Classroom Reflection Paper

The WebQuery, the 5E lesson plan, and the field trip guide, are examples of through which students engage in investigations that enhance learning and that helps them meet the NGSS. These artifacts also indicate my ability to develop lesson plans that promote the learning of science; that align content to the NGSS; that demonstrate the use of assessment to ensure that the students are meeting the standards; and that showcase the use of literature to support grouping strategies and lesson rationale

A 2, 500 word assignment which examines the role of the learning mentor and analyses the strategies used in supporting science, evaluating the impact on pupils’ learning.

Through this standard, teachers will engage all students in science by setting goals for students that correlate to state and national standards. Through various strategies (i.e. learning activities, instructional settings, technology) students will achieve the goals set by the teacher and fair assessment strategies will be used to determine if the goals were met. Through the use of laboratory/field settings and various technology, students will demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of science. Teachers will also design lesson plans that provide opportunities for active inquiry in which students can collect and interpret data in order to develop and understand various scientific processes. Fair assessment strategies will also be used to evaluate students and their preconceptions and understandings that have been

This framework builds on previous high quality works in science education: Science for All Americans (1989), Benchmarks for Science Literacy (1993), and NSES (1996). Unlike these previous standards, the importance of having the scientific and educational research communities was taken into the process for developing the framework. Thus, the most current research on science and science learning was grounded when identifying the science that all K-12 students should know, which increased its scientific validity and accuracy. The second step was facilitated by Achieve, Inc. with the recognition of the importance of state and educator leadership in the development of the actual standards. Thus, state policy leaders, higher education, K–12 teachers, and the science and business community were involved when developing Next Generation of Science Standards

Benchmarks for Science Literacy is a part of project 2061. It outlines that what all students should know or be able to do in science in K-12 setting. It is a companion report to Science for All Americans (SFAA). Benchmarks are put together in a way that is similar to textbook. It is divided into chapters just like SFAA. There are comments on the ideas to be learned in the chapter along with general terms. Each chapter has sections like introductions on pacing, clarification of ideas, and common difficulties and they are broken down into grade spans. There are statements of what students should know at the end of each grade span: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12. It can be used to explore the concept of science literacy in

Based on the NSTA Position statement, the curriculum of science from kindergarten through 12 grades has kept changing during the century of rapid development of science. Those changes increase the complexity of teaching and learning science. Teachers are required to design the science class that provides sufficient and effective activities of science to students. In addition, students are expected to complete the task by following the instruction and to adopt the factual knowledge replacing the superficial information or isolated facts. The importance of science programs is to assist students to adapt the community of the well-developed science, and develop student’s self-assessment skills.

Scientific literacy is not defined by what the person knows in science but defined by how they perceive the information that is given. Nevertheless, in my content area literacy skills could be life or death. In science when dealing with chemicals individuals must read thoroughly. It is easy to misread a chemical that can be hazardous and mistake it for one that is not. For example, hydrogen peroxide and dihydrogen monoxide are two different chemicals, but could easily get mixed up by a student. Another situation where literacy plays an important role in science is understanding the directions. If a student does not comprehend the directions accordingly, then they may be misinformed on what to do with the assignment. In addition to these particular literacy skills, the ability to analyze is also crucial to the scientific field. One of the first objectives, students learn in science is the scientific method. The key component in the scientific method is the hypothesis and the ability to analyze the results. Students who lack the ability to analyze text or results will most likely not understand what occurred in the experiment. They will also not be able to elaborate and discuss their results. A great intervention to reduce error and to build on student’s literacy skills is to provide students with

Adolescent literacy has become an important focus in recent years when addressing concerns about the achievement gap. With this, there is a need to focus on integrating reading in secondary areas such as science. The National Science Education Standards describe scientific literacy as “the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and progresses required for personal decision making participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity” (National Research Council, 1996, p. 22). In order for students to be scientifically literate, they must be able to read and comprehend a variety of science texts so they can develop reasonable. conclusions and share in meaningful

For my observations, I observed our 6th grade teacher who teaches science and math, and one teacher who teaches language arts. I also did a video observation, since I was not able to get into a classroom this week. All of these teachers were upper grade teachers, except for the

The state and local school boards have teachers focusing on Literacy and Math instruction to the exclusion of Science and Social Studies instruction. The trend is to focus on meeting pupil progression goals and student learning targets in order for teachers to keep their jobs. This article has great ideas for how to implement Science inquiry into every day lessons, but I find it may be difficult for teachers who are presently overwhelmed with meeting the current state, district, and school goals to implement this

For my classroom observation I had the opportunity of sitting in on a first grade regular education classroom. Listed below are the following that relates to the teacher’s classroom design.

The National Curriculum for Science (2013), anticipates to advance all pupils’ scientific knowledge and conceptualise understanding through the segmented scientific approaches; biology, chemistry and physics. In addition, pupils should have an awareness of the nature, processes and approaches used within science, through the various scientific enquires that enable pupils to answer questions related to the world and life. Finally, the aims of the science curriculum also consider that children must have the resources to fund the knowledge that is necessary to use science in the, present and future tense states the Department of Education (2013).

Science is, by its nature, inquiry based and science knowledge is built through processes in which discoveries of the natural world are made (Abruscato, 2000). It utilizes discovery and scientific thinking process to explore and learn knowledge and skills. Learning by doing is the new efficient method in teaching science. For kindergarten, this method leads to better understanding of science concepts and builds skills that children will use in future life .What a child can do with assistance now, they can later do on their own (Vygotsky, 1978). John Dewey (1916) stated that children must be engaged in an active quest for learning and new ideas. Inquiry is important in educating kindergarteners because it not only keeps them interested in lessons but also helps them retain more information when performing exploration and investigation. Children are naturally motivated to learn and actively seek out information to help their understanding (Piaget, 1950).The success of students who participate in hands- on inquiry activities suggests that if students have first hands experience with science, concepts are easier to understand and apply and students are generally more favorable to science and have better understanding of the nature of science .Within a conceptual framework, inquiry learning and active learner involvement can lead to important outcomes in the classroom. In kindergarten, students who are actively making observations, collecting results and drawing

Walking into the first two weeks of the EDU program I desired to experience what it would be like to be a future educator and have a grasp of how to help the molding of our youth and giving them the possibility to become future leaders. Doctor dresser was able to bring in a Concordia alumni who had just begun to experience his professional education, career and is teaching multiple different grade levels as a young teacher. When he first walked into the classroom my first impressions were that unfortunately he looked very inexperienced and unsure of what was to be expected of the lecture I thought to myself in the position of a younger student in his classroom this is a person I would not take seriously. He then proceeded to communicate

Inquiry based learning or IBL has long been used as a teaching strategy in science, however, this strategy has been either misunderstood or misused by the implementers. First of all, it is often thought of that all laboratory activities and experiments are inquiry based. McComas (1997) defined science pedagogical strategies in an attempt to provide a new foundation for laboratory learning. He made distinctions in the terms; activity (exercise), cookbook activity, deductive laboratory, discovery, discretion, experiment, hands-on, inductive laboratory, laboratory, practical work, openness, simulation and verification activity. These terms do not only provide a basis for discussion among science teachers but as an analytical tool to determine the usefulness and appropriateness of the laboratory activity.