This week, I’ve got an important idea, and then concrete
resources. First, the idea.
We’re shifting science education from “learning about” to
“figuring out.” It’s a quick question you can ask yourself about the
fundamental structure of any lesson – are the kids learning about things, or
are they figuring things out? The difference is subtle, but it’s
everything.
When it’s possible, make sure the kids are the ones figuring
out. That takes longer, and that’s okay. We can’t shortcut that
process. We can try – we can try to “cover” more material. But just
because I said something in a classroom doesn’t mean anyone heard it.
Now not everything can be “figured out.” If you’re
teaching base level facts, or things that cannot be observed in the classroom,
but all means explain it. But if it’s possible for the students to
construct the explanation themselves, the learning is very different.
So I was just “teaching about” a new idea. Maybe a
little got through to you? But it mostly won’t. Until you “figure it out”
within your own terms. I think that’s so interesting. My medium
here, email, is limited in that regard.
On to resources! I am constantly scouring the world for
resources for you. This week, I found a doozey. Some of you are
already probably familiar with this, but check out Jordan District’s collection
of science lesson plans:
There are links for K-6, but I found K-3 to be empty.
The goods start in 4th. These lessons are comprehensive – if
you teach them, you will “cover” all indicators in the core. You can rearrange
the order to fit our district’s pacing map. The one catch – many lessons
are great, some are good, and some need modification. But it’s easier to
rework a lesson that already exists instead of starting from scratch. So
this is a tremendous resource!
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