1) The student teachers created a science lesson on the three states of matter for elementary students. They set up stations focused on solids, liquids, and gases where students participated in activities and recorded their observations.
2) Some unexpected issues arose during the lesson like leaky cups, but the teachers addressed them and refocused the students. The teachers also needed more time than planned in each station.
3) The teachers used worksheets, discussions, and a follow-up quiz to assess student learning on the states of matter and differences between each state.
1) The student teachers created a science lesson on the three states of matter for elementary students. They set up stations focused on solids, liquids, and gases where students participated in activities and recorded their observations.
2) Some unexpected issues arose during the lesson like leaky cups, but the teachers addressed them and refocused the students. The teachers also needed more time than planned in each station.
3) The teachers used worksheets, discussions, and a follow-up quiz to assess student learning on the states of matter and differences between each state.
1) The student teachers created a science lesson on the three states of matter for elementary students. They set up stations focused on solids, liquids, and gases where students participated in activities and recorded their observations.
2) Some unexpected issues arose during the lesson like leaky cups, but the teachers addressed them and refocused the students. The teachers also needed more time than planned in each station.
3) The teachers used worksheets, discussions, and a follow-up quiz to assess student learning on the states of matter and differences between each state.
Larissa Howlett, Jami Kilty, Mary Lee, and Alannah Leiyenaar
Professor Brian Heese Monday, November 1, 2015 Science Lesson: Questions/Reflection Follow-Up For our Science lesson, we focused on the topic of matter. We constructed our lesson around the 3 states of matter, the difference between the 3 states, and the movement of particles within each state. Our pod group planned stations based on each of the states; Jami focused on solids, Mary focused on gases, and Larissa focused on liquids. Alannah lead the class by introducing the topic, showing and discussing a video relating to the topic, and monitoring the students movements between stations. In each station, the students participated in various activities related to a specific state of matter; for example, in each station the students got to practice moving like particles inside a hula hoop and visualizing how particles move differently between a solid, liquid, and gas. In each station, we had the students record and complete a worksheet showing a visual of the particles in each and a definition of each state relating to the particles movement. As our culminating tasks, we watched a video representing water changing states from a solid to a liquid. Following the video, each student teacher took a group of 4-6 students and analyzed liquid changing to a solid by making ice cream. Our overall goal for the
lesson was for students to understand the 3 states of matter, the
differences between each, and how particles move differently within each state. Before we began the lesson, we considered the management issues of having students move between stations, as we anticipated it would create some confusion and possible chaos. The stations were in various parts of the school, which we knew would not work if we allowed to students to move between each on their own. In order to avoid complication, Alannah moved and guided groups from station-tostation and supervised each, which allowed to activities to flow smoothly. We also anticipated students fighting over the ice cream activity and shaking the Ziploc bag when making the ice cream, which was avoided by allowing each student to shake the bag for at least 2 minutes and equally taking part in the activity. Each student also got an equal amount of ice cream. In the future, we may adjust the lesson by providing each student with his or her own bag of ice cream so each student got to participate in each step in the ice-cream-making. We also found it necessary to have extra supplies if we were to do the lesson again in a different scenario, as some of the Ziploc bags ripped, but our sponsor teacher had extra supplies in the classroom luckily. Overall, we felt that we were successful in our behavior/classroom management strategies.
There were a few unexpected issues that arose during the
lesson. For example, Larissa and Jamis plastic cups had holes in them, which was not noticed at the time and as they both tried to pour their liquids into them, they leaked all over the station. Larissas made the most mess; however, the sponsor teacher was there to quickly grab paper towel and she continued with the lesson. The students got a bit distracted and excited as the cups leaked; however, both Jami and Larissa refocused them quickly and redirected them to the tasks at hand in each station. In Marys station, a student did not know how to blow-up a balloon, which was an activity in her station. The student proceeded to have a meltdown and did not want to participate; however, Mary refocused her by teaching her how to blow-up a balloon, which regained the students confidence. We also did not expect that we would need more time in each station, as we planned to only spend 5 minutes in each station, but ended up using 10-15 minutes. Our lesson did not have many safety issues, aside from students possibly ingesting ingredients that they shouldnt; however, none of the ingredients were dangerous to ingest. After we mixed the ice and salt together for the ice cream, some students wanted to eat the salty ice, which required us to remind them not to eat anything in a science lesson unless instructed by the teacher(s). As each station was in a particular area of the school (science room, outside, and in the
classroom), each student teacher had to outline the expectations for
each room. Specifically Mary and Larissa had the most challenging setting, as they were new and exciting areas for the students. The settings did not prove to be an issue, as students were given expectations at the beginning of the station and reminders throughout if necessary. For assessment, we used multiple strategies. We had check-ins and discussions in each station regarding the stations prior and current station and how they relate, as well as discussions following the videos shown. The students were required to complete and hand-in a worksheet displaying the particles in each state, as well as a definition for each. The worksheet was used as a ticket-out-the-door. We also left our sponsor teacher with a follow-up quiz for her to provide the students with later on this week. Based on our current and prior practicums classroom needs, the science supplies that we feel would be useful and necessary for our current science program would include a class set of working/goodquality microscopes, as the microscopes that we have access to do not work well and were not easily used by students. If we were given more money, we would prefer to get a class-set of iPads, as they have great potential for many different engaging and interesting lessons in science; however, we would require more money unfortunately.