science fair

Today we judged the science fair in Elk Point. This was such a neat experience, we got there about noon and were treated with school lunch! yummy :) Then we worked with 5th through 8th graders and I was so impressed with the projects done. This was a very neat experience for all of us. The one I liked best was a 5th grade girl named Madelynne, she was showing the importance of calcium and did so by soaking eggs and and bones in vinegar and after just a few days, the bones started to bend and the egg was see-through and could bounce. The girl had so many great facts and didn't need any notecards, it was so impressive and she said, "if you drink vinegar you will be all jiggly!" She was so cute, and all of the projects were just so interesting, especially for such young kids to do.

semester coming to an end...

Well when I looked at my agenda and saw that we only have 2 and a half weeks left of school I about died! Seriously, I have so much stuff to do! That explains me blogging at 7pm on a Friday night. As far as Science goes, we have our bloggs and discussions, along with our group lesson 3 and a presentation, but only have 4 classes left because next Tuesday we are going to judge the science fair in Beresford, SD. However, I am so excited for Thanksgiving break and the wonderful meal that goes along with it.

lesson plan 2

Megan and I prepared our second lesson plan and we had its theme be on endagered species and we included a book, internet sites, and art work. The lesson incorporated the 5E model and was very in-depth, I am impressed with it, and hopefully can use it in my future classroom. It was nice having a day off this week and we just ended up uploading these papers to D2L and are presenting our last lesson plan instead, so it worked out just fine. I like creating lesson plans because you always get to do fun experiments and stuff.

in class work day!

Today was an in-class work day, which was well overdue! We are at that point where everything is due and was put on the back burner, but now is boiling over! :) But seriously, we got caught up on our re-do's for the last couple weeks assignments, and got ideas for next weeks lesson plan presentation. It was so nice to get to work with our partners during class because sometimes its hard to find time to get together. This semester is rapping up so quickly, not to mention time is flying in general and this whole semester is going by quicker than ever! If only we had more work time in our classes like we got today....

trying the 5E

Todays class consisted of us looking over the 5E model, which I blogged about yesterday, and we got into groups and tried applying what we knew. We took chunks of potatoes and water and added different amounts of salt to each glass, in the end we realized the more salt in the water caused the potato to float and the less the salt, the potato sank. We used the 5E's while participating and it was a fun observation.

The 5 E model

I think the 5 E model (engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate) is a very good model for teachers to use in their instruction. I think it gives a very good structure for teachers to follow. I think using this model gets children involved and interested in the material and are more likely to actually learn and understand that content area. I feel children do need to engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate the material. I think this model forces students to really work with the material and make connections to their own lives.

last day for presentations...

Today we had our final presentations in class, one we got to talk about the seasons, it was fun because we got to make a little color book with each season and we really enjoy doing artwork. We also went outside to shoot off the bottle rockets, this was funny because they actually did go high, but there were a couple that wouldn't go off and we would just wait...i guess you had to be there. After this we went over all the stuff that will be due in the next week, and let me tell you it is a lot. Every semester, after midterms, we can bombarded with stuff, mostly because we procrastinated before, but Dr. E is helping us out so not everything is due at one time.