Science Focus

My CT occasionally teaches science as with social studies in her 3rd grade classroom. There are times scheduled on the weekly schedule for science or social studies (alternating days) at the end of the day after P.E. I have seen science about 3 times so far, and I actually got to implement a mini lesson in science that my CT wanted me to do. The students were seated in the "book nook" with their science textbooks and worksheets, as my CT usually has them do. I read out of the book about adaptations, traits, and vertebrates and invertebrates and had the students engaged in discussion and talking about examples. Although few were not listening at times, the students liked it and one student said, "That was fun!" after reading and discussion. Then the students had to fill out their worksheets, using the word bank of the vocabulary learned. Another time, my CT had the students filling out a worksheet of the life cycle of a butterfly, and drawing and labeling the steps using the pictures and diagram in their science textbooks. I worked with two students on this, and they were specific in drawing and coloring their pictures like the real life pictures of the butterfly cycle in the book. Then the next week, my CT had an open book science test for the students to do that some had not completed yet, and she had me pull aside and work with two students who were struggling with it. This was on the content they were learning as described above, and also including migration, hibernation, and other topics. Other than this,  I have not seen other science content being taught. My CT has been focusing on more social studies content lately.

I think that the science textbooks and content in the books are appropriate and can be helpful with topics to discuss, new vocabulary to learn, and seeing real life pictures in the book. But I don't think relying on worksheets and test packets is super beneficial to the students, as we have discussed and learned at ISU. I think that an engaging activity could be used along with the worksheet, and even the drawing of the life cycle of the butterfly was more interactive. This kind of goes along with what we have learned in our science class about using drawings/labels/diagrams in science notebooks. I think science notebooks would be a great tool to use for students, and can help the students to think more critically.

Knowing this helps me to realize the science content I can teach derived from the science textbooks, but to use the content in more interactive and engaging ways. Science notebooks is definitely something I would like to use in my future teaching and classroom, after learning about it in my science class. I think it is very useful and helpful to students, and also to me as it can be a tool to assess their learning.