GOOD SCIENCE INSTRUCTION
-autobiography, NOS worksheet, Science or not science
Coming into science I considered myself pretty knowledgable because I had take so many college science classes. However, I quickly found out that there was a huge difference with learning about science from a college standpoint and teaching science to elementary students. Looking back at my science autobiography that I wrote in the beginning of the semester helped me to know what I didn’t want science instruction to look like in my room. “I didn’t have interactive, creative teachers that seemed energetic about teaching science so I became less interested every year.” I have learned throughout this course that science should be interactive and that teachers need to be creative when planning their lessons. Chances are if we wouldn’t want to sit through it then the kids definitely won’t. I’ve always known you have to be energetic while teaching because if you aren’t excited about what you are teaching then the kids aren’t going to be excited about what they are learning. I have learned that students need to be taught their process skills (observation, communication, classification, measurement, inferencing, and prediction) and know what they are because if the skills are taught in the beginning of the school year you won’t have to implement teaching them new skills during lessons (just do a quick review if needed). I knew that science was all about exploration but never thought about having to set aside time in a lesson for students to question, explore, or apply their process skills in depth. I also had no idea what the Nature of Science (See attached) was until now. I now know what the Nature of Science is and how to implement them within my lesson (not perfect yet, but making progress) and make students aware of what aspect of science we are focusing on. Another thing that I have learned is that we aren’t always doing experiments in science, we are doing investigations. I had also never thought to teach my students that science is all around them! Science is a blend of logic and imagination from what I have learned and it is very hard to say what science is and isn’t (see attached).
-autobiography, NOS worksheet, Science or not science
Coming into science I considered myself pretty knowledgable because I had take so many college science classes. However, I quickly found out that there was a huge difference with learning about science from a college standpoint and teaching science to elementary students. Looking back at my science autobiography that I wrote in the beginning of the semester helped me to know what I didn’t want science instruction to look like in my room. “I didn’t have interactive, creative teachers that seemed energetic about teaching science so I became less interested every year.” I have learned throughout this course that science should be interactive and that teachers need to be creative when planning their lessons. Chances are if we wouldn’t want to sit through it then the kids definitely won’t. I’ve always known you have to be energetic while teaching because if you aren’t excited about what you are teaching then the kids aren’t going to be excited about what they are learning. I have learned that students need to be taught their process skills (observation, communication, classification, measurement, inferencing, and prediction) and know what they are because if the skills are taught in the beginning of the school year you won’t have to implement teaching them new skills during lessons (just do a quick review if needed). I knew that science was all about exploration but never thought about having to set aside time in a lesson for students to question, explore, or apply their process skills in depth. I also had no idea what the Nature of Science (See attached) was until now. I now know what the Nature of Science is and how to implement them within my lesson (not perfect yet, but making progress) and make students aware of what aspect of science we are focusing on. Another thing that I have learned is that we aren’t always doing experiments in science, we are doing investigations. I had also never thought to teach my students that science is all around them! Science is a blend of logic and imagination from what I have learned and it is very hard to say what science is and isn’t (see attached).