Science Misconceptions!!!!

_{For my conceptual interview, I interviewed three students in my pre-k and kindergarten class at Montessori. I did a lot of research prior to administering my misconception probes and I found that children and even adults have many misconceptions when it comes to rainfall. I thought this topic would be too easy for my students at Montessori because a lot of them are above average cognitively. However, once I began administering my probes, I realized that this topic was perfect. My students all had a private universe in regards to rainfall and I was able to uncover these misconceptions with them.}

_{My first interview was a six-year-old girl. When I posed the question “What causes rain to fall from the clouds,” she responded, “Angels cry and when they get super sad they make the clouds rain tears and that’s why you can’t drink the rain. I then asked this student if she knew anything about the water cycle and she did not. I asked her to tell me why she thought that the angels cried and made it rain and she told me she remembered reading it in a book when she was four. I showed her two pictures on my cell phone of the water cycle and a picture of rainfall and I asked her to look at the pictures and tell me if she still thought that rainfall happened because of angels and she said “yes.”}

_{My second interview was a six-year-old boy. After posing the question, he responded, “When warm weather and cold weather get into a fight in heaven, it rains and one of them wins the fight. Normally, warm weather wins the fight and that’s why we sometimes have rainbows after rain storms.” I asked him to tell me about rainfall and tell me different forms of precipitation that he has seen. He did not know what precipitation meant so I probed him by giving him the clue that sleet is a form of precipitation. He gave me the answers snow and hail as two other forms. I asked him if he knew anything about the water cycle and he said “it starts when fish spit up water from the ocean and it gets into the air and the wind blows it up into the clouds and the clouds blow the air back down with the weather fight.” This was an eye opening experience because it is crazy to see just how different students responses about the same topic could be.}

_{My last interview was the closest to being correct about this conception. After posing the question, she responded, “When clouds get too heavy, they open up and it rains.” She was a five year old and she is very intelligent for her age and excels in math and reading. I asked her to tell me what she knew about precipitation and she responded, “It is a form of rain that comes form the clouds because it came from water in our atmosphere.” She seemed like she had a very good general understanding of the concept.}

_{To improve understanding:}

_{1.            I would love to use the ‘Make it Rain’ lesson that was facilitated to us in class. I think it would be very beneficial, especially for young students, to develop a concept of rainfall by seeing it with tangible objects. I would use this to teach students about rainfall, have them perform an experiment about rainfall and work in a cooperative learning group.}

_{2.            I would also love to get interactive science journals for my students and have them observe and describe weather over time. They could observer rain and record data. We would record what the clouds look like when it rains, temperature, wind speed and forms of precipitation. I also think that observing weather would give students an understanding that certain conditions are necessary for rain to occur. Students could observe the sky while it is raining and while it is not raining.}

_{3.            I also would teach concepts of evaporation, condensation and precipitation before giving students the vocabulary terms and definitions. Students learn best when they learn the material before the concept.}

_{4.            Another way to teach this, especially to small children, would be to have them draw a sequence of precipitation and explain what happens to rain and clouds while it is raining.}

_{5.            To teach a small aspect of this misconception, my students are creating spring weather pamphlets. They will draw forms of precipitation in spring and underneath the flap, they will label the form.} 

Interactive Trifold

_{Civics and Government: This lesson teaches students the characteristics and purposes of the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen in Pennsylvania. Students will be shown a county map of Pennsylvania and will be shown the location of the county they live in. Discuss with students some of the laws that are in place to ensure a clean environment. Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection has a few programs and laws that aim to ensure that all citizens live in a clean and healthy environment. The hazardous waste program regulates the generation, storage, transportation, treatment, and disposal of hazardous waste. The Clean Indoor Air Act, Act 27 of 2008, was signed into law on June 13, 2008. The legislation prohibits smoking in a public place or a workplace and lists examples of what is considered a public place. The Bureau of Conservation and Restoration's mission is to restore polluted streams and lakes and remove them from the impaired waters list. Pennsylvania made recycling the law in July 1988 with Act 101, the Municipal Waste Planning, Recycling and Waste Reduction Act, thus making Pennsylvania the largest state in the nation to require recycling. After introducing these laws, students will be introduced to terms that are related to Pennsylvania’s environment such as environment- the air, water, and the land that surround you and other living things; wastewater-dirty water, sewage-type of waste water; pollutants –harmful things put into the air; acid rain- when sleet, snow, or rain has been polluted with certain chemicals given  off by things that burn coal, oil or gas; solid waste- garbage;  landfills-large open areas that communities bury waste; recycle-saving and reusing materials  and energy-usable heat or electricity. Show students recycling YouTube video and discuss the testimonials included in the video regarding recycling. The video will show the process of reusing and recycling materials. As a class, students will achieve a plan of action to create recycling globally. Students will create a graphic organizer listing a few causes and effects of pollution. Students should formulate these ideas on their own but if they need help, give them examples such as  cars, factories and chemicals being causes and pollutants in crops and soil, water and wildlife being effects. Students will create a decision tree that lists the criteria for recycling and alternatives to recycling. Students will then utilize a trifold on recycling. The trifold is an interactive display of recycling for students. It incorporates the causes and effects of pollution with facts and statistics. It also includes tangible objects for students to touch and feel. Students will have to decide whether these objects are recyclable, reusable or reducible. Tell students that recycling is a series of steps that takes a used material and processes, remanufactures, and sells it as a new product. Reducing is done by buying products in bulk, avoiding disposable goods and avoiding over packaging. Reusing is to use a product again for the same or similar purpose. Distribute to students a copy of recycling drop off locations in Luzerne County.} 

Always remember to thank a teacher.

Teaching the Writing Process!

Teaching the writing process!!!

1.Prewriting

2. Drafting

3. Revising

4. Editing

5. Publishing

Easy way to track the progress of your students writing!
(popsicle sticks)

Journal Article Critique

Teaching Science to ELL's

Key Strategies every Science teacher should know

Since 1995, the amount of English Language Learners in the United States has risen substantially. Teaching ELL students is a difficult and sometimes daunting task for educators that are not trained in working with ELL learners. Because these students primarily have a hard time understanding the language, their main focus is not on learning content in the classroom. However, if educators can the implement the strategies presented in this article effectively, ELL students should be able to continue developing their English language skills while learning and understanding the academic content. Implementing these strategies in an effective way will also show teachers how to plan and implement their instruction. 

The strategies and research presented in this article have a huge influence on Science teaching. Students depend on us, (educators) to help them learn the language needed to understand the content we teach. In order to help these students better develop their language proficiency, teachers need to make connections and provide opportunities. 

For example: When teaching the concept of different forms of precipitation, a student from another country may not understand the concept of snow if they have never lived in an area where it snows. However, chances are this student has an understanding of rain and cold weather. Teachers can make a connection for these students between rain (which they have experienced) and freezing temperatures and demonstrate how snow can be formed. To check a students understanding of how snow forms, students could do an experiment with water and freezing temperatures over the course of a few days. Give the student many options of ways to express their understanding of forms of precipitation. 

Example of student work - precipitation (modeling) 

Instructing ELL students is a partnership between the general education instructor and the ESL teacher. Without this partnership, content teachers struggle to meet the needs of their ESL students. In an ideal world, content teachers will always have the assistance of an ESL teacher to help them instruct these students. However, many schools do not have the resources needed to instruct these students individually and it is up to teachers to differentiate their instruction to accommodate these students. 

I think that this article is significant to the field of science teaching because students learn through exploration and investigation in Science. The strategies in this article are appropriate for teaching all subjects but especially Science because they focus on opportunity, interaction, representation and exploration which are key components to teaching science concepts.

English/Spanish Science Flash Cards

Content teachers do not have the knowledge and skills to accommodate these students. The research presented here gives teachers a way to create their own improvisations when training is not provided. Also, in my opinion, the way students develop language is significant to teaching science to ESOL students. People generally believe that language development and content learning happen interdependently. However, research and literature show that language development is achieved most effectively while in the context of content learning. Before introducing a new concept to ELL students, teachers could provide a vocabulary list of the language that will be used prior to teaching the new topic. These students will have time to learn to build their proficiency of the language before the concept is even introduced. 

Basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) are picked up by humans quickly and naturally and academic language proficiency (ALP) takes years to develop. This serves as a huge impact to a students learning, and is an even greater impact on ELL students. Teachers should be aware of this fact when instruction ELL students. These individuals need ample time to learn the language and vocabulary of content in order to gain proficiency. In my classroom I will do my very best to scaffold language to maximize language development. 

1st grade - Science exploration 

As a teacher of science I would implement some of the strategies that are presented in this article. Allowing students to provide opportunities for input and output is a strategy that will benefit all students and ELL students especially. I will allow my students to use simulations, models and manipulatives to get a better understanding of the concepts being introduced. Science is a subject that can be taught, if chosen, through the use of manipulatives and visual representations only. This subject involves so much investigation that students have a huge variation of learning styles that could be used to teach content. 

Also, as a content teacher I will do a lot of rephrasing when giving directions and instructions to ELL students. Posters and visual representations are an easy way to allow students to engage in the language while decreasing any anxiety that they may have. I will use as many forms of visual representations as possible in my classroom when teaching all subjects and especially science. In addition to providing multiple means of representation for students, I will also provide ample opportunities for interaction. Allowing students to negotiate with other students in cooperative learning groups or even peer-to-peer connections allows ELL students to further develop their language proficiency skills. Teachers should lower language barriers to show progress in science and not level of proficiency. 

Water Cycle - Visual representation

Water Cycle - written report

Teachers should be aware that all students bring background knowledge and can benefit from connections being tied to their personal lives and experiences. By identifying their students level of English proficiency and tying it to standards and objectives, teachers can set expectations for performance that are reasonable for individual students. I believe that this article brings up very important points that I think are positive aspects to bring to a classroom. My perspective is that students need many opportunities to express their understanding of science concepts. Simply having a student write an essay about the water cycle does not convey whether they understand the concept or not. According to this article, students should be able to express their comprehension in numerous ways such as models, oral reports, presentations, demonstrations or portfolios. The article states that students should demonstrate scientific knowledge and skills through performance and products. I also think that the examples given for group work would work positively in any classroom. The 'information gap' groups allow two or more students to work together to obtain missing information and ELL students can benefit from this activity especially because they have a proficient English speaking student working with them and they should feel more relaxed and more open to asking questions to these students. The strategies in this article are extremely useful and every teacher should have knowledge of them. Whether educators have the help of an ESL teacher or not, they should be able to meet the needs of their diverse learners themselves. 

Our students are our future! 



Reference:

Bautista, N., & Castaneda, M. (2011). Teaching Science to ELLs, Part I. The Science Teacher, 78 (3), 35-39.

Private Universe Project

We all make sense of the world in our own way, our private universe. 

Children need to explore their private universe as well as fact and actuality. 

We need to make sure our students LEARN the material we teach or they will not develop understandings of concepts. 

Interactive Science Notebooks are COOL!

Interactive Science Notebooks are COOL! 
#Kings #College #Educ422 #Science! 

Science Methods - 
1.) Interactive Notebooks
*Promote constructivism 
*Addresses standards and differentiation
*Literacy development
*Students form their own ideas without the teachers approval

*Check it out! 
http://www.nsta.org/publications/news/story.aspx?id=51882