cait_journal8

Cait Benson March 31, 2009 EDC 452 Assessment Journal # 8

Today I observed the Rhode Island College student teachers that I met several weeks ago. The students have been working with and learning about the scientific method, variables, and controlled experiments. In order to introduce these ideas, the student teachers spent one science lesson discussing pendulums, a new topic. Last week, the student teachers allowed the children time to explore the principles of pendulums through a guided experiment. The students tested to see how many times a pendulum would swing in fifteen seconds. The children constructed a pendulum out of a pen, string, paperclip, and a penny. After the experiment was finished, the class discussed their results with the student teachers. This experiment prepped the children for today’s experiment that would test specific variables, the release position and mass. The students worked in their science groups for both lessons and use their science notebooks to record their results.

The experiment was divided into two variables, as mentioned before. These variables were the release position and mass of the bob. With that, the class was divided into two groups; one side of the class tested the release position while the other side tested the mass. Each group, regardless of their assigned variable to test, followed the scientific method by prediction or hypothesizing, following a procedure, recording results, and drawing conclusions. After each group was finished, the student teachers explained to the students that they would use the jigsaw method to report out all results. This meant that a student who tested release position would meet with a student who tested a different mass to discuss and learn each others’ results. This gave the students a chance to not only socialize but also an opportunity to discover new findings from a different experiment. Once all information was shared, the class came back together to summarize. The student teachers used a PowerPoint presentation to display all results from that class that the students reported out. This allowed the students to see that the two variables did not significantly affect the number of swings that the pendulum swung. Also, the student teachers discussed specific vocabulary terms such as the term, variable, wrote the definition on a piece of construction paper, and taped it to the classroom’s vocabulary board. This would help the students remember each word and its meaning. After this, the student teachers collected the science notebooks in order to formally assess the class’s achievement.

I believe these two lessons were really fun and beneficial to the students. The first lesson (instructional activity) introduced the ideas about the scientific method and pendulums while the second lesson allowed the students a chance to explore further on their own. I wonder how much farther the student teachers will go with these lessons (I’ll find out next week)! In addition to this, the science notebook idea was really interesting to me because students didn’t have to tear out pages, the whole book was collected. Perhaps this will prevent students from losing their work! Also, I enjoyed how the student teachers let the students test their assigned variables on their own so they could draw their own conclusions. This gave the students a sense of control and freedom. Overall, this was an awesome assessment of the students’ knowledge on pendulums so far. The student teachers assessed formally and informally throughout this lesson. I can definitely see myself using this activity in the future.

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