Article Review: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Researchers are always discovering new ways to enhance students' learning of science. They experiment their new ideas to see whether they are successful or not in helping students learn different science topics. The current issues in science education describe effective ways to strengthen students' understanding. For this assignment, we were to follow the research on the current issues and choose one article of interest. The article I chose for my Science Education Research Article Review is "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words" written by Sarah Davison. I briefly glanced at all the articles and this article stood out to me the most. The best way to teach science and have students understand it is to engage them in real-world experiences. I tried to pick an engaging teaching strategy. I came across "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words" and was very interested to read how taking pictures at a zoo can enhance students' learning. Field trips are a great way to increase students' learning about animals that are in the zoo. The article first explains that when visiting a zoo, students often miss many learning opportunities. This teacher created an inquiry project that includes digital cameras to enhance students' learning of animal classification and animal characteristics. The students followed the 5E's (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate/Extend, and Evaluate) for this project. Students will be questioning, investigating, and concluding and will also create one book per group of their questions and findings.

Engage:
In the classroom: The whole class shared their wonders about the zoo before the trip and then, created the wonders into questions using the words "how" or "why". Then, the whole class brainstormed two picture ideas for each question. Students were put into groups and each group chose one question they wanted to investigate.

Explore:
At the zoo: Each group got one digital camera for their investigation. Throughout the trip, the groups took pictures of anything they felt would be helpful to answer their question for the project.

Explain:
In the classroom: The students returned to school and shared their findings and explained the pictures they took. Their explanations would help them to create captions for the pictures they took that they would use in their books.

Elaborate/ Extend:
In the classroom: Using the pictures, students sorted the pictures into different animal classifications to strengthen students' understanding while providing their own experiences. They also used a few pictures to create an "I Spy" collage and wrote rhymes for different parts in the pictures.

Evaluate:
In the computer lab: Students created captions for their pictures of the book and made their question the title of the book. The students got to use computer softwares to type their text and made corrections if necessary. They printed their books and then completed a self-evaluation of their learning and their contribution to the project.

Using digital cameras to enhance learning is something I've never heard of before but after reading this article, I can say that it sounds successful. This gives students a hands-on experience and it also makes science meaningful to students. It's very important to give a variety of instruction and learning experiences to strengthen students' understanding. I would love to use this project for my class. When I use this project idea in my own classroom, I will use these handouts as they are effective in engaging the students and having the students self-evaluate themselves. For older grades, I would have students create their questions themselves instead of as a class. For lower grades, I would follow this exact strategy and assist them if needed. For lower grades, I would have the students create a class book that includes every students' questions and investigations. For upper grades, I would have the students individually create their own books and the students can present their books and their findings. I also enjoyed the fact that the students classified their pictures to elaborate. The level of complexity depends on the grade level but having the students elaborate will depend the students' understanding of the content taught. This is very exciting and engaging and also connects the material to real-world experiences at the zoo. I enjoyed reading this article and recommend it to teachers!

Have You Had Any Science Misconceptions?

This week, we reviewed chapters one through nine from our textbook. Our class was engaged in a lesson on science misconceptions that many of our students might have or create. We were given different science topics and were to think of different misconceptions that we had when we were younger or that our future students might have on our given topic. I worked with Keilani and our topics were dinosaurs and violent weather. We had to think of several misconceptions for each and then answer questions about misconceptions.

The misconceptions we came up with for dinosaurs were:

1. Dinosaurs are a made up story/ were never real.
2. Dinosaurs were violent and dangerous.
3. Dinosaurs were able to talk with people like in cartoons.

The misconceptions we came up with for violent weather were:

1. Thunderstorms were going to knock my house down.
2. Rainstorms with intense wind were going to blow me away.

These were just our misconceptions but there are many more that children will create. Here are some common misconceptions among elementary students. 

Here is also a video that discusses some misconceptions on weather and it can be great to use when introducing a weather unit.

We were next asked to answer "What does this say about the misconceptions with which our students will come to our science classroom?" We responded that since many of us had misconceptions when we were younger, children might also create the same misconceptions or different ones. A lot of our misconceptions are created by what others around them believe or by reading fictional books or watching animated tv shows that aren’t realistic. Watching cartoons might result in believing that dinosaurs can actually talk or they can communicate with people. We were also asked "What is the purpose of identifying student misconceptions?" We responded that it is important to identify misconceptions to eliminate any confusion the students may have about that topic and also to make sure students understand each topic correctly. After we finished answering the questions, we presented our misconceptions and answers. It was interesting to see the other groups' topics and the misconceptions that provided. I liked group one's misconceptions about life in the desert, "Animals with fur couldn't live in the desert" and "Animals didn't need water to survive". I have thought this when I was younger as well. I liked group two's response to the question asking for a purpose of identifying student misconceptions. Their response was that it is used to see students' views and perspectives from their prior knowledge before teaching the correct content. It's important to see if they have any knowledge of the content before teaching it. Group three's misconception on the solar system, which was "the sun goes down and the moon comes up and then the sun comes up and the moon comes down." They're saying that they didn't know about the earth's rotation. This is a popular misconception among children and I believed it as well.

We can't stop students from creating misconceptions but we can identify them and let students know that what they are thinking is just a false belief. We can provide activities and lessons to show them why their misconceptions are not true. It is very important that students are understanding the material correctly.

My Fieldwork Experience Reflection

Last week, we finished up our final hours of our fieldwork experience at Bishop Dunn Memorial School. This was such a rewarding experience to see not just myself grow, but my classmates as well. We were to reflect on our group's teaching and the other group's teaching. I have learned so much from this experience.

Creating our Lesson Plans

Our class was split up into four groups and we had to design a direct lesson and an inquiry lesson on ecosystems. I worked with two classmates, Kelly and Alyssa. Our topic was the changes in ecosystems. Before writing the lesson plans, we were taught many aspects of teaching science and designing lessons but what contributed to my learning the best was learning how to write goals and objectives, what the different types of lessons are and how to use them, and how to create an inquiry lesson plan. After we were taught these aspects, we got a chance to create a direct lesson plan and an inquiry lesson plan for fieldwork. We were given a format for both types of lessons, direct and inquiry, and what I didn't know before but do know now is that they have different formats. They are similar formats but the inquiry lesson plan uses the 5E Instructional Model and the direct lesson plan uses introduction, development, guided practice, closure, and assessment. Here is the link to my blog on the 5E Instructional Model. Dr. Smirnova corrected our mistakes and explained to us what we did wrong and how we can fix it. After creating both lesson plans, I got more familiar with the format and am now able to create direct and inquiry lesson plans on my own. 

After we finished creating the lesson plans, we focused on how we will implement the lesson plan. We split up the information so we each had equal amounts of teaching time. To see if our lesson plan was a success and was sufficient to use in the classroom, we met up many times and practiced. When we practiced, we tried different ways to engage students and we thought about what would work and what wouldn't work. We put a lot of time and effort into our lesson plans and into learning the material to be able to teach it.

Our Time in Fieldwork

In fieldwork, we not only got to teach to a class but we got to watch our classmates teach and we reflected on their lessons and teaching. 

Group one, which was Danielle, Dorian, Keilani, and Aimee, went first. Their direct lesson was on ecosystems and biomes. They explained what ecosystems and biomes were and the different types of biomes. Here is my reflection for group one's direct lesson. In their inquiry lesson, they had the students discover a new animal and study biomes to figure out which biome would be best for it's survival. The students then created posters of their biomes. Here is my reflection of group One's inquiry lesson. 

Group two, which was Erin, Stephanie, and Daniela, taught their direct lesson on how ecosystems interact. Here is my reflection for group two's direct lesson. In group 2's inquiry lesson, the students were given different scenarios and articles online and they had to use the scientific method to complete the investigation of their scenario. Here is my reflection for group two's inquiry lesson. I enjoyed this inquiry lesson because it integrates technology into a science lesson and gets the students more familiar with it. I will use this type of lesson in my own classroom.

I was in group three with Kelly and Alyssa. We taught our direct lesson on the changes in ecosystems. I was satisfied with our teaching because the timing for our lesson was successful, which was a result from practicing many times. Here is my reflection on our direct lesson. In our inquiry lesson, students were given different biomes and adaptations. Students had to figure out the best adaptations for their given biomes. Then, they could create a animal species based on their biomes and adaptations. Here is my reflection for our inquiry lesson. My group and I provided many ways to engage the students that worked and I will use in my own classroom. We learned how to manage a classroom and got to experience which attention signals are a success and are not. We also gave a variety of assessments to give students practice in the material and to check for understanding and to see what the students learned. We provided review questions, exit tickets, and independent practices. Here are some samples of the students' independent practices for our inquiry lesson. 

We only got to observe group 4, which was Melissa, Veronica, John, and Sarah, teach their inquiry lesson. In their inquiry lesson, students were given different aspects of the Hudson River, had to research it using the scientific method, and then had to design slides of a powerpoint explaining their findings. Here is my reflection for group four's inquiry lesson.

Observing our classmates teach to a class was a great way to improve ourselves as future teachers. It is important to watch as many lessons as possible to see what works in a classroom and what doesn't work in a classroom. We also got to see a variety of different ways in which our classmates teach that can gave me new ideas. We learned a lot from each other. Many classmates and I made mistakes along the way that many of us might have made in the future. It is important to see these mistakes in action and learn how to handle them. Many of my classmates provided me with new ideas and approaches to teaching science and how to handle students when they are talking and not listening to the teacher. 

What Did I Learn from Fieldwork?

This experience was very beneficial to my learning to becoming an effective teacher. Before starting fieldwork, the subject that I was most nervous to teach was science. After teaching two lessons to a class, I feel more confident in myself as I now aware of the ways to engage students in science lessons. We learned how to engage the students in activities that encouraged students to use the scientific method. Now, I have a better understanding of how to have students apply the scientific method relating to the material learned. I also learned that students remember things easier when they have a lot of practice in the content. Ways we achieved this was check for understanding questions after a few slides of content was taught and many guided practices after the material has been learned.

The students that we taught were excellent but sometimes struggled focusing as a class. We learned a variety of attention signals, including echo clapping, call and response, silent hand raising, and others, and we got to experience which ones were effective and which ones weren't. The most effective one, in my opinion, was the silent hand raising because it really got the students to pay attention and quiet down. I have written a blog post that goes in depth of attention signals. Here is the link. 

We also learned that we have to try to engage every student when answering questions. It isn't effective when a teacher asks a question and only one student answers. It is important to make sure that every student is engaged and to do this, we can have the students put their thumbs up if they agree or put their thumbs down if they disagree when a student answers a question. We can also try different variations of that by having the students stand up if they agree or stay in their chair if the disagree or put their hands on their heads if they agree or put their hands on their shoulders if they disagree. 

Dr. Smirnova also suggested that our group try the "Numbered Heads Together" method to involve every student. Here is a video that explains the process. This method lets every student answer a question at least once so every student is engaged and has a chance to answer. 

Overall, this was a wonderful learning experience. It was very rewarding to watch the students succeed from our own lessons. Together, as a class, we have learned so much from teaching in front of a class and from observing each other teach. This experience increased my confidence as a future teacher and got me excited for student teaching next semester!

Science Fair Project!!

This week, our class participated in a science fair at Bishop Dunn Memorial School. We had to conduct any experiment of our interest and submit it on a poster board to BDMS. My science fair project was testing to see if listening to music helps you run faster. I always thought it helped but I never got to conduct an experiment on it so I was anxious to start right away!

To conduct my experiment, I gathered 5 participants and asked them to meet me at a track. I was going to have the participants run half a mile on a track while listening to music and half a mile on a track without listening to music. The trial that has the shortest time is the one that is the fastest. On the track, I had the participants run half a mile, or six laps around the track, without listening to music and I recorded all of their times. Then, I met up with the participants at a track on a different day to have them run half a mile with listening to music. Then, I recorded all their times. As I was analyzing my data, I concluded that all of the participants' times while listening to music were shorter than their times without listening to music, meaning that they run faster while listening to music. I really enjoyed completing this project because it was engaging and I liked the fact that we had some freedom in picking out our topics! Here is a picture of the final result of my science fair project poster board! 

This was my first time participating in a science fair and I honestly am a little disappointed because I would have loved to do this when I was younger. This project is very beneficial to my learning along with all other students as it gives a hands-on experience with the scientific method and also shows the importance of it when conducting experiments. It also demonstrates to students how to conduct of an experiment. When I become a teacher, I would love to have my class conduct science experiments just like this project. If the school that I am teaching at has science fairs, I will encourage all my students to participate as they can learn so much and apply their understanding of different science topics!