Science Fair Prep....

Well....let the Science Fair lessons begin! Actually, they have been going on for quite some time. Teaching 6th graders the steps in the process is very fun, but kind of like pulling teeth. They really haven't had any experience thus far making my "play dates" even more challenging. But we are all up for it! Of course I am using the scaffold that I blogged about earlier. It really breaks the Scientific Method down for them. This past week it seems like I dreamed about qualitative & quantitative observations/data, controls, independent & dependent variables, purposeful question construction, and writing awesome hypotheses every night! I certainly hope that my teaching efforts and my students practicing efforts pay off!!! I certainly can see the little gears in their minds churning and their parents scratching their heads wondering how the heck to thelp them!!! LOL!

So, with the help of each class, we created simple guidelines for writing purposeful questions and good hypotheses. Hopefully you all can use these, too. I did tell my students when "we" were writing the quidelines that they were not for them, of course, but for their parents. They LOVED that!

I know that I have yet to post pictures of my FABULOUS new classroom which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. I will attempt to remember to take pictures this week and include them in one of the next posts.

Until then, be the spark in your students' minds to have them think Science all the time! :) Oh, don't forget the two guidelines...after all, they are SCIENCE DIVA CERTIFIED!

Learning Logs are a MUST!

One of the BEST things that I do is have my students keep a current learning log for the unit being taught. They are required to have a cover page [which I usually provide in the beginning or have them quickly copy from the board] that includes the title of the current unit, grade level expectations [objs]/standards, name, date, etc... with a copy of the RUBRIC I will use to grade the log upon completion. Throughout the lesson they put EVERYTHING we do in there. I always keep a log, too, to remind them where we are. One other thing is I list the order on MY CLASS WEBSITE. Any of the pages that I can provide digital copies of [in case they lose a sheet or want to revisit what we did] are linked on the site. Using this log really puts responsibility on the students and provides evidence to parents of what was or should have been done by their child. This also is the perfect study guide since it includes everything! :) 


Go ahead, check out my site...it will be under construction soon!