TeachingElementaryScience

Girls Leading Girls in Science

Dr. Judith McDonald lead a program for girls in science at Belmont Abbey College on March 30, 2009

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Arne Duncan at NSTA

I got the great privlege to meet and talk with Arne Duncan, our current Secretary of Education.  He spoke at this year’s NSTA Conference in New Orleans and offered a lot of hope and encouragement to science educators of the United States.  He spoke about many topics in science education including our task of preparing our students to become globally competitive in STEM careers. He also challenged the educators to reach out to all students and engage them in science.

Bill Nye, Judy McDonald and Arne Duncan

I wanted to make a difference so I created a program to include girls in STEM careers.  The paper in my hand describes a program I created, Girls Leading Girls in Science.  This program was held on Monday, March 30 on the campus of Belmont Abbey College.  This program was created to match female science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors from Belmont Abbey College (BAC) with 5^th grade girls from a local elementary school, North Belmont Elementary School, to encourage them to consider entering college as STEM majors. The 5th grade girls attended a college STEM class, toured the campus, and attended a luncheon with women from the community who are in STEM careers.  A mentoring partnership will be developed between the women college students from BAC and the 21 girls at North Belmont Elementary School.

channel-14-girls-leading-girls

Conversation with Arne Duncan about Girls Leading Girls

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I am so glad that the new administration has finally placed science as a priority.  Even at the state level science education has taken a front page in the news.  I teach elementary science education to pre-service teachers and they are even getting more science teaching time in the classroom.

As we rediscover science in the elementary classroom have we left some students behind? I think we have.  I believe that girls and those students who come from a low socioeconomic home have been left behind in science education.  I have created a program to encourage girls from low socioeconomic homes to participate and perhaps even major in science.  I am targeting fifth grade girls for my program called Girls Leading Girls in Science.

It is a collaboration between our college, Belmont Abbey College, and a local elementary school.  We are so excited to host a day where the elementary students come to our campus paired with a college female STEM major and experience a college day.  We hope to encourage the fifth grade girls to attend college through our mentoring.

Science is for all students but sometimes we need to encourage groups who have and are still underrepresented.  Please contact me if you are interested in starting a Girls Leading Girls in Science at your college or local science

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Winter can be a difficult time to use the outdoors for teaching science.

I have found that once the snow begins and my students have spotted the first snowflakes I have lost them…… unless I use the snow and go explore the outdoors to teach science and math.  Once cold weather has arrived I prepare my snow box.  In the snow box I place black construction paper, clipboards, and magnifying lenses for each group of two students.  In the teacher box I have one stopwatch, one piece of flat glass, and hairspray. Once I have the snow box prepared I say, ” Let it Snow!”

After I have spotted the snow and we get outdoors I give each scientist group (2 students) the tools to observe snowflakes.  I give them one quarter sheet of black paper on the clipboard and a magnifying lens.  They will be able to look at the different individual snowflakes on the dark paper.  After a few minutes of observations I have them count the number of flakes that hit the small piece of black paper in 30 seconds. If you have older students perhaps you can count the flakes for longer or record several trials to collect more data.

While the students are observing snowflakes you should spray the glass with copious amounts of hairspray and allow the glass just to sit.  Be careful to only touch the edges of the class as not to disturb your imprints.  You will be collecting imprints of snowflakes in the hairspray and when you bring it into your classroom it will melt and you can place the glass onto your overhead and look at some of the imprints of the different shapes of the snowflakes.  I would try this prior to doing it with your students.

Once you have been outdoors enough to make observations come inside and do some analysis of your scientific observations.  Have your students diagram some of the snow flakes they saw.  Conduct a discussion of what they saw.  Ask questions about the observation such as:

1. What did you see?
2. What shapes did you see?
3. How long did it last on your paper?  Why do you think that?
4. Were all the snowflakes the same size?
5. Does it always snow when it is cold?  Why?

Through the questions you can get the students to discuss and perhaps even ask more questions.  Write them on the board and see if you can’t answer them during your study of snow and cold weather.

After you have discussed the snow observation you can record the amount of snowflakes in 30 seconds.  Have the students create a graph or do averages depending on your level of mathematics in your classroom.

Don’t let the snow get you down in your classroom….. LET IT SNOW AND HAVE FUN LEARNING!!

Have fun learning science this winter in your classrooms.

Dr. J

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I have been associated with education all my professional life. I have taught students formally and informally from ages two all the way to an adult seeking a bachelor’s degree at age 60. My passion is science education. I enjoy exploring outdoors, especially with children. My young neighborhood friends frequently come to me to have discussions about wildlife they have found. Collin, a seven year old neighbor, came to me to talk about his new found friend, Timothy the Turtle. After an hour discussion, about Timothy, we both decided it was best to allow him to go back to the woods.

Science is best learned by discovery. For the full article

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Discovery lessons allow the students to figure the concept out.  This lesson requires a one time preparation and then you have a wonderful lesson your students will not soon forget.  This lesson was presented in my science methods class.  Jennifer taught this lesson in a first grade class and she was impressed with creative designs her first grade students came up with.

Engage the students by holding up a ball and asking them how can I move this object?  Most students will respond by stating you can kick it or throw it.  You can demonstrate those ways but then roll it and drop it too.

Next allow the students to explore how a ball moves by giving them some equipment and having them discovery how many ways they can move the ball.  Here is a list of sample materials you can give your students:

1. gumball
2. a paper towel roll cut into 2
3. 2 small sturdy pieces of cardboard
4. 2 inches of pipe cleaner
5. 1 unused straw
6. 1 unused coffee stirrer
7. small ball of play dough or clay
8. small Lego or block
9. all in a plastic sandwich bag

Hand the supplies to the students and ask them see how many of the materials they can use to make the gum ball move.  Have your students work in pairs or threes but not alone.  There will be many inventive designs created by your students.  Some will need the challenge of using all the materials in the bag to make the gum ball move.  (Some what like mouse trap game).  Jennifer had one student create a launcher with the help of their pencil.

At this point have the students stop creating for a moment and write on the board or the overhead some of the ideas you have seen around the room.  Ask the students if they touched the gum ball directly or did something else move the gum ball or exert the force.  This is a good way to introduce vocabulary to primary aged students.

If your students have a science journal have them draw or record in writing what they have found.  They should record the many ways they discovered to move the gum ball.  Hopefully they will have discovered wind by using the straw or even creating a boat with the small Lego and clay.  You will be amazed how many creative ways your students will discover to move a gum ball.

A way to extend this activity is to introduce amount of force.  Ask the students how they can make the ball go further?  Ask them to explore and test their ideas.

I think you will find this lesson very engaging for your primary aged students.  Try it and let me know how it turns out and what ways you changed it for your class.

Dr. McDonald

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Often teachers are told that students learn best by doing hands-on activities and constructing their own knowledge.  Yes, research agrees with the constructivist learning too.  However, many teachers find that preparing and creating these lessons are very time consuming.  Most teachers want to use these lessons but find not only the preparation time but the time within the classroom eats away at the daily schedule.  I am going to present an outdoor science lesson that does not overwhelm you with preparation time or classroom time.  This lesson was demonstrated by one of my students in a science methods class and I want to share it with you.

Your goal of this lesson is to discover some evidence of animals in your school yard.  Engage your students by telling them that you heard that the principal spotted evidence of two elephants in the school yard this morning.  Ask the students what evidence they believe the principal used to conclude this information.  Some of the answers may be droppings, footprints, broken gates, etc.  After all the suggestions have been stated, ask your students if they believe this is true?  Most will agree that elephants do not live in the area.

Next have the students take their science notebooks out and explain that we are going to be scientists and go outside and record all the evidence they see of animals that have been in the school yard.  Have them set up the T chart like this to collect data:

Evidence of animal                                             Animal type

Prior to going outside define the perimeters for this investigation and any outdoor rules you may have.  Allow the students to work in pairs and go outside.  Encourage them to use all their senses, including sound.  Walk around and ask some probing questions as the students discover some evidence.  After five to ten minutes ask the students to come inside so you can analyze your data.

Explain to the students that they have collected data and now we need to analyze it.  Show them a short PowerPoint or pictures you have collected from magazines to demonstrate the categories of evidence of animals.  Show a picture of animal tracks, chew marks (like a beaver or insect on leaves), house (bird nest), droppings (bird droppings), animal parts (feather), smell (skunk), sound (bird singing), and food (flowers for bees).  List these eight categories on the board.  Now have your students categorize the evidence they found.  As a teacher you can walk around and assist them categorize.  Have them share their findings with a neighboring group.  Allow them to modify any analysis if necessary.

Have each group write one of the evidence findings on a sticky note.  Have each group place the sticky note under the categories you wrote on the board.  After each group has placed the notes on the board go over the evidence findings.

After each group has shared  with their sticky notes ask the students to tell you the animals they believe may have been in your school yard.  Again list them on the board as they tell you.  At this point you can conclude your lesson with the difference between observation and inference.  The evidence would be all the observations and the inferences would be the animal, unless the students observed the actual animal.

Your assessment will be the evidence they collected in their science notebooks and the verbal discussions you hear.  You can include a participation category in this activity if you wish.

This is a simple way to discover science with little preparation and big results.  Your students will get better each time you ask them to find evidence.  Go outdoors today!

Dr. McDonald

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Science in the elementary classroom should be a discovery experience.  Elementary students want to explore and discover which leads to inquiry science.

Elementary teachers have a wonderful opportunity to introduce children to science so that they love and enjoy science.  There are many simple ways to do this.

Exploring your school yard or a nearby park is an easy simple way to allow students to investigate the world around them.  Take them on a nature walk and allow the students to pick up any thing they think shows the changing seasons.  Give them a paper lunch bag to place their treasures in.  Most students will pick up leaves.  As they walk ask them questions, such as, what happens when the seasons change.  Do some of the animals behave differently in fall from summer?  Ask them to tell you how.  Perhaps they will understand that some animals look for food for the up coming winter.  Tell your students you will explore and discover together.

Another great outdoor exploration with observations is the weather, specifically clouds.  Go outside and look up at the clouds.  Do this often and see if the students can associate certain clouds with specific types of weather.  Record your data in a science journal as a class or individually.  I did this with a fifth grade class in the city and they reminded me to observe the clouds when I forgot.  My students got to the point that could identify the cloud types and tell me if they thought it would rain or be a nice day. Now that is science you can use.

Let’s allow elementary students the joy of learning science by discovering it together in your classroom.  You don’t need to know all the answers to begin discovering science.  Let’s touch lives by creating life long learners and lovers of science.  Go outdoors today and discovery some science.

Dr. Judy McDonald

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Judy McDonald speaking at NSTA, Charlotte, NC

This past week I attended a regional conference for science teachers in Charlotte, North Carolina, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA).  If you have not attended a science teachers conference I strongly encourage it.  You can learn a lot from other teachers, gather lesson plans, expand your content knowledge, while getting excited about teaching science.

Some of the topics that were available for elementary teachers varied from learning about the water cycle to force and motion as well as the life cycle of the dragonfly.  There were hundreds of options from Thursday morning to Saturday afternoon.  I spoke at a workshop about electricity and we did some hands-on inquiry learning about series and parallel circuits.

There are also sessions that address ideas about science research in your classroom.  I attended a session that introduced a website called science buddies that is friendly to use and very informative with endless topics for research and science projects.  I feel that it is very important to have students engage in research.  YES, elementary students involved in research.  What is a better way to learn science!!!  Go to this website and spend some time, you will be impressed with the usability and the content.  I believe your students can use this tomorrow in your classroom.

www.sciencebuddies.org

Your principals have funds for professional development and I believe they will be willing to spend it on teachers learning science.  Ask your principal if you can go to a conference and be willing to come back and share with your colleagues about what you learned.

We always tell our students to try something new….. now it is your turn.  Go to a science conference at your state level.  I can’t wait to hear what you learned.

Dr. J

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Teaching Inquiry to Elementary Students 

Try Floating Crayons

I am sure you have about a million things to do prior to the school year beginning.  The last thing you want to do is add another topic to your list.  I am going to strongly encourage you include science in your yearly planning. 

Every pre-service teacher has learned (or should have learned) that teacher-centered instructional strategies are very effective for recitation and rote memorization; however, they have not been shown to be effective for teaching higher-order thinking and problem solving.  All the state standards are demanding that teachers K - 12 implement instructional strategies that use those skills. 

 I suggest that teaching science using inquiry will demand higher-order thinking skills of your students.  Below I offer an activity that can be used with Pre-K students all the way up to AP students.  I have found this activity to stimulate students and engage them in learning and asking questions.  In fact, this activity will probably create more questions than answers.  A wonderful way to introduce science this year.

Floating Crayons 

Materials

1.  large clear container that holds water

2.  several objects that float and sink

3.  a pack of crayola crayons

Begin the lesson by handing out several objects and ask them to predict whether or not the object will sink or float.  Have them work with partners (or larger groups depending on your class size).  Allow them a few minutes to discuss.  After the group as come up with a prediction about their object, have them discuss why they think the object will sink or float.  Allow time for discussion.

Next have the students come up to the water and experiment by actually dropping their object into the water. 

Next introduce a box of crayola crayons (the brand is important) and ask the students if the crayons will float or sink.  First demonstrate with a white crayon and then allow the students to use all the colors.  Interestly, some will float and others will sink.  Have the students begin to hypothesize about why some sink while others float.  A lot of good observations and inferences will occur.  You will probably have more questions than answers with this activity.

*** Always try the activity by yourself prior to experimenting with your students***

This activity can be done in small groups or as a large demonstration activity.  HAVE FUN AND GET YOUR STUDENTS ENGAGED IN ACTIVE QUESTIONING.

Please let me know how it goes and I will have some more fun introduction activities to science as we explore inquiry together this year.

Dr. J

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