Bonus Blog

S5E1: Students will identify features of the earth caused by constructive and destructive forces.  

An essential question for this standard I would use in a unit or lesson plan would be:

Why is it important for people to understand how the earth changes naturally? 

Module 8

Teaching Science to Young Children:Practical Advice

Right from the beginning of this webpage I was fascinated because I never realized that science in the past didn't take place in the elementary classroom. I was taught science in elementary school and just assumed this was the case for everyone before me. Our world is very technical and in order to understand and compete in our society science is very important. The advice most valuable to me was that we should teach science skills rather than just the facts. Experiments are the best way for students to experience science in a fun and exciting way. Hands-on activities need to be incorporated into all units so that students are given the opportunity to explore their curiosity. 

Teaching Young Children Science: Three Key Points

I am glad that the science education world has changed from learning the science to doing science because personally I am more a visual learner. The memorization of facts was very difficult for me and would stick with me long enough to take a test but that was it. Experiences with science are long lasting because of the ability to observe, explore, create, predict, and so much more. When discussing doing science you can see the importance of the 5Es in the lessons: engaging, exploring, explaining, elaborating, evaluating. As a teacher when developing a lesson, it is important that I understand the developmental level of my students and that they have the abilities needed to perform the task at hand. Through this understanding teacher can facilitate "play" that enables them to learn through exploration and especially if the task is chosen based on the interests of the children. Next teachers must be aware of student differences when it comes to their learning. Whether a student is visual, auditory, or through written work learner. These different methods should be incorporated as to reach all learners. Lastly, teachers also need to be aware of their students background and culture. We need to meet students where they are so that we can build off familiar experiences into the unknown. If students are using various technological devices at home we should also incorporate these into the classroom. Through the use of the 5Es teachers are able to conduct science in a way that sparks the curiosity and problem-solving strategies in the students. Teachers of science are not meant to be there will all the answers but rather be there to guide questioning that gets the child thinking and wanting to explore. The goal of science education is to create rich minds through rich experiences. 

For the article reviews, I chose two newspaper articles from the ProQuest search on "Science for Children." 

Summary:
Science For Children: A lecture on the subject of "Heat, Visible and Invisible"

This article starts out by discussing how the human existence came in two stages which were prior to writing and post writing which is also known as pre-historic and historic periods. One thing that was known in both pre-historic and historic time periods was how fire was created. Before learning to write, savages could bake bread and create fires without written instructions. Over time more was discovered about fire in that air was needed in order for fires to remain a light. Oxygen is needed to make a candle burn. Various different experiments are described about different substances that were lit on fire and then exposed to more oxygen to see what would occur. In all the cases, the fire remained very powerful due to the exposure to oxygen. The professor who was conducting these experiments wanted the boys to visualize what was happening and make their own assumptions on science. Professor Tyndell's hope was that the boys and girls who came to his lectures would be able to experience and understand science themselves. 

Reflection:
When reading this article I gained insight into how teaching of science was like during the late 1800s. Science then was also meant to be "done" as we have been talking about rather than memorizing. Science is meant to be tested and explored in order to make deductions on what we are experiencing. The profesor being analyzed in this article was desciribing a way to bring science to life for his students and how to see why there are needs for fire to happen on this earth. He went into detail about why our body functions the way it does to process oxygen and create carbonic acid. It was very interesting to me to read the different experiments conducted by Professor Tyndell.  

Science for children: A lecture on the subject of "heat, visible, and invisible". (1878, January 20). New York Times, p. 5.http://search.proquest.com.proxy.kennesaw.edu/docview/93656075/fulltextPDF?source=fedsrch&accountid=11824

Science For Children: The Winner's in Life's Race: or the Great Backboned Family

Summary: 
Arabella Buckley wrote a book about her beliefs in the science world. She is not what you could call an evolutionist because she does not include genealogical charts because she wants more researched scientists to prove this instead. She translated the Latin words into English as to make it easier for children to understand. For example the vertebrates are the "back-boned" family. Her book is about philosophy as to engage students at their level to create curiosity. She goes into great discussion about the fish in our oceans and who are the dominate groups and why. She discusses how fish have changed in order to adapt to changes in the seas. The article then goes on to describe different parts of Buckley's book and why the pictures are profound to portray the information that is written. Buckley's book was written to tell about the order and development of the different kingdoms of life. Her writing is meant to be easy for children to understand her philosophy. She is different from many evolutionist in that she still thinks there is a higher creator as well. 

Reflection:
While reading this article about Buckley's book, I realized how complicated science can really be for children. As we have read in this weeks module, we must approach students with what is known to them before we can introduce new vocabulary and concepts. Background knowledge is important for learning new ideas and concepts. Buckley took a complicated subject of the animal kindgdom and transformed it in a way that children would be able to understand. We must be able to do the same with our students. This doesn't mean that you "dumb down" or change the information being presented but you approach the material in the best way for the students to understand. 

Buckley, A. B. (1883, February 25). Science for children: The winner's in life's race . New York Times , p. 5.http://search.proquest.com.proxy.kennesaw.edu/docview/94081703/fulltextPDF?source=fedsrch&accountid=11824

Module 7

Do you think any of your science teachers used Backward Design to plan instruction?  Why or why not?

I'll be honest I have the worst memory when it comes to my past learning experiences but I will do my best to reflect on what I remember from my science school days. I think when I was in high school my anatomy teacher used backward design because she would give us a "study guide" on the first day of our unit so that we knew what vocabulary and "big ideas" as all the websites from this week have spoken about were so that we knew what to expect and she knew what was needed to prepare us for the assessment at the end. I don't think that my biology teacher felt the same way. I felt as though when the test came around that there were concepts on the test that I had never heard of before. This being said she obviously didn't do many of the backward design 101 concepts when it came to assessment. We only ever had end of unit assessments, wasn't used to inform instruction, and they were typically multiple choice which doesn't assess in multiple ways. Whereas in my anatomy class we would have quizzes throughout the unit, some constructed response portions, experimental quizzes, and then some multiple choice work. Looking back at these two courses, I loved my anatomy class and hated my biology class. I am sure much of my opinion had to do with the fact that I achieved much higher in the anatomy class due to the teaching being of a higher quality. I couldn't tell you what my teachers in elementary school did when it came to instruction and how well prepared I felt at the end of a unit. I think that backwards design is very important for teachers because it prepares them for the "Whereto" as Grant Wiggins explained and gives the teacher a guideline as to what do I need to do to get my students to learn and remember this content to the fullest extent. Teachers can't just teach what they want along the way and hope that the students will learn the "big ideas" through osmosis. Teachers must have a purpose when it comes to designing a lesson to make a learning goal. I know there are great teachers out there that start with the end in mind before writing their lesson plans for the unit. I think it's very important to reflect on our past experiences that were good and bad to help guide our own teaching. As the you tube video states "as teachers we want to make sure that all students succeed" and this should be what guides our work every hour of every day. 

http://www.schooltube.com/video/9648a7ef1382477fae85/Backward-Design
http://www.arps.org/users/ms/coaches/backward%20design%20101.htm
http://www.grantwiggins.org/documents/UbDQuikvue1005.pd

Article #5

http://www.livescience.com/37766-type-1-diabetes-reverse-vaccine-tol3021.html

"Reverse Vaccine" May Fight Type I Diabetes  by Joseph Brownstein 

The current science event I chose to write about is the reverse vaccine for people with Type I diabetes. What happens when you have diabetes is that antibodies in the body attack the cells that make insulin. What has been developed is a treatment called TOL-3021 which uses a circular piece of DNA to attack the antibodies that would then attack the cells that produce insulin. A 12-week program was done and the people involved remained the same levels of insulin or went up. The reason it has the name "reverse vaccine" is because vaccines go in your body and switch on your immune system whereas this treatment is turning off part of the immune system. The process is to turn off the part of the immune system that is attacking the pancreas but nothing else. One conclusion found was that after the injections were made then the insulin amounts went down so it's not a permanent fix. This treatment has potential to become much more useful for other autoimmune diseases as well where the antibodies are known that cause the diseases. There is more study needing to be done to figure out the long-term effects. 

I decided to read up on this science event because I have a very close family friend who has Type I Diabetes and has struggled with his health for a long time. He gives himself shots everyday for his insulin since his body no longer produces enough and if there was an alternative to this I think he would jump on it. I think diabetes is such an unfortunate disease because Type I seems to come to young people who aren't overweight and unhealthy. If there was something that could help cure this disease it would be a great achievement in the medical world. I also liked reading this article because it shows how much research goes into findings for treatments of diseases or medicines before they are sent out for public use. This is a comforting idea because you want to know what is going into your body before you do so. The scientific process for experimentation with using different variables and trial-and-error is there for a reason. It is amazing to me that someone out there thought this was a good idea for this certain disease and went with it. I hope that the continued research and observations are able to lead to some success. 

Module 6

Write a reflection for your blog that reveals your understanding of how and why (if at all) diversity should be considered as science lessons are developed.

We are wanting to help our students make connections from our teaching and their culture. Especially if some of our students are different from the majority their cultural differences should be considered as to not seclude any students. Culture "drives the behavior of individuals" as the video stated. I can relate to this because you use your knowledge of your life to help you make connections in your learning. We must make it easier for our students to use their cultural differences to enhance our classroom community. Cultural ideas are made through observations. My students may be culturally different from me so it is good to have them enhance my life by helping me understand what it is like at home for them and for me to share the same. I liked how the presentation said that culture is "learned, shared, symbolic, integrated, and norms can change over time." This is important to remember because our students are going to pick up on cultural ideas differently than others. I find that science is one of the subjects that is most important to make connections to our lives because it is involved in our daily lives all day long. Being able to be part of our world we must understand what is around us. Diversity should be considered in our plans to help make our students learning most meaningful and able to associate it into their daily lives. There is such an achievement gap between African Americans and Hispanics and whites but it is starting to be narrowed which is great news. This needs to continue happening so that all students are achieving at the same level and I think the best way to do that is to help students understand each other and the differences between each other. The academic gains in the gap are happening in the early years but not in high school. This is a problem because elementary teachers need to help prepare our students to be lifetime learners. I agree with this statement that "good will must be accompanied by pedagogical knowledge and skills as well as the courage to dismantle the status quo" when it comes to teaching a variety of students. Our culture is evolving which means our teaching must evolve as well. I think it's important to consider diversity when it comes to planning for my science course. 

When it comes to how to teach my students in science I think it should be considered as chapter 3 states "the strategies offered in the planning model for differentiated instruction provide numerous opportunities for students to use develop all of their senses as tools for learning and to be actively involved in developing concepts, skills, and dispositions (p. 29)." As the chapter is titled, knowing your learners is important if you want your students to achieve success in the classroom. Students come with their preferred learning styles which you need to observe to figure out so that you choose activities for your plans that are best for their learning. The reason why we use diversity is because "understanding the different ways that children interact with and process information enables teachers to better plan instruction and modify teaching so that all students have an opportunity to be successful learners. There are so many different people who have researched different learning styles that obviously we should take these into consideration when we plan for science. Whether we use Kolb's, McCarthy's 4MAT system, Gregorc's, Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, 8 intelligences linked to science, or Sternberg's view, us teachers need to use diversity in our teaching so that we can approach our students where is best fit for them to be successful and long-time learners. 

10 of my previous students profiles

Robbie: Accommodator, dynamic learner, and concrete random. Activities that would be good for him are choice boards, and experiment with no definite answer that he can work on by himself. 

Martin: Converger, common sense learner, and concrete sequential. Activities include the need for rubrics, models before starting, and activities given in a given order upon completion of parts. 

Natalia: Diverger, Imaginative learner, and abstract random. Activities include group work, one-on-one time with teacher in conference setting, and freedom to create visuals to go along with an activity. 

Joseph: Assimilator, analytical learner, and abstract sequential. Activities include problem-based learning activity, time to research after performing an experiment to compare results, journal reflections after performing a task, and group activities that include discussions. 

Shannon: Diverger, imaginative learner, and abstract random. Activities would need to be done in groups, ability to choose her own group, time to work with the teacher to discuss what is being done, and feedback would need to be given compassionately back. 

Alexandra: Accommodator, dynamic leaner, and concrete random. Activities would need to be choice board types or including a rubric. She would need to be given more time to work independently. There should be an extra activity provided for any activity to help her take it to the next level. 

Lila: Converger, Common sense learner, and concrete sequential. She needs group activities where she has the opportunity to be the leader. Rubrics must come with every project or multi-step activity. Structure of the expectations must be consistent across all content areas and the use of modeling when explaining the coming assignment. 

Antonio: Assimilator, analytical learner, and abstract sequential. Rubrics must accompany all activities so that an order is being done. He needs to be able to run his information found by the teacher to clarify he is on the right track so check-in points are necessary. He must be able to work with students in a discussion setting as well as reflecting on his learning. 

Ingrid: Diverger, imaginative learner, and abstract random. Illustrations or creative outlets must accompany all assignments or larger projects. She must be given feedback throughout her work through conferences with the teacher. She also needs to be able to work in groups of her own choosing. 

Kristen: Accommodator, dynamic learner, and concrete random. Technology must be present on a choice board. Choice boards must have at least 6 options for her to choose from that have a variety of outlets for her to use. She needs activities that lean themselves to exploration like experiments that could go more than one way. There should be times for her to choose independence over group work that allows her the freedom to extend her activities as she wishes.