Mosart Tutorials

I thought that the tutorials given on the Mosart page was very interesting. I especially liked how they talked about how misconceptions of students often come from older siblings. As the youngest child in my family, I can see how this would be true. I would often look up to my brother and sister and try to copy them even though I was not as well mentally developed as they were. I think that I could use these probes in my classroom to redirect common preconceptions. The teacher in the video seemed to be very effective with her lesson and I would love to be able to teach a lesson as effectively as she had based on the students preconceptions.

Sweater Article

I loved the preconceived notions of the students about sweaters emitting heat. As the article states in the beginning, the children's experience with winters for the past 9 years has been their sole source of knowledge about how sweaters, hats, and blankets hold heat. I think the teacher did a great job guiding the students throughout their experiments with heat. The teacher had the students put the thermometer in the warm clothing and when the temperature didn't change after 15 minutes she could have simply told the students that warm clothing does not give off heat. Instead, she feed off of the insistent disbelief of her students. If the student's alternative views of this scientific principle was not addressed, they could have coexisted with "what the teacher told us" and created a mishmash of fact and fiction. "Children who are not often asked their opinions are especially reluctant to admit the errors in their thinking and will find ways to adjust old ideas before assimilating new ones." (37)


As a future teacher, I can actively promote new thinking patterns for my students through a variety of methods. First, I will stress relevance of my lessons. This way the students won't see lessons learned as just "stuff they learned in school." Second, I think that it is important to have my students make predictions, that way I can have some idea of what misunderstandings they may have and address those if needed. The only problem I see with this approach of teacher is running out of time. I think letting the students explore science on their own is a great idea, the consumption of time is the only thing that concerns me.

Line of Learning

1.29.2012

Line of Learning Questions:

1. How do elementary students learn science? 

Elementary students learn science by interacting with materials and becoming hands-on learners. These activities allow them to make connections, observations, and conclusions. They learn science by incorporating their knowledge about multiple subjects, such as mathematics and reading, and writing into the development of their creative thinking. As was shown in the moon lesson in class, a manipulative helps students demonstrate their knowledge and work through problems. Students are also more apt to learn science when they are able to connect what they are learning in the classroom to real life situations.

2. What classroom environments facilitate elementary students science learning? 

I believe that an environment that fosters student-centered learning; where the students needs come before the teacher. It is an environment that exposes children to different things and allows children to explore and test theories. 
The teacher should act as a facilitator; correcting misconceptions, guiding topics of conversation, and maintaing a safe and welcoming environment where students feel free to share thoughts openly with their classmates. 

3. What should teachers know and be able to do to design and foster effective elementary science learning environments?

Teachers should know that students work best when working with hands-on materials. They must also have Science notebook where write their thoughts on the subject matter. This can provide the student with a place to freely express his or her opinion and also a place for a teacher to assess the ability levels of his or her students and cater to those individual needs. A teacher should also know that it is okay for students to not know the right answer, but should give the students the time and opportunity to solve problems. A teacher should be able to gather information on what students already know or don't know. This allows the teacher to tackle the lesson knowing what common misconceptions need to be tackled. 

Classroom Assessment

I think this article posted a good reminder about classroom assessments through the idea of probes. As the article states, "(Probes) are assessments for learning, not assessments of learning". I think too often schools are primarily focused on the summative assessment aspect of learning and less focused on monitoring student learning. As a teacher, I believe that it is essential to select my curriculum based on the needs of my students. I think that this article is trying to provide a solution to the many misconceptions in the world of science in the classroom. I am interested to see what these probes actually are and how I would go about integrated them into my classroom. I wonder if they would actually work as well as they seem to be selling them in the introduction of this article.


I thought it was interesting the wording used to describe misconceptions committed by students. They use the phrase "alternative framework" to describe students misunderstandings of science. They state how maybe their alternative framework is not necessarily incorrect, it just differs from scientists. Overall, I think that it is important to use formative assessment in my future classroom to allow my student to explore their thoughts. The suggested use of probes seems interesting, though I am skeptical on how well they would actually work in a real-life classroom. They sound too good to be true. I am interested to hear the great ideas in this book and would like to know more about the given probes.