My Own Laptop!?! Kingston's Star Trek themed delivery of student laptops was a huge hit as can be seen by the huge grins of the 5th graders pictured below. We've used those laptops repeatedly for lessons ranging from inquiry in science and social studies to exploring the concept of change (our 5th grade level concept) to typing science conclusions. Before long we will complete a learning style inventory and create a graph of the results in Excel.
I'm not sure who is learning more about the computers - the teachers and me or the students. They continue to dazzle Mrs. Dail, Mrs. Raiford, and I with their great tips (we can now see multiple programs side by side without all that time consuming re-sizing we were doing). I strongly recommend they spend 5 - 15 minutes a day on a good typing program to build their speed and accuracy though. Free programs such as those found on Learning Games for Kids and EdTech are available online and offer a large number of options. As always, please check out any site your child may use.
To differentiate in science, we've used Fowler tests scores to put students in groups with varying levels of independence in conducting the experiments. The Fowler required students to imagine they were going to conduct an experiment and write down exactly how it could be done. The results who use each child's strengths and weaknesses in designing experiments. They are not use for grades.
So far, we've done several experiments focusing on creating testable questions, writing hypotheses, collecting data, and writing strong conclusions and are already seeing strong growth. I'm looking forward to the mid year test at the end of the first semester to see growth and areas we need to focus on with each child.
Two of our bigger experiments involved testing whether or not larger coins would hold more or less water drops. The results made students question the properties of water and surface tension. They really seem to enjoy chemistry and asked a lot of questions about hydrogen and oxygen molecules. The other experiment was during the matter unit and after reading a short article on acid rain, students wondered if they could change the PH of liquids by adding baking soda. They analyzed their data to see if they could discover patterns and trends.
I'm not sure who is learning more about the computers - the teachers and me or the students. They continue to dazzle Mrs. Dail, Mrs. Raiford, and I with their great tips (we can now see multiple programs side by side without all that time consuming re-sizing we were doing). I strongly recommend they spend 5 - 15 minutes a day on a good typing program to build their speed and accuracy though. Free programs such as those found on Learning Games for Kids and EdTech are available online and offer a large number of options. As always, please check out any site your child may use.
To differentiate in science, we've used Fowler tests scores to put students in groups with varying levels of independence in conducting the experiments. The Fowler required students to imagine they were going to conduct an experiment and write down exactly how it could be done. The results who use each child's strengths and weaknesses in designing experiments. They are not use for grades.
So far, we've done several experiments focusing on creating testable questions, writing hypotheses, collecting data, and writing strong conclusions and are already seeing strong growth. I'm looking forward to the mid year test at the end of the first semester to see growth and areas we need to focus on with each child.
Two of our bigger experiments involved testing whether or not larger coins would hold more or less water drops. The results made students question the properties of water and surface tension. They really seem to enjoy chemistry and asked a lot of questions about hydrogen and oxygen molecules. The other experiment was during the matter unit and after reading a short article on acid rain, students wondered if they could change the PH of liquids by adding baking soda. They analyzed their data to see if they could discover patterns and trends.