Activitymania

A main point of the article is over stimulation of many activities that do not have a purpose. This is how I remember schooling. We went from activity to activity that we had to do exactly how the teacher wanted us to. We did not learn much from the activity then. Inquiry takes more time and has a purpose.

INSES

The topic of inquiry is important for the article.  It includes letting children explore the natural world and producing explanations from evidence, then it also shows an example.  The example was a simple observation of a 5th grade class observing three trees and their watering cycle.  I like how the teacher encouraged them to write a letter to the custodian, he then made changes and they were convinced of their conclusions.  The teacher let them be out in nature, form a hypothesis, create a solution, and then see real results.  I never did this as a kid and would love it.  I remember science of reading a lot and then doing experiments that were step by step explained by the teacher. I hope to incorporate these kinds of activities into my classroom. It lets the students get out of the classroom and use their applied knowledge towards a real world problem.

Iowa Core

The Iowa Core website will be a website I look at frequently while I am a teacher.  Every lesson I plan will have a content standard from the Iowa Core.  The Iowa Core and the website have been discussed in numerous of my classes.  I have heard that districts split the content up between grade levels, so I like becoming familiar with the website.  I also think it is interesting that Iowa doesn't follow the national standards, but made their own.  I clicked on the science grades 3-5 and it gives me all of the standards in science as inquiry, earth and space, life science, and physical science.  I don't understand all of the standards but when I click on the star it has bullet points that explains the standard.  Right now looking at all of the standards, it makes me nervous for my first year of teaching.  It's hard to think about covering all the science standards and then have to cover the math, literacy, and social studies standards.  Before the teacher education program I didn't realize teachers went by standards.  In my elementary classes I remember just going from textbook to textbook for subjects.

Mosart Website

All four tutorials tied together and explained how to get rid of misconceptions.  I liked how it asked us questions about children and misconceptions, because I got some wrong and then the videos and text showed us the right answers.  This is exactly what we need to as teachers.  First ask them what they think and instead of just drilling them with the correct answer, show them the correct answer.  I also thought it was important how the website talked about the reasons for misconceptions and to not blame it on past teachers.  They get most of them from experiences outside of school.  The last thing I thought was important about the website said the misconceptions are in all ages and levels.  Even advanced students have misconceptions.  I think this is important for me in the classroom to not expect the advanced learners to have the right answer. This is important so that I have to focus on every student and not assume anything.  I thought the value of the website was to explain why they have misconceptions, who has misconceptions, and how to figure out what misconceptions they have.

Sweater Article

I loved this reading this article and it is very interesting.  The main point is misconceptions that children have and then how to get past their barriers.  I thought the phrase, "children's mind are still under construction and must be treated with care where conceptual change is concerned."  This has to do with the experiment the teacher did and let them create their own experiments, formulate hypothesis, solutions, and redo experiments.  Students will get the most out of finding the answer themselves, instead of reading them in a textbook.  In my classroom I will stress the relevancy of the lesson or experiment, allow children to come up with their own experiments, and stress consistency.

Keeley

The main idea of the article is formative assessment probes.  They give many examples for diagnostic and monitoring purposes.  I like how it gives ideas of how to know the students preconceptions that they get from experiences.  This then helps you know what to teach.  I think this ties into science journals in which students could write or draw their preconceptions.  This gives them an opportunity to express their opinions, instead of raising their hand in a classroom setting.  I would like to use the science journals in my class room to see what misconceptions students children have and then create my lesson plans about their responses.

Private Universe

How the phases of moon occur? How the sunlight hits the moon and our view of it. Cause of seasons? The tilt of the earth towards the sun, when the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun then it is summer. Cause of lunar eclipse? Not in the same plane of the earth. It has to be in the plane of the earth behind the earth to be a lunar eclipse.