SCED Week One

Well here goes Fall semester!!! I'm not sure how it came so fast, but I am excited for what it holds!

Today in Science methods, we did an experiment that required us to create three boats out of tin foil that would float even with objects placed in them.  We planned our boats, built them, made a guess of how many objects it could hold, and then tested out our ideas. This activity was a great reminder of the scientific process and how we are expected to encourage our students to think scientifically about the world around them.  I was most proud of our science class today when we discussed how we could see science in everything around us.  We were able to find countless scientific principles in the simple things around us such as a car or a leaf.  The most encouraging thing to me this week was to see how easy it is to integrate mini science lessons into literately everything, because science is everything.

The biggest challenge I have faced since being back at school is just getting back into the swing of being a student, after being a nanny all summer (so basically playing mom).  I am having to refocus all my attention back to my school work rather than focusing on keeping children alive... but I suppose that is part of my future line of work!

Over the course of the next week, my goal is to fully embrace getting back into being a student.  In doing so, I also plan to become an active and encouraging member of the classrooms I am  placed in (especially the education ones).  I am very blessed to be surrounded by very bright and intelligent colleagues and I need to take advantage of that and collaborate with them as much as possible, because that may not always be the case.  I believe the best way for me to assist my colleagues is to give them encouragement along the way and offer to combine our strengths so that we can collaborate and learn how to overcome weaknesses.

I found this article about a teacher who was awarded for his creativity in the science field.  The article goes on to explain how he feels about encouraging students to enjoy science and think scientifically.  The article also contains specific projects that he did with his students.  This teacher is a wonderful example of how we are capable of and should be making science fun, exciting, and intriguing to our students.

The main focus of the article represented in the tweet above is that the world around students is changing and we must change with it.  There are many ways to keep students interested, and one of the best ways to do so (according to this article) is to allow students to design and create their own kind of science.  Each of the five ways involves pushing students to become interested because the activities where they must design and create demand all of their attention and they demand it fully.

This tweet stuck out to me because it is a wonderful example of how we can integrate science into the teaching of other subjects.  In this case, science is brought to life by literature.  Just as we talked about in class today, you can literately find a way to involve science in just about anything.  The world around us is science.  This is a very useful resource for when we have trouble finding science in things around us; it can remind us of how to show students science in the most unlikely places.

One current event that was brought up in class today is global warming.  Today, we took a few minutes to observe and consider the scientific properties of a simple tub of water.  We talked about water displacement, which is a present and somewhat pressing issue in our world, due to the melting of icebergs at the poles.  I was very intrigued by the similarities between our world's ocean and a tub of water.

This week's class and the experiment we did in class prepared me to become proficient in the standard "teachers facilitate learning for their students."  For example, Dr. Parker was facilitating our learning today through the science experiment we did.  He was there to assist, to explain, to keep things interesting, to remind us to look at the science behind everything, and to be sure that we were learning.  In order to be a successful science teacher, I must be extremely intentional by facilitating learning to my students in the most active way possible.  Passive teachers are not good teachers, but they are especially not good science teachers.  Science requires intentional constant effort from a teacher.  This is why the standard "teachers facilitate learning for their students" has been so active in the front of my brain.