Clinical Science Lesson: Animal Adaptations

                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.