I agree that there are some fundamental scientific concepts that every primary school science curriculum should revolve around.

These concepts help us put our very lives in perspective. Who are we in relation to the universe? What exactly are we made up of? Where did we come from? To create models that students can actually conceptualize, where they can walk in and out of and envision creates a platform for developing this perspective. Understanding the vast amount of space in our universe and our minuscule relation to that vastness, or understanding the complexity of our intricate genetic make up and how we have evolved into the beings we are today, all of this is crucial to our capability to exist rationally in this lifetime.

I have always considered the main goal of teaching to be to inspire students to think for themselves and eagerly seek out information and experiences that will help them understand the world around them. I always have felt that the main goal of education should be to create well-rounded individuals with a strong grasp on identity- personally and conceptually- so that they can better understand themselves and the reasoning behind people's actions, both historically and in contemporary contexts.  Education should aid students in their quest to gain better perspective on themselves, other people, and the world in general. This article prompts me to consider the ways in which I can articulate the means necessary in order make that goal more attainable. In other words- I can find overarching concepts in each subject area that are fundamentally necessary to fully embrace in order to approach the world individually, intellectually, and inquisitively... but also with perspective on the greater picture, and the individual's relationship with that which transcends the notion of ego.   

"I wouldn't care very much if a sixth grader didn't know the definitions of acid and alkali, or pistil and stamen. If the kid had a sense of scale, a sense of place in the web of creation, a sense of wonder- that would be scientific literacy enough for me."

This comprehensive weather unit complete with cross-curricula integration opportunities has been a wonderful example of how to construct unit that seriously effective. I have done a lot of reading about how social studies can be integrated into multi-subject areas, so it was nice to have an example of how science can be integrated, as well. I also feel that this unit was very clearly and visually organized (on pages 8 & 9), and think it is a great model for how I would like to organize my personally developed curriculum in the future. Not to mention, the organization makes it very easy to follow. Judging from the write up of this entire unit, It is evident just how important scaffolding is for student's learning.

I especially enjoyed learning about the "Focus-Explore-Reflect-Apply" cycle that the STC (Science and Technology for Children) incorporates into educational units. I agree that "knowledge is actively constructed by each learner and that children learn science best in a hand-on experimental environment where they can make their own discoveries." (p. iii) This directly relates to our class discussions, annenberg videos, selected readings about the importance of student inquiry. By exploring the ideas students have about scientific topics and engaging them in hands-on experimentation to clarify and extend these ideas, the F.E.R.A cycle utilizes inquiry for learning.
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Focus: explore and clarify the ideas that children already have about the topic
Explore: enable children to engage in hands-on explorations of the objects, organisms, and science phenomena to be investigated
Reflect: encourage children to discuss their observations and to reconcile their ideas
Apply: help children discuss and apply their new ideas in new situations

Chapters 1-3 are packed full of valuable information, and I could write an entire essay just on how imperative everything discussed actually is.

I definitely  feel that the "Four stages of teaching" discussed in chapter one are realistic. I feel that I can only place myself in certain stages hypothetically, though, seeing as how I am not yet in a classroom of my own. I definitely hope to reach a level of mastery within my first year so that I can impact student's lives... but,  I know that may be easier said than done. I don't want to be a teacher for the paycheck or benefits, but that doesn't mean that I won't feel that I am in constant survival MODE my first year. I understand the necessity of being accountable for your students, and understand that activities and lessons serve a purpose far beyond entertainment... and should serve to spark inquiry above simply relaying factual knowledge. I guess I just realize that mastery takes work, and that in order to reach that stage a lot of time and energy has to be put into creating efficient and effective practices. I have the passion to put in the time and work, and I am therefore hoping that it will pay off for both myself and my students in my first year. 

The most important thing I am taking away from this text has to do with the teacher/student relationship. A lot of my students ask me if I am their "friend". As a young teacher, I am still trying to figure out how to correctly respond to this question. A lot of times I say "I am your friend because I can help you learn something, so in that case I am like an 'adult friend'. But it is a different kind of friend than the friends you have in class, in your neighborhood, through your family, or in extra curricular activities. I am your teacher, but your friend because I help you learn"

I don't know if that is what I am supposed to say. But I know that every teacher has always told me, "DON'T BE YOUR STUDENT'S FRIEND" I always understood why that was important, but not the reasoning behind it. Now I get it- if you are a student's friend, they will expect you to act similarly to the way their other friends act. They will "expect favors" from you that you just cannot give without maintaining neutrality amongst the class and remaining fair. If you do not grant them certain things they want, or act toward them in ways that they consider to be imperative to "friendship", they will resent you. This makes me think of how hard it has been to live with roommates who are friends for the very same reason! Anyway- now I feel that I have a better grasp on just why everyone has told me "don't be your student's friends".

Also- I never thought of it this way, but it really is true that in your first year of teaching you are expected to "perform your full complement of duties immediately while learning them at the same time." I realize this is why it is imperative to keep in touch with my peers so that I can share experiences, and also "beg borrow and steal" from more seasoned teachers who know what they are doing.

Efficient: Doing things right
Effective: Doing the right thing
"The effective teacher affects lives"

The following notes are for my benefit:

The Effective Teacher:
1) Establishes good control the first week of school.
2) Does things right, consistently
3) Affects and touches lives.
4) Exhibits positive expectations for all students
5) Establishes good classroom management techniques
6) Designs lessons for student mastery
7) Works cooperatively and learns from colleagues
8) Seeks out a mentor who serves as a role model
9) Goes to professional meetings to learn
10) Has a goal of striving for excellence

Comets, Stars, the Moon and Mars is a whimsical approach to outer space written in lyrical prose and lends itself to an integrated science and language arts lesson. In addition to it's eclectic illustration, this book is a gem because it utilizes poetry to relay particular information on a broad spectrum, spanning from specific planets to black holes, constellations, the universe, and more. It also provides further reading for each content area in an informational glossary, which is great because kids don't have to go far to indulge in any curiosity mustered up by the poems. Also, because the poems vary in structure, this book can also be used to study cadence, structural, and other elements of poetry.

I would use this book in a few different ways. Obviously, it could be used as an introduction to a unit on outer space or even planets specifically. It could be read all at once or in sections; this book is so rich that section could seriously be expanded into a lesson on it's own. In a perfect world without lesson time limits and standardized teaching practices, I would definitely expand each section of this book and use each poem as a springboard for new learning while incorporating poetic form into the conveying of new learning. For example, I might read the poem with my class about Venus. We would then jot down the facts we learned from reading the poem, and I would ask, "What else do you wonder about? What else would you like to know?" (Not to mention, this specific poem even poses the question, "Why was it named for the goddess of love?") The great thing about the way this book is illustrated is that the pictures also lend themselves well to inquiry- sticking with the Venus example, I might ask, "What is the significance of the words Sedna, Beta, LeDa, Sif, Phoebe, Sappho, Aphrodite, Aino, Dione, and all the numbers written inside the picture of Venus?" Now the students are provided with enough questions to conduct research, share findings, formulate new questions, and so on. Students could then go on to write about their new findings in poetic form (providing for student assessment).

If a teacher wanted to engage their class in a deeper exploration of poetry, different poems from this book could be examined in relation to each other in order to find similarities and differences. The class could then go on to define the different kinds of poems comprised in this book, and practice writing within certain set structures. In regards to the expanded investigation of each poem scientifically, students could be prompted to report their new findings in a poetic style similar to that which was used to describe the content their are studying.

I can see why this book won the Caldacott award medal- the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and truly aid in the telling of the story. I feel that this book could definitely be read aloud (probably only the main text and not the cursive portion) and/or be part of the classroom library. As an independent read, I think this book is more suitable for older elementary students- however I think the small, bold, cursive text is deterring for even the most fluent and adamant readers. It is very hard to read and decipher, and unless the reader is sincerely intrigued and actively engaged enough in the text to take the time to decode the cursive passages, they will most likely be skimmed through or overlooked. There is a wealth of information in these portions of the text- integral information for one who wishes to gain further insight into Galileo's life- and I think the font does a true disservice to the factual content of this story by making it relatively inaccessible. Also- I am concerned that there is no bibliographic information in the back of the book. With no proof of research, this text loses some credibility for me. Regardless of the accuracy, I think it is bad practice for a non-fiction book to exclude resources... thanking a few professors and crediting a quoted text seems sort of like a cop-out to me when a book is expected to relay factual information to students learning about certain subject matter. 

That being said, I still think this book would be a great asset to any science curriculum or classroom library. If it is part of a classroom library, I would suggest that the teacher types up the cursive passages on a separate piece of paper so that students have an easier time accessing the information.

I read this article out of order in regards to the other two articles I reflected on from NSF. If I were to have read it in order, I may have felt that the importance of inquiry was purposefully nuanced in this article. Unfortunately, because I read it third- though the subject matter is definitely important- it seems relatively redundant. Regardless, I believe it does convey the fundamental importance of inquiry. What do children gain? They gain the capacity to enrich their own lives, and to exercise their mental ability to speculate, investigate, and constantly acquire new information about the world around them. Inquiry expands student's capabilities to articulate their questions, reason with their findings, and grapple with the meaning derived from their investigations- all of which are important to an individual's intellectual growth and ability to interpret the world around them.

"Through the processes of asking questions, obtaining answers, attaching meaning to the results of their investigations,
and relating the meanings they make to established scientific knowledge, children build a repertoire of knowledge, skills, and habits of mind that affirm their human capacity to productively use inquiry for their development."

So, this video definitely seems different than the rest in regards to it’s intended purpose. So far the others seem to be geared toward convincing the viewer of the importance of inquiry, while this one appeared to be more instructional based. While they did show a great deal of student interaction with the classifying process, I felt it’s purpose was geared more toward conveying the way students grapple with the concept rather than student and teacher ignorance in regard to teaching and learning (which I feel is the main purpose of the videos pertaining to the Private Universe Project which involve student/teacher participation). While the video definitely touched upon the fact that our understandings of the classification process have evolved over the years, the intent behind the information being conveyed is more of a gentle prod to sincerely understand life sciences to a greater degree, rather than a backhanded educational case study.
    The first thing that struck me about this video was that the female narrator kept referring to the groups of living things as “Animal, vegetable, or other.” Why wasn’t she saying “animal, plant, or other”? Am I wrong in my own understanding that vegetables are plants, but not all plants are vegetables? I mean, I get the fact that the video was starting with an “old-school” approach to biological classification in the classroom and eventually made it’s way to how our understand has evolved... but I’m still puzzled as to why she kept saying that.
    Anyway. I thought it was interesting that children tend to leave vegetables, weeds, and seeds out of their own definition of plant. Thinking about why this is- however- makes a lot of sense; most kids distinguish plants as things that grow in the ground and have leaves. I’m sure the Private Universe videos would go into greater depth about this, probing students unaware of the implications of their answers and them as weapons against their very own teachers. But, cattiness aside, the reality is that we need to work with kid’s innate fascination with the living world to help mold their understanding of how the living things around us are grouped in relation to their overarching characteristics. Only then will they truly understand the difference between species existing simultaneously within the world around us.
    On a last QUICK note- I loved how in depth-this video went with the necessity to regard the microscopic world as an imperative driving life force on the same level we consider plants and animals within all of Earth’s ecosystems. I also enjoyed the explanation of the distinction between plant and fungi.

“You can’t assume that what’s blatantly obvious to you- and has always been blatantly obvious to you- is gonna be that way to to somebody else, especially a kid. That's where you have to stop, regroup, and think ‘wait a second, is this really as self-evident as you’d like to think it is.”

    The narrator states that, “sometimes, the simplest problems in science defy intuition.” This video implores us to consider a few things: a) students are not empty vessels, they are very capable of considering and making sense of the world around them and therefore don’t approach the classroom as empty vessels needing to be “filled” with information. On the contrary, their innate curiosity has led them to very concrete understandings of the world (in their terms, of course), and because these thought processes have become so ingrained in their psyches, they are not o easily convinced when presented with other theories or fact. I agree that students should be expected to participate in guided hands-on activities to think things through and reconstruct their own interpretations. I’m starting to get the sense that this is indeed the main point behind all of these Annenberg videos associated with the A Private Universe Project.
    On another note- I thought it was brilliant that they used the mirror analogy as a way to debunk the idea that an absentminded hands-on-approach is magically going to help students sincerely understand the material. The fact that while we interact with out environment on a day to day basis, it does not necessarily mean that we aren’t ignorant to the intricacies behind what what we consider to be commonplace. In other words, “we hear what we expect to hear and see what we expect to see.”
    I also thought the progression of this video was well thought out. I still am not too crazy about how the student are approached and portrayed in these videos- it almost seems cruel to me and is honestly uncomfortable to watch. I find myself cringing and wanting to fast forward through the portions that include student questioning and teacher monitoring. I understand their necessary implications, but find them to be seriously deterring.
 
“They have minds, and if those minds are supported and challenged, they will have so much potential.”

"As we play out our restless urge to understand and control our surroundings, the power to destroy now rivals the power to invent. Perhaps now, more than ever before, the ability of average citizens to think for themselves may be the best protection in a world of increasing technological and scientific complexity. If so, the skills of skeptical questioning and independent thinking may be essential goals of schooling. "

The above quote eloquently voices my entire argument behind my own passion for teaching. I feel so strongly that cultivating minds that think for themselves should be of utmost importance in any classroom, especially in this day in age where advertising and technological instruments which constantly grant users instant gratification go hand in hand in vegetating intelligent minds in our society. As you can imagine, I agree with Dewey that children should be allowed to learn through direct experience and that, as teachers, we should cultivate their innate sense of curiosity- only then will they truly be able to grow into self-sufficient learners with their own, independent ability to reason. In my mind, didactic teaching should not be the only method in any classroom- especially for students in elementary school! Its sad that there seems to be some sort of dichotomy between didactic and hands-on teaching- of course some information needs to be relayed to children in an explicit manner, but implicit teaching through engaging hands-on activities actually helps children develop the ability to inquire and build their own ways of thinking and learning. I like Bruner's theory that there our brains only have the ability to hold seven discrete bits of information at a time, and that we should therefore help students fill those slots with sincere understanding rather than unconnected facts.
Experiential learning should be at the forefront of any curriculum, because it really is the only type of learning that will have a long lasting effect on students, and will help them learn to shape themselves as highly intelligent individuals who can think for themselves.

"The essence of good teaching lies in framing the right questions, regardless of the sophistication of the subject matter"- Socrates

I really enjoyed reading these poems- I think they are an accessible way for kids to grasp concepts that pertain to other creatures and happenings in this world that are outside our human experience. I, of course, enjoyed the poems about turtles and snakes the most.

After being presented to a class, I definitely believe that these poems can be extended into a lesson. Students could brainstorm questions about the world or certain species, research their topic, then write a short poem about it in a style similar to those in this compillation. Great way to integrate science and language arts.