Weather Edited

Standard/ Benchmark	Learning Goals	Formative Assessment	Learning Performances
• Content Standard: K-4  •Standard: Earth and Space Science •Content Standard D: Changes in Earth and Sky •Benchmark: Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons.	The students will be able to recognize that there are many factors that influence temperature in a region.	Students have common misconceptions about how weather impacts temperature. 39% of students believe warm weather is caused by a combination of sun, humidity, and wind; 31%  to the sun; 14% to humidity. Most students (89%) did not understand that more information was needed.	Students will discuss their beliefs about weather all throughout the US by drawing the scale of temperature on a US map. Students will record observations of actual temperature on a map and discuss how temperature changes. Students will then discuss findings with other classmates and a local meteorologist.

Weather

Standard/Benchmark:

Content Standard: K-4
    STANDARD: Earth and Space Science
         Content Standard D: Changes in Earth and Sky
               Benchmark: Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons. 

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Leaning Goals: What should the students know?

• The students will understand that weather varies all across the United States and the world.
• The students will be able to recognize weather patterns in their region.
• The students will be able to recognize that there are many factors that influence temperature in a region.

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Formative Assessment: What do the students already know?

• Students have a common misconception about the causation of temperature because of their personal experience with weather in the area in which they live.

Formative Assessment Question

One spring day the hottest temperature in the U.S. was 90 ̊F. What was the weather like at the place where it was 90 ̊F?

• a. It was sunny. 
• b. It was very humid. 
• c. There was no wind. 
• d. More than one of the above was true. 
• e. More information is needed.

# of Responses

E: 11% (n=1186)

Answers and Information

The most frequent responses were D (39%), A (31%) and B (14%). Students might have been drawing more on personal experience than on knowledge of the weather when answering this item. 

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Learning Performances: What do you want students to do to show they've learned?

• Students will begin a classroom discussion about the yearly temperatures in our area. 
• Questions to prompt this discussion are: 
• What is the coldest/hottest day that you can remember? 
• What time of year was it? 
• Why do you think it was so cold/hot that day? 
• How does temperature change during the year? 
• What factors do you think affect these changes in temperature?
• Students will first think for 1 minute, then pair and share their ideas with classmates and teacher. 
• Students will begin thinking about the temperature patterns in our city. 
• Students will continue discussion about temperatures around the world.
• Questions to prompt this discussion are:
• Are the temperatures the same or different in other areas around the globe? Why or why not? 
• Where do you think the hottest/coldest parts of the world are?
• Students will begin to think about the different temperatures around the world.
• Students will be presented with a large world map and begin to fill in their hometown  area in a color in accordance to the students' believed current temperature of the area.
•  The following colors would be used: less than 0ºF, 0-20ºF, 20-40ºF, 40-60ºF, 60-80ºF, 80-100ºF, greater than 100ºF. 
• Students will be paired up and complete a temperature map using the color key.
• Students will then compare their findings with that on this world temperature map: http://www.wunderground.com/data/images/world_highs24.gif . (Or one similar if this one isn't working.)
• Students will look at what areas on the world temperature map and their hand-made map and discuss the similarities and differences. Students will explain why they believe there are differences.
• What factors influence temperature?
• Students will learn about the many factors that influence temperature through discussion. 
• Students will be given 3 factors, preferably one's that the students came up with for explanations for temperature differences, and will write HOW they think temperature changes, WHY they think it changes, and then come up with a plan on how they might investigate each factor further.
•  For Example: the effect that day and night has on the daily changes in temperature. 

Factor	How	Why	Investigative Plan
Day and night:	Example: I think that during the day, it will be hotter while during the night, it will be cooler.	Example: That's because the sun is out during the day and heats up the earth.	Example: I plan to record the temperature at night and day over a series of weeks to determine if there is any relationship

• They will do the same with the next three.

Latitude:   
Elevation:   
Local Geography: 
(source: http://www.ciese.org/curriculum/weatherproj2/en/lessonC1.shtml)

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1. Explain how the learning performance you chose would help you understand what students know about the standard you identified (learning goals: what students should know).

The learning performance would help me understand what my students know about Earth and Space Science because it would allow the students to first formulate and express their own opinions on how temperature is displayed around the globe and also communicate to develop new factors that may influence temperature.

2. Explain how your Learning Performance contains all five features of inquiry.

Engaged- The students will be engaged with the telling of their personal weather experiences through class discussion. It will get them to ask and answer questions. Students will be guided to reliable sources with the display of the national temperature map. 

Evidence-The students give priority to the evidence displayed on the national temperature map. They can see that the temperatures displayed are those of the truth and can then compare and contrast their own constructed graphs with the real one. 

Explanations-The students will formulate explanations through comparing and contrasting the evidence and the graph that was made by each student. They may be in shock or be upset because they have to disregard their prior knowledge and focus on what the evidence is telling them. 

Evaluate-The students will evaluate temperature changes through their investigative plan. This is a way for students to refine their original ideas with external sources.

Communicate-The students will communicate their findings with their peers and successfully justify their findings in a presentation to the class and "meteorologists". Students will be more apt to put forth their best effort when they believe that they are presenting to weather forecasters. 

Line of Learning

2.13.2012

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. The School of the Wild is a great example of a place where students can be completely exposed to the physical science all around them, it is also easy for students to connect to the real world through this experience, because that is exactly what they are studying. Also, students may still hold onto these misconceptions even after doing hands on learning, so students can learn best when they truly overcome these misconceptions. Students learn from making mistakes in their experiments. Students will learn science by experimenting, teachers should not always give students a ideal lab to eliminate mistakes. 

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. A classroom environment where students are allowed to work together is helpful for students. 

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. A way to gather this information is through assessment probes, which can be easily distributed online through google forms.Teachers should become familiar with the core standards in their state. This will allow the teacher to know what the goals are of their students.

Inquiry National Science Education Standards

Chapter 2 explores the idea of inquiry. As stated on page 5, inquiry is a natural human characteristic. 

"As children and as adults, when faced with an unknown situation, we try to determine what is happening and predict what will happen next. We reflect on the world around us by observing, gathering, assembling, and synthesizing information. We develop and use tools to measure and observe as well as to analyze information and create models. We check and re-check what we think will happen and compare results to what we already know. We change our ideas based on what we learn."

The article gives a great example of inquiry in a 5th grade classroom. Students questioned why 3 similar trees did not appear the same outside of the school. The teacher allowed her students to explore ideas for about a month and finally came to a conclusion about the amount of water each tree was exposed to. The students then came up with a plan to make sure all three trees were given the correct amount of water to keep them healthy.


I think that this is a great level of thinking and learning. I think table 2-2 gives a great breakdown on how to implement inquiry in classrooms of grade levels between K-12. As a science teacher I will be sure to look at the five 'Essential Features of Classroom Inquiry' listed on page 25. There may be some variations to classroom inquiry such as the freedom of the students in choosing the question. As long as the students go through the necessary steps of figuring out the problem on their own, classroom inquiry will be successful. 


Overall, this article taught me the practical use of inquiry in my classroom and also how it benefits the learning of my students. I will need to be aware that inquiry takes more time to teach, but I think that the impact that it will have on my students will determine me to teach my students science through the process of inquiry.

Activitymania

I am very familiar with the idea of activitymania. I can remember growing up doing multiple experiments to find one solid answer. I think that the hands-on aspect of the experiments was great. As page 15 states, "when students have opportunities to use their experiences and observations as the basis for science learning, science becomes relevant, stimulating, integrated, and accessible to everyone". However, the time put in was too short to fully learn a concept. This article really hit home to me because as a student, these experiments felt dull. I wasn't able to connect it to anything in the real world; I couldn't understand how it related to me.


I thought that the chart given on page 17 was very telling of how activitymania would look like in a classroom. It is obvious that activitymania should shift towards inquiry. Still though, I believe that it is a step-up from a teacher-directed, textbook-centered classroom. As Table 1 shows, activitymania has one right answer for the students to solve. With inquiry, students can develop the question, the teacher does not know the answer and multiple answers are accepted. I think this would motivate students in their science procedures.


Overall, this impacts me as a teacher. Inquiry learning would take much more time as shown in Table 1, but I think that the results are worth it. I think it would impact my students by feeling that their experiements have worth. They actually mean something to them.  Giving students control may be risky, but I think students could surprise teachers in their abilities. The shift from textbook to activitymania was good, but now inquiry learning should be the next step for science classrooms.