Stimulating Science Simulations

One of the ways I am trying to engage students in science includes linking the learning to the real world.  Greater focus is being geared toward STEM related careers.  If we are going to prepare students for STEM related careers, wouldn't it be important to know what some of those career choices include? Here is a great website from Science Buddies that lists a huge variety of careers in science.  There are tabs with lists that include careers in math, engineering, and technology too! Let me give you an example of how this site can help.  During a physical science unit there are many options for careers that link.  Some you might think of and others you might not.  Instead of just having students build paper airplanes to experiment with force, motion, lift, and drag; challenge students to pretend they are the pilot who needs to fly the plane for a set distance or time in the air. As they modify their paper plane, they will begin to learn about the effe...

I spent 4 days assisting in the facilitation of professional development for our district this past week.  I was assigned to the physical science strand which is really one of my favorites.  Students love the hands on physical changes that come with force and motion along with changes in matter. If you want to know what tools we're using for planning, click to read more. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The EOG's are over and every student in grade 3-5 who passed both math and reading will be reporting to my classroom for the next 7 days.  We will be concentrating on accelerating their learning through STEM.  In case you don't know, we are a fairly small school with only 91 students in grades 3-5.  Fifty-one of those children will have the luxury of joining me for some real exciting learning.  Wouldn't it be great if we were free to teach like this all year?

There has been a lot of information and talk lately about "Flipping" the classroom.  At first I thought this meant using FLIP cameras in your classroom.  I suppose there is plenty of talk about that too, but this kind of Flip is different and it isn't exactly like "Flipping" a house either. So what does it mean to "flip" your classroom?

We knew this would be a fun event but we had no idea what a big hit it was really going to be. (Keep in mind that our K-5 school has just over 200 students enrolled right now.)  As we began planning for this math/science night we decided it would be a good idea to have families RSVP so we would know how much food to buy.  It was only refreshments, but we wanted to be sure no one was left out.  The very next day, we had about 40 people who had RSVP'ed.  Before we knew it we were over 100 and when it was all said and done 270 people had RSVP'ed (give or take a few).  Suddenly we weren't only nervous about the refreshments but also about the space we'd chosen to use and how many manipulatives we would need for the math activities.  Plus, this event wasn't required for teachers to attend like most PTA type nights would be.

I recently challenged my students to consider a probing question based upon a spiral "marble tower".  The probe comes from " Uncovering Student Ideas in Science Volume 3" pg. 71 .  Students are asked to evaluate what will happen to the marble as it rolls off the bottom of the tower.  They are given 5 different points of view to consider and must choose 1 to agree with and then defend their reasoning. The probes are great for determining student understanding and misconceptions.  They are even better when I am able to use them to set the stage for inquiry based learning.  After responding to the probe, I gave students 2 days (40 min/day) to design and build their own marble tower to test their theory.  We used colorful cardstock sentence strips from the dollar tree to form the tower.  Students were given scissors, masking tape, and 5 sentence strips.  Eventually students asked for more sentence strips and they were allowed 2 more per team....

This year we are beginning the transition to the Common Core and NC Essential Standards. On my website, you will find a link to the NC Essential Standards titled "Grade by Grade" . It is my goal to provide useful materials for each of the essential standards.  This will be a bit of a long-term process but I have begun.  Each time I add something, you will find the words UPDATED and a date to the right of the standard.  Currently, I have loaded 3 files.  I hope you will stop by and take a look at them.  If you find them useful or have ideas for ways I can improve on their quality, I'd love to hear from you.  Please leave me a comment here or fill out the contact form on my website.

Force and Motion is one of my favorite 5th grade topics.  Some of the goals in the current NC Standard Course of Study will be elimintated as we move to the Essential Standards.  Fortunately, Essential Standard 5.P.1 continues to align with my newest simulation.  The Essential Standards are as follows: 5.P.1.1 Explain how factors such as gravity, friction, and change in mass affect the motion of objects. 5.P.1.2 Infer the motion of objects in terms of how far they travel in a certain amount of time and the direction in which they travel. 5.P.1.3 Illustrate the motion of an object using a graph to show a change in position over a period of time. 5.P.1.4 Predict the effect of a given force or a change in mass on the motion of an object. My newest simulation isn't available for public viewing yet.  Too much fine tuning is left to be done.  I will give you a snippet as a tease, however.  Race car drivers and their pit crew members are scientists. You m...

Today was spent with a wonderful group of educators from Bladen County Schools.  We took a good hard look at how teachers can bridge student learning and standardized assessment expectations while managing inquiry based learning experiences.  If you were a part of this experience, I hope you gained some valuable information and would love to hear from you.  Please feel free to comment on this post and share what part of the day was most meaningful to you.  Come back from time to time.  Teachers helping other teachers is a critical piece to our growth as professionals.  Let's learn from each other so that our students can have the benefit of an abundance of ideas, knowledge, and practice. Now, go "DO" some science and get those kids engaged!

I am hosting my first webinar tomorrow night @ 8 pm EST. Please join in as we talk about the best ways to teach elementary science.

Another great day today with John Fisher from LifeLab and 9 other teachers from CCS.  We started out by learning the best way to prep a bed for planting.  My thumb is feeling a little bit more green already!  Even though we got an early start, the humidity was tough to take.  What a great group of educators who stuck it out and planted 2 beds of cantaloupe, eggplant, and tomatoes.  Yes, we realize it is a little bit late to put these in the ground.  If I can keep them watered they might just hang in there long enough to bear some fruit.  Thank goodness for the long growing season of NC. While we were at the community garden, we found that our 2 fig trees were full of fruit that is getting close to being ready to pick.  What a great surprise! Later on, we dissected the soil and prepared paper pots for seedlings.  Who knew that a V8 can makes a great tool for creating a paper pot?!  Everyone left with ample seed packets to go out an...

If you've ever considered gardening with students, LifeLab.org is a great resource.  This week about 10 teachers in our district are spending time with one of the trainers from LifeLab and we've been learning lots already.  For example, today we made "the perfect compost pile."  At least I hope it will be.  Thanks to the Food Lion on Skibo Rd. we had about 9 banana boxes full of greens that had just been pulled from their produce selection in the store.  This was a great start.  I learned that in NC we say straw and many of us think pine straw, but when you are composting you want straw that is the stem of hay producers like wheat.  So much for the 2 bags of pine straw I had gathered for our pile.  Luckily we have Southern Gin and Seed Co. about 2 blocks away from the school and they had plenty of straw bales available. After lunch, Shauna Haslem (from the NC Coop. Ext.) shared with us some advice for fall and winter planting in NC.  T...

It's hard to believe that 3 weeks of science camp have come and gone.  What a great time we've had!  This week we wrapped up our learning with some investigations of force and motion, UV light and properties that make things glow or change color, bubbles, and density. Here are the highlights: We used nature paper to create shadow art and made bracelets with beads that change color in the sun.  We experimented with glow powder and atomic glow under a black light and compared the results to placing those materials in the sun light. We had a potato gun fight and learned about Newton's 3rd law of motion - "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." We simulated an oil spill in an "ocean" and students tested a variety of materials to be used for clean up.  Student suggestions were dish soap, baking soda, and the dehydrated gel powder that we had experimented with last week.  Then we tried out the oil absorbing polymer and sea sweep.  If ...

Just another day in the life of the average science teacher... You know what it looks like... start by getting some caffeine in your system.  If you're my roomie for the conference that is your pre-coffee coffee.  Then proceed directly to the pile of broken glass and walk across it in your bare feet! Slip Steve a note (like a middle schooler) and pray he'll honor your request to bring your friend up on stage as one of his "special little helpers" for her birthday Then get ready to play with some dry ice and make a bubble you can hold and bounce. Happy Birthday Angela! As if we weren't having enough fun, then we got to make music and alter our voices using Sulfur Hexafluoride. Like I said, just an average day in the life of a science teacher.  IF you are at Science in the Rockies with Steve Spangler that is.  Want to see more pics and some video?  Check out my gallery .

One of the first things I have planned for students is a summer camp.  This is a free opportunity for students entering 4th and 5th grade. I'll be running it from July 11th - 29th on Mon.-Thurs mornings.  I'm planning to connect science, math, and technology with STEM careers in a role-play environment.  The students seem really excited and I've had a number of colleagues express interest  in helping out for a day or two, perhaps even a week at a time. In other exciting news... The '10-'11 school year has come to a close and we are now officially a school of math and natural sciences.  This calls for a face lift on our school website.  So here is the unveiling of Pauline Jones Elementary School of Math and Natural Science .  Stop by, take a look around, and don't miss the student blogs on the science classroom web page.

I began a journey long ago and every once in awhile it comes to a twist or turn.  Sometimes it is an uphill climb and sometimes it's like a sweet breeze on a summer day. One thing is for sure, I'm on this journey for life! The latest twist came back in December of 2010 when our district curriculum specialist  passed on some information to my principal about the Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for Outstanding Math and Science Teachers.  If I had come across this myself, I don't think I would have given it a 2nd glance.  The application process was quite involved and I was already in the middle of working on my Profile of Professional Growth (PPG) to renew my National Board Certification.  With the prompting and support of my principal and the curriculum specialist, I decided to complete the application process.  After all, it was due well before my PPG so I should be able to complete it and have plenty of time left over. And so it began... a slight be...