So far in my internship we have created a few writing activities for the students to work on involving their acid rain lab. The idea is that we are supposed to make activities for them that are somewhat relevant to them and their daily lives. The school is also incorporated a new writing program known as the John Collin's writing program. It is expected to help them increase test scores as well as a better understanding of writing in every subject. I am curios to see how this program will affect the students test scores. This may be the question I want to ask for my project.
We have started to get into set some more specific goals in our internship. The three of us will work on different sections of the curriculum but will still collaborate and try to make solid connections with our different areas. I will start to focus more on the environmental science class which is a new area for me but I still find interesting. So most of the students I would be making lessons for are juniors / seniors. I have a few ideas that might get them interested in environmental science. An example would be how modifications to cars affect gas millage. I think I have a good amount of automotive knowledge to come up with some interesting activities.
One thing that I would need to keep in mind is that the article"What Science Teaching Looks Like" mentions how many class activities in the United States have little or no conceptual content. So I need to make sure my class activities have a good focus and are not only relevent to the students but to the content as well.
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Greg,
There were countless mistakes I made when I first started teaching, one of which was being so heavily focused on activities. The challenge for all of us is to make sure that the activities have a purpose. Like you, I did the adaptations activity where "thumb-less" students tried to do certain tasks. I wonder whether the concept underneath this fun lesson ever sunk in for my students.
On the other hand, the financial situation of a district or the family structure of the students has comparatively less influence than a teacher who knows how to use activities to lead to understanding science concepts. Unfortunately, the common perception is that these techniques are only going to work with "good" kids. Experience has shown me that a LOT has to do with the quality of their teacher.
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