Week 2

Week 2 of my research study


This past week was a crazy one. Between benchmarks and preparing for the MSA's, there was not much time for other things. However, even the smallest of activities still can make a difference.



Challenge of the Week:

This weeks challenge has students graphing and predicting percentages. My students have been working a lot with fractions and drawing their fractions. I wanted to students to get practice displaying data in a picture form such as graphs in order to show answers and data. I also wanted to use a question that would make students think beyond about things that they would not normally pay attention to.

Q: The following gases are found in Earth's atmosphere: Argon, Neon, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Helium, Oxygen, Water Vapor, and Ozone. Select 5 gases that you think are the biggest percent to make up the atmosphere. Create a bar graph of the percentages of each of the 5 gases you pick. The total does not have to equal 100%. Ex: Neon = 20%; Nitrogen = 15%; Oxygen = 10%; Oxide = 5%; Helium = 1%

I gave my students until Friday to solve the problem. I advised students to take all week to solve the question and conduct research. I noticed that most students took 2-3 days to answer the question and others would complete the question in 10 minutes. I noticed that the students who answered in 10 minutes seemed to make a guess based on prior knowledge. Students who took 2-3 days to answer seemed to have researched the topic.

This past week I had 10 students answer the challenge. 2 of the students had the correct answer and the correct percentages. It seems that these two students researched the answer. The other answers generally contained the same five elements (water vapor, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and ozone). My conclusion is that these other 8 students solved the problem solely on prior knowledge. The students seemed to be really interested in this weeks challenge. I had students come up to me all throughout the week showing me their answer and explaining what they did and why. I loved that the students wanted to share with me their thinking because it showed me how engaged they were in the problem. In conclusion, always connect the content or problem to something that the age group would really enjoy.

This week's challenge of the week was from a Pre-Service Teaching Institute I attended at the NIA in Hampton, VA. Thanks Becky Jaramillo, Sharon Bowers, and Gay Reilly!


Activity of the Week
For the activity this week, since there was benchmarks and other test preparations, I am going to share an activity I used last semester.

Topic: Reading - Text Features

Part of the reading unit I was teaching involved text features. The students worked in groups to read the article and find text features. The original article used for this lesson was a standard article that the curriculum suggested. In order to connect the lesson to the students, I decided to use a different article.

I used the article Two Suns in the Sky from Science News for Kids. (http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2007/05/two-suns-in-the-sky-3/). The students used an organizer of their choice in order to find the text features in the article. The students had to find at least 3 text features and state what that specific text feature tells us about the article. For example: "The picture tells me that the some planets orbit two stars instead of one."

Reflection:
The students loved the article! They never thought about the fact that there was a possibility that a planet could orbit two stars instead of one. They were fascinated with the content in the article. Since the students were intrigued by the article, they were able to complete the task at hand in a more engaging way. Students were not misbehaving in their groups, but having lively discussions about the article and what the text features told about the article. This is what I aim to do with every lesson. Have the students engaged in a lesson that might normally have been not engaging at all.



Follow STEMegration on Twitter at www.twitter.com/STEMegration

Start of Research

Hello Everyone!

This is week 1 of my research study.

This past week, I surveyed my students interests. A majority of the students showed a strong interest in science for a favorite subject in school (excluding specials). This showed me a positive start to my research and is consistent with what I polled with my classroom from my last internship.

After reviewing these results, I started to implement an activity for my students called "Challenge of the Week".

Challenge of the Week
   This activity will be a weekly problem based activity that involves Science, Technology, Engineering, and/or Math. A poster is displayed in the classroom near my desk with background information pertaining to the question and the question itself. Students are to complete this question during free time, before school, after school, or at home. The students are presented with the information and question on Monday and have until Friday at dismissal to turn in an answer. The problem will be related to a topic or skill that the students learned in the past week.

2/12-2/15 Question:

A person uses on average 80 gallons of water a day! Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) use only 3 gallons of water a day! Compare the two numbers. What percent of 80 gallons of water does an astronaut use? Convert the percent to a decimal and a fraction. Create a diagram of the fraction. 

This particular problem relates to fractions, decimals, and percents. This past week, my class learned about how to convert a fraction to a decimal and a percent.

 

After giving the students two days to look over the question, I showed a video provided by NASA eClips entitled "Our World: Recycling on the International Space Station". This provided students with more information pertaining to the problem.

Out of my 23 students, 12 students attempted the challenge.  Out of the 12, 1 student had the correct answer.

Reflection:

When I presented the "Challenge of the Week" the students jumped with enthusiasm. They wanted to start solving the problem that minute. Not only did the it pose the students with a challenge, but it was a topic that intrigued them. It connected to what they learned in math and a strong interest they have. 

After looking through the answers, I saw that there was a common response. 10 out of the 12 students responded with 27%. At first I was confused and thought that maybe I had calculated the answer wrong. However, one student wrote how they solved the problem and I noticed what the students did. Instead of solving the problem as 3 ÷ 80, the students solved the problem as 80 ÷ 3. Therefore, the students received the answer 26.66 (rounded to 27). This informs me that students need further instructing into calculating percents and decimals from fraction form.

I feel that this is a good starting point. Even though the students did not quite get how to solve the problem, they did attempt it and showed knowledge that they knew what steps to take. They just need further instruction as to the order of the numbers when they are dividing. The students showed strong enthusiasm for the Challenge and I hope that more students will start participating. 

A look into next week:

Next week, I will be co-teaching a lesson on using text features in a non-fiction article. I will be using a article that is science based and student friendly.