How often have I started a science lesson with these words: "Who remembers, from last time..." Or "Get your science folders out."
I've done it many times. And each time, I can feel the energy drain out of the room.
How about this instead:
"Everyone, come over here. I'm about to show you something you've never seen before."
Feel any different?
As I've been observing in many many classrooms this year, I've noticed countless teachers starting lessons with long winded stuff. When I reflect on my own practice, that tendency describes me perfectly. How many minutes pass until I get to something interesting? And no, recalling our vocabulary words is not interesting. (Necessary? Yes. We'll get there. But there's a reason that books don't put the glossary in front.)
Moving forward, I pledge to start with the phenomenon. Mix the chemicals, and watch it do something. Feel the heat difference in an incandescent bulb and a CFL. Watch the youtube of the octopuses transforming to look like seaweed in the blink of an eye. Go outside and actually look at the moon, noticing how it's in a different place from yesterday. I will start with a bang.
The natural words is a wonderful and inspiring place. And once you've activated that wonder, your students are ready. Their minds are sense-making machines, but they're choosy. Give them something worth making sense of. Then they're yours.
They'll need the vocab, because they'll want to explain what they're seeing. Or they'll be ready to listen to teacher, if they need more explanation. Provide that, if it's appropriate. Or ask them a new question to point them in the right direction.
And they'll want to observe the phenomenon again, with this new understanding. They'll want to gather their data differently this time, because now they know what they want to see. We'll do it.
Learning doesn't happen in an instant, and doesn't always happen according to the schedule posted on my door. It happens when I've earned their attention, then they apply that attention to understanding.
Framed in the research, this is the first phase of the 5E model - "Engage." For more on that, look here: http://bscs.org/bscs-5e-instructional-model
If I can't figure out a way to start with something engaging, I'll ask my team. I'll ask others in my network. If we can't figure it out together, I will stop teaching that subject. My time is too precious, and the trust of my students is too sacred, to waste on something that's not inspiring.
But that hasn't happened yet. Science is cool.
Friday, March 18, 2016
Friday, March 11, 2016
Science Ideas for 3/11/16
The weather is awesome! It'll continue to be awesome next week, but in a more rainy and snowy way. So these ideas are still more indoors oriented. Soon, my friends. Soon, we can do more stuff outside. On to science ideas for the week:
Kindergarten Ideas - On to our lessons that will integrate with the Process, Nature, and Communication of Science. Though I dislike the label, it's the scientific method, in short. (I dislike that label because it implies that science always follows a rote series of steps, and must be done a certain way. This is simply not true. In the real world, science is as messy and creative as it is methodical. We can and should have elements of both when we teach science.) Check out the ideas, tied in with movement of nonliving things, on our district web page here:
First Grade Ideas - Here's an indicator, from standard 2, objective 1: "Observe, compare, describe, and sort components of soil by size, texture, and color." Couldn't be simpler! Go get a few scoops of soil, some big pieces of paper, and some hand lenses. If you have microscopes, this really helps. (Hawthorne teachers, see me if you don't know how to use the dissecting microscopes in your science room. They're a little different, and very cool.) Please use real soil from outside, not potting mix. That's not soil, it's an artificial media. Which works great for potting. But not for learning about the parts of soil. We want the kids to see that the stuff we usually just think of as dirt has a whole lot of complexity to it. Give them some vocabulary to describe what they're seeing: grain size, rocks, pebbles, organic material, etc. The highlight is if they find bugs or worms. Let me know if you need some good soil, and I'll bring you some from my garden. Fun stuff!
Second Grade Ideas - New standard this week, and it's a great one! Here you go:
Objective 1
Communicate observations about falling objects.
Communicate observations about falling objects.
- Observe falling objects and identify things that prevent them from reaching the ground.
- Communicate observations that similar objects of varying masses fall at the same rate.
Let the fun begin! I'll have a lot of ideas here, so we'll go a little at a time. First, gather up various items around the room, and do drop tests to see which hits the floor first. Make sure you get a few things that have different masses, but won't catch a lot of air as they fall. Example: a stapler and a paperclip. They should hit the floor at the same time. A few tips: it's hard to see which hits first, but it's easier to hear. Second, all iPhones have slow-mo video now, right in the camera app, which is fun for this test. Third: you can make a drop test rig by pushing things off a desk at the same time with something straight, like a ruler. They have to be close to the same size for this to work.
So here's the science: things all fall at the exact same rate, no matter how heavy they are. Unless something gets in the way. Like air. So something with a large surface area would catch a lot of air, and would then actually fall more slowly. This is usually explained by saying "gravity pulls evenly on everything." More ideas next week!
Third Grade Ideas - Here's an indicator from Standard 5 Objective 1: "Observe and report how sunlight affects plant growth." Give each group two ziploc bags with 10 lentil seeds in each bag. Stick the seeds in a wet paper towel inside each bag. Put one bag in a sunny windowsill, and the other in the dark. Wait a few days, then get them out and make observations. Do this for two weeks. You'll see the sunny ones do what you'd expect, and the dark ones do some interesting things. Talk about what you see, and why you think they did that. Another observational activity: look at how the plants and trees outside grow towards the sun. We call this phototropism, or heliotropism. That's the tendancy of plants to grow toward light (photo) or the sun (heilio.)
Fourth Grade Ideas - Here's an indicator: "Investigate and record temperature data to show the effects of heat energy on changing the states of water." One of my favorite labs: boil a pot of water in front of the class with a digital thermometer inside. Observe as it changes phase. And rest assured: The watched pot DOES boil. A few things to note: Heat is molecular movement. So when we add heat to a pot, we add movement. When the molecules reach high enough energy, or are moving fast enough, they fly off into the air. When the whole pot is boiling at the same time, we can see that the whole pot has reached that point. A few questions: as it's boiling, where do the bubbles come from? We saw on google that water boils at 212 degrees - is that what we observed in class? If not, why not? See me if you want a glass beaker to do this in, it just helps them see the bubbles.
Fifth Grade Ideas - Here's a great lesson for heredity. You're probably familiar with the story of the peppered moth. Check out this whole lab right here: http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/peppermoth_paper.html
Sixth Grade Ideas - I hope everyone's ears and spirits are still ringing from home made instruments last week. Sticking with our Heat, Light, and Sound standard, Here's a seriously cool demo about refraction. You HAVE to show your kids the video.
Friday, March 4, 2016
Science Ideas for 3/4/2016
Kindergarten - Day and Night. Here's a pretty straightforward lesson from UEN, lots of good stuff here with a few literature connections to boot. It would be great to have them draw pictures of day / night activities, and write to describe them underneath.
First Grade - Here's our indicator: "Communicate observations about plants and animals, including humans, and how they resemble their parents." Here's a great lesson I found with a lot of activities. I especially like the matching cards, where they notice traits of the parent, and try to see which offspring match which parent.
Second Grade - We're reaching the tail end of rocks here. Instead of a specific idea, I'll just link you to this page on UEN so you can look through and see if there's something you haven't gotten to yet.
A great science practice that fits in here would be "Engaging in Arguments from Evidence." Have the kids argue what kind of rock, igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic, a given sample might be. They don't have to be right, but they do have to find some kind of evidence to argue their opinion.
Third Grade - Here's another one for this indicator: "Predict, measure, and graph the temperature changes produced by a variety of mechanical machines and electrical devices while they are operating. " Observe the temperature difference between an incandescent bulb and a fluorescent or LED light bulb. While they both output the same amount (roughly) of light, the incandescent puts out a lot more heat. Meaning, it gets a lot hotter. Now we know that fluorescent bulbs are supposed to be more efficient - how can we use this observation to confirm that one bulb is more efficient than the other? (Hint: all that heat uses up energy. We don't want a light bulb to get hot, we want it to put out light. So the heat is wasted energy, or inefficiency.)
Fourth Grade - Have the students explain in writing how a water molecule gets from an Arctic iceberg to the water fountain. This process is more complex than it seems, and will really expose what your students know and don't know about the water cycle. Give them a word bank with the following: Evaporation, Precipitation, Condensation, Ocean, Ice, River, Rain, Snow, Runoff. Include a picure or diagram of the water cycle, if your students would benefit from that kind f scaffolding. Use one your kids are familiar with, or this:
Fifth Grade - We'll be on heredity from now until the end of the year. This week, I want to highlight a really amazing program that can bring heredity right into your classroom. It's called BioEyes, and they'll bring a live zebrafish experiment right to your classroom. The kids take a week to follow the development of the zebrafish embryos by watching them develop through a microscope. It is really cool, and a very authentic science experience. It's a national program, and we have a partnership right here at the U. If you're interested, contact Judith Neugebaur j.neugebauer@utah.edu. You'll be psyched!
Sixth Grade - Here's an indicator: "Explain the relationship of the size and shape of a vibrating object to the pitch of the sound produced." No better way to do this than to make instruments. Take a look at the flute below - doesn't get much easier than that. You can also make a simple xylophone, or string instrument.
That link is self explanatory. If you want to get daring, pick up a piece of 10' length of 1/2" conduit from Lowe's for about $2.50. That stuff makes surprisingly good keys. Cut with a hacksaw, but watch out for burrs. Or try a Diddly Bow, which is basically a one string guitar. Check it out here:
Make on of each, and have a class band!
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Science Ideas for 2/26/2016
Kindergarten Ideas - Still on the indicator: "Compare the parts of different animals, e.g., skin, fur, feathers, scales; hand, wing, flipper, fin." Don't forget about bugs! Here's a cool lesson about ants from UEN: http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview?LPid=10666
Comparing and contrasting is a powerful way to help kids see meaning in the forms and functions of the structures in the natural world.
First Grade Ideas - "Analyze the individual similarities and differences within and across larger groups." Here's a simple idea, but one with a lot of potential: plant a bunch of bean seeds in cups, let them grow for a few days, and measure and record their heights. It'll be a great mathematical measurement activity, they can graph their data, plus you'll hit thisscience indicator. That's a win-win-win.
Second Grade Ideas - Here's a very specific indicator: "Explain how smaller rocks come from the breakage and weathering of larger rocks." There are a lot of ways to model this one. Have the kids do some erasing, then look at the eraser shavings. Use graham crackers as a math manipulative, then look at the crumbs. I have some pieces of styrofoam they can break apart, then see how the little white specks break off. All of these model the process of rocks breaking down, through a few mechanisms, to make smaller rocks. Look at grains of sand under a microscope to see that each grain is actually just a little rock. They'll start to put the pieces together to get that all rocks were once bigger rocks, and this process means that all rocks on our planet are slowly breaking down. Water is the biggest factor here - rivers, rain runoff, ocean waves, and flash floods all show how this process occurs. The freeze-thaw is also a big idea here. Freeze a styrofoam cup of water, and it'll come out cracked apart. This shows how ice expands as it freezes, which is a major force in breaking apart rocks. They'll hit this all more explicitly in 4th grade, and again in 5th, but there's a good starting point.
Third Grade Ideas - Continuing with heat and light. Let's look at three indicators together:
- Identify and classify mechanical and electrical sources of heat.
- List examples of mechanical or electrical devices that produce light.
- Predict, measure, and graph the temperature changes produced by a variety of mechanical machines and electrical devices while they are operating.
So, starting with indicator a). This is a stupid indicator. Quote me on that. Here's what I want kids to know: all motion produces friction. (The only thing we can practically look at that produces no friction is space stuff flying around in a vacuum, but everything else on Earth produces heat when it moves, through friction.) Prove this a few ways. Have the kids rub their hands together, or on their desk, or the carpet. Easy to see the friction there. Spin a toy car wheel, and eventually it stops. Because of friction. Sometimes it's harder to observe, like when a fan is running. I'll gladly bring my fan-in-a-box demo by, but essentially we put a little fan in a closed box with a digital thermometer, and turn it on. And the temperature climbs - it gets hotter and hotter inside that little box. Somewhat because of friction, but also because electric motors produce heat as well. This is by far the best way I've seen to tackle indicator c). Every machine produces heat, even a refrigerator. If the kids don't believe you, take them down to the faculty room and have them feel under or behind the fridge. It's warm, sometimes really warm, because the fridge is doing work to pump heat out of the inside. So while the inside gets cooler, the outside gets warmer. That's why the AC unit hangs out the window - it produces cool on one side, but heat on the other.
Anyway, there you can see all machines produce heat. So with the whole mechanical vs. electrical machine thing, definitely talk about where a machine gets its energy. Like a razor scooter vs. an electric scooter. That is an interesting distinction. I'm not sure why we'd want to classify them as electrical vs. mechanical in regards to producing heat. All machines produce heat. That would be like classifying salad bars by seeing which ones offer lettuce. They all have lettuce. Lettuce look at something more interesting.
Fourth Grade Ideas - Water Cycle. Central idea: where does all the energy come from that powers the water cycle? Answer: the Sun. Amazing, if you think about it. Make sure that as you explore the various parts of this system, kids understand that. You might have them construct an argument, given a particular part of the water cycle, on how it's powered by the sun. This is huge, and it's fundamental for their overall understanding of the system.
Next, we've all heard that 97% of water is in the ocean, 2.something% is frozen in ice, and the tiny sliver left is our usable water. But like all big numbers, this is meaningless without some help. Check out this water cycle game:
It covers a few important ideas, such as the fact that water often jumps around to various parts of the cycle, not just following a to b to c every time. Second, look at the "discussion" section after the game. We have various people standing there to represent the parts of the cycle, like the ocean, surface water, etc. But obviously, this isn't proportional. There's a lot more ocean water than surface water. Here's the cool part: to get the proportions right, we'd need about 10,000 people to stand in for the ocean. Then 5 people would stand in for the surface water. And 1 would stand in for the water in the atmosphere. Now that's easier to visualize. That'll help them understand the distribution better than saying things like "a fraction of a percent."
Fifth Grade Ideas - Heredity, continued. If you're looking for a demonstration of characteristics that confer a survival advantage, it doesn't get much better than this Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/david_gallo_shows_underwater_astonishments/transcript?language=en
I promise you will love showing that to your kids.
Sixth Grade Ideas - Week two for Heat, Light, and Sound. Through all this, we're talking about energy. Here's the upcoming Crosscutting Concept: Energy and matter: Flows, cycles, and conservation. So within this idea of energy, I want to shore up a little more background knowledge for you the teacher. Let's start with heat. The thing we call heat is literally the movement of molecules. All molecules are in motion - in gasses, they zing around. In liquids, they float around and bump into each other. In solids, they stay more in place, but jiggle. All molecules do this. The faster they're moving, the hotter we say that thing is. The slower, the colder. When you put your coke in the fridge, the molecules inside literally start slowing down. If they stopped moving all together, we call that temperature absolute zero. (Convection and conduction are thus the transfer of this kinetic energy - moving molecules bumping into other molecules make them move. So the movement, the heat, is transferred.)
Heat can also transfer through radiation. This is a fundamentally different mechanism than the other two. The long explanation is complicated, but basically this radiation follows the rules that light follows: it can move through a vacuum, it can travel long distances. etc. Think about your microwave - the microwaves themselves aren't "hot." The only time they change into heat is when they interact with your food inside the microwave. But they themselves are not heat energy. Radiation is closer to that.
Light is electromagnetic energy. (Which is also kinetic, if you're following along at home.) Electromagnetic waves are created from moving charges, which your kids don't need to know. But they do need to understand that it can travel without a medium, like through a vacuum. (By comparison, mechanical forms of energy could not.) The electromagnetic spectrum is a fascinating thing, but we're focused on visible light here. Confusingly, radiation and visible light are both electromagnetic energy transfers, but mostly at a different wavelength. Again, don't worry about teaching that part to the kids. Here's what they need to know: light is energy. It can travel through nothingness, like space.
Sound is a form of mechanical energy. It is the same kind of energy as a ball rolling, or an earthquake, or a raindrop falling. It happens to be vibrations, which travel in waves, but it is mechanical. There's nothing special about sound that makes it different from any other form of stuff moving. Now it just so happens that our ears sense vibrations in the air within certain frequencies, so we perceive it as different from other mechanical forces, like a snowball hitting the back of one's head. But it's the same form of energy. Use this framework of energy as you go through your various explorations of heat, light, and sound.
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