Science as a Formative Subject
When students walk into school every morning, they should be excited to engage, participate, and learn. Students should especially be excited about their science classes. Natural and physical sciences can capture anyone’s interest in class, but it must be done correctly! Whether students take biology, AP chemistry, physics, or whatever amazing class they are enrolled in, students need to dive deep into what they learn in class to truly absorb the content.
Being an exemplary science teacher is EASY, and even YOU can be one! All it takes is some hard work, dedication, and proper preparation.
Using Past Strategies
If you haven’t already, one excellent paper to start off reading is The Voices of Exemplary Science Teaching by Ann E. Haley-Oliphant. Throughout her writing, she gives multiple case studies of science teachers of EVERY grade level and science demand showing their excellent teaching strategies with their students.
The overall lesson to be learned from these exemplary teachers is the following:
- Many of the lessons are student-lead
- Teachers had students do a lot of hands-on activities
- The labs or activities done were intriguing and had students creating authentic science.
- While in class, students had an opportunity to create useful conversation with each other, and communicated their thoughts and findings.
Students will never truly understand scientific concepts unless teachers are able to make the class fully immersed into their lessons and activities #EDT431 #exemplaryscienceteaching
— vergel (@ungodlyyvergel) September 11, 2018
Lessons and Activities for Exemplary Teachers
Creating your lesson plans accordingly to your units in class is the essential building block of starting your path to exemplary teaching. Such as:
- Going outdoors to look at different species of trees and plants, and having your students determine the species with a field guide and observations.
- Have students create a ramp with materials in the classroom and let them determine what a proper position-versus-time graph would like like. Then have them apply this to cars.
- Allow students to go outside and determine the species richness of different plants, animals, and insects in a given plot of land.
- Bring in real rock samples, and allow the students to determine where in the world the rocks (sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic) come from.
In the following video, they explain how essential involved elementary science teachers can have an impact on the curiosity of young scientists. Being an exemplary teacher is exactly that.
Hello Michael,
Great Post! I like your ideas on how to be an exemplary science teacher. They were spot on. I really like the specific ideas about going outside on nature walks and looking at the living organisms (plants and animals) on the trail. I am a geology person, so I also like how you wrote about bringing in different rocks and letting the students look at them. I agree strongly with the video. Many students in elementary school lose interest in science because their teachers are not engaging. I like how you make the comment about how anyone can be an exemplary science teacher. I have little confidence in myself, as a teacher, sometimes because I was introverted for so long. I am glad that with a little work, I can become and exemplary science teacher too! It is very important and I want to make my students remember what they did in my class for years to come! I do not really have many suggestions for you, great post!
Delaina (:
Thank you so much! Bringing students out in nature is very important in my opinion. They can physically see and experience biology, geology, physics, and chemistry in the natural world. Having students think critically is vital for their learning, and it can only be done by exemplary teachers. Regarding the video, students really can lose interest in science at a young age. We want students to be curious and confident in themselves and what they’re learning. I believe anyone can be a scientist at any age, and that ANYONE can be an exemplary science teacher.
I love your article! I agree with all your credentials of an exemplary science teacher for sure. Do you have an exemplary science teacher you always think of when reflecting? Or maybe you haven’t had one and you’re driven to make sure your students do?
Thank you! When I think of exemplary science teachers, I always remember my AP biology teacher in high school. We would do so many memorable labs and activities, and we would also be in the front of the classroom participating in some examples for her lessons and she really made use of her students when teaching. Thank goodness I had many exemplary science teachers so I can use that knowledge and experience for my future students.
What I like most about your post are your lesson examples. There is one thing in common with all of them; they are all real-world applicable. Along with that, they all involve the students participating. I think a lot of teachers think that demonstrations are the most engaging type of activity, but the students are still merely “watching and learning.” Not all students learn that way! Many need to get their hands dirty; which all of your lessons entail. On that note, however, are there any sort of commonly demonstrated experiments that you think students should not do? Why or why not?
Real-world application is probably the most essential thing when it comes to exemplary science teaching. Because students will always ask “when are we gonna use this in our lives?” and I want them to know that they WILL use this in their lives. Getting involved in the lesson and learning things first-hand is a critical component of student’s learning. When it comes to specific demonstrations or experiments, I don’t know if there are any particular ones that students should avoid. When it comes to activities, labs, experiments, there is some critical learning component that is necessary for the student. Sometimes the more commons ones are the most useful in these cases.