It was so fascinating to talk with the 4th graders at Dwight Elementary School. The two students I spoke with had interesting ideas and varying levels of experience in science. One student hadn't had much exposure at all and had trouble talking about what science was and what topics are included in science. She could only talk about the unit that they were currently studying and couldn't recall or had never had previous experiences. When I did the experiment with the salt dissolving in water, she thought it disappeared into the air and that it would never come back. She didn't know how or why, but she was certain it was up there. This was fascinating to me because kids think in such an interesting way that it would make it possible for them to believe that things can just disappear like it is a normal thing. The other student had done a similar experiment in second grade and had remembered it. She knew that the salt dissolved and she said the dirt didn't dissolve because it was heavier, which I thought was interesting. I was impressed that she had remembered what she had learned and could apply it.
The part of the interview that I found interesting was that neither of them really had much exposure to science outside of school. This was evident in their ideas of what science was and that they didn't seem to have any background knowledge to pull from. This was sad because when I asked them if they could learn about anything or do anything in science what would it be...and they couldn't think of anything except what they were already doing and basic things like growing a garden filled with plants. It really shocked me that this was what she chose because to most people this is something that is easy to do and most kids in the suburbs get the opportunity to garden with their families or in school. In urban districts this isn't always the case especially because at that school and at the school I student taught in in Willimantic, there wasn't even grass around really. This is really a disservice to kids because they should get to be out in nature, to learn and explore, just like most kids get to.
I think what I learned from this is that I don't think most kids have enough exposure to all multitude of science in our world. Science is about questioning and investigating and exploring and I think all kids should have a lot of practice in all of those things. I think it is our job as teachers, especially in areas where kids aren't getting exposure at home, to introduce students to as much as we possibly can by bringing in things, by taking trips, and by using multi-media resources.
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3 comments:
I totally agree that students are not exposed enough to science. They have all of the experiences but lack a scientific explanation. Like you stated they should have more practice questioning and exploring. That is the backbone of science and is the process of learning in general. If we get them to want to question and explore on their own it would not only increase their comprehension of science but other subjects as well. Students will only learn if they want to.
I had similar experiences with my students in respect to the idea that they had trouble thinking of things in the world or about themselves that they were curious about. I had to wait for quite awhile and then gave some examples of things "other students" had said and finally they said they were curious about things such as how water is formed and death (where we go when we die). I was surprised how much prodding and questioning it took for them to think of something they were curious about and found this very sad as well.
I also agree with what you said about students not being exposed to science enough, especially in urban schools when there is such a focus on other subjects (math and reading). One of the students I had, knew a lot about science and did a lot at home. But the other student could not tell me anything other than what they were currently learning about. I also realized this last year when I was student teaching, because not many students knew much about the moon and sun when I began to teach it. Both last year and this experience I had to prod and ask many questions to get them to think of something they knew about the subject/science.
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