Standard(s) Addressed: 1. Knowledge of subject matter 2. Knowledge of human development & learning 4. Multiple Instructional Strategies 5. Classroom Motivation & Management Skills 6. Communication Skills 7. Instructional Planning Skills 8. Assessment of Student Learning 9. Professional Commitment & Responsibility 10. Partnerships
As we are progressing through a science unit on the states of matter, this week we investigated liquids. In a prior field experience I had the opportunity to work with another first grade teacher at Galileo Math and Science School in Eagle, ID. I had seen first-hand how these students conducted investigations, used scientific vocabulary, and had a detailed understanding of it. Using this as a starting point, I suggested to my mentor that we could put different liquids into ziploc bags for students to workwith in small groups. The students also got to wear lab goggles, which was very exciting to them and made them feel like scientists! After reading to the students on the red carpet about properties of liquids, then the class came back to their desks and I displayed a chart I had made for the lab. I explained that during the lab they would need to look at the color of each liquid and whether it was transparent, translucent or opaque. Next they would decide if the liquid was more fluid or more viscous. The students then were given time to just investigate each bag of liquid. After the lab I brought the class back together and we discussed their findings and filled out the charts.
I feel that this lesson was very successful because it was an inquiry-based lab. I believe that if students have some background knowledge on a topic and the teacher sets clear expectations, they can quite successfully go through an inquiry lesson and learn more than if the teacher just read them a definition out of a book. Inquiry based lessons also meet the needs of students who learn in very diverse ways. It is my hope that as my student teaching continues I will be able to incorporate at least one inquiry-based lesson into every science unit that I teach. I would also like to see how I could incorporate more inquiry into other content areas such as mathematics.
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