining science and the changes that have taken place that were discovered by "historians." He discusses how for a long time science education revolved around discussing conclusions made by scientists through the reading of textbooks rather than through experimentation and observations made by the students. He discusses the Harvard Project Physics and how the science that was taught was done through presentations, experiments, films, demonstrations, and other resources to gage the full aspect of conclusions and variations to the conclusions. The idea behind this project was to bring science to the students to experience themselves. 

Reflection: I realize that this isn't the most up-to-date article for me to choose, but I thought the content was interesting. He at the very beginning mentioned ideas we still discuss as issues for today. I was interested in the Harvard Project Physics because it sounded very similar to the ways in which professional development these days likes for science to be taught. Through my years in education myself and now teaching I feel as though when students experience science for themselves the information becomes more meaningful which is what Brush was summarizing in his paper. I feel as though the ideas mentioned in this paper aren't completely gone they have just been added to for best practices in the teaching of science. 

Module 2 Blog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-G39FFUrtA

After viewing this video, I have some thoughts. I appreciate when he says "every child can succeed and every child deserves that chance" because I feel as though my county, Fulton, keeps harping on this for their staff because no matter what the challenges may be that a student faces it doesn't take away from the idea that they are capable of being successful. It is amazing to hear what percentage of jobs in the coming years are going to require education higher than a high school diploma. We have a quarter of students who drop out of high school still which causes them to struggle for life. It was interesting to me that he said the best way to stimulate the economy is for our students to be better educated so that they are equipped to start their own businesses or help those existing thrive. If this was how the government felt than why are there always budget cuts for education? I don't think just shelling money into schools will make a school better but I do think that if salaries for teachers were higher you would find that very intelligent, qualified people in the different fields would chose to go into teaching over fields like engineering and medicine. You hear so often about how "I would have loved to be a teacher but it just doesn't pay enough" which I find to be so sad and detrimental to our students education. It is impressive what TechBoston has been able to accomplish with their reform and dedication to their students. I couldn't agree more about the importance of parents involvement in their children's education. Science education incorporates all areas of curriculum and is vital to students becoming successful through their years in the classroom. I agreed with most of what President Obama said because I wouldn't be a teacher if I wasn't passionate about the success of children. In an ideal world teaching would be considered an honorable profession but right now it's not like that here as it is around the world. I resignate with math and science being the area where better teachers are needed. I personally love teaching math and science and am fortunate to be focusing on these two areas alone next year. Through the readings this week the changes in science and mathematics are vital for the success of our citizens and our future generations to compete in our ever-changing world.

Module 1

Science Lesson in my Classroom
On a typical day in my classroom I will read the standard for the day, introduce any new key vocabulary, and hook the students with either a Brain Pop on our topic or a Discovery Education Video about what we will be learning on that specific day. One of my favorite unit to teach is Constructive and Destructive forces so I am going to describe one of those lessons. This was a culminating activity so I showed a Discovery Education video on landforms. We discussed key vocabulary such as volcano, jetty, canyon, delta, and mountain. I then divided the class into groups of 5 or 6. I gave each group a landform topic, a plastic tray and about 5 minutes to brainstorm how they were going to create a model to show this landform. At my teacher table I provided sand, pebbles, water, dirt,water bottles, vinegar, baking soda and larger stones. They were to decide as a group which of these items they wanted to use to show their specific landform. The groups came up to gather their supplies and it was their turn to show me their process of thinking. After they were finished they had to write on an index card the processes that were used to create their landform and why they chose the materials that they did for this experiment. Then the class took a gallery walk around to all the other groups where an explanation was given from the group members. I used this time as an informal assessment of the group members ability to correctly portray the landform and description of the processes used to form these landforms. My motivation for this lesson was that I wanted the student to see how the processes we had been learning could actually work in a much smaller scale to help bring the science to life.

The use of technology in the classroom
After reading all the articles and book chapters this week I was reassured as to why technology in the classroom is important. Our world is constantly changing and we must equip our students with the abilities to conquer new ideas and new items through the scientific process. Allowing our students the ability to explore through the use of technology can be so vital to their success in life. It's crazy to think how when my fifth grade students get to be graduates that the jobs they are going to go to college for may not even exist right now. This goes to show why we should use the proper lesson formats, experiments, and experiences to engage our students in science. The ultimate goal is to have our students apply what they learn in our classroom into their everyday lives but we must have strong intentions for what it is we are wanting them to take away from a lesson. There needs to be thought out ideas and we ourselves must be very intune with the technologies we use in our classroom. It's important as a teacher to also go back and learn new technologies to feel confident in our use of them before we try to use them in the classroom. Professional development is never a bad thing. Our trade is to be a teacher and we must constantly learn new and innovative ways to engage our students in the science process. I enjoy using technology in my classroom and want to continue learning new ways. My school just bought three ipad carts that I would love to incorporate into lab for my students. I am sure there are applications out there that can apply directly to my curriculum to help in my want to bring science alive in the classroom. My extent of technology this past year was using Discovery Education, Brain Pop, Powerpoint, Voki, and Glogster. I would like to expand even further into the various uses in my classroom.

Concept Mapping- I think concept mapping is a great way for students and teachers to make connections of their instruction and ideas. Sometimes kids ideas are all over the place so we think but they might be making connections we just don't understand. If we use this idea of concept mapping these students might have an easier time showing us their learning.