Semester Reflection

My semester long experience in Science and Tech methods has been busy, engaging, and interesting. Mostly, it has been an excellent learning experience. This course taught me a lesson that no other methods course has- how to teach as a 21st Century teacher. The technology we learned how to use in this course is something I will carry into my career. I can say with confidence that I know how to work Google Docs, Blogger, FlipGrid, Adobe Spark, Google forums, Kahoot, Padlet, and many other cool and interesting websites that will not only benefit the teaching and learning experience for myself, but for my students as well. I have so many resources to use in my future and career because of this class. This class has sparked excitement for learning science in me. I am thankful that this class provided me with so many resources and so much information. The greatest experience I will take away from this course is my time teaching with my group at BDMS. This semester was the first time I ever taught in front of a class in such a way. It is also the first time I executed a whole-class lesson. I have learned so much from Dr. Smirnova, from my peers, from the students of BDMS, and most importantly from myself and my personal experience. I enjoyed this semester, and look forward to taking my next course with Dr. Smirnova. I am thankful to have had such a fun time with all of my classmates learning and growing as teacher candidates. 

Science Education Research Article

Science Education Research Article Review

I chose an article from  Science Journal for Kids. The article I chose is titled Where Does Australia's Wildlife Hide? Click here to see it. I chose this article because discusses endangered species in a way that elementary students can understand. The article provides interesting facts about animals choosing to live in busy cities instead of in more rural and secluded areas. Most people believe that animals and plants do not chose to live in busy areas, but according to this article, that is false.
Key terms to teach to students that are found in this article are:
+Biodiversity
+ Species distribution+ Endangered species+ Conservation+ Urban wildlife+ Urban development+ Biodiversity hotspot
The article also discusses scientific methods such as control group and map overlay. 
Students can read this article independently and watch videos about the topic as part of an inquiry/investigative lesson. 

Space Science Articles

Teaching Space Science

I created an interactive PowerPoint for students to use during an inquiry lesson. Students can click the links on this PowerPoint and be redirected to websites with articles about different aspects of space science. The articles are made to be easy for students to read and understand. I had a lot of fun finding these resources and will definitely employ them in my classroom science lessons.

Click here to look at my Astronomy Scrapbook!

Reflection on Online Session

Online Class Session

On November 15th, our class held our session online because of dangerous weather conditions. We used a program called the Big Blue Button. Our class was able to video chat, voice chat, and text chat on a shared screen. At first, it was a bit confusing. Once everyone joined the session and began navigating the site, we figured out how to work everything.

Once our class was collected and ready, some of our peers gave their presentation on Tornadoes. This was an excellent and informative presentation. Because the group did not anticipate presenting online, things were a bit shaky at first. However, the girls quickly got the hang of the Big Blue Button and delivered a successful presentation. My peers and I were still able to participate in the lesson because of the group text chat feature on the website. We were able to listen to the group present their lesson because of the voice chat feature. 

I thought this was such an interesting experience. I never knew that a website like this existed. It is so helpful and fun. I cannot imagine using this in a classroom with young children because it might be too complicated for them. However I think this is a great tool to use with high school students, college students, and group projects. I will carry this experience and resource with me into my career.

The Role of Pre-Assessment

The Role of Pre-Assessment 

Why is it important to learn about student misconception?

• It is important to learn about student misconception because as teachers, it is our job to recognize these misconceptions and teach children the truth. Children cannot advance in their academic life if the foundation of their knowledge is full of misconceptions and untrue information.
• When we use pre-assessment, we know what we need to focus on; what the students don't know and what they need to know. This is information that we must use to guide our lessons. Our lessons should always be providing children with new information that is true. As teachers, it is our job to provide students with the most useful and factual information we possibly can.
• It is harder to teach when students have misconception than when they have no knowledge. This is because a student with a misconception already has been taught something previously. They have an idea or concept established in their mind that is false. To reteach a student with a pre-existing misunderstanding, we must first make sure the students know they have a misconception. We need to focus on this student's foundation of knowledge and reteach them the correct concepts and ideas. It is hard for children to relearn something or to be told that something they believed was true is actually untrue. When students have no knowledge, they are more accepting of information. They do not need to erase an idea they previously had, they just need to memorize new information. Learning something new is easier for students than fixing a misconception. 

In our groups, Dr. Smirnova had us consider various topics and misconceptions we were taught about them. My group had to discuss misconceptions about volcanoes, the solar system, and the zoo. Aside from discussing our misconceptions, Dr. Smirnova provided us with a website that lists common misconceptions that students in New York State have. This activity was very revealing and helpful. I did not realize how much information my peers and I grew up believing was true is actually misconception. Based on these misconceptions, we made lesson objectives that we could use in a classroom to challenge these misconceptions. 

Weathering & Erosion HyperDoc

Learning about Weathering & Erosion

• Rocks can be broken down into smaller pieces
• Weathering can take place in 3 ways
• Physical weathering
• Chemical weathering
• Biological weathering
• Erosion is the wearing away of exposed surfaces by agents such as wind, moving water and ice. These agents usually contain weathered rock debris. Rock fall under gravity is also erosion.
• Transport begins as erosion and is the movement of rocks under gravity, or by moving water, by wind or by ice (in glaciers, for example)

Teaching about Weathering & Erosion

• Begin with a discussion about how rocks can be broken down into smaller pieces
• Following the discussion is a series of activities that demonstrate different types of erosion done by weathering and wind.
• The activities in this simulation can be arranged and organized however I see fit for my classroom.
• Each student needs materials from a given list
• Safety, organization, and cooperation are enforced

I found this HyperDoc to be extremely useful. The lesson is well planned and thought out. Using a lesson that involves activities will enforce facts and information in students' minds. I never completed a science activity like this when I was a student, so I would love to provide an experience like this to my future students. From this HyperDoc I learned the importance of discussion leading up to instruction, the importance of explicit direction, and the importance of providing hands on activities to students to promote memorization and learning. 

Here is a link to the Teacher's Notes for this lesson:

 http://www.rsc.org/education/teachers/resources/jesei/weather/home.htm

Mystery Bag

Mystery Bag Activity

When this activity began, Dr. Smirnova held up a mystery bag in front of the class. She asked us what came to mind when we saw the mystery bag.
We took turns sharing what the bag reminded us of. Next, we shared what we thought was in the bag. Then, we each passed the bag around, held it for 5 seconds, and had to guess what we thought was in it.
After holding and feeling the bag, I believed that there were several small toys in it, such as a stuffed animal and a rattle. This was my informed guess.
As a class, we categorized our guesses.
Some people thought there was a dog toy, a rattle, a baby toy, or a combination of all of these things inside of the bag. These were statements about what we thought was in the bag.
Then, we discussed how this was similar to a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a tentative explanation for the problem/question based on some type of observation. We used our senses to observe.
Next, we had to devise a method to obtain information about what is in the bag to determine if our hypothesis was correct. Each test will have two potential results: either the hypothesis is correct or it is wrong. We have to test our hypothesis more than once before determining if it is right or wrong. The more test results that match your prediction = the greater support for your hypothesis.
After this activity and instruction, we reviewed what we discussed.

Why should we use this activity?
Principle concept: Science is about exploring. Science is not concrete; it always changes. Scientific knowledge is fundamentally uncertain. Science is uncertain because it is a human activity.
It is important to teach inquiry and using inquiry to develop students' critical thinking and reasoning skills. They need to be able to find answers and justify them based on evidence.