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!!
Hey Sarah!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great lesson! That was a great idea to have the students construct their own definitions of the vocabulary. That makes it much more meaningful and relevant to them and they will probably remember them more easily. I'm sure the students loved the pen-lights! And great incorporation of engineering and technology with talking about the tools you use. I can't believe we only have one more lesson! Nice job!
~Becky