And for the finale, let's play "Name that mineral!"

For our final lesson in the rocks and minerals unit, our classroom teacher suggested that we do lesson 14, which is mineral identification. So the students received 12 cards, 1 for each of the minerals, containing information collected by a geologist and they were to match this information to their own observations (done during each lesson- streak, color, luster, etc) to identify the minerals. My partner Tracey did a great job as usual explaining the lesson in her blog post, so I'll just try to add to what she has already summarized.

I was really impressed with how far the students have come in terms of knowing what to do, following directions, and being active and engaged in the lesson. During the first lesson, a lot of time was spent just getting materials and guiding students through each step of the lesson (using the chimes). Now the students know exactly what to do, they put their gloves right on and get down to work and work so nicely together in their groups sharing ideas and observations (we rarely had to use the chimes). I was also really impressed with the different strategies students used to try to identify the minerals (some students laid all the cards out on one desk so they could see them all at once, instead of shuffling through them), and how well the pairs worked together to make the the identifications. Even Tracey and I thought it was pretty difficult to make the identifications based on the Identification Cards, but the students did great! Although not every student finished and none of them had identified all the minerals correctly, they did have a lot of them correct (like sulfur and Muscovite) and their wrong answers were minerals that were very similar to one another (like magnetite and hematite).















We kept our intro brief, but we still needed more time for the mineral identification than we expected and we only had time to read the correct answers and not really go over the student's reasoning behind their choices, which we would have liked to do. Going from group to group though during the lesson, gave me a good idea of how students were making their decisions and Tracey and I would give them tips and strategies to help them use deductive reasoning to make the right choices. Overall, I felt it was a great final lesson and a great way to see what the students had learned over the course of the unit!

The best part of the lesson, by far, was when we were presented with a book for each of us made by the students with all they had learned and what they liked about us and our lessons! The students had each drawn a picture and written "The most important thing about Ms. Ross is ..." It was a great way to see what the students had learned and what they felt were our best attributes as teachers. Most students wrote that we were really helpful and taught them a lot, but one student wrote that the most important thing about me is that I have long hair lol! I guess to that fourth grader that is the most important thing! I'm going to miss those little kiddos!!

Is this Oh-pa-coo??

This week our little kiddos did double duty when we combined 2 lessons, light transmissivity and luster, into one! Fortunately it was a good combo because both lessons involved the use of light pens and similar materials (foil, wax paper, etc) were needed. The great part is that next week we'll be able to wrap up our unit with the final lesson in which the students identify the minerals based on all the information they have gathered during each activity! It should prove to be pretty exciting for the students and us as well!

We had a lot of difficult vocabulary in this lesson, so we had the students make their own definitions for the words; opaque, translucent, transparent, metallic, waxy, glassy, and dull after demonstrating each of these properties with a flashlight and different materials (wax paper, aluminum foil, glass, cardboard, etc). This really gave the students a better understanding of the concepts, and after we wrote their definitions on chart board paper, we hung them on the board so students could refer to them while doing the light and luster tests. We also used a great tip from Bindu, which was to have the students repeat back the directions to us so we know that they understand what to do and so their peers can hear the directions in their own words. It was great to hear the students saying, "I think this mineral is translucent!" But the best was when a student asked me if a mineral was "oh-pa-coo" (opaque), too cute!

To incorporate engineering and technology connections into our lesson, we made sure to explain how to use the tools (in this lesson it was the pen-lights) correctly and how these tools helped identify the mineral properties of light transmissivity and luster. We also had students read about the industrial and tech applications and uses of minerals which were printed at the end of their Rock & Mineral journals.

Overall I think the lesson was pretty successful and during the conclusion Tracey and I were impressed with their use of the vocabulary and observations when they shared their results. Can't wait for next week!!

What is flaky, hard, and smells like rotten eggs?

Stale cheese bread? No....













An old episode of American Idol? Maybe..........





Minerals?!! Yes, that's what!

This week our students observed and recorded 3 different physical properties of all 12 mineral samples; appearance, texture, and smell. Completing this task along with an introduction and conclusion within 45 minutes was not easy, so time management was a big concern during this lesson. Fortunately we kept our intro and conclusion short and used the classroom chimes to usher students along from mineral to mineral every few minutes and they were able to complete their recordings on time. In fact, the lesson went so smoothly and well that we felt it was our BEST LESSON EVER!! yay!!
This week we were also being observed by our professors on the following items; content vocabulary, flow, and misconceptions identified. For vocabulary we introduced the words texture, which students understood as what something feels like; and metallic (in terms of smell) and Tracey gave the great example of how pennies or coins smell. Another word that became a vocab word was one I had given as an example of a possible texture; flaky. I hadn't anticipated that students might not know this word, so after more then one group of students asked me what it meant, I made sure to go over it with every group ( I suggested to think of flaky piece of bread because I thought phyllo dough or croissant might be a whole other set of vocab words) and I pointed out Muscovite (mica) as an example.

Because there were so many materials to be passed out to each group and we wanted to give students as much time as possible to record their observations, I passed out all the materials while Tracey gave the introduction. If they hadn't had indoor recess beforehand, I could have done it then, but this strategy worked just as well because when students returned to their seats, there materials were all there for them ready to go (and no time was lost on material distribution). We also used the chimes again to signal to students when they should be finishing their recordings on one mineral and moving on to the next. We felt this really helped with time management, especially because there was very little time to complete all 12 observations.

At the end of the lesson we introduced the word misconception, which became another vocab word, but the students quickly understood it to mean something that they think to be true but really isn't. When we asked the students if they had any misconceptions about minerals before the lesson they were able to give many great examples, so we knew they understood not only the word misconception, but had also learned a lot from the lesson itself!

I was also impressed with how well students worked in pairs and took their tasks very seriously! Students discussed their results together and and compared with other partners as well. They also wafted instead of sniffed and always kept their minerals in their gloved hand--- little geologists in the making!! I think it was a lot of fun for the students, and it was a lot of fun for us because we're feeling more comfortable and confident in the classroom.

And Now, Introducing Minerals! Yay!!!

So this week my science partner Tracey and I introduced minerals to our 4th grade class and the students were even more excited than we were about them! There were 12 minerals in all, but we had the students focus on just the first 3; feldspar, quartz and pyrite. Because pyrite is toxic, we required the students to wear a plastic glove while holding all the minerals as a safety precaution, but unfortunately the plastic gloves caused a lot of sweaty hands! Other than that, I felt we had another fun and successful lesson for our little geologists!

Our professors observed our lesson and evaluated us this week based on Classroom Management, Process Skills, and Lesson Conclusion.

I felt our classroom management was a little off this week, but who knew hand-washing would throw such a kink in our lesson flow?! Having students wash their hands after using gloves while observing the minerals caused not only a traffic jam at the sink, students who were finished to be off-task, but it also wasted precious instructional time as well. Our classroom teacher suggested that next time the students either wash their hands after the lesson or not at all (since their hands were already gloved). The other issue seemed to be that our instructions were not simple or explicit enough and our classroom teacher had to interrupt a few times to remind students of what they should be doing. We thought we had really explained and modeled the directions clearly, but I think we need to simplify instructions a bit more and make them more step by step (rather than all at once).

For process skills we felt that we incorporated many process skills into the lesson including raising questions, predicting, hypothesizing, observation, investigation, interpreting evidence, and communicating/reflecting. What we learned is that we should have chosen just one of the skills to introduce to the students and explain and demonstrate it for them.

For our lesson conclusion we brought students back to the rug to discuss their observations of the 3 minerals and how they compared to the rocks we had previously observed, as well as their previous ideas about what a mineral was, and if they answered any of their own questions about minerals. Because hand-washing was so time consuming, we weren't able to read an excerpt about feldspar or take many student questions, but we asked students to try to think of some questions and bring them in next week.

The positive aspects of the lesson I felt were: the student's excitement and enthusiasm about minerals, our lesson planning and flow (other than the delay with hand-washing), keeping students on-task and engaged, and encouraging the use of science process skills (if not directly, but indirectly). Again I was impressed with student's prior knowledge about minerals and their observations were very impressive as well. Overall I'd say it was a good lesson that could have been a bit smoother had their not have been so many sweaty little hands and only one sink!

It's Sedimentary My Dear Watson...

This week Tracey and I taught Lesson 2 of our Rocks and Minerals Unit and the focus was on the 3 types of rocks; igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary, as well as the rock cycle. Tracey and I had done a lot of preparation for this lesson and I found I needed to do a lot of research on the topic before I would be able to confidently distinguish the 3 types of rocks myself, let alone show the students how to do it. I found some great sites- The University of Missouri E-themes on Rocks and Minerals lists sites that provide credible info and fun activities for the unit, and The Geological Society had a wonderful interactive rock cycle and descriptions and uses of each of the 12 rocks we'd be using in class! I found these sites to be extremely informative and valuable while planning our lesson as well.

We began our lesson with the students on the rug and reviewed the 3 types of rocks; igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. Fortunately our class teacher had already gone over these, but we were to introduce the concept of the rock cycle. Before we began our lesson the teacher reminded us to be very clear, concise, explicit, and to model the behaviors that we wanted the students to exhibit. She also said that because these were new concepts, not to bog students down with superfluous vocab, but instead to give them the main ideas. This was great advice, but it caused me a bit of panic when I realized my Rock Cycle poster was laden with words like "crystalline, foliated, intrusive, extrusive" etc. Luckily Tracey and I had time to reword our explanations into terms that the students would be more familiar with (like crystal vs. crystalline, or layered instead of foliated) and also to help them to make make connections with the new vocab (metamorphic) and concepts they already know (morph means to change like a butterfly transforms). I also got some fabulous ideas from another great website to show students how metamorphic rocks form from heat and pressure by having the students rub their hands together (and feel the heat) and push the hands together (to feel the heat and pressure). After consulting with the classroom teacher, I think next time we would introduce the rock cycle at the end of the lesson and not right after talking about the 3 types of rock-- it may have been a bit too much instruction all at once.

Because our lesson last week went over-time, this week we were very careful about our time-management, which included time spent on managing materials. Upon our classroom teacher's suggestion, we decided to "pre-assemble" our student's trays with the rocks that they would be using for the lesson as well as the hand lenses and calling students up a pair at a time to retrieve materials, so that valuable learning time wouldn't be wasted with students choosing the "prettiest rock" out of the bin. We also found that giving students time reminders during the activity so they knew how far along they should be (half-way, almost finished, 2 more minutes) were helpful for them and us.

Although the unit lesson did not explicitly cover the frameworks, we made sure to include the rock cycle and how rocks form in our lesson. Ben mentioned that students thought rocks could be fabricated, and that was a common misconception in our class as well and I'd like to revisit that point again when we discuss what the students have learned about rocks so far at the beginning of our next lesson.

A few other things worth mentioning are that I was really impressed with how well the students worked together in pairs and observed the rocks and then classified them- it was so great to see them talking like little geologists! We had also listed the major properties of each type of rock on the board and I think that was a huge help to the students, because otherwise I think they were overloaded with new information.

Another great moment was when a student came up to us after class to show us the geode she had brought in and explained to us how exciting it was for her to have found it! This was especially uplifting since at the beginning of our lesson when we asked of students were ready to look at rocks again, I heard a couple students say "no!" I'm sure when they see the dozen shiny and colorful minerals we have lined up for next week's lesson, they will be less lackluster!

A rocky week, but the 1st Rocks and Minerals lesson plan was as smooth as polished granite!

With my daughter having surgery and being in and out of the hospital 3 times this week, I apologize if this post is not as entertaining as the previous ones, but to say that this has been an extremely difficult week would be an understatement.

That said, I think the first rocks and minerals lesson went fairly well! The students made observations and comparisons between 3 rocks; granite, gneiss (pronounced 'nice'), and conglomerate. For a more detailed description, check out my teaching partner Tracey's blog post for this week. She did a great job explaining the smooth and rough parts of the lesson, gneiss job Tracey!!

She and I worked really hard preparing for our first lesson, and I was glad to say we were "ready to rock" as Tracey said! She had made these great colorful name tags that had the students names like "Suzie the scientist," which I think they liked and it made it so much easier to call them by name. I also think this made them excited about the lesson! I was really impressed with how much they knew about rocks already, and how much they were willing to share. In fact we didn't have enough time to call on everyone that had their hand up! The classroom teacher, Miss Mary Poppins as I call her, gave us a great suggestion to not only call on students who didn't have their hand up, but to encourage them to share by saying, "I know you made some great observations, why don't you share one with the class." I thought that was a great way to get all the students involved, feeling part of the activity, and that their observations and opinions matter.

I felt Tracey and I did a good job of dividing up the lesson and instruction time, but next time we need to schedule the parts of the lesson so that it doesn't run over time. We were also told we need to work on speaking more formally and not addressing the students as "you guys," but since I was so nervous I don't even remember doing that! I will definitely be more aware of my diction during the next lesson. We wouldn't want the kiddos speaking like Sloth from the Goonies, "Heeeyyy, yoouuuu guuuuyyysss!!!"

Now we know what worked well, and what didn't, so we know what not to do for next time!

Gneiss work Tracey! We rock!

Just a Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Minerals Go Down!

This week we had the pleasure of meeting the teacher and 4th grade class where we'll be teaching our science lessons about rocks and minerals. The school, despite its aged exterior, houses a warm and vibrant student and faculty population in a quiet and quaint suburban area. The teacher, who is like a modern day Mary Poppins fabulously dressed in Ann Taylor Loft from head to toe, was super friendly and eager to have us aboard. Of course it doesn't hurt that my science partner Tracey has known her for years through a mutual friend (that little Tracey has more connections than a USB hub)!


Of course Miss Mary was a pleasure, and her "kiddos" as she calls them, were equally impressive even though we weren't formally introduced. We did watch them interacting with a guest speaker who was discussing the Industrial Revolution and we ascertained that if they were that comfortable with a complete stranger who was talking about the move from farms to factories, we could certainly expect them to be engaged in our hands-on and exciting rocks and minerals lesson (or at least we hope)!

Science is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!

We will, we will, ROCK you!! (and they'll be some minerals too)!

I was going to name this post "Sex, Drugs, and Rocks & Minerals," but then I thought maybe not for 4th graders... so good thing this post is for my fellow graduate students!

This week we were assigned our science unit and my teaching partner Tracey and I were given the subject Rocks and Minerals, yippee!

So, where could 2 lovely prospective teachers brush up on their Earth and Space Science concepts before they get down to the business of teaching it to 4th grade students? Well, first I checked out my partner Tracey's awesome post on the subject- she's a regular Googlista when it comes to compiling relevant sites! What a gem!

Next, I checked out what my old pals Tim & Moby at BRAINPOP had to say on the subject. After watching their mineral identification video, you could determine if that bling on your finger is the real deal or if it's time to get a new boyfriend! Hmmmm... should we give Rana's ring the scratch test?

Then I thought I might take a trip to one of the museums that I remember visiting as a kid and learning about rocks and minerals (or at least take a virtual trip anyway). The Museum of Natural History's Hall of Gems is brilliant! And the Harvard Museum of Science has a dazzling exhibit on Minerals, Gems, and Meteorites!


I also went on PBS' Teacher's website and checked out mineralogist Elizabeth Arredondo's Real Scientist Clip to learn more about how multifaceted a career in minerals can be. Her job rocks!

Now I'm ready to facilitate my 4th graders exploration of rocks and minerals, and hopefully my lesson won't be so rocky! At least now I know the Mohs Scale has nothing to do with the Three Stooges, nice cleavage is not just a compliment- it's a mineral property and streaking can actually be a good thing to do in a classroom! YAY Rocks & Minerals unit, rock on!

Set Your Sights on Science Sites (and learn why fecal matter matters)!

This week it was our mission to find a website that is geared toward teaching science, or one that is geared towards students who want to learn about science-- and I was fortunate enough to discover one that meets both those requirements!

After peeping the wonderful resource SCIENCE NETLINKS on Tracey's fabulous blog, I found a link to a great website created by the US Environmental Protection Agency called ENVIRONMENTAL KIDS CLUB (http://www.epa.gov/kids/). This site is awesome because it appeals to children who have an interest in the natural world (pretty much all kids), and it presents science info in fun and interactive games, pictures, and stories. One interesting topic I found for kids was called "Sewage in Your Face," which is described as "getting to the bottom of sewage in a fun and interactive way!"
In this activity children learn what sewage is and where it goes from flush, to throughout the treatment plant process, and beyond.
There are even recipes for making food that looks like raw sewage (yummy fake sludge cakes)!! Maybe this was the inspiration for the Modern Toilet Restaurant in Taipei! This original toilet-themed restaurant serves chocolate ice cream that has an eerie resemblance to you-know-what... could you eat out of a toilet-shaped bowl?

And don't forget to answer the sewage poll on which bodily function is the loudest- a burp, sneeze, or fart?

Another helpful aspect of the Environmental Kids Club site, is the section devoted just to teachers which includes links to other science resources, lesson plans, activities, ways to apply for grants, and much more!

Poo on you if you don't check it out!!

She Blinded Me with Science

She Blinded Me with Science video--check it out if you've never seen it! Before taking this course (Elementary Science Methods), I never considered myself as a “scientist” or even a person who liked science. I'm an artsy girl, or a poet, not a scientist. Thinking of science conjures up imagines of dissecting animals in biology class (yuck!) or chemistry formulas I could never get right. When I think of a scientist, I think of a technician in a lab coat recording data from test tubes. Sure it’s a bad stereotype, but who wasn’t thinking of Einstein? But science is more than dead old white guys (which makes me think of a great book "Even the Rat Was White"), my professor explained that being a scientist is all about asking questions; questions about the natural world. That’s when a light bulb went off in my head-- because I do that, I ask questions! So think about it, have you ever… looked at the sky? Wondered about something? Took something apart to figure it out? Thought about changing seasons? Enjoyed learning about animals or nature, dinosaurs, planets? Or maybe you thought the moon was following you as a kid… or maybe that was just me…

So, are those things science? You bet your Bunsen burner they are! Do you have a DVD player, a computer, a cell phone, an iPod? Science my dear boy - it's all thanks to science. Wear jewelry? Those are minerals and metals. Did you eat today? Science; it's what's for dinner! Did you enjoy the film Frankenstein? Apollo 13? Beautiful Mind? Happy Feet? Spiderman 3? Ice Princess? Twister? Finding Nemo? Avatar? What these films have in common? Science, that’s right they’re science flicks!

Ok, now think about much of a science geek you are or you could just take this quiz.

So as for me, my science adventure began when I was a little kid catching frogs in my grandmother’s yard with my cousins, learning about whales (I think I knew every species when I was 7), learning about plants from my mother’s garden, I loved going to the aquarium, the zoo, the Museum of Natural History (or as my dad called it, the Museum of Nostril History),the planetarium (space ice cream, yum!), learning about rainbows, watching National Geographic movies with my sisters, and later learning about Darwinism and evolution, psychology and social and behavioral sciences, nutrition and ecology.

All throughout childhood I was learning about science from my dad’s love of reptiles, my mom’s love of butterflies, my sister’s love of plants and horticulture, my other sister's love of beauty products, and my step-dad building things and testing products as prototype developer.

When I was growing up I spent my summer vacations living on my dad’s houseboat in Huntington Harbor and my sisters and I would catch minnows, row to the beach to find horseshoe crabs, feed the swans Cheerios and do all sorts of natural observations. We watched Bill Nye and Beakman’s World and we loved science, we just didn’t know it!

Now I have a daughter and she loves to play with water, catch falling leaves, to go to the aquarium, and look at the moon. She loves watching Dinosaur Train, Zula Patrol, Sid the Science Kid, and Curious George. Like George, science is all about being curious- so what are you curious about?

So now I'm feelin' pretty darn scientific! And the next time someone asks me what a scientist looks like, I'll just look in the mirror!