Category: Wonder Journal (Page 1 of 2)

This week in our class we dove into the topic Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST), which is in the BC Curriculum for all Grades. We used ADST and connected it to the Science 5 curriculum. ADST can be integrated across all subject areas, and teachers are encouraged to connect with their local resource centre to learn more about how it can be incorporated and to explore the resources available within their district.

We first did a read aloud and then watched videos on Rube Goldberg. We decided to create our own inspired Rube Goldberg creation and make one ourselves. Our Instructor put us into groups of three which is a perfect number to make sure everyone is included and participates. We then got straight to work. After we completed our Rube Goldberg inspired machines, we did a gallery walk where each team shared their think process, struggles, and then did a run through of their circuit. My groups circuit was so close to working. Here is a video that one of my group members took.

As you can see, the marble was supposed to hit the car, then the car would hit the plastic sheets to create a domino effect. My group could not figure out how to get the car to go from the marble without rolling down the ramp by itself. We tried many different ideas. Completing this activity, you have to adjust and be willing to try something new.

As a class, we developed our own criteria and connected it to the BC Curriculum. Here are pictures of what our requirements were and how it connects to the BC Curriculum.

In our requirements, the first target was testing, which is shown in the image above. This target connects to the project by making it mandatory to include a couple of simple machines. If I were to implement this in my future classroom, I would require students to include all six simple machines and provide them with a full week to develop and refine their projects.

The 6 simple machines:

1. Pulley
2. Lever
3. Wheel and Axel
4. Wedge
5. Incline Plane
6. Screw

One potential challenge would be determining where students can store and build their creations throughout the week, as this will take up lots of space in the classroom. Additionally, to support the students success, I would break the activity into manageable steps by first allowing students to explore the available materials, then having them create a plan that outlines their design, including the sequence of transitions and the materials they will need.

This activity was highly engaging, hands-on, and enjoyable, making it effective for a wide range of learners. I would definitely like to incorporate it into my future classroom. I would plan to extend the activity over the course of a week, using guided steps that students would complete prior to building their own Rube Goldberg machine.

BC Curriculum

We connected this with the BC Curriculum as we looked into the Science 5 curriculum and used the content simple machines:

Properties of simple machines

• levers, wedge, inclined plane, wheel and axle, pulley, and screw
•  force effects include changing direction and multiplying force

Story rocks are created by using stones and gluing images onto them, allowing students to retell stories and share information in a hands-on, visual way. In our class, we used instructor-provided story rocks to create and retell stories (these were not science-related), which helped demonstrate how effective this tool can be for communication and creativity.

Story rocks can also strongly support elementary science learning by encouraging students to make connections between storytelling and real-world concepts such as habitats, life cycles, and environmental relationships. By combining narrative with scientific ideas, students are able to deepen their understanding in a meaningful and engaging way.

BC Curriculum

In the BC Curriculum, there is an importance for observation, and connecting learning to the natural world. Just like what one of our text books Braiding Sweetgrass, which highlights the importance of learning through relationships with the environment. By using story rocks with images like animals, plants, weather symbols, and landforms students are able to explain/narrate their understandings of these concepts in a creative way. There are many different cross curricular connections that story rocks have, English Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. Having story rocks supports the First Peoples perspective, which is the value of storytelling as a way of learning and understanding the world.

AHA Moment

I never thought to use story rocks for science until we completed our dioramas with the grade 2 class. I think this would be a great idea to take forward when doing dioramas again with a primary class. Integrating story rocks into learning especially about animals allows students to have visual hints about what the animal likes, eats, habitat, etc. but also allows students to create a story for the animal that they made out of clay. This allows students to demonstrate deeper thinking and apply their knowledge.

Creating connections throughout all of the courses I have taken helps me realize that all courses can be integrated with literacy in a way that is engaging and creative for all learners. This also reinforces the importance of hands-on learning that allows students to express their thinking in multiple ways. This is important in science because it supports diverse learners and encourages curiosity, imagination, and a stronger connection to the natural environment. I cannot wait to create story rocks in my future classroom that can be cross curricular.

This week, we brought drama into science by engaging in a debate on a local issue, western painted turtles in our area. The drama component came alive as we transformed our classroom into a town hall meeting, where each student took on a specific character role.

Some of the roles included:

• Mayor
• A “Karen”-type community member
• Farmers
• Boomers
• Social media influencers
• Scientists
• Tourists

One of the most impactful aspects of this activity is that students are able to create their own characters. They are able to use the information they had gathered to develop a speech that reflected their character’s perspective, either for or against the issue. Students are also able to dress up, which will help them fully step into their roles and made the experience more engaging and authentic.

After each student presented their speech, there was an opportunity for participants to ask questions to other characters. This allowed for deeper thinking, meaningful discussion, and the chance for students to challenge each other’s ideas. At the end of the debate, everyone voted yes or no. What stood out was how the opinions could shift based on what they heard during the discussion, showing true critical thinking and openness to new perspectives.

This type of debate creates a safe and inclusive environment where all students can participate without feeling targeted, as they are speaking through a character rather than expressing personal views directly. It is also adaptable for a wide range of age groups.

Drama in science is a powerful tool. It encourages students to explore multiple perspectives, deepens their understanding, and helps make scientific concepts more meaningful and memorable.

My Aha Moment

I have never seen or participated in a debate like this in a science class before. This experience showed me how creative and engaging science can be. I would love to use this strategy in an intermediate classroom, as it naturally integrates multiple subject areas in the BC Curriculum, including Science, Drama, and English Language Arts.

It also connects strongly to social-emotional learning, as students learn to consider different perspectives, communicate respectfully, and reflect on their own thinking. This experience has inspired me, and I am excited to bring similar opportunities into my future classroom.

This week, my cohort had a wonderful opportunity to go into a local grade 2 classroom and create dioramas. We got to work with a students one on one, which was an amazing experience to create relationships. Each student selected a local animal, and had to go to the library and prepare resources that they could use to help with creating their dioramas. With the students we created a busy book for them, researched the Ktunaxa name of their animals and used First Voices to help learn the correct pronunciation. The student I was assigned to picked a raccoon for their animal.

Photo of my students and I’s raccoon diorama. Photo taken by Lauren Penney.

BC Curriculum Connection:

In the BC Curriculum, in the content learning standards, the grades where it mentions plants and animals start from Kindergarten all the way to grade 3. But dioramas can be used for more than just learning about animals and their habitats. You can use dioramas to explore storytelling, ecosystems, lifecycles, history, etc.

My AHA Moment:

This activity was an amazing experience. I remember creating a diorama when I was in school and I had so much fun doing so. This is an activity that I would love to incorporate into my future classroom. It is a great way to learn and to meaningfully Indigenize learning, as it is hands-on, and engaging. My aha moment was truly how much work goes into planning an activity like this. At this grade level, I noticed that there are students who would be able to complete this project by themselves with no problem but then there are some students who I think would benefit from the 1 on 1 support. This made me think of other ways I could do this project without adult assistance and these ways are:

• Have students in groups of 2 or 3
• Get big buddies into the classroom
• The whole class studies one animal or the class splits up into two different animals
• Guide students step by step so all students are completing the same parts of their diorama at the same time (teacher lead)

Reflection:

Dioramas are so important for younger grades. They are a visual that the students get to create and it is great for teachers because they will then be able to see the students understanding and creativity. I included my thoughts on dioramas because this experience helped me recognize that meaningful learning is not about content but about access and differentiation when it comes to planning. Seeing the range of independence in a Grade 2 classroom deepened my understanding of how hands on inquiry supports diverse learners and allows students to complete their project to what makes the most sense to them. This is important to science education because it helps builds students curiosity, builds observational and research skills.

What we did:

In this class, we talked about water tension and how water striders use water tension to essentially walk on water. we then created our own water tension station with a group of us.

What you need:

• Piece of cardboard
• Food colouring
• Eye droppers
• Parchment paper
• Tape
• Three cups
• Water

We then taped the parchment paper on the piece of cardboard while one person grabbed the rest of our supplies.

Once you are back at your seat, you should have your piece of cardboard with parchment paper on it, you should fill the three cups with water, and grab the food colouring. We then put in one drop of different food colouring into the cups so that we had different colours and then we placed on eye dropper in each cup.

This is what our centre looked like:

My group experimented and saw how the water would move on the parchment paper and how big of a water drop you could make and drag it around the area. My group also enjoyed creating different colours and mixing them.

The next step to our water tension lesson was to see how many drops of water a loonie, toonie, quarter held.

What do you need:

• Coins
• Eye dropper
• Cup
• Water
• Paper towel (to clean up the mess)

We recorded our answers on this sheet of paper:

As a class, we then wrote our answers in a table which looked like this:

We then had a discussion about the variables that could have impacted each persons number. For example, the way someone was holding the dropper (far from the coin, close to the coin), etc.

BC Curriculum:

This activity connects to the BC Curriculums Science Curricular Competencies, Math Connections, and the Core Competencies.

This connects to the Big Ideas because students explore properties of water (surface tension). They are able to see how water behaves with different variables (parchment paper). By seeing how water striders use surface tension to walk on the water, students are also able to see how scientific concepts are connected to real world examples.

This activity is a hands on activity, but it can also be connected by students asking questions, observing what is happening, make predictions, and collect data.

This activity is connected to math by gathering data and counting how many drops each coin could hold before it spilling over the sides. It also connects to math by organizing the data into tables and comparing their findings to their peers data.

Students will develop critical thinking skills by examining why their results were different from others. They would strengthen communication skills to their group members as they may talk about strategy. Lastly, they will collaborate during the experiment.

Reflection/ AHA Moment:

My AHA moment during this activity was when we give space and time for free play and inquiry, curiosity naturally drives questioning and deeper thinking. I noticed this within my group because that is what happened to ourselves. Having hands on learning experiences makes concepts like surface tension visible and meaningful while helping students grasp the concept. Gathering and comparing data as a class turns the experiment into an engaging discussion about variables, fairness, and scientific reasoning. Therefore, I think creating space for inquiry and then going into the explanation is something that I would like to try in my future classroom for meaningful, engaging learning.

Our professor gave each of my peers and I a piece of paper that had one of the BC Curriculum Science concepts from Kindergarten to Grade 9. Around our classroom, she had set up a whole bunch of different picture books that were a wide variety of topics. Our task for this activity was to read our assigned content from the BC Curriculum and find the picture book that best connected to it. We then went around the room and told our peers and instructor what we were thinking with our choice of book.

This activity was super fun to get ideas for lessons and to see what kind of books could connect to the science curriculum. There really are no limitations.

I chose to include this experience in my blog because it changed how I see resources for teaching science. It showed me that picture books are not just ‘add ons’ but powerful tools for engaging students in the content and allow them to see the full picture of the lesson. Even though books were not under the ‘science’ subject, I learned that a lot of book still were able to connect to scientific concepts. Stories about animals, change, seasons, identity, etc. could all be linked back to the BC Curriculum Science Big Ideas and Curricular Competencies.

This activity was engaging and transformative. It expanded my understanding of what counts as a science resource. I began to see that science topics are embedded in stories, lived experiences, and in natural curiosity that picture books spark within students.

My AHA Moment:

My biggest AHA moment was realizing that there is a book for every concept for all ages. Before this experience, I only used picture books in my lessons as an introductory but now, I can see how some picture books are the lesson and then I can plan an activity that will go with what the book was talking about. This will change how I will plan my science unit for my practicum. I am going to try and teach and revisit concepts through stories. Additionally, using picture books for introducing a concept will reach different learners while still meeting science outcomes. Lastly, another one of my AHA moments were how stories can support science in multiple ways, talking about lifecycles, scientific practices (observations, questioning, predicting, etc.), and of course different animals. Picture books allow students to visualize their learning.

Here is a link I found that has a great amount of picture books recommended for Science!

Connection to the BC Curriculum:

Picture books connect to the BC Curriculum in many ways.

Big Ideas: They can provide concrete examples that help students grasp the Big Ideas such as systems, change, adaption, etc.

Curricular Competencies: Picture books/ stories often model:

• Questioning and predicting
• Observations and describing
• Making connections
• Communicating ideas

Core Competencies: Picture books also support core competencies through discussion and reflection, critical and creative thinking, and lastly, personal and social awareness.

Reflection

This experience has made me reflect on equity and accessibility in science education, especially in today’s context where many students are experiencing increased academic challenges. Traditional science instruction is taught for students who are strong readers and can understand complex texts, and students who have good critical thinking skills. I feel like picture books lower the barrier and make it accessible for all students to get the full understanding as picture books provide visuals, narrative, emotions, and discussion. I also think that bringing a picture book to science lessons allows for students to be engaged as they will connect with certain aspects of the story and gain a passion for those problems.

Moving forward as a teacher candidate, I want to be intentional about using picture books. I plan to use them to introduce new concepts, revisit stories when reviewing the key ideas, make my planning cross curricular, use them to get interest in inquiry projects, connect the learning to the outdoors, etc.

During this class, we were able to get outside which shifted the energy in the room! Instead of sitting at desks, we were moving our bodies and yet still learning.

What did we do?

1. We received a Bingo sheet that had the letters of the alphabet
2. We got into groups of 2/3 people
3. We headed outside to find natural objects that started with the letter that was shown in the squares. Example: B – bark, R – rock
4. Our class was instructed to get a ‘blackout’ but with younger students you could go for one line or an ‘x’
5. If we could not find an object for a certain letter we could then think of an adjective to describe the natural object

This is what the Bingo looked like:

BC Curriculum

Through this activity, students are able to observe their environment, identify natural materials, make connections between language and the world around them, practice classifying and describing objects, build on their vocabulary, practice phonics awareness, use descriptive language, move their bodies, explore outdoor space, engage in group work, place based learning, Indigenous perspectives and language (using Ktunaxa words), and lastly, understand local land and environment.

It is cross curricular with English Language Arts, Science, potentially Social Studies, and Physical Education.

Reflection

An adaption that I have for this activity would be to search up the Ktuanaxa words using First Voices. I know that some of my peers and I used Xa.xa. for the letter ‘X’ as it means crow in Ktunaxa.

Moving forward, for older grades I would encourage students to look up local Ktunaxa names for plants and animals, include both English and Ktunaxa words on the Bingo sheet, and meet outside in a circle to discuss why language and land are connected as a closure.

My AHA Moment

I never thought to include scavenger hunts in science! This is an amazing activity where students get to discover the outdoors around them. I for sure am going to use this in the future as it can be adapted to every age group. I had so much fun with this activity and I know students will enjoy it just as much especially being outside in the beautiful weather. This activity showed me that science is not restricted to a classroom it can be done everywhere.

During our first class, we read the book Bud Finds Her Gift, it is about observations. Our instructor put us into groups of 3 using our tree cookies. We then got a piece of chart paper on which we wrote numbers 1-6 on the left-hand side. She then handed out a box that was labeled with a number (ranging 1-6) and we could not see what the object was. As a group, we had to use our senses (sound, weight, touch) to come up with an answer on what we thought was in the box. At this point, we had to write our answer down beside the number that was on the piece of chart paper. We then passed the box to a different group and repeated this six times so we were able to guess for all six boxes.

Here is what the boxes looked like:

This is what our chart paper looked like:

Once everyone had their guesses, as a class, the teacher held up the first box, moved it around, and got people to share their answers. Once everyone had shared their thoughts, the teacher then opened the box and revealed what was inside. You would then repeat this process until all six objects were presented. In my cohort we all loved this activity. We thought it was so engaging, fun, and exciting.

Automatically I came up with an idea on what else you could do with this activity. My idea was to put objects in the boxes and have the students guess what the object is using different sounds, feelings, etc. Create this activity based on the morning radio show where they play “guess that sound” where the class can be put into teams and have to “call in” using a fake phone at the front of the classroom to make an educated guess on what the object/sound is. This could be a morning game where only one team gets to make one guess a day and then eventually the team who guesses the sound correctly gets to choose the game they play in gym, etc.

BC Science Connection:

This activity connects to the BC Curriculum Curricular Competencies in Questioning and Predicting, Processing and Analyzing Data and Information. As we used our senses to explore the mystery boxes that our professor provided, we were forming educated guesses based on evidence and prior knowledge we have. At the elementary school level, students are expected to demonstrate curiosity, make predictions, and communicate their thinking to the teacher and their peers. This activity supported all of those Curricular Competencies in a playful and an engaging way. This activity also supports collaboration as we had to justify our ideas and explain our reasoning in our small working groups and then in front of the class.

Reflection:

I really enjoyed this activity because it showed me that everything in science is so impactful when it is done in an inquiry-based and exploratory way. It is a lot more joyful than having a worksheet-based class. My extension idea of “Guess That Sound” game would continue to build observation, inference, and thoughtful reasoning in a motivating way. I will definitely include this in my future classroom as I think it will be so much fun but I also think it will build crucial skills not only in Science but in SEL (social emotional learning). You could do this with younger grades and ask “what emotion is this” with a poster.

My AHA Moment:

My AHA moment is when I realized observation is not a small introductory skill; it is the foundation of scientific thinking. Additionally, I realized that gaining these important skills like observation can start from an early age where it is fun and engaging. Yet, I could use this lesson for all ages and they would still have fun.

Throughout this class, we had to make a demonstration and present it to our cohort. My partners for the demonstration were Carter White and Connor Hall. We did a lot of brainstorming and we decided to do our demonstration on paper airplanes. We connected this topic to the grade 6 science curriculum.

What we did to prepare:

• Created a student worksheet to guide inquiry and reflection
• Created a teacher document that our peers could follow in the future
• Researched how Paper airplanes could connect to FPPL (First People Principles of Learning) in a meaningful way
• Tested our demonstration before our presentation

Here is everything we gave our class:

As you see, in the teacher notes, we have already connected our demonstration to the BC Curriculum by tying in the Big Ideas, Content, and FPPL.

Big Ideas:

• Newtons three laws of motion, describe the relationship between force and motion.

Content:

• Newtons three laws of motion
• Force of gravity

FPPL:

• Intro in Ktunaxa
• Learning is hands on and contextual
• Learning involves recognizing consequences of one’s actions
• Learning involves patience and time
• Learning is reflective
• Sharing Circle at the end – talking about what went well and what we could improve on
• Recommended to do the activity outside if the weather is nice
• Fredrick James Carmichael (first Indigenous commercial pilot)

AHA Moment

My aha moment came when I realized how much work it is for teachers to set up each demonstration and when I realized that engagement alone does not equal understanding. Students get really engaged with paper airplanes therefore, it is easy for a class to be engaged but not create a meaningful connecting to the content that is being covered. When my group was brainstorming, we kept thinking how we could make sure that the students were actually learning and that is how we came up with our worksheet. We had to make sure our worksheet was guided and structured in a way that students would make meaningful scientific observations and guesses. The worksheet and teacher notes are essential to help me understand that strong science teachings are about purposeful structure that supports the students inquiries.

Reflection

This experiment and assignment impacted how I view science instruction at the elementary and middle school level. When I was a student, I loved science experiments because I found them exciting and fun (I mean I still do). Now, as a future educator, I see the importance of intentional design behind all of the experiments.

Moving forward in my practices and creating student worksheets, I want to make sure that I somehow include something for the students to record. This should include their data/ observations (predictions and their explanations). I feel like those three things really helped us with creating a good worksheet that help guide students into meaningful hands on learning.

One thing I need to keep in mind when I am creating scientific demonstrations is how I will keep my class focused on the learning intention while still allowing time for their own exploration. I believe that there has to be both structured learning but also unstructured inquiry/play but there needs to be a clear purpose, place, and time for each of those things.

Having meaningful hands on learning in elementary and middle school classrooms helps students make abstract concepts concrete. Science at the elementary and middle school level should encourage curiosity, critical thinking, and different types of problem solving skills. This demonstration helped me understand how to design learning outcomes that support these goals I have.

For this class, we brought out microscopes that were age appropriate to use within elementary schools. This was my AHA moment. I totally would have never even realized that there are different levels of scientific instruments that are for elementary students that even the primary grades could use. My teacher rented them from our local resource centre.

Here is what the microscopes look like:

Using these microscopes, our teacher brought in natural resources from outside for us to look at through these microscopes.

When we focused these items on our microscope, we had to draw what it looked like. This is what I drew (cork hot plate). Although the picture below is of one of the wood cookies.

When we were done drawing, we had to put our drawing and our item on the table in random spots. We our teacher picked a couple of us to guess which drawing went with an object. After a couple of us guessed, we all picked our item and put it with the object we drew.

This connects with the BC Curriculum Science Curricular Competencies, communication, processing and analyzing data and information, and additionally, safety of using scientific tools. This lesson allows students to be curious and experiment while other students are still working on their drawings. When I was waiting for my peers to finish their drawings, I was looking at the table we sat at and other objects through the microscope that were from outside. Additionally, this allows students to analyze details and represent their findings through drawing. This activity is inquiry based which reflects how the BC Curriculum highlights hands on exploration rather than memorization in the elementary school levels.

This was an AHA moment because I realized scientific tools like microscopes are accessible even in primary grades. It challenged my thinking about what is developmentally appropriate in science. This activity impacted my learning by reminding me that students learn best when they feel like real scientists (hands-on learning). I think science is hard to always have hands on learning but this activity made it clear that it is important to have hands on learning whenever possible to keep students engaged and learning. Microscopes also help students learn ways about the world that they would not be able to see with their naked eye which will create inquiry. I know I was engaged and being curious about what other objects look like around me.