Fourth Grade Science Central Focus for Unit Plan

Central Focus of Weather and Water Unit Plan

Throughout my experience of teaching science I have learned so much about creating appropriate lesson objectives and central focuses depending on what I want to teach or the goals that I want my students to reach. Read below to understand the Weather and Water Unit Plan central focuses, standards and objectives for my Direct Instruction Lesson Plan, Inquiry Lesson Plan, and even my ThingLink Challenge Mini Lesson Plan!

Direct Instruction Lesson Plan

Central Focus:

The students will understand weather and water and how it is essential to our earth's environmental balance. This lesson will introduce the key terms that will be the major focus of the overall unit plan. To explore this focus, the students will answer questions during check for understandings, fill out a graphic organizer with academic vocabulary regarding weather and water, and complete an exit ticket to show their understanding of the lesson.

Standards:

Next Generation Science Standards

4-LS1-1 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Common Core State Standards

Performance Indicator 2.1- Describe the relationship among air, water, and land on Earth.

2.1a Weather is the condition of the outside air at a particular moment.

2.1b Weather can be described and measured by:

• temperature
• wind speed and direction
• form and amount of precipitation
• general sky conditions (cloudy, sunny, party cloudy)

2.1c Water is recycled by natural processes on Earth.

• evaporation: changing of water (liquid) into water vapor (gas)
• condensation: changing of water vapor (gas) into water (liquid)
• precipitation: rain, sleet, snow, hail
• runoff: water flowing on Earth's surface
• groundwater: water that moves downward into the ground.

Objectives:

Given a blank weather and water graphic organizer, students will fill in at least three facts. Also, given the "weather and water exit ticket" with five multiple choice questions and two short answer questions, the students will identify correct facts about weather, water, and the academic vocabulary taught throughout the lesson.

Inquiry Lesson Plan

Central Focus:

The students will use their background knowledge and understanding of weather and water to develop a hypothesis based on the question presented in class. The students will also be forming a conclusion based on the collected data in regards to the water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa.

Standards:

Next Generation Science Standards

4-LS1-1 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Objectives:

Given a comprehensive issue of trying to help solve the water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa, the students will take a journey through different hints, tasks, and sources requiring their use of previous learned concepts and accurately form a hypothesis to solve the water crisis in Cape Town to increase environmental sustainability. By answering the questions and completing the tasks appropriately, it will be evident that the students understand multiple routes in helping areas around the world such as Cape Town to limit the water crisis.

ThingLink Inquiry Mini Lesson Plan

Central Focus:

The students will understand weather and water and how it is essential to our earth's environmental balance, specifically plant survival. To explore this focus, students will interact with the ThingLink sensory garden experience by exploring articles, watching videos, creating diagrams, and reflecting on why water is so important using different facts and academic vocabulary learned throughout the lesson.

Standards:

Next Generation Science Standards

4-LS1-1 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Objective:

Given a Thinglink: Weather & Water in a Sensory Garden, and the task to follow the steps of inquiry, the student will write a short essay following the criteria of the checklist.

FINALE for Science Methods!

A Sad Goodbye to my last methods course of my undergraduate career!

Throughout my methods courses in my undergraduate career, I have learned to teach literacy, mathematics, social studies, and now science methods! I have learned so much about myself through my reflection of each of the lessons I have ever taught whether it be through self-reflection or group reflections. Through the feedback that I have received from peers, professors, and myself, I have truly learned so much about the world of teaching and I will forever be grateful for the experiences that I have endured in order to take me on my road to success for Student Teaching NEXT SEMESTER!!

Through this course of science methods I have truly worshipped the beauty and meaning behind quality feedback and self-reflection! Through my presentations to just my colleagues and my teachings to my fourth grade students, I have realized that feedback and reflecting on your own teaching is the number one aspect when it comes to improving ourself in anything! 

Through constructive comments from my professor, my classmates, my fourth grade students and most importantly myself, I was able to reflect on my performance and teaching methods and it has changed me from the inside out!

Without reflection, I would not be the teacher that I am today! Trial and tribulation is such an important aspect when it comes to teaching science or any other content area! As a future teacher, I must constantly critique myself and others in order to truly reach my full potential as an educator! If I settle for the educator that I am right now, I will never allow room for growth! This is why reflection and editing to oneself is such an important aspect that I not only love to learn to fix myself as an individual, but to also help my students!

Without reflection, the leaves of learning would never help me to grow into a beautiful educator that can water my students as my flowers!

Click here to view the link to my Science Methods Unit Plan!

Teaching 4th Grade Social Studies: Direct Instruction

Keep Calm & Water Cycle on!

After ONE week of planning, we have completed our teaching! As strenuous and stressful as it was, I am so proud of the work that we completed, and the findings and teachings that we were able to pass onto our students! Our direct instruction was based on Weather and Water. Throughout this lesson we went through many key terms such as the water cycle, the layers of the atmosphere, photosynthesis, drought and gardens.
 This specific unit plan is themed by the scientific concepts of "Weather and Water". The Direct Instruction Lesson Plan, Inquiry Lesson Plan, and ThingLink Inquiry Mini-lesson are all three lesson plans designed specifically for fourth grade students. The content covered in this unit plan relates to the following academic vocabulary terms: weather, water, climate, water cycle, layers of the atmosphere, precipitation, drought, water crisis, plants, survival, and garden. The goal of this unit plan is for the students to understand the importance of the affect that weather and water have on the ability for plants to survive and thrive in their environment. The students are also challenged through this unit plan to take their learning a step forward and connect what they know about weather and water to its effect on the sustainability of the environment around us. The major purpose of this unit plan is to teach the students all they need to know about weather and water in order for them to use what they know about the environment to take care of their own sensory garden at BDMS. By the end of this unit plan, the students should understand the importance of weather and water and how it changes the world around us in a positive or negative way. Without weather and water, life would not be sustainable for living things.

Click here to view our beautiful, engaging, and interactive 

Direct Instruction Google Docs Presentation

Fieldwork Overview Experience

What is coming up?

Direct Instruction: Lower-level thinking
Inquiry & Cooperative Learning: Higher-order thinking

DO NOT USE PERCENTAGE IN THE CONDITION (it is not clear what kind of accuracy will come from it, accuracy of what?)

ThingLink Challenge:

• Create a lesson plan on gardening using ThingLink
• *Will count as a professional development
• Watch PowerPoint and webinar
• Digital Poster-Create a learning adventure, guide students through pre-assessment and forward
• Provide learning adventure for students using a 3 dimensional image

Learning Challenge:

ThingLink: My Magical Garden Experience

 

Welcome to my ThingLink Challenge Blog! 

Through this science methods course my favorite project has been the ThingLink Challenge. Prior to this course I was not aware of the importance that technology plays on the role of the students i the 21st century. Similar to this, my first blog was actually about the importance of technology on the learners of the 21st century! That being said, this project was a great opportunity for us to be able to use technology and our lessons in the classroom to combine and create a new learning experience through inquiry! 

 At Bishop Dunn Memorial School in the Spring of 2018 I had the opportunity to teach the students a Direct Instruction Lesson Plan on Weather and Water, and an Inquiry Lesson Plan on the water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa. After this experience, Dr. Smirnova asked us to create a ThingLink Project on our collection of information and articles that we would want to provide to the students to come up with another inquiry lesson plan. In creating these lesson plans I was able to help the students to recall on their prior knowledge of what they learned during the Direct instruction lesson and have them take a step further into understanding their own sensory garden and the effect of weather, climate, and water on gardening!

THE 5 E's

• ENGAGE: Watch the How to Plant a Garden Video and share your answers in the KWHL Chart
• EXPLORE Growing Season: Read the National Geographic- Growing Season article and record what period of the year growing season is on your KWHL chart
• EXPLORE Weather & Climate: Read the National Geographic- Climate and Crop Growth article and record the connection between climate and crop growth in your KWHL chart
• EXPLAIN: Describe the difference between Weather and Climate Answer HERE. After watching the Berenstain Bears Video as a class, write a letter to the Bear Family explaining why their plant was not growing. Use this writing checklist
• ELABORATE: View the Weather Wiz page and adapt yourself with the common questions and answers regarding weather and climate. Pick one question and take notes on the findings that you have come up with and share your ideas by creating a Voki.
• EVALUATE: Using all the data and information you have collected throughout this Project, create a Google Slideshow about your findings with weather and climate and how it affects plant growth. Follow the presentation checklist

Throughout this experience I have learned a lot about myself and my ability to work with technology to provide the best learning experiences for my students! I am so proud of myself for facing adversity and overcoming my fear of technology enabling myself to become a better future teacher! This has been an amazing technological experience for me to truly be able to excel in my learning process as a teacher candidate! I will definitely take ThingLink with me as a resource of technology to use in my future classroom! Click the links below to follow my lead through my ThingLink Lesson Plan: My Magical Garden Experience :)

Click here to view my ThingLink Lesson!

Click here to view my Sensory Garden HyperDoc!

Mystery Bag Mock Inquiry Lesson Plan

Mystery Bag Mock Lesson Plan

• Does this bag invoke any thoughts? WHAT IS IN THE BAG??
• 5 second feel activity: Is it a rubber ducky and a plastic egg? Does the egg have beads in it?-This is the preconceived guess about possible answers of what is in the bag. 
• Categorizing guesses: Formulate a statement of what you think is in the bag. You have considered several hypotheses and selected ONE- most likely hypothesis
• Devise a method to obtain information-what would you help to evaluate whether your hypothesis is supported
• Each test will have two predictions of what to EXPECT- you think about your hypothesis that is correct and a hypothesis that is incorrect. (Hypothesis: If....Then....Because.)
• Restate the hypothesis
• A hypothesis is NOT just a guess, even NOT an educated guess, it is a tentative explanation for the problem/question based on some type of observation.

Purpose for this activity:

• Scientific knowledge is fundamentally uncertain.
• Science is uncertain because it is a human activity.

Neil deGrasse Tyson's Video on the Nature of Being a scientist

Click here to view the Inquiry Skills Power Point.

Misconceptions Presentation Pluses & Wishes

Misconceptions Presentation Pluses & Wishes

The following feedback was created by myself in response to the Misconceptions presentations completed in class for the Spring of 2018. In these presentations, the students were asked to come up with common misconceptions that students might have about subjects in science and they were to come up with ways to dodge these misconceptions and teach to them! My peers and my group did an excellent job in creating hands on learning experiences and learning objectives to aid in the student's misconceptions about science. Through this project we learned how to make proper learning objectives for our students through the many different types of science subjects! View below to see my positive feedback and wishes for my peers' presentations. 

Click here to view the Misconceptions in Science Class Presentation!

Group 2:

Kelly, Bailey, and Megan

3 Pluses:

1. I liked that you used hands on opportunities for the students to learn about these misconceptions.
2. I loved that your group was so open to criticism from Dr. Smirnova and the audience.
3. I loved that you thought comprehensively about what you could fix about your objectives and finding your own mistakes that you made. This is how you learn! :)

1 Wish:

1. I wish you had specified the conditions in each of your objective therefore it made it easier for your group to remember the purpose of the lesson that you were preparing because it would have made it easier for you to fix the objectives.

Group 3:

Cierra, Cassandra, and Ganny

3 Pluses:

1. I liked that you had the opportunity to go back to your own objectives in order to fix them before presenting! You presented a strong front.
2. I liked that you used different types of lessons for your objectives (e.g. direct instruction, inquiry, cooperative learning)
3. I enjoyed your misconceptions, I believe these misconceptions are genuinely aligned with what students are thinking.

1 Wish:

1. I wish you added links of different Venn diagrams that you might use for the tasks that you are giving the students to give us a visual of what you want the learning outcome to be.

Group 4:

James and Tara

3 Pluses:

1. I liked the activities that you involved in your objectives, I think they were great hands on activities to keep the students involved in the learning process!
2. I enjoyed that you were so flexible with fixing your objectives and that you worked together to solve the problems that you had.
3. I enjoyed that you connected links in your objectives therefore we could click on them and view what your lesson is trying to capture with the learning goal.

1 Wish:

1. I wish that you were revising your objectives during other people's lessons based off of the changes that they were making considering you were the very last group to go. 

Teaching Misconceptions in Science

Teaching Misconceptions in Science

The following information was all notes taken based upon the lesson plan that Dr. Smirnova taught us about teaching misconceptions in science. Each student was placed into a group and offered the opportunity to come up with different student misconceptions regarding their topic. If you read below, you will find my group's misconceptions listed on the topics of Space travel, Rocks & Minerals, and Life in the Desert!

Fish is Fish Video Notes:

• Evolution of a fish 
• "Frogs are frogs and fish are fish and that's that"
• Children come to your class as fish with their own vision of things
• When you use words they picture the things that they know and have had an experience with
• Children comes with their misconceptions and in order to teach them well you need to help them to figure out and discover the real information

Back to Childhood with Misconceptions Group Topic:

Space travel

• The sun disappears at night.
• Black holes are like vacuums.
• The moon can only be seen at night.
• The earth is larger than the sun.
• The Earth is round like a pancake.

Rocks and Minerals

• Rocks must be heavy.
• Rocks are the same color on the inside as they are on the outside.
• Humans can make rocks and minerals.
• Rocks and minerals are the same thing.
• Minerals are always shiny and metallic. 

Life in the desert

• Deserts are always in a drought, it is dry land with no water or vegetation.
• The desert always has a warm/ hot climate, there are no changing weather patterns.-Antarctica is the biggest desert in the world.
• Temperatures in the desert do not fall below freezing.
• There is no rainfall in the desert.

What does this say about the misconceptions with which our students will come to our science classroom?

What will you do to help students change their mental models and deepen their understanding of the scientific concepts.

Collaborative Inquiry Presentation

Unrevised Science Objectives

The following objectives were created after our understanding of how
to write objectives! Objectives should be written in the format: CBC.

Objective: Given a task to observe the planetarium at the Liberty
Science Center, the student create a Space Travel Information Guide
following the criteria of a rubric.

Objective: Given a Venn Diagram on several types of rocks/minerals
the student will insert at least three similarities and three differences
between the rocks and minerals.

Objective: Given a task to observe the Sahara Desert Virtual Field
Trip, the student will write a descriptive essay of the Sahara Desert
following the criteria of a rubric.

Objective: Given a learning page on the topic of Space Travel with
10 fill in the blank questions, the student will insert 8 out of 10
correctly.

Objective: Given the task to explore rocks and minerals in five
stations, the student will present on the different characteristics
following the criteria of a rubric.

Objective: Given a WebQuest and the task of watching the
Documentary: The Sahara YouTube Video, the student will answer
five out of six questions correctly about desert facts.

Objective: Given a hands on experience in the Planetarium at the
Liberty Science Center, the student will calculate the numerical
differences between the sun and the Earth by creating a
measurement T-Chart by following the criteria of a rubric.

Objective: Given a Graphic organizer, the student will make
measurements of rocks circumference, weight and density through
WebQuest research.

Objective: Given a task to write a paragraph the students will write
predictions about the amount of precipitation in the Sahara Desert
by following the criteria of a rubric.

Real Science is based on INQUIRY!

Real Science is Based on Inquiry!

*Socrates created Inquiry! Socrates was largely invested in his ability to ask his students questions in order for them to learn and discover new findings. There is always exploration and there is no final answer! There are always new answers and knew questions. Methods and strategies of answer searches are always available!

The 5 features of science inquiry (emphasis is mine)

• Learner Engages in Scientifically Oriented Questions
• Learner Gives Priority to Evidence in Responding to Questions
• Learner Formulates Explanations from Evidence
• Learner Connects Explanations to Scientific Knowledge
• Learner Communicates and Justifies Explanations

Steps of Inquiry:

1. Formulate a question/problem
2. Make predictions (expected results assuming the hypothesis is correct and different predictions if the hypothesis is wrong).
3. Design steps to investigate the problem to generate data that will allow you to evaluate the hypothesis.
4. Test the hypothesis. 

Click here to view the link for the Inquiry Report Evaluation Rubric.

FIELDWORK Brainstorming Ideas

Group 2: Weather and Water

Brainstorming Ideas:

• Weather costumes for the first day
• Weather book read aloud at carpet to open up the topic
• Scientist Voki (weatherman/woman voki)
• Word Art of key terms of the lesson for the first day of class
• CFU: Poster board post-it notes (attach key term post-its)
• Experiments to open each lesson to apply previous knowledge
• Reporting live photo booth
• Tim & Moby Video about weather
• Teacher Rules poster (associated with weather)
• Weather Web (CFU)
• Weather Yoga
• Weather Cycle Shoe Box
• Creation of a weather word wall (as full class)- to call on prior experience from direct instruction lesson-Guided practice for inquiry lesson

Group II. Weather and Water -- How much water does the soil in the garden hold and how much runs off? How much water is too much and how much is not enough for these plants? Are some of the plants drought tolerant---how often do they need to be watered? Do people have a tendency to overwater and inappropriately water---what times of day and season are best to water and how much water do plants need, where should it be applied? What is the effect of mulch on water need? What kinds of rain are most beneficial? What about snow? What is the effect of temperature? Too hot and too cold for different plants? What is the relationship between climate and weather as it relates to flood and drought? How much water does our region get in a year and how is it distributed? Do recent years fit the historic pattern?  

Students learn about the water cycle, air and atmosphere, phase change, and weather patterns. They also learn to pose questions, think about what they already know about a topic, use text features as they read, and to write process descriptions and scientific explanations. They learn and use scientific vocabulary such as humidity, precipitation, evidence, and data.

The 5 E's : ThingLink Challenge LP

The 5 E's

Engage

Explore

Explain

Elaborate

Evaluate

Growing a Sensory Garden Lesson Plan:

• Thing Link
• 360 picture of the BDMS Garden
• Last lesson in the Unit Plan for Science Methods

* Click here to go to the UP Design eClass ThingLink Challenge page! *

 *Click here to view the ThingLink LP Rubric *

Brainstorming Ideas for my Sensory Garden LP

• Create a script on the Google Docs of what your lesson plan will be
• Use the explore explain template

https://www.thinglink.com/video/1042852269504069633

Earth Science Projects

Class Earth Science Projects

In this blog you will find the Class's Earth Science Project information notes! For this assignment, Dr. Smirnova asked us to report on different types of Earth Science such as violent weather, space, layers of the atmosphere, and soil formation. Throughout the presentation of this information, I was able to create a blog of scientific data and information pulled from my peer's knowledge! This was an amazing experience because I learned so much about earth science that I did not know before this class. These presentations really helped me to become a more well rounded student of science methods throughout this course. Read below to inform yourself on the many different aspects of Earth Science! I hope you enjoy :)

Violent Weather

• Videos to educate the students
• Reflected on what they learned through the video
• Wonder aspect to it in order for the students to research what they wonder
• View- Looking at the picture and listing the emotions and thoughts that they had regarding the picture
• Extreme weather is unpredictable and scary! They are fast moving and unpredictable
• Chose a photograph that interested you-cars on the road during an extreme blizzard because extreme snowfall is interesting
• Digital Journey Poem- "Help the Avalanche is upon us!"-Michaela, "Hurricanes"- Tara
• Exploration of Thing Link- videos, articles, and facts
• *Click here to view Michaela, Tara & Cassandra's Earth Science Project*

Space

• Creating a paper ma-shay to compare the sizes of the planets
• Complete a forum explaining their experiences
• Engage, explore, explain- Talking about their experiences and their partners and the differences that they had and why they were thinking the way that they were
• They created PowerPoint on different planets- Listed different facts: origins, discovery, location, distance, who discovered it 
• Task- Pick a planet and try to convince other people to come to your planet- this is an amazing project idea for your students and makes it a more fun way then just a research project
• Ability to see the planets through different perspectives
• James' PowerPoint on Space
• Kelly's PowerPoint on Space
• *Click here to view Kelly & James' Earth Science Project*

Layers of the Atmosphere

• Interactive Videos to discuss the different layers of the atmosphere
• A Journey through the Atmosphere video-a man goes through the atmosphere and survives! This sparks great curiosity in the students and is an exciting way to get the lesson started
• 
  
• *Click here to view Bailey & Olivia's Earth Science Project Video & Google Doc *

Soil Formation

• Soil holds most of the usable water on earth
• When soil is too wet it lets us know when a flood is coming and when it is too dry it prepares us for a drought
• Use of Flip Grid- you can do a voice over and use a picture of yourself to convey information. You can share it on a group
• Read an article and write a response on Linoit.com 
• Asked the students to draw the formation of soil to describe and display the soil formation. This is a great way to visually view what happens to the soil and how it forms!
• Soil formation writing about NYS- speaks about legends and how it connects to the location of soil into the ground and how soil is used to grow the earth's plants
• Great to use with students for Inquiry lessons because they are provided with the research
• They learned a lot about the importance of soil
• NASA is SUCH an important part of growing the soil
• *Click here to view Cierra & Megan's Earth Science Project*

"Education is not how much you know, it is the way that you share." - Dr. Smirnova