Thursday, January 27, 2011
Science Stories 01/27/11: Tree Discovery
Utilizing technology and concrete experiences was a fun way to learn about the trees located on the California State University: Fullerton campus. Picking a tree to focus on was a great way to allow freedom of choice into the assignment while also focusing the learning intention for the students (us). After taking pictures of the tree at different magnification levels, we also took a needle from the conifer that my group chose and magnified it using the ProScope. The ProScope is an amazing tool to incorporate technology easily into science! It plugs in directly to the computer and after flipping the bulb switch on magnifies the objects.
After taking pictures and examining the separate components of the tree, we created an interview through a podcast and I-Movie in which we personified the tree and allowed "Conner the Conifer" to voice his opinion on why he should not be cut down. Since he is a droopy tree, he possessed a droopy attitude through the interview. It is a great way to get facts across in an interesting manner.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Science Stories 01/26/11
Reading about scenarios where teachers engage students in science lessons makes me excited about trying out some of the methods. I was particularly intrigued while reading about how science has been taught with hands-on activities for a long time but has not necessarily been taught properly. Making sure to have students think about and express the process they are encountering when performing science activities is a crucial part of learning the actual concepts and ideas.
Looking back on my own experiences, I see plenty of times that I was involved in science experiments but I do not necessarily recall what my teacher was trying to convey through these experiments. Other times, I remember being required to explain what was happening and asked what I thought during the process and those experiments were more effective. Rather than merely having students walk through the steps of an experiment, it is vital to have them understand what is happening during the process and even allowing some freedom to conduct their own variations and test their own hypotheses of the subject matter.
Another interesting point made in the readings was regarding the idea that boys are more likely to be interested in science and the process of scientific thought. I would really like to try implementing the strategy that was used by the teacher in the text to buffer this situation. The example given in the text was a teacher who gave the girls in his class a time to freely explore the computer and encouraged them to not shy away from mistakes. I hope to use strategies similar to this to encourage any students who feel trapped by rules and alternate conceptions to break free and discover new ideas.
In Chapter 2 , a scientist answered a teacher's interview question about people's feelings towards science in a way that really stuck with me:
"There's a good way and a bad way to teach people science. The bad way is to present science as a set of known things, of facts and relationships that they have to know. Then it becomes a burden. The proper way to teach science is to get the students to understand that science is a way of explaining how the world around them works, and engaging their curiosity. Anyone who has curiosity can't help but find science interesting, if it's presented properly."
Looking back on my own experiences, I see plenty of times that I was involved in science experiments but I do not necessarily recall what my teacher was trying to convey through these experiments. Other times, I remember being required to explain what was happening and asked what I thought during the process and those experiments were more effective. Rather than merely having students walk through the steps of an experiment, it is vital to have them understand what is happening during the process and even allowing some freedom to conduct their own variations and test their own hypotheses of the subject matter.
Another interesting point made in the readings was regarding the idea that boys are more likely to be interested in science and the process of scientific thought. I would really like to try implementing the strategy that was used by the teacher in the text to buffer this situation. The example given in the text was a teacher who gave the girls in his class a time to freely explore the computer and encouraged them to not shy away from mistakes. I hope to use strategies similar to this to encourage any students who feel trapped by rules and alternate conceptions to break free and discover new ideas.
In Chapter 2 , a scientist answered a teacher's interview question about people's feelings towards science in a way that really stuck with me:
"There's a good way and a bad way to teach people science. The bad way is to present science as a set of known things, of facts and relationships that they have to know. Then it becomes a burden. The proper way to teach science is to get the students to understand that science is a way of explaining how the world around them works, and engaging their curiosity. Anyone who has curiosity can't help but find science interesting, if it's presented properly."
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