As we continue to discuss the methods of science teaching in class, I cannot help but think back to my years in elementary school and middle school. I honestly don't remember doing any science until sixth grade when we began to switch classes and I had an actual science period. I remember doing a lot of exciting experiments with Mr. Anthony and I don't remember doing a lot of book work. We had an egg drop, a solubility lab, a tank with different amphibians and reptiles in it, a pasta race, a moon journal and did many more activities. I remember measuring and making graphs of different results and posting them around the school. Going into middle school, I was so excited for science class, but it was a great disappointment. The majority of my science classes in middle school and high school consisted of watching videos, reading articles and textbooks and writing papers about the videos and texts that we were introduced to.
Science lost all of its mystery and excitement for me, which is why I am so interested in instilling this in my students. Science is so important in everyday life and I feel as if I am lacking in many of the skills learned in science classes, such as observation and critical thinking. I have noticed that the elementary school in East Hartford that I am interning in tends to do science every afternoon for about forty minutes. The first graders were just using a very simple classification method during science to group sets of animals together, which I was very excited to see.
While student teaching, I taught what I was told was a science lesson on the ocean to my fourth grade class. What it really was was a research paper based around a topic in science. The students were not using any of the process skills and this was a daunting task for many of them. We worked on this unit for about a month. Then, I learned that in fifth grade the students would be taking a science CMT. This research paper did not help them with this test and did not excite them about science. I hope I will get the opportunity to see more science lessons while I am interning at Langford and learn more about how to teach science in a meaningful way.
2 comments:
It is funny because the activity you describe is exactly what I remember doing in science class in 4th grade, with the exception that we had a test on it, too. I think it is sad that 10 years later some teachers are still stuck teaching the same "science" and preventing kids from not only enjoying science, but also developing an inquisitive and curious nature about our world. In the readings this week it talked about a need from more teacher learning and development in not only content but also in how to teach science. I even would like to call it how to let you students experience science. I think this would be a huge asset in schools, but it is hard to see that happening with science being pushed aside to insert more reading time.
I confess that my elementary school science experiences were pitiful. What makes me especially sad is that we weren't under testing pressures AND there were LOTS of science curriculum materials available that were full of activities. In fact, except for our growing awareness of diversity considerations, most of what is defined as quality science teaching has been around almost forty years.
This makes me wonder why we are so slow as a profession to learn to think about science learning rather than being pre-occupied by science teaching. How do we get ourselves into situations where we forget that schools are about kids learning?
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