My Year in the REMSL Program
What I learned, and what I hope I can share with you!
This year I have had the opportunity to participate in ConocoPhillips Rice Elementary Model Science Lab. Meeting once a week for fourteen weeks of the school year, we have gotten to participate in hands-on, inquiry learning using the 5E model that we have been able to take back and implement in our classrooms. We discussed important topics in teaching methods and in science learning, and I hope that I can share with you a few of the points and ideas that stuck with me. I know there is a lot on here, so I hope that you can find one or two new ideas that you might want to try in your classroom or share with your team!
Formative Assessments
This book has many easy, practical strategies for informally assessing your students' understanding to shape your teaching and reteaching of the material. The strategies I have included below are ones that I tried and loved using in my classroom this year.
Four Corners
"Four Corners is used with selected response questions to identify groups of students with similar responses to the question asked. Students move to a corner of the room designated to match their response or similar way of thinking." (97)
I Used to Think... But Now I Know
"I Used to Think ... But Now I Know asks students to compare verbally or in writing their ideas at the beginning of a lesson or instructional sequence to the ideas they have after completing the lessons. It differs from K-W-L because both parts of the reflection occur after instruction." (119)
One Minute Paragraphs
Students are given a list of vocabulary words. They have one minute to write complete sentences using as many of the words as they can. After one minute, have students share their paragraphs. Now that their minds are focused on the words, have them write a completely new paragraph, and see if they can beat their number of vocab words used from the first time.
First Word - Last Word
"This is a variation of acrostics. Students construct statements about a concept or topic before and after instruction that begin with a designated letter of the alphabet. The acrostic format provides a structure for them to build their idea statements off different starting letters that make up the topic word." (88)
Thinking Log
"Thinking Logs are a type of writing journal used during inquiry-based science and conceptual-change in which students react to a series of sentence stems as thinking starters. The purpose is to prompt metacognition during students' investigative and concept development learning experiences." (190)
Agree-Disagree Continuum
Teacher will give students a debatable statement. Depending on how students feel about the statement, they will line up on the continuum on a scale of 1-10, 1 being that you strongly disagree, 10 being that you strongly agree. Students will discuss their choice with students who are close to them on the continuum. Teacher will call out students from across the continuum to explain their choice.
Ideas for Teaching and Reinforcing Vocabulary
Wordle
Students can create word clouds using their vocabulary words.
Big Huge Labs
On this website students can make their own vocab trading cards.
Microsoft Word Art
Using Word Art, students can fill their vocabulary word with a picture that helps them understand and remember the meaning of the word.
Webquests
Web Surfing Science
These webquests are already created for you for each TEK! Students can explore the different websites and engage in the material in a new and investigative way.
Science Art
Science is integrated with art in these fun, challenging activities.
TEKS Unwrapped
Each TEK verb is broken down to guide planning of class activities. Essential questions are also included to ensure focus and mastery of the material.
Science Online Resources
NEED
CenterPoint: Power to Learn
CenterPoint Energy offers free educator resources. All you have to do is sign up.
Waterwise
Waterwise School Education Kits Program offers free kits to students that encourage water conservation.
http://bawsca.org/water-conservation/school-water-conservation-programs/school-programs/