"Adapting" to Teaching Methods

Happy (almost) holidays! Last week in class we’ve been going past the “why” of teaching science and talking more about the “how.” While it’s very important to understand the reasoning for which we teachers are teaching different science topics to our students, we can’t necessarily teach them if we don’t know how! Here are a few resources with recommended approaches to teaching science:

•          https://ambitiousscienceteaching.org/get-started/ - Focuses on both equity and intellectual engagement in the classroom. Based on 4 core concepts: Plan for engagement with important science ideas, elicit students’ ideas, support on-going changes in thinking, and press for evidence-based explanations.
•           http://www.nextgenstorylines.org/tools/ - Choosing a scientific phenomenon to base your lessons off of. This approach is good for helping students ask questions about ideas or events that they otherwise might take for granted.
•       Gunckel, K. (2010). Experiences, Patterns and Explanations: Making school science more like scientists' science. –  Students take seemingly unconnected experiences in their lives, find patterns within them, and then further create explanations for these patterns.
•       Bybee, R. W. (2014). The BSCE 5E instruction model: Personal reflections and contemporary implications. Science and Children, 51(8), 10-13. – Science lessons are based on the 5-step process of engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate.

During class, we split into groups and chose one of these methods of science teaching, crafting our own units which must relate to the question "Why don't spiders stick to their own webs?", which we'd explored in class. My group chose to use the 5E framework, mainly because we feel it's most applicable to us as new teachers. By basing our lessons on engagement, exploration, explanations, elaboration, and evaluation, we can apply this method to others as well! Overall, my group agreed that the 5E method was a great starting point for new teachers, and once we get more experience with teaching we'll feel more comfortable using other methods. Here's what we came up with for our unit:

Thinking about our makeshift lesson, I looked into some other lessons about animal adaptations that went a bit more in-depth. Here's one that I really liked:

http://sciencenetlinks.com/lessons/animal-adaptations/

This lesson would be for 4^th-6^th graders. I mostly liked how it includes multiple websites that students can use to individually explore animal habitats, especially http://pbskids.org/wildkratts/creaturepedia/, which simplifies animal habitats without necessarily simplifying the academic potential. Overall, the lesson focuses on comparing habitats of different animals, researching specific animals, and predicting how animals might or might not survive in different habitats. Using the 5E method, I’ve gone through and evaluated how well the lesson fits into the 5 E’s and what I would do to change it:

Engage: Students are adequately engaged throughout the lesson, especially since it applies to a wide variety of animals and habitats. The lesson begins by reviewing terms and comparing three animals using specific questions such as “How does this animal find food?” While the beginning activity gets students engaged and thinking about concepts with which they are already familiar, I think a brief discussion about the animals’ differences should be included so that students can be challenged more.

Explore: Students are using a website to learn about habitats and how different animals with similar traits live in certain areas of the world. In addition, students are individually researching different animals to find out more about their food, health, home base, and dangers. I think that this lesson adequately allows students to explore different habitats, looking for how animals differ from one another.

Explain: After students explore their own animals, they come together as a class and share interesting facts that they found. Then, two students’ animals are chosen and compared, asking questions such as “What would happen if the animals switched habitats?” I think that this part of the lesson could be changed so that students are partnered up and comparing their animals. While it’s beneficial to have the teacher model the compare and contrast activity, students could still partner up afterwards and do it themselves, allowing everybody to participate. In addition, all students could share their knowledge of their animals, explaining what they know and what they predict.

Elaborate: The lesson didn’t really have another activity between the comparisons and the assessment. I think it would help for the students to come together and share what they predicted would happen with their animals based on the questions. Then, the teacher could ask students if they see any patterns, specifically that some animals could probably adapt to environments outside of their own habitats. In doing so, students could elaborate on their ideas and start seeing the overall patterns.

Evaluate: Students are assessed by selecting a new animal and choosing a habitat (different from their usual habitat) in which they believe the animal could adapt and survive. They would answer using written words and drawings, eventually sharing their ideas with the class in a short wrap-up. This evaluation is appropriate and adequate, requiring students to predict what would happen and explain why using the animal’s food and shelter as evidence.

Overall, I think this lesson is appropriate for 4^th-6^th graders, but, like any lesson, it can still be improved to help students develop a deeper understanding of animal adaptations. I hope these methods were useful to you – feel free to comment with suggestions/ideas, and I’ll see ya next time!