For my
clinical science lesson, I chose to create a hands-on lesson involving
experiments. My CT had asked me to teach
a science unit on animals and their adaptations, so I thought this was the
perfect lesson to get them engaged and excited about science. In my lesson plan I mention that this is day
two of a two day lesson. This is because
that on the Friday before, we introduced their animal books and had them start
working on those. We expanded on this
lesson by creating the hands-on aspect of it.
On the
day of my lesson, the students were very excited to be doing experiments. My students had not done any experiments yet
this year, so this was exciting for them.
In my lesson plan I stressed the importance of good behavior and
safety. The students did a remarkable
job remaining on task and following directions.
It was one of the best-behaved lessons I had ever taught to my students
and I honestly have no complaints for their behavior. My CT also commented on our student’s
behavior and was very complimentary of my behavior management skills.
During
the actual experiments we saw different things from each group. For the first experiment (glass jar and suction
cups) I had imagined that all of the students would be able to figure it
out. I was shocked when I saw that a few
groups were struggling and could not get the jar open. I am not disappointed that some groups did
not get the jar open because this was a learning experience. Experiments are all about trial and error and
that is exactly what I saw happening. The
students were also not disappointed that they did not get the jar open because
they were so focused and engaged on what they were doing and working
together. I had never really seen my
students work so well together or be so determined. It was nice to see them so engaged.
During
the second experiment, I saw a few students get somewhat frustrated. The students were supposed to be able to pick
up the paper when it was wet, not when it was dry. There were a few students that could not pick
up the paper when it was wet and that frustrated them a little bit. When this happened, I jumped in and assisted
the student to see how they could pick up the wet paper. Once again, the students were working so well
together and I barely saw any behavior issues.
The
third experiment was a bit different.
Since we only have five minutes per rotation, there was not enough time
to have each student try the experiment with their own cotton balls like I had
originally wanted. I facilitated this experiment
and had the students help me with various parts. I allowed them to dip the cotton balls in the
water and each of them got to touch both cotton balls to compare and contrast
between the two. I thought that for not
being able to actually do the experiment themselves, the students did very
well. I was anticipating some behavior
problems at this station but there surprisingly was not. The students were so engaged and so
fascinated with what was happening in front of them. Most of the students had correctly predicted
that the coated cotton ball would absorb less water, but I had a few that
thought they would absorb the same amount of water. Regardless of whether or not their
predictions were right, all of the students were amazed.
My CT
noted my strengths as well as the strengths of the lesson. She thought that every child was actively
engaged in the experiment. She also
found it a strength that each and every child in our classroom was able to
complete all of the experiments. This is
a strength because we have students being pulled from our classroom at all
times of the day for different types of interventions and individual
instruction. So, the fact that every
single student was able to participate in this lesson was amazing. Another strength she noted was that I was
fully prepared. I had all of the
materials set up before the students had come back in the room from the
computer lab. I also think that this is
an important strength to continue practicing because if I would have had to set
up the experiments as I was explaining the directions or teaching, we would not
have seen the students as engaged as they were and we probably would have had
some behavior issues. The fact that I
used small groups was also a strength because the students got more
individualized attention and they were all able to be actively hands-on. The last strength that she addresses was that
this lesson was taught to enhance the students understanding of animal
adaptations. Throughout the course of
this unit, I could tell that not all students fully understood how animals
adapt and I did not really know how I could make it clearer since I am not a
science or animal expert myself. After
completing these experiments, you could just feel the sense of understanding
and the wave of relief from all of the students. They truly understood what it means for an
animal to adapt to their environment.
This also showed when we played the review game two days later. All of the students were confident in their
answers and it went very smoothly.
As for
areas of growth for this particular lesson, there is not much I would
change. If I could do it again I would
like to have more time for each rotation so that the students could get even more
engaged and the lessons could be more hands-on.
For example, if we had more time, each student in my groups would have
been able to do the bird feather adaptation themselves with their own cotton
balls. Overall, I think that this lesson
went extremely well and really enhanced their understanding of the topic. This is definitely a lesson that I will
repeat in the future.
Exceeds: I included an image of the tools I used for the
experiments.
