Week 14

Week in Review

And we're off. Third quarter is officially in session. This week my science students are getting their hands dirty in an Earth Processes unit. Over the next 5 weeks we will study characteristics of rocks and minerals, parts of the earth and the theory of plate tectonics, and will finish off with a big glance backwards in geologic time.

Monday

Snow day.

Tuesday

Students dove into the minerals samples to begin the unit. Without a word of instruction I passed out boxes of minerals and students had to brainstorm characteristics of the minerals they saw. They then chose one characteristic and made groups according to that characteristic.  For example if their brainstorm was: color, texture, size, odor (some smelled of nasty egg), sparklies, magnetic, brittleness; they may have chose texture and made a pile of smooth minerals and a pile of rough minerals.  After grouping a few different times they came up with questions they wanted to learn about the minerals that unit.  

I love starting the unit in this manner because it gets kids hands dirty and causes them to start asking questions, rather than beginning by giving students answers before they have any questions.

Wednesday

Students were told they were going to have a mineral identification lab on Friday, therefore they needed to learn the lab vocabulary today.  Students were given an open ended note sheet with a list of the terms they needed to learn and then given the freedom to right down whatever phrases and pictures they needed in order to learn the material.

I like using an open-ended note sheet because it gives students a bit of ownership over their notes. They know they need to know the terms and it gives them the freedom to choose what to write and where to access the material. If they like the material from the textbook - great. If they would rather obtain the info off the web -great. The trick as a teacher is to continuously circling your room and making sure students are understanding what they're writing down.

Thursday

Google doc. Students completed a line on the My mineral is better than your mineral google doc for their classs period.  It seemed like students loved getting a chance to explore what minerals had to do with their life.  My favorite quotes were "You mean gold is a mineral?" and "My birthstone is a mineral?" and "Let's fireproof our cell phones."

Having a column where students vote is pretty clutch. Not only do students know their work is public, but they keep trying to one up each other by finding the coolest minerals.  High motivation and high capability for creativity.

Friday

Lab Day. Students worked in collaborative groups to identify 5 mystery samples using the vocabulary they learned on Wednesday.  This is the day we discovered how well students understood their notes from Wednesday and many students learned there is a head knowledge and a skill knowledge to science.  Though most students could tell me the concept of hardness was a mineral's ability to resist being scratched, most had difficulty actually performing the task.

At the end of the lab students, had to write one sentence reflections that began with "Today I learned...."  My favorites:

• Today I learned some minerals are REALLY HARD. They can scratch nails!
• Today I learned biotite is weird and flaky.
• Today I learned minerals can cut glass.
• Today I learned cleavage means "clean cut" and fragment is "funky fresh."
• Today I learned not to work with *****. He does nothing."