Batteries, Bulbs & Wires

Explore Together-How does a series circuit compare to a parallel circuit?
Make a simple circut:

• The light-bulb lit bright!

Make a series circut:

• Both light-bulbs lit, but not very bright.
• When we unscrewed one lightbulb, the other light bulb did not remain lit.

Make a parallel circut:

• Both light bulbs lit bright!
• When we unscrewed one light bulb, the other light remained lit.

Note: We related it to how sometimes a Christmas light will go out on a string and all the other ones after it go out. And other times when one Christmas light goes out, only that one goes out. In this situation we prefer parallel circuits as opposed to series circuit. 

Student-Centered activity: "Explore Independently":

• Materials: 1 battery, 1 bulb, 1 wire

1. Start "See if you can light the bulb using only these materials. Show all the ways you tried:

It didn't work!

It worked!

2. After you've managed to light the bulb, "can you light it in a different way?"

It worked!

3. 

• Can you light the bulb using 2 pieces of wire? Yes! 
• Can you do it without the bulb touching the battery? Yes! 
• Where must you touch the bulb to make it light? At the black bottom of the light bulb and at the side.
• How many places? 2.

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Standard/ Benchmark	Leaning Goals	Formative Assessment	Learning Performances
• Content Standard: K-4 • Standard: Physical Science • Content Standard B: Light, Heat, Electricity, and Magnetism • Benchmark: Electricity in circuits can produce light, heat, sound, and magnetic effects. Electrical circuits require a complete loop through which an electrical current can pass.	A complete circuit is needed to produce energy to light a light bulb.	Most students know that circuits require 2 wires to complete.	Students will be given many batteries, bulbs, and wires and told to explore these materials. They will collect evidence and show how they got their light bulb to light up in different ways. They will then evaluate and communicate with other sources to justify their findings.

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My Ideal Batteries, Bulbs & Wires Lesson Plan:

5-E Criteria	Part(s) of the lesson that addresses this inquiry criterion	More teacher-directed or student-directed? Explain.
Engage	Students are given the following question, “How does a light bulb work?” They will be handed flashlights, large light bulbs, small light bulbs, night-lights, etc. to start exploring.	Teacher/student directed: “Learner engages in questions provided by teacher, materials, or other source.” The students will be handed materials to explore and also is given a question, but the learner will have to opportunity to explore it.
Evidence	Students will be given a set of materials, such as batteries, bulbs, and wires to figure out how to light the disconnected light bulb.	Teacher/Student directed: “Learner directed to collect certain data.” The teacher through the materials gives the students guidance, but they are creating their own experimental trial and error session.
Explain	Students will take photos or draw diagrams out how they lit their light bulb. They will explain in their notebooks of how a light bulb got lit.	Student directed: “Learner explains own results.” The learner is coming up with their evidence and recording their own data on how a light bulb lights.
Evaluate	The students will briefly share their findings with their classmates and discuss with one another where they can find additional evidence to support their claims, such as books, internet, and even contacting electricians or scientists.	Student directed: “Learners lead discussion and evaluation of evidence.” The students are making connection between peers and through other sources that they came up with.
Communicate	Once students fully understand the main principles of circuits, they will present it to the whole class	Teacher/Student directed: “Learner forms reason as to why this occurred based on the data they came up with using the materials and outside sources.” The teacher can encourage complex student discussion and offer more examples.

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Reflection on pages 253-267:

This article showed how two teachers, Ms. Travis and Ms. Stone decided to use the science kit provided to them on the lesson of batteries, bulbs & wires. Ms. Stone conducted a more teacher-centered lesson while Ms. Travis allowed her students to be explorers of their own.  Ms. Stone made an effort to have her students learn vocabulary in relation to the lab and encouraged her students to follow the lab step by step to ensure there were no 'mistakes' made. Ms. Travis began class with an essential question to find out the common misconceptions of her students. She guided her students in the exploration process by giving them potential steps. Though Ms. Travis's lesson was not completely an inquiry based lesson, I believe that it was still more effective because she was able to relate back topics to her students. The students seemed to be more engaged and ready to learn. 

When I worked on this lab in class I can see how my probe was more like Ms. Travis's class. I was given an outline, but wasn't entirely sure what to do to make the lightbulb light with one wire. It was frusterating at times, but it's fun to realize the process you go through when you are discovering a new topic. It made me realize that I am not used to inquiry learning, but that it is still a great idea and something that I will want to push onto my students when I become a teacher. It will be a little scary allowing the students control but I think the payoff of them having "A-HA!" moments will be much greater.

Cool-It Lab: Inquiry Continuum

Blue Lab 1

Inquiry Criteria	Inquiry Continuum Statement	Why do you believe this fits?	How would you improve this part?
Engage	"The learner engages in question provided by teacher, materials, or other source"	The student did not have the opportunity to come up with their own question, it was posed to them.	A class discussion about drinking hot cocoa in the winter time would engage the students. It can be discussed how students have to wait for the cocoa to cool down before they drink it, otherwise they can burn their mouths. Then the students may come up with ideas of how they cool down their hot cocoa, may some people would say they blow on it, some might say they stir it, some might say they put marshmallows in it. All of these answers would be good as long as they are posed with a question like: "How does hot liquid cool quickly?"
Evidence	"Learner determines what constitutes evidence and collects it"	The students in this lab had the power to determine how they were to collect evidence. Though it was hinted at how to in the prompt, still the students could choose how often they stirred the water, how often to keep track of temperatures, in what time frame, etc.	To make this even more inquiry-based, students would be asking more questions of each other, trying many different ways to record data, not just one.
Explain	"Learner guided in process of formulating explanations from evidence"	They are prompted with a question of how to evaluate the evidence that they have collected and must explain their reasoning based off the evidence they they found.	Instead of being given questions that they must answer, students should be able to formulate what they have gathered in their evidence into something that they have learned as a result. This would require more discussion and possibly more experimentation.
Evaluate	"Learner independently examines other resources and forms the link to other explanations"	The students are not given any other sources of explanations. There is nothing in the prompt that says to look to outside sources to collect evidence and compare it to the evidence collected.	The students should be given time to compare the data they collected with other student's data, as well as an opportunity to explore scientific data on the cooling of liquids.
Communicate	"Learner forms reasonable and logical argument to communicate explanations"	The learner is not told specifically how to communicate their scientific explanations, they are just told to write it down without discussing it with other students.	Learners should decide as a community how they should communicate and justify their explanations. They should collectively decide a way to communicate their findings so that they are all informing others about their findings and are collectively deciding on a scientific principle.

Line of Learning

2.20.2012

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. Students learn science through the 5 step inquiry process.

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. Teachers should know the 5 steps of inquiry. These are: engage, evidence, explanation, evaluate and communicate. Students become engaged by asking 'how' questions instead of 'why'. Teachers should allow their student to use sources outside of the classroom such as books, photos, scientists, videos, experiments, etc. to evaluate and communicate findings. Allowing students to have control of the classroom may seem stressful because of time management, but it allows students to feel connected to the science.