Structured
Inquiry Lesson
The purpose of this fourth grade
science lesson was to have students learn about acids and bases.
They needed to use a litmus paper test in order to determine if a liquid
was an acid or a base. Students used
their previous understanding of physical properties to recognize the similarity
between white vinegar, water, and bleach.
The three liquids are all clear and appear to have the same density. Through this lesson, students obtained an understanding
of the need to be cautious with unknown substances amd discussed the dangers of
tasting or inhaling substances. The
students were highly engaged in the investigation part of the lesson.
This interdisciplinary lesson connected to the students’ health curriculum
related to promoting safe living. Students
were required to write to inform about the importance of safety regarding
acids, bases, and neutrals, and to warn others about tasting and inhaling
unknown substances. I feel that as we
move forward with science education it is very important for content areas to
be more integrated. This lesson took
required more time than usual, however, it covered three standards. My students learned the sciene content,
obtained more practice with identifying important details from non-fiction
texts, and learned the health curriculum regarding safety with household
materials.
I have
three examples of student work to share.
·
Student A is a gifted and talented student. She chose to create a VoiceThread (http://voicethread.com/share/5449679/) to inform
about acids, bases, and neutrals. She
demonstrates a good understanding of the material. She was very comfortable with the technology
and was able to add more visuals to her presentation.
·
Student B created a PowerPoint presentation. I saved each slide as a PDF file and
transferred them to the VoiceThread (https://voicethread.com/share/5449989/) to share with you. This students benefited from being paired
with a buddy during the research section and needed a graphic organizer to organize
his thoughts. He also self-differntiated by choosing to respond
to a scenario regarding mystery liquids.
We both spoke about the physical properties of acids and bases. You spoke about color, density and the scent. I spoke about the color changes and the pH level. I engage the students by doing experiments with them together. My students love and enjoyed this way of teaching. At later stage, they will learn how to measure and calculate the exact pH level of acids and bases. I covered the science content aspect (the students can reason and explain, think critically base on what they observed), the safety aspects of working in a laboratory and the technological aspect. Your students did also great job. They demonstrate their learning by a voice thread/power presentation. Although I cannot open the voice threads of the students. Did you meet the goals of the lesson with your students? Your students obtain knowledge of the technology by creating power point presentations. Strategies as presentations, when students are presenting or demonstrating knowledge they have learned, provides me meaningful feedback of my effectiveness of teaching and students learning.
ReplyDeleteI incorporate the technology in my lesson in a different way. The students did experiments and got a lab report sheet from me which they had to complete electronically or write it manually.
I also post two of my students work on my blog. Can you open the attachments?
Fierosa,
ReplyDeleteI apologize that the VoiceThread links did not work. I went back and fixed them in case you wanted to view the VoiceThreads.
Through this lesson, the students did meet the goals that I established. However, i did find that I needed to provide more differentiation in order to meet all of my students' needs.
Hey Corela, your blogsite is much more aesthetically pleasing than mine and green is not my favorite. I look forward to viewing your posts, although I am apprehensive about posting comments in a medium such as this.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: will your posts for 6661 - Exploring the Physical World be on this site or will you start a new blog?
Thanks.
Dow
Dow,
DeleteThank you for the comment. Green is also not one of my favorite colors, but I felt the background was an appropriate theme for science. If you choose to change your background, you can do so by clicking on the "design" option in the upper left hand corner.
I am also still a bit uncomfortable with having a blog. However, I have found that the comments left have been supportive and encouraging. Getting used to all of the different formats for the various blog sites has been my problem.
In the past I have created a new blog for each course so things would not be confusing. However, based on my understanding of the Blog section for the Application for week 1, it seems like we are supposed to continue to use the same blog we created for the last course.
I look forward to collaborating with you throughout this course.
-Corela