Educate, and be Educated

The National Science Education Standards (NSES) provide a vision of science literacy for all students in our nation's schools. Inquiry should play a central role in developing students' understandings (National Research Council, 2000). Education should provide individuals with different ways of viewing the world, communicating about it, and successfully coping with the questions and issues of daily living. The Indiana Board of Education states that the most effective science programs are based on the idea that students should engage in their own investigations. These types of learning experiences can be used in conjunction, as to reinforce, or to enrich the science concepts (McKenzie, 1999). Students that continue to inquire about the world around them engage in scientific discoveries and advanced concepts, which would benefit the development of the scientific community. Ultimately, the fundamental goal is to develop scientific reasoning skills and to be led to thinking beyond misconceptions.

As educators, we must ensure that these concepts are heard and adopted as a curriculum. Teachers should involve themselves in text adoption committees so their schools utilize textbooks that value STEM education. It should be a teacher’s priority to stay informed on state or research developments. Educators should make sure there is constant personal development and collaboration among colleagues. The use of internet resources like https://learningconnection.doe.in.gov which is Indiana’s Learning Connection for the education community can be a place to collaborate. Educators engaged and informed benefit the development of the scientific community.

References

Indiana Department of Education. (2010). Indiana’s Academic Standards & Resources.

Indianapolis, Indiana. Retrieved March 13, 2010 from http://www.indianastandarsresources.org

McKenzie, J. (1999). How Teachers Learn Technology Best (first ed.).

Bellingham: FNO Press.

National Research Council. (2000). Inquiry and the national science education

standards: A guide for teaching and learning. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

Mr. Friedman identifies the need of a "Sputnik-event", to jump start our efforts and focus our resources toward science education. I like to think we’re already on our way. Sputnik threatened us in a way that rivaled the attack on Pearl Harbor. Our national safety was in jeopardy, a significant percentage of our population believed. We, as a people, were intrigued by space exploration, and were in a head-to-head competition with the USSR.

I like to believe we are heading in the right direction. The vast majority of Americans have grown up in an age where we accept as a given that we are the world power (emphasis intended). When you believe you are the biggest and the best, a sort of complacency starts to seep into your way of thinking: we deserve what we have and we will always have it.

I do agree that the days of us serving as a global police force are behind us. Yes, we can and should voice an opinion to the goings-on around the world, but by expending our resources and more importantly, our military, in molding foreign governments to our liking we over-extend ourselves.

But, though this sounds grim, and is a different America than what I’ve grown up in, I appreciate that there are discussions regarding what we are, what we need to do, and where we are going. I like to believe that we recognize that we do need to improve our education services. Unfortunately, the budget-balancers are in charge now with an ink pen in hand striking out budget items right and left. This is a wave that we need to ride out, and remain focused on the critical priorities: a quality education for our young.

Reference

Friedman, T.L. (2010, January 17). What’s our sputnik? [Op-Ed]. The New York Times [Late Edition (East Coast)], p. WK.8.

Teaching Model

The planets, moon, and other properties contained within our universe fascinate students. There inquiries have many facets as well as their attitude is a significant motivator for learning. I felt a whole language unit is a great way to study space because it provides opportunities for experiences in all areas of communication and in all areas of the curriculum (Indiana Department of Education, 2009). The model representation was an effective hands-on, kinesthetic activity, which help cumulate the concepts of the lesson. I developed the unit in such a way that helped students identify appropriate questions for scientific investigations. Inquiry activities develop the students’ tool in gathering and analyzing data (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). It also helped students make predictions and appropriate conclusions. For example, as we acquired knowledge a student examined with the thought that the outer planets were gaseous because the asteroid belt might block the sun’s heat. Another student contemplated with the thought that the asteroid belt was remnants of a planet. Whether or not these thoughts were untrue, I felt the students were acting as scientist in hypothesizing a theory in which I reminded them as such. Importantly, the students showed critical thinking and logical sequencing thought the unit. The human solar system gave the student an opportunity to cooperate with each other as the scientific community does. The students felt ownership for the lesson and understanding of the concepts. The engaging representation of the solar system model offered a way to explore students’ natural curiosity about our solar system based on the national and state standards.

Although it seems paradoxical, I believe that the effect of natural disasters seems to be more devastating to the modern civilizations than to the ancient ones. If a primitive civilization would be hit by an earthquake or tsunami, the short term effect would obviously be equally tragic for those nearest the phenomenon. But in our modern civilization, we have become interdependent and the population density has increased dramatically. A natural disaster often times seems to have repercussions for months after the event, as in the problems that Haiti has had following their earthquake. In order to involve our students, our school usually has fundraisers after natural disasters. After hurricane Katrina, we collected water to send down to New Orleans Red Cross. We sent to Haiti’s Relief Fund money we raised by selling popcorn. These are small contributions for the devastated population, but huge lessons to our students on caring for one another.

Ask A Scientist

What I liked about Ask A Scientist website was the amount of related topics that stemmed from the original inquest. Many times other thought are given to help stretch further the investigation, but it is up to the researcher to continue the search. The positive aspect in this website was that it provided a link to find out the answers to the additional inquiries next to the related topics. Many times students lack the knowledge on how to start a project, this website would be a good starting point. It could also be used as a resource for discussions or simply for exploration about the world. Students, as well as teachers, will find that Ask A Scientist is a valuable teaching resource.

Review

As society advances so should teachers. Teachers today compete with visual stimuli that students have access from all around them. Students need a variety of projects and learning tools to learn. I have spent some time reviewing Animoto, Vuvox, Viddix, Vcasmo, Zoho Show, Preezo, Prezi, and Slidesix. To tell the truth, some of the programs were overwhelming. I tried but some were not easy to figure out how to use. Others had fees, which I would probably not use. The program I plan to use for my project is Prezi. I believe my students would enjoy using this program as well.

Matter

When I teach the unit of matter, the students investigate the states and measurement of matter, mixtures and solutions, and how matter changes (Indiana Department of Education, 2009). The students compare mass by using a balance to compare the mass of different classroom objects. They drop objects into a cylinder and measure the height of the displaced water to calculate volume. The students then select different liquids and compare their densities by using a glass container to pour different combinations of liquids on one another to observe density. As part of the mixtures and solutions lesson, the class takes a fieldtrip to the local grocery store and records mixtures and solutions from each aisle of the store. Within the lesson of how matter changes, the students first observe ice cubes in a pan over heat of the stove. The second experiment is putting unwrapped crayons in one cup and chocolate squares in another. Then, the cups are left on a sunny windowsill to observe how long it took to change into a liquid. Next, the cups are put back into a freezer to record how long it takes for the crayons and chocolate to become a solid. During the investigations, the students write their observations, record their data, and later write their conclusions on a word processing program. I introduce the Internet resources after the students acquire the requisite background knowledge.

I have found two websites that add growth to their understanding and can add a differentiated component to the lesson. The first website is the American Chemical Society which include articles, activities, puzzles, and games. The site is http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content. The second is http://www.chem4kids.com/ containing student interaction information.