Annamarie's Elementary Science Methods I and II Blog

  What question are we investigating? For the fourteen week of Science Methods I, we would continue with the question: “How can we support elementary students in learning about matter and its interactions?”. We also would look at the question “How can we use a particle model to explain…?” We firstly did this through creating a model for the plunger stick to explain the particles involved with it. We also did this in small groups by creating flip videos over things like ice melts or cold drinks with water droplets. Then we would talk in lecture more about this concept. What did we do in lab to investigate this question? The teacher explained by reviewing everyone over the plunger stick and what happened when we put it on the table vs. the paper. He would ask everyone in small groups to create models to explain what happens with the particles when you put the plunger stick on the table vs. the paper. My small group would think it has to do with pressure for these two different object...

  What question are we investigating? For the thirteenth week of Science Methods I, we would continue with the question: “How can we support elementary students in learning about matter and its interactions?”. We also would look at the question “How can we use a particle model to explain matter interaction?” We did this in small groups investigating how M&M’s would have differences based on factors like temperature or sugar in the water. Then we would talk in a whole group about the different results we got from it to see if there were any similarities or differences for it. This would help in lecture where we talked about atoms and diffusion.    What did we do in lab to investigate this question? The teacher explained by asking what everyone thought about when they heard the word “model”. In small groups we would create models of different substances with different densities. This would help us to go into the longest part we participated during the class in small gro...

  What question are we investigating? For the twelfth week of Science Methods I, we would continue with the question: “How can we support elementary students in learning about matter and its interactions?”. We also would look at the question “How do properties change when objects are broken into pieces?” We did this in small groups investigating different things for objects like sinking or floating and their mass. Then we would talk in a whole group about the different results we got to see the similarities and differences for it. This would help in lecture where we talked about the different properties like objects or substances.  What did we do in lab to investigate this question? The teacher started by explaining that we would get different objects like marble, play dough, and paper clips. He also would say we would have to record different things within these objects like mass, volume, or attractions to a magnet. This would be done in small groups and we started by seeing ...

  What question are we investigating? For the eleventh week of Science Methods I, we would look at the question: “How can we support elementary students in learning about matter and its interactions?”. We did this through rotating in small groups to different stations over the interactions that could happen with matter. Then we would talk in a whole group about different ways of thinking over the different stations. This would allow people to find out what they already know on how to teach elementary students over matter and their interactions or what they want to learn within the class.  What did we do in lab to investigate this question? The teacher started by explaining the different stations we would be doing and said to be curious over talking in small groups over the different questions about why something happened in that particular station. My small group would talk about what we thought would happen before doing the experiment like the M&M’s put in water. We would...

  What question are we investigating? For the tenth week of Science Methods I, we would look at the question: “What makes a good science lesson according to the NGSS?”. We would firstly individually read through the NGSS Lesson Screener and try to come up with examples based on our lesson plan. Then we would talk in small groups over our examples within the lesson plan and write it down on the whiteboard. We also would do a test review day to see the information that could be put on the final exam. This would allow people to ask questions over the final exam if they had any. What did we do in lab to investigate this question? The teacher started by asking everyone to go to the NGSS Lesson Screener and look at Criterion A which was explaining the phenomena or designing solutions. She also would ask everyone to pull up their lesson plans they submitted over the NGSS standards. This would allow everyone to individually read over the NGSS Lesson Screener first and find out examples fro...