Science and a Sense of Place

Hi!

I'm Barbara Kauffman, a "sort of new" 4th Grade Classroom Teacher at Feltonville Intermediate School. Prior to teaching, I was a social worker. My co-worker, Tola Oronti, encouraged me to come to Bryn Mawr for this institute. We have co-taught science lessons together such as ones in the units of "Land & Water" and "Magnetism." I have a limited experience teaching science, however, I enjoy teaching many topics across the curriculum. Today's School District of Philadelphia students are bright and excitable and I want to keep up with their enthusiam when it comes to science inquiry. I think everyone has something to offer so we can all learn from one another!

The goal of this Institute was “to bring together college faculty and K-12 teachers to discuss current understandings of about teaching hands-on science throughout the curriculum”.

Monday July 23, 2007 Welcome

I went fishing west of Pottstown in Oley, Pa at a beautiful place near a stream, farmhouses, and small mountains- It was breathakingly beautiful. I caught a giant sunfish, and my friend caught four small trout. We threw all five fish back. I also caught several moths and one caterpillar to feed to my gecko. Although this place is 48 miles from my neighborhood, I still feel like it's part of the place where I live. After all, I wouldn't drive out of my comfort zone to go fishing for a few hours.. 

Liz McCormick did a wonderful lesson on microwaves. I have  cut and pasted her lesson so that I will have it for class. This is a great lesson to teach the concept of how microwaves work. I especially like the idea of having the children do a concept map at the conclusion of this activity.

Evolution can be a touchy topic but I think Wil gave us some great web sites to check out. This one called  Squirrel/Sugar Glider has much more to it then Wil showed us. Go to the bottom of the page and you will can take an interesting side trip and  you can explore homologous structures in more detail. In college the phase" ontology recapitulates phylogeny" fascinated me. I always explain it in as development mirrors evolution. I never have been able to find good pictures. Click the below and wikppedia will get you to some great pictures.

Another important concept in seventh grade science is classification. I loved the way Wil started his lesson with the classification puzzle. Here is his web site http://www.brynmawr.edu/biology/franklin/LPN/animalpuzzle.html. Just click and copy and run off enough copies for each lab group. A perfect way to allow students the chance to classify by their own criteria.

Wil had a fantastic lesson on comparison anatomy. This web site will allow me to use virtual bones so that my students can make comparison.The site is called eSkeletons (http://www.eskeletons.org/). I know my students will love to just explore. I could see writing a lesson in which the students would pick out 2 different animals and I will ask them to search certain bones. They will then make hypothesis about these animals by looking at these bones.

                                               Image copied

 

fromhttp://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/spaceandtime/planetarium/solar-system/graphics/solarsystem.jpg

 

In seventh grade we spend some time finding our place in the universe. I think this web site would be an interesting way to begin this unit http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/cosmic/cosmic.html.