Lesson Planning
Teacher Theory
Classroom ManagementMississippi Teacher Corps
I love fielding questions on teacher theory,
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Lately I’ve been busy helping start-up a new science and engineering outreach program at my school. It’s been a ton of work, but it’s also been a fun and hugely rewarding experience. Earlier this year, we worked with a fifth-grade class in South Central LA and did everything from build speakers…
DIY Classroom terrariums! COOL!
Usually I don’t really like the lesson plans I find that are posted online at “teacher” sites, but this one has great narrative and seems very instructional.
This hands-on project introduces the concept of bioregions, ecosystems and the relationships these systems have to the local community. By building their own enclosed ecosystems (or terrariums), students will learn how ecosystems play a role in defining a design or engineering process and how to integrate this into real-world problem-solving and decision making”“This activity provides students with the opportunity to discuss local ecology in comparison to regional and global ecosystems.
After watching this decomposing elephant video I was inspired to brainstorm some science lesson plans involving time-lapse photography that I could do. One could really do this with any grade and with any subject, but I’ll focus on sciencey topics. :)
These could be done by groups or individuals. The only necessary step is to have your students take a photo consistently every time they plan to (have them write something on the lines of a science-action-plan at least, if not a full science report covering all scientific method and procedure).
Logistics: Set up would be easy. As simple or complex as you would want it or have the resources for. I’m thinking having one camera set up on a tripod in one location in the room. Students would bring their experiment or subject to where the camera is always focused to. Place it on an X facing a certain direction and viola!
Teacher Input: You’d have to either teach your students how to create this time-lapse video themselves using their raw photos that you give to them. Or you could make them all yourself using their photos. Really it all depends on how tech-savvy your school is (computer labs anyone?) and not to mention your students.
Outcomes: This could be linked to tons of science standards no doubt—of course all depending on how involved you want to make it. If anything students would be learning general themes in: technology, visual expression of data, and scientific observation.
This could also be a supplemental activity to go along with another project.
Examples I’ve gleaned from the internet: So if your unit is on food you could have students grab an apple or a tomato. Or if you’re growing plants you could have them take pictures from seed to plant to even flower! Or are you growing bacteria in a petri dish—document its growth! Or weather? Clouds? Or the seasons even?
A grad student, Erin DiMaggio, at Arizona State University is creating lesson plans/resources for very current Earth Science related natural disasters at SciNEWS that your students might be hearing about on the news or even be experiencing. Each lesson, or informative talk, is specific to a current event. They are more for discussion that anything, but I gets me thinking in a broader context.
Lesson planning for current events is an interesting concept that I feel many teachers do not value when lesson planning. That is, bringing the most current up-to-date information and situations to their lessons in order to make the most impact and bring the most value to their students’ learning. As the experience of learning is so much hinged on the ability to relate to the world around us. And when I saw the world around us in the context of the classroom, I mean the current collective radar of the media. This framework for lesson planning is really cool and should be taken more to heart. Not to mention how important this type of lesson planning is in our ever changing fields of the sciences.
So, ditch that 4-year-old lesson plan that you’ve got memorized and spice it up a bit with some real current events that your students might actually be able to relate to.
More info @ SciNEWS
How do you incorporate current events into your lesson planning?
Hermit Crabs as classroom pets would be a great addition to a science classroom. Students could write daily/weekly observations and design science experiments on a range of topics. Probably the best of these would involve behaviors and preferences (shell type, food, substrate, etc.). Even a simple ethogram (category of behaviors) could be constructed by the class. Also, I hear that they are very social animals and like companions, so it’d be best to have at least two in their “crabarium”.
(via dkimages.com and madscientistnz ”A Hermit Crab (Pagurus bernhardus) in a clear glass shell”
image copyright Frank Greenaway & Dorling Kindersley)
Ubiquitous by Joyce Sidman and Beckie Prange inspired a lesson plan idea: Incorporate science, poetry, art, description, and observation. Have students pick an organism that they will research, write a poem about, and draw a picture of. Then compile a class book and have presentations! Neat! :)
Graphic representation of all the atomic bombs that have been detonated starting with the Trinity Test. Kind of scary…
Lesson plan idea: When talking about the atom, the atom bomb will come up in discussion…talk about Einstein and his letters to FDR, Manhattan project, etc. So that students understand the gravity of the bomb and what it represents to the world. This video would be pretty informative as well to incorporate into the political side of the discussion.
Cool video by an undergrad introducing gyrodactylids, a group of flatworms that live attached to fish.
This would be a fun and interactive lesson! Just think what middle schoolers could come up with!
