On Thursday, we started learning about the nature of science. Students went on a "fossil dig" and learned the importance of gathering as much evidence as possible, talking with other scientists, and doing research while conducting an investigation. Here are some pictures! More about these ideas below. As I told the kids, there is no ONE scientific method. Instead, we like to think of science in terms of being a number of components used to explain our world. These components are also known as the "Nature of Science" and help us to understand that science is not done just ONE way- there are many ways that scientists investigate our world. Here are some of components of the Nature of Science that allow scientists to investigate our world: a) the natural world is understandable b) science is based on evidence, both observational and experimental; c) science is a combination of logic and innovation; d) scientific ideas are uncertain e) science is a social endeavor A) the natural world is understandable. Science is based on the belief that our world is understandable and can be explained using scientific inquiry. B) science is based on evidence, both observational and experimental. Scientists develop ideas based on evidence and then change their ideas when they gather new evidence or interpret old evidence in a different way. Not all scientific knowledge comes from "experiments"- observation plays a big role as well. Jane Goodall, whom we read about in class, changed the scientific world's ideas about chimpanzees through her careful observations and years of study. In the book, The Watcher, we learned that before Jane spent all that time with the chimpanzees, no one knew that they made their own tools or how many of their mannerisms were like that of humans. My little scientists were gathering evidence and trying to come up with explanations for their evidence. Here are some videos of the magic in action. C) Science is a combination of both logic and innovation Scientists are constantly coming up with new ideas, explanations, and theories to explain how our world works. In order for these ideas to be taken seriously, they must be logical. D) Scientific ideas are uncertain Scientific ideas often change as more information becomes available to scientists. As we gather more evidence and data, these ideas become more widely accepted. However, think about all of the theories that were once accepted and now are no longer relevant:
E) Science is a social endeavor. As we discussed in class after this activity, sharing our scientific findings is important to helping to advance our understanding of our world. Scientists need to be able to discuss their data and make sense of it as people may interpret it differently. Scientists need to repeat experiments others have done to see if they get the same results. In our investigation with the fossils, if we hadn't been able to reference the skeletal resource manual (which was the result of research from other scientists), we might not have been able to identify the different types of bones and make sense of our fossils. Through conversations with other groups and looking at their bones and how they were pieced together, students saw different ways of arranging bones and heard different reasoning that caused them to reconsider their own results. After we had completed our investigations, I showed the kids the animal that the bones actually were supposed to represent, the xenosmilus. Here are a couple of pictures.
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This week we also did an activity to describe what we consider a good classmate, good student, good teacher, and good reading workshop. Students were asked to describe what they sound like, look like, are, and are not. Here are pictures of their work.
In order to get into groups, Mrs. Opiola and I put a dot on each student's forehead so they didn't know what the color was. They then had to figure out what color their dot was and find other people with the same color dot. This was particularly challenging for some of my lovebugs who are a bit chatty :) Kids used all kinds of strategies- pointing at shirts, writing in the air, pointing at other people and pairing them. They did a great job helping each other! This week we headed out to the field to play a little math game. I gave the teams a number to factor out on their whiteboards and they had to find, one teammate at a time, as many of the factors on the field as possible. We also did multiples of numbers a few times. We've been getting to know one another the past couple of days and learning about our rules and routines. One of the activities we did was to use Scrabble tiles to create as many science words as we could in groups. The kids had some clever ways of working around not having enough of the letters they wanted ;) See some pictures and a video of this activity below. We also played several games to learn more about each other. The pictures below are of a game in which we passed around a hot potato and the kids had to share an interesting fact about themselves if they were the one caught holding the potato when it stopped playing the song. We also played a game that involved a "mystery leader" leading the group in movement and a person in the middle had to guess who the leader was. The kids had a blast playing this. We also played a game of Scattergories in groups to get our brains working again after a long summer :) Here are some photos and a video. Dear Fantastic Fifth Graders, Welcome to a new school year! I am thrilled to be the guide on your learning adventure this year :) I've been working hard in our room this summer, trying to get it ready for the first day. Here is a video of what it looked like in mid-July when I first went back in to start getting things ready... Want to know what it looks like now? Well...parents will find out on Tuesday night at 7pm for Back to School Night. My students can see it before school starts if they come to open house on Wednesday morning from 9-10am! I hope to see you there! If you can't make it, no worries :) We will get to see each other on Thursday for the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! Woo hoo! I know I'M excited, and I hope you are too :)
Feel free to bring your supplies to Open House if you wish to lighten your load the first day of school. See you soon! Mrs. Wippich |
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