Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Science Lesson # 2.. !

The second science lesson that Jillian and I did went fairly well but was a little chaotic. First and foremost I would like to thank DEBI FOR COMING TO OUR RESCUE and bringing extra ice!! Seems as if someone in the teacher lounge needed their refreshment a little colder and used our ice!! Anyways.... :)  After we got our ice we put it into bags and laid the materials out on the table all labeled. Last time the teacher really liked that we allowed for the students to have a transition and get out of their seats so we did it this time as well. We brought the students over to the rug and reviewed what we learned last time to ensure that students were understanding what they were being taught. After our review they went back to their seats and we began our experiment with melting the ice cube as quickly as possible. 


As I walked around I was pleased with almost all of the students' methods and reasons why they were doing what they were doing. Many said comments such as,"I am rubbing my hands together because it will warm my hands up and the heat will cause the ice to melt." One child was even clever enough to put it on the back of his neck! One thing we did not do was make clear rules for students such as telling them that pounding the ice bag with their fist was not allowed. We now know this for next time though!


Many of the students had melted their ice within a time frame of about 2 minutes to about 6 minutes. The longest was about 11 minutes. We brought the students over to the rug and talked to them about what they learned and reviewed solids and liquids once again.

On the first day students thought that solids could not be ripped and put that as one of its properties. I asked them and they said no it can't be ripped(I think they were thinking a solid was always hard) so I took a piece of paper and ripped it up in front of them. I than asked them if it was still a solid and some said yes and some said no. So we than discussed what exactly a solid was(takes a shape) and than they all decided that the paper, ripped and all was indeed a solid!


Overall, the lesson went fairly well. It seemed a little chaotic because we had less control than last time but I think it is important for students to be in charge at times as well. I think it would of went a little smoother if we laid out specific rules and allowed students to go to the rug in groups instead of all at once. We learned a lot from this lesson and I am looking forward to the next one! :)

1 comment:

  1. Hey Jen!

    Great idea to demonstrate that solids can be ripped with a piece of paper! Students have a lot of misconceptions that may interfere with learning, and you cleared one up easily and concretely! Nice work! Our lesson was also a little chaotic at times, but I think it was worth it to allow the students to be creative and actually carryout their methods. Also, when we do this lesson again, we will anticipate some of the chaos and it will probably go a little smoother. Can't wait to hear about next week!

    ~Becky

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