I hope everyone had a lovely long weekend! I am excited to get back to work on our insect storybooks and insect experiments!
I wanted to share with you how we are approaching the scientific method, from where we left off last week. Once the student has designed the experiment steps, the next phase is actually creating and running the experiment. I was really impressed with the huge strides the students are making in collaborating within a group setting. They worked hard to figure out what materials were needed for their experiments, and how to put them together. Insects are not the easiest subjects to work with, but working together we got them to cooperate J If you try running experiments at home, this is a wonderful writing opportunity. The student should be adjusting his/her written experiment steps to reflect what he/she actually did to create the experiment. They should also be collecting data as they go. I would encourage them to record the data in any way that they think will work for them. Some students chose to make tally charts, while others wrote numbers or drew pictures. I would just remind them that it needs to be clear enough that they can use it to create a chart or visual of their data later. After the experiment has been run, and data has been collected, it is time to create a graph/ visual of the data. I have been encouraging the students to use their new found knowledge of bar graphs and picture graphs to represent their data. They should also be writing an analysis of their data. A helpful sentence frame to use during data analysis is “I found___________________.” The students then draw conclusions based on their data analysis and its validation or invalidation of their hypothesis. This is another writing opportunity. I would emphasize with your child that one of the most important things that scientists do, is to communicate their results. The final product that they choose to make with regards to their experiment can vary. For some small experiments you may want to have them write a short lab report, whereas others can involve narratives, posters, or videos. You may want to vary the product, while keeping the scientific method itself fairly consistent so that they learn to use these steps naturally. I hope it was helpful to hear how we used the scientific method in class. I will be sure to share the posters when we are done so that you can see our final products :) Announcements: Work Journals Due next week! Please have them in by Friday @ 4:00 Spirit Day is next Thursday and Friday (Feb 27 and 28). Pizza is being sold at lunch time and your child can dress up to celebrate our HOHM of the month EMPATHY. This can be a tricky habit to figure out a costume for, so we have broadened it out a bit to be “twin” day (dress the same as a classmate), or dress like a character/ family member that you think displays empathy. Comments are closed.
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AuthorWelcome to Robin's Core 2 Blog! Archives
February 2017
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