Currently ~ Just January ~ Happy New Year!

Happy 2019!  Time sure flies where you're focused and keeping busy!  I'm delighted to link up today with Anne in Residence for:

Choosing 

I'm currently taking an online course about incorporating STEAM into my classroom.  I'm trying to spend time watching all the videos and reading all the articles so that I can learn more about this area.  STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math.  The emphasis is one hands-on group work that solves a real life problem.  I really love this quote by John Dewey:

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”

Tidying 



I could spend endless time tidying everything and everywhere in my house.  After Christmas I spent an hour cleaning the top of my stove.  Then I had to clean the kitchen counters,...Tidying to infinity and beyond!

 
Resolving 






It's really fun to eat anything and everything you want until you step on the scale...which means I need to start eating better and more healthy food.  Eating gluttonously was fun while it lasted.  Now it's back to reality.

Exploring 

I've been having the best time researching STEAM resources in Massachusetts.  I knew there would be a lot because of the huge number of universities, but I still made some exciting discoveries. For example,

Massachusetts has an annual STEM conference in November.  The conference is in Worcester which is about an hour from where I live. The next STEM summit will take place on November 5, 2019.

In addition, I checked out science apps and web sites.  I was just playing this sorting game on Science Kids in which I needed to sort moving objects into birds, insects, mammals or plants.  It was quite challenging for me.  Click here to check out the home page.

Refreshing

I'm really finding Polar Seltzer water to be very refreshing.  Seltzer is now my everyday beverage of choice.  It has fizz like soda minus all the artificial flavorings and additives.  

Well, there's the current news for now!  Please let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions for me about anything I write about!  

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Science + Inquiry Based Teaching = Super Learners!

     As part of my course at the New England Aquarium, I have homework.  This week's homework involved reading an article:  Using Inquiry-Based Teaching... by Paula Magee and Ryan Flessner and sharing our insights on their ideas.

     How do you teacher science?  Have you had professional development about teaching science?  Does your administration provide you with sufficient and usable resources to teach science?  If so, you are not alone!  This article reviews and supports a new and improved way to teach science:  Inquiry Style Science!

     Inquiry science is a collaborative approach to teaching and includes these five steps:

1.    Use “Thinking Starters”

The first step of this strategy is a fun and engaging hands-on activity that introduces/review the science topic.  After the activity, students generate questions stemming from the activity.

Here are my students building levees to prevent flooding in hurricane prone areas:

 

Click here or on the picture to read more about this amazing activity!

2.    Listen to Children’s Ideas

In this step, the teacher listens (and documents) the students’ own ideas.  It doesn’t matter if their ideas make sense, the teacher needs to accept these ideas to tease out misunderstandings and to know what needs to be taught/reviewed next.

3.    Use Standards as a Guide

Teachers can and should continue to use the content standards that are expected as well as enable their students to have a “scientist-like” experience.  In the real world, scientists solve problems and decide how to proceed in order to solve the problems.  By incorporating the principle of listening to student 
ideas, teachers can then allow and guide their students to solve the problem needing to be solved.

4.    Develop Complex Questions

In this step, students “dig deeper, make connections…like the real questions that scientists pursue.”  Of course, my students never run out of questions to ask!

5.    Document and Reflect

Students now write and/or draw the important details they discovered during this whole inquiry-based process in order to remember and be able to revisit their findings.

My Thoughts

     I LOVE inquiry-based teaching and learning!  I did cringe though when I read how science used to be taught using a textbook and learning vocabulary ~ that’s how I’ve been teaching science for years.

     Luckily, we’ll be starting a new program next year:  STEMscopes!  This new program utilizes hands-on experiences throughout the whole learning process.  At the end of last year, we completed the Weather and Climate unit.  My students’ favorite part was building a levee to prevent a flood.  The kids worked in small groups, and they all figured out how to prevent the water from breaking the levee (although some needed a second try!).  In addition, we received all the materials needed to construct the levee which was an enormous help!

      What about you?  How do you teach science?  What program do you use?

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