The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners to assure mastery of the content (InTASC, 2013).
Brief Description of Evidence:During my Spring 2020 EDUC 224 - Introduction to Scientific Inquiry class, I created a four-day science enrichment summer camp for 5th-grade that included engineering, physical, earth and space, and life sciences. I was able to make it cross-disciplinary by tying in math concepts along with the sciences. I also took the last few hours of the final day and created a closing ceremony that allowed the student's guests to see what they had accomplished throughout the week. I had to create a flyer that could be used to advertise the camp, and also had to consider how students were going to be dropped off and picked up, how I would incorporate snacks and lunches, and if any of those could be science-related. I even created a t-shirt that students would get for attending the camp.
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Analysis of What I Learned:What I learned while putting together this camp was that a lot of planning was needed to make sure that each student would have a great learning experience. I learned that for the students to master the content presented, I would have to have a lot of hands-on activities. By using my understanding of the content and the learning process I was able to lead the students in a way that they gained a thorough understanding of the content in the various sciences. For example, the students were able to take the lesson over solar power and create their own s’mores snack. I tried to allow our snacks to represent our lessons on a couple of days to do just that. I was able to offer an avenue to make a connection to the material through food. Using the catapult challenge I was able to lead my students in an inquiry-based lesson to learn about gravity and mass can present a challenge to get objects from one place to another. They were allowed to set up and navigate through this exploratory activity on their own.
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How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the InTASC Standard:
I feel I am competent in this standard because I understand that subject matter knowledge is not just one-note. It is a medley of complex and ever-evolving bits of knowledge learned through multiple avenues wrapped into one symphony if you will. Following Jean Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, I know some of my students are in the concrete and formal operational stages of development. That means that they are learning theoretical, hypothetical, and counterfactual thinking. They are also attaching concepts to concrete situations.
I was able to tie the different concepts that I was teaching to their everyday life. I did this by carrying a few of their lessons over into their snacks and by allowing them to think critically on how to solve the problem of moving one object from point A to point B by using a catapult. This also allowed my formal operational learners the ability to take the concepts learned and apply them to another concept. For instance, learning about the rock cycle and creating a layered “rock” snack. I even had them make a “dirt pudding” snack that flowed into their recycling and vermicomposting. I also was able to engage the students in generating questions and testing their knowledge of scientific theory to make a hypothesis on their catapult exercise.
I feel I am competent in this standard because I was able to effectively use multiple representations and explanations of the concepts that I was teaching by tying in their snacks to some of their lessons. Lev Vygotsky’s scaffolding theory fits perfectly here. The students saw first hand how a concept worked and then re-created that concept to make something else to tie the learning together. I did this by offering an avenue to make a connection to the material through food and hands-on experiences.
Using the catapult challenge I was able to lead my students in an inquiry-based lesson to learn about how gravity and mass can present a challenge to get objects from one place to another. This is where John Dewey’s theory of doing and interacting comes into play. I was able to engage my students in coming up with and testing their hypotheses on how mass affects gravity according to the material and data collected and having them make the necessary adjustments to counteract the challenges they ran into. By doing and interacting with others I believe this allowed them to see first hand how mass and gravity can either work with or against each other.
I was able to tie the different concepts that I was teaching to their everyday life. I did this by carrying a few of their lessons over into their snacks and by allowing them to think critically on how to solve the problem of moving one object from point A to point B by using a catapult. This also allowed my formal operational learners the ability to take the concepts learned and apply them to another concept. For instance, learning about the rock cycle and creating a layered “rock” snack. I even had them make a “dirt pudding” snack that flowed into their recycling and vermicomposting. I also was able to engage the students in generating questions and testing their knowledge of scientific theory to make a hypothesis on their catapult exercise.
I feel I am competent in this standard because I was able to effectively use multiple representations and explanations of the concepts that I was teaching by tying in their snacks to some of their lessons. Lev Vygotsky’s scaffolding theory fits perfectly here. The students saw first hand how a concept worked and then re-created that concept to make something else to tie the learning together. I did this by offering an avenue to make a connection to the material through food and hands-on experiences.
Using the catapult challenge I was able to lead my students in an inquiry-based lesson to learn about how gravity and mass can present a challenge to get objects from one place to another. This is where John Dewey’s theory of doing and interacting comes into play. I was able to engage my students in coming up with and testing their hypotheses on how mass affects gravity according to the material and data collected and having them make the necessary adjustments to counteract the challenges they ran into. By doing and interacting with others I believe this allowed them to see first hand how mass and gravity can either work with or against each other.