Can We Believe Our Eyes?

I recently had to watch a video for science called "Can We Believe Our Eyes?" It talks about many misconceptions regarding how students learn.

I love so many of the quotes in this video,

"We've always assumed if teachers teach, students learn."
"We can't just have hands-on learning, we must have heads-on learning."
"Seeing isn't believing, believing is seeing. You see what you want to believe."

One of the things that is so evident in this video is that students do not want to give up their former beliefs. We must deconstruct those beliefs and allow them to ask questions to figure out the correct information. As we provide them with a safe learning environment, time for experiments and hands-on learning, and an abundance of research materials, we are leading our students into the right direction and will only then be able to show them what actually happens. Until they understand why something they believe isn't correct, they will never overcome that objection!

Creating Meaningful Activities in Science

While reading Stella Vosniadou's Article "How Children Learn," I was very interested in the meaningful activities chapter. It is so important to keep children engaged in learning, and it helps when they are able to see real life comparison. Some of the examples Vosniadou uses are using debates to help improve oral language, participating in a classroom newspaper to improve writing skills, and learning science by participating in a community or school environmental project.

This article made me think of other activities teachers can use to expound upon the lessons they are teaching their students. Below, you will see the ideas I came up with. Feel free to comment with other ideas we can all use one day.

- When teaching measurements, bake something as a class. You could even have one where you do not follow the measurements completely and it ends up a mess. Or omit an important ingredient like baking power, baking soda, or oil and hypothesize about how the end product will be as a result of the missing ingredient.

- When learning about time, discuss during what times of the day do students typically do certain activities (ex. eating breakfast, homework, etc). Then take it to a larger level and discuss time zones. Talk about what students in the US are doing at 9am, what time it is in Japan, and discuss what Japanese students may be doing at the time it is there. Set up a pen pal exchange program, or use technology to video chat with someone in another country so students can see what they are doing.

- When discussing planets, moons, and stars, talk about the different environments on each planet. Allow the students to hypothesize whether humans could live on these planets, and why or why not. Visit a local planetarium where the students are able to see the planets, hear a lecture, and explore around the center.

I am so excited to get to bring real life to my classroom one day. What are some other examples of ways we can do this for our students?

Science In A Creekbed

On Saturday, I was able to go to the Discovery Center in Murfreesboro with my "Teaching Science" class. It was a great day of learning how to make science fun for young kids. We made hats for a nature walk, binoculars, and participated in a number of different activities we can one day use in our classroom.

My favorite part of the day was when we were down in the small creek behind the center. We all put on rain boots and went exploring. It was so interesting to pick up rocks and look at all the different animals that call those rocks their homes (although to be perfectly honest, I didn't pick up any rocks because I don't like to get my hands dirty, but I looked at plenty others picked up). I can see myself doing a similar activity with my future students where we will first predict what types of animals we would see in a creek, study the ones we find, and then research those when we return to the classroom. Drawing the animals and then writing a short essay on them would be a great way to follow up on this activity.

Hollywood: Defying Lunar Phases One Movie At A Time

This past Friday night, I had the privilege of attending the first star night of the semester at MTSU. These consist of a lecture and use of the high powered telescopes outside. The lecture this past week was a great eye-opener to how many times Hollywood gets proven facts wrong.

The professor discussed 3 different movies and how we could tell different things about the moon phase based on where the sun was, shadows on the ground, and many other things. In each of these movies, something was not quite right. It is definitely something I plan on looking for in movies from now on!

The moon has many phases and each phase tells a unique story about where the moon is in relation to the sun and earth. There is a new cycle of phases each month. It is important to remember that one half of the moon is always illuminated by the sun, even when it is in the new moon phase and from earth we don't see a moon at all.

I thoroughly enjoyed this lecture and all I learned about lunar phases. I look forward to teaching my future students about lunar phases and would love to create a month long lesson where we track the moon and discuss what we see!

Brand New Adventure

It's official! I have started graduate school for elementary education and I am SUPER excited about it! This will be used to track my progress, keep a record of my thoughts, and of course, for my class assignments. I look forward to all I will learn in the next two years and I can't wait to become a teacher!