Planning effective, engaging lessons and units are challenging tasks for a teacher, but the process can also be meaningful and rewarding. Using a big understanding—a guiding statement describing essential content you want students to learn throughout the unit—teachers can successfully plan and create lessons around substantive science content while developing inquiry and literacy skills. In this article, the authors explore a way to both guide your planning and make learning relevant by constructing a big understanding from the unifying concepts of science and your state standards.
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Do dinosaurs have bellybuttons? This intriguing question launched a journey into inquiry science that captivated a class of four-year-olds for eight months. As students enjoyed dinosaur books, examined dinosaur artifacts, drew pictures, watched videos, and generally immersed themselves in all things dinosaur, the authors built a culture of learning in their classroom that helped these young students develop science-process skills such as observation, measurement, and communication. They share their inspiring learning adventure here.
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There is a common misunderstanding of chemicals and chemistry. Chemicals are “bad.” Chemists are a nerdy set in the same category as those zany physicists, except that chemists work with more dangerous materials—“chemicals.” A change in attitude is necessary. It really is a “matter” of considerable importance to citizens and our abilities to make informed decisions as consumers and voters. Since chemistry is important and all around us—let this issue open your eyes to the possibilities and excitement within it!
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This monthly feature contains facts and challenges for the science explorer.
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One of the main problems we face in science teaching is that students are learning isolated facts and missing central concepts. For instance, consider what you know about life cycles. Chances are that you remember something about butterflies and stages, such as egg, larva, pupa, adult. But what’s the take-home idea that we should have learned about life cycles? Do students really need to know “egg, larva, pupa, adult?” An important way to address this is to remain focused on the central concept—i.e., the big ideas—rather than topic-focused teaching.
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Seeing, touching, smelling, hearing, and learning! The authors observed that their English Language Learner (ELL) students achieved a deeper understanding of the properties of matter, as well as enhanced vocabulary development, when they were guided through inquiry-based, multisensory explorations that repeatedly exposed them to words and definitions in context. In this article, they describe their experiences using a multisensory approach with a group of third-grade students who are classified as ELL.
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Using analogies in science classrooms helps students make connections between everyday life and the concepts we are trying to teach. Analogies help students form a bridge between their existing knowledge and new knowledge. Humans use analogical reasoning naturally, especially when trying to explain something to others. In addition, Glynn (2007) points out that many of our conversations start with “It’s just like…,” “It’s similar to…,” or “Think of it in this way….” By using analogies, teachers can help students create mental models that link new and sometimes abstract ideas to prior experiences.
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The answer to this could be really simple or really complicated, depending on how deeply the issue is covered. Therefore, the author will dispense with the really complicated by limiting the discussion to solids, liquids, and gases. There are many other states of matter, including plasmas, superfluids, and Bose-Einstein condensates (!). Because this is a column and not a book, you’ll have to look up those other states of matter elsewhere. Even though we’re staying simple, you might get a surprise or two, such as the fact that it’s possible for iron to be a gas, and it’s possible to have liquid or even solid hydrogen.
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Children experience the physical properties of liquids as they watch raindrops run down a window, observe how insects can walk on water, and notice how the “shape” of a liquid matches the container in which it is held. Thinking about similarities and differences among liquids helps to build foundational ideas of matter and molecular structure. In the following lesson, students explore the cohesiveness and surface tension of two liquids. Through observations and interactions, students develop an understanding about how liquids are similar and different.
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Water is an extraordinary substance that we often take for granted. Not only is it what makes our planet uniquely habitable, water is the only substance on Earth that naturally occurs in three different forms. In this month’s column, students will explore some of water’s fascinating properties.
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Children usually begin to understand that a substance called air is all around us after age three, but they don’t grasp that air is matter until age five, or even older. They may learn that “air is a gas” but have difficulty naming the substance that fills a soap bubble or explaining how a balloon expands, and they don’t understand where a gas released by opening a soda or mixing baking soda and vinegar comes from or where it goes. Yet, amid these ideas, early childhood is rich with opportunities for students to experience a range of gas behaviors; even if they can’t name or explain them. The lesson in this month’s column allows students to experience air’s mass and the force it can exert on objects.
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Many recipes for elementary science activities suggest making carbon dioxide from baking soda and vinegar; however, they often do not give exact measurements of the ingredients. The author was able to turn this “drawback” into a plus by challenging her fifth-grade students to find the ultimate fizz—i.,e., “What amount of baking soda added to a set amount of vineagar gives the maximum reaction without having leftover baking soda?” As students investigated this question with enthusiasm, graphing and measurement skills developed in the process.
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This article presents a lesson plan in which students learn about water in solid, liquid, and gaseous phases through trade books, demonstrations, and artwork. The author illustrates the stages of the lesson plan in the sequence they were conducted in the classroom with a group of students in grades one and two. Each stage targets specific learning skills and cognitive abilities that lead students to understand that water exists in different forms called phases and transforms from one phase to another.
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When it comes to learning about solids, liquids, and gases, children often bring interesting yet inaccurate ideas to the topic. When children’s ideas conflict with the concepts we seek to teach, they interfere with learning. Therefore, we must consider ways to elicit children’s thinking and match instruction and learning experiences to the knowledge, skills, and ideas learners bring with them. Here the authors present strategies for tapping into children’s ideas about matter and using them to inform instructional planning.
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