TeachingElementaryScience

Elementary teachers design and launch their rockets today.

What a wonderful way to spend a summer afternoon ……… launching rockets!

Launch-science week 1Learning Through Science Notebooks ….

I am doing my favorite summer activity, exploring science with elementary teachers.  This week we will explore many science content areas and how to best teach them.  One of the participating teachers is a great believer of SCIENCE NOTEBOOKS. She has agreed to share her ideas with notebooks.

Mrs. Jill Thompson is a master 5th grade teacher, Camp Invention Director and a Science Olympiad Coach.

After notebooking for several years she has come up with the following ideas for organizing the notebook, grading rubrics, how to work cooperatively, and some lessons that demonstrate to students how to use a science notebook.

We discussed today that science notebooks should be shared and evaluated by peers as well as the teacher.  I believe it promotes critical thinking for everyone engaged in science notebooks.

Enjoy the assistance from Jill Thompson – thanks for your help!

Launch Science Notebooks Week 1

Launch Science Notebooks Week 2

Rubric for Science Notebooks

Science Notebook Must Haves

Station Directions on How to Use Science Notebooks

How to Interact in Science Groups

I have created a short PowerPoint that can be used for teacher content understanding or with your students. I hope this tool helps you grasp electricity.

Summer School for Teachers

While you are away this summer sipping an adult cool frozen beverage on the beach or hiking the mountains you can be preparing for next years science lessons….

Easy things to do for next year’s science class while you are on vacation:

1.  Collect a small amount of sand from the beach(es) you visit so you can compare the sand under lens.  Perhaps ask your friends to by handing out labeled Ziploc baggies.

2.  Collect different shells from the beach.  This is an awesome activity for younger students – grouping the shells and explaining why they did it.  With older students you can have them classify them and then show them a dichotomous** key and they can identify them.

2.  Same idea but with rocks from the mountains.  ***Be aware of the rules and regulations in state and national parks about removing rocks/soil/plants.

3.  Pictures of landforms wherever you go.  You can create an awesome PowerPoint presentation with pictures and your students can classify them. Or  I have created pictures from my color printer, laminated them and asked students to identify the landform on the back with a Vis-a-vi marker.

4.  Same idea as above but with weather events using pictures.  I don’t know where you live but there have been some very interesting weather events in the southeastern United States.

5.  If you are a gardener, take pictures of the growth of your vegetables and your younger students can put them in chronological order.  You can also save some of the seeds and grow them in your classroom in early spring.

** Dichotomous keys are available at your local library to identify your shells

Please post your ideas here….

Food Plate Not a Pyramid

Picture of the New Food Plate

Let’s Make Change Through Science Lessons in the Classroom

One of my master’s students did an action research this semester where her students changed their eating habits through a science unit.  It was a wonderful change to see among her all female 4^th grade class.

Ms. Martin had noticed that her students were bringing in sugary, fat filled snacks as well as making poor choices in the lunch line.  So she decided it was time to help her students discover that their food choices were not healthy.  She observed and took notes on her students eating habits during lunch for about one week.  Most of their food choices were sugar, salty and fat filled foods with few vegetables and fruits.  She then presented a unit on healthy living that included lessons on healthy eating and the way it makes you feel.  Healthy food gives you more energy and you feel better.

She asked her students to keep a food diary and how it made them feel.  I think this activity engages students and allows them to feel good about food choices they are making.  Perhaps you could expand the unit and grow some of your own food to eat.

Please share some of your ideas for food chemistry units and healthy living here.