Science!

Science in my clinical placement has been like the warm weather in the past few months, off and on.

This semester we are required to teach once science lesson at our clinical placement. Before teaching this lesson the only science I experienced was the teacher doing the mid-year assessments. I had never actually witnessed her teach a science lesson. From our discussions what I can tell is that science is not a topic they spend a lot of time on in kindergarten at this particular school. The lesson time for ANY topic is from 10:10-10:40 this is a time of the day that my cooperating teacher has set aside for whatever large lesson she is teaching that day.

Since I taught my lesson I have seen one science lesson taught in the classroom. My cooperating teacher and her students created an anchor chart about what they thought they knew about the sun and earth, what they proved were facts, and what happened to be misconceptions. This was interactive for the students and they discussed the reasoning of each fact and misconception as they created the chart. Since a lot of this was discussion that my cooperating teacher then had the students participate in a gross motor activity by acting like the planets as they revolved and rotated around the sun. My cooperating teacher was the sun and the students spun and walked around in a circle. As they were doing this my cooperating teacher also explained the seasons. The planets (students) that were far away from the sun and not facing the sun were in winter. The plants (students) that were close to the sun and facing the sun were in summer. The students were really understanding and grasping this idea. The more she continued the activity the more the students began to understand the concept.

I wish science was taught more in the classroom. The students really love the topics and ideas that the teacher does teacher. I honestly really agree with the ways my teacher has taught science when I am there. I believe I implemented my lesson in a similar manner. My cooperating teacher has been very inspiring with many of her teaching techniques. She is very spirited and engaged with the lessons that she teachers. She also continuously gives me tips while she is teaching and whenever we have a break in the day.

Comparing what I have seen to what I am learning at Illinois State University is almost incomparable. In my current science class we are learning all about 5E lesson plans and using Next Generation Science Standards. In these lessons we have learned a lot about cross cutting concepts. This is not at all what I am seeing in my clinical placement because science isn’t very often implemented when I am there. Science is something that comes around during assessment time or when there is extra time in the schedule.

This is a great explanation of the techniques we are being taught at Illinois State University.

YouTube Video 5E Model

In the future I plan to teach science at an inquiry based level. I have enjoyed learning more about science education and finding out how much young students can actually do. I would like to let students explore and experiment with ideas and concepts in the world around them. I can’t wait to have the freedom to implement this in my future classroom. I love seeing students come up with questions about science related topics and then work together or on their own to find the answers.

I am wondering if I will have time to implement the types of science lessons I am hoping to when I have my own classroom. There are many details in a daily schedule that are out of the teachers’ hands. I believe this is what makes it so difficult for teachers to find time for subjects like social studies and science.