Designing a science lesson plan

 The last few weeks most of the focus has been on designing lesson plans and the three types of lesson plans that we will be designing and executing in front of a sixth grade Science class. There are three types of lessons that we will be teaching they are Direct Instruction, Inquiry and Cooperative Learning. After the three lesson plans that we design and teach to the sixth grade Science class we will be designing two more and then putting together our Unit Plans on the content that we had taught. We are still unsure about what topic we will be teaching, but whatever it is there are some basic steps that have to be followed to make a good lesson plan. There are some really good resources out there that have some great pointers on how to create a successful lesson plan such as Edutopia, and ASCD.

Every lesson plan has a structure that should be followed the introduction, development and the closure. The introduction is often the hardest part to figure out, HOW DO I PULL STUDENTS ATTENTION? THIS IS THE QUESTION THAT I GET STUCK ON EVERY TIME, and all I need to do is step back and look at my purpose and main idea of the lesson. There are many different ways to get students attention and last week during class we showed each other a bunch of new sites to do this with. Developing lessons have some common things occurring in them: Introduction, development and closure for one, another is the checking for prior knowledge because if the students don't know the knowledge then you have to step back and reteach. Checking for understanding is so important in every lesson, and making sure this is done is imperative to the lesson. The students will never know if they have the right information if you don't stop and double check that they are following along and paying attention. There is always a I do, We do and You do in each lesson, although it may not be called this but that is what it is. First you teach information, second you make sure they understand the information. While that is going on you are showing them how to do something this could be using a graphic organizer the I do and help fill out part of it and then We do, so filling it out together then having them fill it out alone at the end for the I do. This will assure that all students can do this skill alone and it will help them when having to take notes in other classes. Timing is so important to lesson plans making sure that you are within the time limit and not rushing the information but teaching it briskly so the students pick it up but are not bored with too much down time. 

Once my group gets our assigned topic we are going to be roaring to go. I feel prepared and ready to collaborate on three lesson plans with my group and hear and see all of the ideas. I am excited to design the unit plan and I know once it is finished I will be even more excited to teach it to the class, and show them all of the fun stuff we found to better teach them.


We also went on a field trip to the curriculum library! This was such a great trip! Who knew how many resources were right there under our finger tips. The children's book collection is great! I am excited to start looking for books for my lesson plans they have so many resources there.

Scientific Me!

I have known a scientist my entire life, my father. My earliest memories of science was during Easter when my father explained to me why vinegar is added to the food coloring and water when dying eggs. My father is an electrical engineer and his love for science did not transfer to me but it did to two of my brothers.

I don’t remember much science in school until about fourth grade, and this is only because I did so poorly in the class. I was being taken out of Science class for Speech therapy and this had a huge effect on my grade in class as well as my understanding of science. I don’t recall doing many hands on projects it was more reading and taking notes from a projector. In sixth grade I had an awful experience in science class that made me give up on science all together. We were assigned to do a project on the solar system. We got to choose a planet and made a model and a paper to go along with the model. I was very excited about this

project and I chose the planet Jupiter. On the day of presentations I held up my model very excited to tell the class about all of the new facts I learned about Jupiter, when my teacher stopped me and said “What planet is that? I thought that you were presenting on the planet Jupiter. Jupiter is not that color? What is this?” I was so embarrassed because I worked really hard on the project and we just made me feel like I had no clue what I was doing in five minutes. That was the moment I decided that I didn’t care about Science class anymore. In high school my biology class go to dissect a worm, frog and a pig. This was one of the coolest science projects that I had ever done. In ninth grade I had an Earth Science teacher who refused to let me fail. I did very well in Earth Science and there was only a few things that I struggled with, but my teacher helped me succeed in those areas. He would stay after school and give me extra assignments and just explain the concepts to me. I had struggled with Science classes for the rest of my high school career and in college. I took two biology classes and two Earth Science classes. I did poorly in each one except the last Earth Science I took, and that was because it had a lab attached. I found that the concepts were much easier to understand and remember when I could see them in motion.

The best science memory I have is when I helped out a fourth grade class after school when I was in high school. I started this as a way to get community service hours but ended up staying with the same teacher for four years. This teacher taught science in a way I was never taught or thought that it could be taught in this way. She had hands on activities for every science concepts. She was teaching the students how to get the important information out of a text book about electricity. She had me help her do this and I was

terrified to be teaching these fourth graders how to do this when I was unsure If I could do it myself. The teacher took me aside and told me that she was confident I was more than qualified to do this job and that I would do great. She proved to be right, but it was an experience I will never forget. She made me realize that science was not as awful as I had made it seem.

The biggest turn on for me was that the teacher I helped after school showed me that science is hands on, and this makes it more interesting for the students and they will remember it longer. The biggest turn off for me is when teachers use projectors and note books to study Science I just don’t see how that is effective or helpful. I think that without the reinforcement of the hands on activity the notes are useless.My love for Science was fractured in eight grade but by the end of High school I was back in the comfort zone of science. I am still working on strengthening my science skills and passion, but once that happens I believe that I will be successful in Science.

To teach science you have to have some passion or want to teach it. I now want to teach students all about science and make it fun and interesting for me so they will always keep their sense of wonder. I want to inspire my students to want to solve the mystery and figure out why it is the way it is. As an adult I have had a million wonders about things, but I have not had the want to solve these mysteries and find a solution. I want to inspire my students to always want to know why and want to solve the mystery of their wonders.

Science to me is the machinery behind everything. Science is all around us

from simply brewing a pot of coffee in the morning to driving to work, all of that takes some kind of science to function. Science is more than blowing up volcanoes it is the wonder of life and the mysteries of the world. Science is the stars in the sky and the dinosaur bones in the ground. I always thought of science as chemical experiments and living organisms, but the chips inside cell phones are science as well.