Exploring Our Fluid Earth

e.g. I am wondering how to...

e.g. I am wondering how to...

i am wondering, for this activity can i first ask students to do a self-reflection using a different format with their notebooks for the whole semester and then introduce the phases of inquiry?

I reintroduced the Modes to my students using the scenarios from the TSI workshop. (9th grade Marine Science students).

Here are my lesson plans.

I just finished the Mid Course survey. There were questions about using this website in the classroom. I realized that I haven't even explored that option yet. Now that I look around a little I could share the pictures of fish. How are you using this site in your classroom? I could use some ideas to get started.

This is my lesson plan on Scientific Language. I built a sort of mini-sequence with this whole thing that I thought was kind of neat. I re-taught Phases and modes, first so that we could all have our metacognitive hats on (ugh hate that phrase). Then, because we had been 'learning how to think like scientists', we needed to learn how to 'talk like scientists'. So, I moved into the language of scientists lesson.

e.g. I am wondering how to...

e.g. I am wondering how to...

http://m.hawaiinewsnow.com/ms/p/a3/55/view.m?id=124279&storyId=20634930…

Hi, for some reason I can't find the lesson plan template for module 3, I can only find the word document for module 2, is it the same? or should I be looking somewhere else?

Ok so my I have this idea on how to connect the 3 lessons I have to do, and I'd really like some feedback to see if I'm biting off more than I can chew (a fatal habit of mine) or if I'm actually on to something that makes sense.

I stopped on the side of the road on the way to work and got some ocean water in a cup. On the weekend I poured some water in watch glasses I borrowed from the chem teacher and put them in the oven, after trying to have the sun dry it for a few hours. Took them to school and did not show them to the students for a few days. It was super humid and the dried salts started to get wet as the watch glass collected water from the air like crazy. The only ones that were ok were the ones that were wrapped up and put in a container. So show them soon after you make them.

I'd like to try this activity, but don't have any watch glasses... Anybody have any suggestions for a cheap substitute that could be used for watch glasses?

One idea that just popped into my head, is to put a Phases of Inquiry paper in the middle of the table (one for each table group), and let the students monitor on their transition on their own. Let them challenge themselves and see who did the best recording and give them a few minutes to discuss why they felt they were in a particular mode where and why others felt differently.
I think the students may struggle with this at first, but after getting more familiar they will enjoy the student discussion and debate.

When will the whole lesson be available? I think I will link the biological aspects of this unit to my physical science class by talking about DNA being a molecule. After half a year of chemistry they know what a molecule is. Linking it to the big ocean is also going to be helpful. We are in a big energy unit and will be covering waves in a few days. Perhaps linking fish to ocean currents? In any case, scientific thinking and scientific practice will be standards that will go with this.

I knew this was going to be a challenging lesson. Once I got the students focused we were able to start seeing the results of our study. Creating the list of steps took some time, but made it easier for the students to understand the steps and modes once we got to those points.

And the winner is.....Conductivity! My 5th graders voted that lighting up the LED light was the most fun and the most 'scientific'. From my perspective, it has proven to be the lesson that engaged my students the most and kept them interested throughout the entire period. It's a keeper.

Although this activity worked out in the end it was really difficult to get going. Many lights were defective and finding out which were bad consumed about ten minutes. It of course could have been teacher in haste. The wires clips were a little wimpy and a larger gage would keep the attachments together better.

My 5th grade students applied the Phases and Modes to the Conductivity experiment we completed in our class. Overall they did a pretty good job with it. Some of the students, however, really did struggle. Some of the modes were very difficult for them to grasp, especially Induction and Deduction. This did not surprise me as I frequently struggle with them myself. They had not heard the term metacognition before, and some of them enjoyed discussing the concept and applying it to our former experiment. But for others, this too proved to be a bit over their heads.