What is Freddie’s swinging experience like?
Freddie will swing in a manner that is not balanced; the swing will travel in a lopsided path. So, on the side with the longer string, Freddie will swing slower, with a lower frequency than on the side with the shorter string. It would not be very pleasant.
I honestly don’t believe that we have enough information to really answer this question, but I’ll humor this prompt by saying that it will take less time to swing back and forth.
My reasoning for this is that there is now
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
One strip of wire.
|___BAT.___|-
^————^——-BULB
The battery, in order to be useful, must be a complete circuit. So, a longer wire will connect the (-) end to the (+) end, and then connect to the light bulb.
LAB
We could light the bulb using only those materials. In order to do so, the wire was connected to the (-) end, and then connected to the bulb, and then the bulb connected to the (+) end. We could not light the bulb with one wire in any truly different ways (i.e., connecting the bulb only to one end of the battery with a wire.
**** STANDARD ‘B’: Light, Heat, Electricity and Magnetism
—–>Electricity in circuits can produce light, heat, sound, and magnetic effects. Electrical circuits require a complete loop through which an electrical current can pass.
**** All of our group said one wire.
**** Learning performance: Students must create a circuit for the electricity to pass through, thus lighting the bulb. This will be accomplished by having the complete a series of lab experiments with strips of wire, a single battery per group, and up to 3 light bulbs.
Week 6 Day 1: QWQOTD: NO LOOKING BACK IN YOUR NOTES!!!
A learning goal is the objective that you want your students to understand. For instance, in our magnet lab, we were supposed to grasp some of the properties of magnets (like that every magnet has both a north and a south pole). Learning performance is typically an activity or assessment where the students demonstrate that they comprehend the subject material.
The 5 aspects of inquiry:
1. Engage – Learner engages in a scientifically-oriented question.
2. Evidence – Learner gives evidence the prioity when answering question.
3. Explanation – Learner explains based on evidence.
4. Evaluate – Learner evaluates his/her own explanation when compared to other explanations.
5. Communicate – Learner communicates with teacher and other students about explanations.
I think that our probe worked exactly as it should have, functioning as a formative assessment. It helped to show how many students have misconceptions, and– coupled with the explanations– showed why some students believe what they do.
The data showed that 47% of responses were correct, while 48% answered incorrectly. There is 5% unaccounted for, and we’re not entirely sure what happened there. Upon looking at students’ explanations for their answers, it’s clear that some of them have a grasp of the material, but the majority explained their answers by citing incorrect sources (like movies) or by stating that deserts lack rainfall because it is hot there. If I were to give this assessment to my own classroom, I would certinaly make it more comprehensive, by asking accompanying questions.
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1. The phases of the moon occur based on our location relative to the viewing angle of the moon. When we see crescents or full moons, it’s because we are seeing the sunlit side of the moon from the side, or head on.
2. The seasons are caused by the young age of the Earth, and the still-turbulent times that the planet has before everything settles down. The Earth spins on a tilted axis, and the northern and southern hemispheres receive disproportional amounts of sunlight and heat during each season. When it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it is because the North Pole is pointed toward the sun; therefore, it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and vice versa.
3. The lunar eclipse happens when the sun, the Earth and moon are aligned, allowing the sun’s rays to be completed obstructed by the Earth, and thereby blocking the light from reaching the face of the moon.
The most important ideas present in this article stem from—not coincidentally—the uses of a science notebook. Perhaps most prominently, a notebook like the ones described in the article can help students develop critical thinking skills, create a collaborative effect in the classroom between teacher and student, and can even serve as feedback for the teacher regarding how well students are learning material.
Additionally, science notebooks provide the opportunity for all students to learn at their own, individual paces. As future teachers-in-training, we’re frequently told to avoid “teaching to the middle,” but rarely are we given a strategy to do so. Science notebooks allow for this sought after ideal.
How do elementary students learn science?
I think that students learn science like any other discipline—through experience. One way to get hands-on experience is to go on fieldtrips; I remember fieldtrips in elementary school very fondly. There are other ways to gain experience, though. An example might be to have labs in class. To clarify: I do NOT mean like the boring labs during chemistry class in high school. No, instead I mean labs like documenting the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly, having the students write down expectations/predictions and descriptions of the events.
What classroom environments facilitate elementary students’ science learning?
Probably the best classroom environments conducive to learning are the one where the teacher unconditionally encourages students to explore every facet of the world and their environment, even if the assumptions and hypotheses are incorrect in their nature. I suppose it also goes without saying that it’s important to avoid teaching just to the middle. Teaching to the middle really only helps one group, and then hinders the rest.
Classrooms with open minds, at least in my opinion, help children by not scaring them from speaking up and exploring various facets of science.
What should teachers know and be able to do to design and foster effective elementary science learning environments?
Obviously, teachers should be aware of the material that they are teaching, and they should also never ask students to do something that they cannot do. It’s not good for a teacher that is afraid of bugs—like caterpillars—to have a lab in class like the one I described above. Instead, the teacher need to either get over his/her fear, or find another activity to engage their students in.
Additionally, every teacher needs to know just how far to push students. If you expect too much of students, they will always fail. If you expect to little, they become complacent and their progress plateaus. A good teacher continually ramps up the expectations after accurately gaging students’ abilities.
science methods blog 