I have been looking at ways to make science fun for your students and I wanted to write a simple post about something that may seem obvious to some of us but is hardly used in some current science classes. I touched on this in one of my first blog posts, but after experiencing a week of teaching at my clinical placement, I thought I could explore this idea further.
Talking about and referencing current events is done often in social studies classes but if used in other classes (math, science, literacy) students will be able to take more away from your lessons. To truly make science fun and engaging, one thing you need to have your students do is look at current events. There are plenty of places that your students can go to to find interesting, relevant-to-their-lives information. Upper elementary and older students can use news websites like cnn.com to find new things while younger students can look through their Weekly Reader (or comparable mini-magazine) to find articles and then the teacher can find related articles at their reading levels.
As I learned from my cooperating teacher in my clinical placement, if students are able to make connections and hook new ideas to their own lives, they will better remember the content that was taught. Current events that are found and researched by the student allow them to take more ownership for their own learning and the overall result is much more positive than if they sat in a desk for 50 minutes listening to their teacher talk.
I completely agree with you on this point. Last semester I took a geology class, and my teacher was sharing information about all the earthquakes happening in various parts of the world. Ever sinse I have noticed a lot of news reports related to science, especially geology. The most recent thing that I have learned about this is the volcano eruption in Indonesia. It really does help to realize that the things you learn are happening in the world, even if it is not really close to you.
ReplyDeleteI agree, current events are an excellent way to make science come alive for students. In my clinical placement, my partner and I taught a unit on plate tectonics and included current information about the San Andreas Fault in California. The amount of questions the students had was amazing! They were so excited to share what they knew and what they saw on the news the night before. I feel like the real-life current event helped make the unit come alive for the students and allowed them to become more engaged with what they were learning. The fact that what the students were learning about plate tectonics was "real" to them and could acctually be observed by them somehow made the information credible to the students and more worth while to learn.
ReplyDeleteSara,
ReplyDeleteCurrent events can be used in every class to supplement learning. During my clinical the instructor required students to do one current event report per week. The students were given an option of summarizng the article in front of the class, writing a short summary about the event, or presenting it by Power Point. This was a nice way to do the assignment, given that some students are terrified about talking in front of the class. Another good thing the instructor did was that the students could choose any current event, so long as it related to science. Why not encourage the students to broaden their interests by learning about the things that interest them the most? We often talk about how we can make science relevant. What better way than to encourage kids to learn how science shapes their lives, their futures, and the world around them.
When I taught middle school, other teachers had students do "Science News Articles". The assignment was to simply find an "science" article, write a three sentence summary of the article and identify 10 "science" words found in the article. I'll be honest, this is a horrible, horrible assignment. What would you do to ensure your "current events" stays mentally engaging rather than simply "jump through the hoops"?
ReplyDeleteSara-
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you, on the aspect of current events being useful in science. It is a great way to get students to make real life connections to what they are currently working on in science. It important that you as an educator can help students make the connection to what you are doing currently in the classroom to the current events that you are having the students read. Current events are great way to get all students involved and thinking on a whole new level.
Sara -
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome blog, because like you have said, yes it is obvious but it is not done in schools as often as it should be! You bring up some great points and how crucial it is that students can relate information they learn in the classroom to life outside of school. More than that, they need to be aware of issues that will be affecting them and their families on a regular basis!