Batteries, bulbs and wires

1.       Formative assessment – I thought you could use one wire strip to light the bulb.

2.       Ms. Stone’s lab – a very prescribed set of directions with everyone being told what to do and what they should have learned.

Simple circuit

Ms. Travis’ lab—presents several ways to indicate students understand how electrical circuits work.

 

Simple circuit

Series circuit

 

3.       Ms. Stone’s lab

Strengths

Weakness

·         Students all can see how an electric circuit works. ·         Students can see the difference between a simple circuit, series circuit and a parallel circuit.

·         Teacher gives students definitions to vocabulary words with little context or connection. ·         Learner engages in questions provided only by teacher. ·         Learner is given all other explanations. ·         Learner is given steps and procedures for communication. ·         The lesson has very little transference of knowledge to other applications. ·         There is no evaluation of data with outside resources.

 

Ms. Travis’ lab

Strengths	Weakness
·         Learner selects among questions, poses new questions. ·         Learner formulates explanations after summarizing evidence. ·         The lesson allows students to transfer knowledge to other applications. ·         Learners formulate own explanations and how to communicate them. ·         Lesson should have deeper meaning because students were allowed to conduct own investigations.	·         Learner directed to collect certain data. ·         There is no evaluation of data with outside resources.

 

 

4.

Standards/Benchmarks	Learning Goals: What should student know	Formative Assessment: What do students already know?	Learning Performances: What do you want students to do to show they’ve learned?
Standard B-Physical Science Students should develop an understanding of light, heat, electricity and magnetism. Electricity circuits require a complete loop through which an electrical current can pass.	How do you complete an electrical circuit?	After being asked how many wires it would take to light a light bulb to complete an electrical circuit. The student understood that a light bulb can be lit with only one wire.	Students will complete an electrical circuit and light bulbs will light.(Stone) Students draw the circuits they have constructed. Students label the two types of circuits. Students write about findings in notebooks regarding findings on series and parallel circuits. Students develop own questions they want to investigate. Students explore internet to compare fluorescent and incandescent bulbs and groups report information. Students complete worksheet with electricity investigations. (Travis)

 

5.       Because I had to complete the lab at home I had to improvise my equipment. As I have done some minor electrical work in my home I had the supplies. However, the lab was a challenge to complete because I had to improvise the holders.

                My daughter used kits during 5^th grade when they studied electrical circuits. She said she liked helping me better, when she got a chance to figure out how to the circuits herself.

 I was able to help a second-grade class with a lab. It was pretty teacher driven but they were allowed to choose their own questions and answer some of the questions themselves. With younger children they all seemed to want to ask the same question – How far can I make the balloon go? After I started asking other questions they began to see they could hypothesis and then see through experimentation if they were correct. However, they usually came back to – How far can I make the balloon go?

I can see that with 5^th graders, it would be much easier to allow them to pose the questions and independently examine other resources to form explanations. I think all lessons should be structured so the learners understand why the lesson is relevant and can transfer from one situation to another. Ms. Travis’ lesson was clearly a more transferrable lesson, and probably more enjoyable for her students. I would assume that her students came away with a much better understanding about electrical circuits and why it is important for students to understand them.

 

6.       Any ideal science lesson assumes that the learners have a certain amount of self-motivation, intrigue and can thoughtfully create scientifically oriented questions. In order for this to be the most ideal lesson, the students would have to be familiar with creating their own learning environment by posing appropriate questions, deciding suitable evidence, knowing how to research other explanations and creating appropriate ways to communicate their findings. With that stated, after performing a formative assessment probe (and assuming most students do not fully understand how electrical circuits work) students should be presented with all the materials they need to create several different kinds of circuits and then be told the lesson for the next several days  is “How do you complete a circuit?” Because this lesson is mostly student driven, I have outlined the plan in the following chart.

7.

5-E Criteria	Part(s) of lesson that addresses this inquiry criterion	More teacher-directed or student-directed? Explain.
Engage	Students are divided into groups of 4 and are given the materials and told to formulate questions about electrical circuits.	More student-directed. Students will investigate what they want to know about electrical circuits and electricity.
Evidence	Students can use several different wires, multiple bulbs, switches, multiple and different size batteries to create different circuits.	More student-directed. Because students formulated their own questions they will determine what constitutes appropriate evidence.
Explain	After students have collected their data they will write in their notebooks about their hypothesis, the evidence they collected, and what happened during their experiments.	More student-directed. The learners are formulating their own explanations with the evidence they created.
Evaluate	A local electrician can be brought into the classroom so students can discuss their findings and compare their evidence to how an electrician wires a light, a room and a house.	More student-directed. Although the student is directed toward the source, they still can form links to their explanations.
Communicate	Groups will present their findings to the instructor and the other groups in the class using whatever means they feel is appropriate.	More student-directed. The learners decide how and what they are going to communicate and explain.

 

Cool-it-lab

A learning goal is what the students are supposed  to learn during the course of an inquiry-based lesson. A learning performance is what students are supposed to demonstrate for assessment purpose to indicate what they have learned.

Engage-- An engaging introductio to a scientifically oriented question introduction to the lesson that prepares the student for what the learning goal is.
Evidence -- Student collect or look data and facts.
Explanation -- Students examine that evidence in a factual objective manner.
Evaluation-- Students will make inference and connections in respect to other experts
Communication-- Students will share and justify their evaluations.

Weather learning performances

Formative Assessment Question

# of Responses

Answers and Information

 

One spring day the hottest temperature in the U.S. was 90 ̊ F. What was the weather like at the place where it was 90 ̊ F? a. It was sunny. b. It was very humid. c. There was no wind. d. More than one of the above was true. e. More information is needed.

E: 11% (n=1186)

The most frequent responses were D (39%), A (31%) and B (14%). Students might have been drawing more on personal experience than on knowledge of the weather when answering this item.

 

Standard/Benchmark:	Learning Goals: What students should know	Formative Assessment: What do students already know?	Learning Performances: What do you want students to do to show they know?
Source: Iowa Core Curriculum.  Grades 3-5 Earth and Space Standards.  Understand and apply knowledge of weather and weather patterns. Benchmark: Weather is always changing and can be described by measurable quantities such as temperature, wind direction and speed and precipitation.	Students should                         know that weather is affected by many variables.	After conducting the Keeley formative assessment question, only 11% of the students understood that a variety of weather phenomena can affect temperature.	Students will create data charts to graph wind, humidity, sun, clouds, and precipitation. Students will also examine thealtitude of the areas those have chosen to chart. They will journal about the patterns they notice and make predications regarding the data. Students will create travel brochures for one of the place they charted and focus on typical weather in that month or season and give clothing suggestions.

 

1.       Explain how the learning performance you chose would help you understand what students know about the standard you identified (learning goals: what students should know). By correctly documenting the weather in different locations, students will recognized that weather can be described by multiple measurable quantities and that attitude affects weather patterns. Students will be able to show their understanding about weather by noticing patterns and make predictions in their science notebooks using the data they collected. By creating the brochures students will exhibit their knowledge of seasonal weather patterns that are dependent on weather phenomena, altitude and geographic features.

2.       Explain how your Learning Performance contains all five features of inquiry.

Engage: Students will Skype with solider in Afghanistan and teacher’s cousin in Fairbanks, Alaska to discuss the recent, current and future weather of that season.

Evidence: Collect weather data from newspapers or various websites.

Explanation: In small groups, create data charts to graph weather in three areas. Students also need to investigate what else affects weather and then chart altitude, geographic and relevant water features.

Evaluate: Students will journal in science notebooks about weather patterns and make predications based on data . Students will research weather patterns and predictions on various websites.

Communicate: Students will communicate their understandings of weather by creating brochures for their families for one of the places they charted. The brochure should include typical seasonal weather and give packing suggestions.