Thanks for all the thoughtful comments on literacy! You are all thinking of many ways to incorporate literacy into other content areas! I like how most of you were able to take ANY NAEP question and bring it to the needed level. You were then able to state specifically what kind of literacy skill was needed to answer the question. Way to go! An infinite number of possibilities!

Enjoy teaching your lessons!

Science, Math, Literacy, and Assessment

Two out of three fourth graders cannot read proficiently and seven out of ten inner-city and rural fourth graders cannot read at the most basic level (Paige, 2002). With increasing pressure on teachers to elevate reading proficiency because of NCLB, how do you envision a math/science education curriculum that supports literacy while still proving a rich environment for science inquiry and problem-based math learning? For example, how can you balance math practice problems, not drill, with your approach?

One of the further challenges of implementing a problem-based math and science curriculum is that assessment questions often require strong reading comprehension skill levels as well as science and math conceptual understanding. Visit the NAEP site explored in science methods and choose one science and one math question that you could use for your thematic unit as either a pre- or post assessment. What literacy skills would students also have to have to be successful on your selected question?

Please post these in your grade bands ~ Thank you!!!

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics)

In recent months the federal government has made moves to significantly increase funding opportunities for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) research and development. What does this have to do with teachers? One, the federal government intends to maintain the economic viability of the US through continued innovations in the use and application of technology - this is a clear work-force development agenda. Educators will be expected to be a part of this agenda by modeling and integrating technology into classroom instruction.

To this end, we have explored Smartboards, Google Earth, calculators, hand-held computers, Vernier probes . . . in both math and science methods.

For your blog posting by GRADE LEVEL for this week:

1) Make arrangements to exchange emails of your google earth tour with another group or individual. Download Google Earth 4.2 on to your personal computer, view the emailed google earth tour and post your review of the tour to this blog.
2) Complete viewing of the placenames google earth tours (Salish and Flathead Reservation) using the student journal to guide your viewing and post one new understanding gained.
2) Think about the applications of Google Earth as it was demonstrated in the PlaceNames Curriculum? Would you use it? How? What other ways can you think of for applying the use of Google Earth in the classroom.
3) Find a calculator/computer lesson plan appropriate for YOUR field placement class. Discuss how you may modify this or teach it including challenges you may face.

Uncovering Students' ideas in science

Greetings everyone! Your discussion of exploring probes as a way to not only get students to reveal and reflect on their own ideas but to also assess your own level of understanding is a very useful one. It's clear all of you gave careful thought to what the Private Universe research means for your teaching, your science learning, and your students' science learning. Well done!

p.s. Hey Cody, it looks like I owe you a pair of socks!

--l

Science Probes

I wasn't sure where to post our blog about the Science Probe, so I hope this is ok.

Group Members: Mike, Ciara, Allen, Tricia, and Kacie
In general our group was pleased with the probes. They will be useful to be used within a unit and they are a good starter for writing a lesson. There is a lot of room for us to develop the probes into lessons that will work for our students. We liked the amount of resources that were provided at the end of each probe idea, having those resources already put together for us can save valuable time. Each probe suggestion seemed to be aimed at getting students to explore and form their own opinions, and be able to explain them. Two of the probes we looked at could be connected to each other, and the book even provided important things to make sure students understand. For example; observation always comes before exploration, and "erosion" and "weathering" are not interchangeable words. We felt that the suggestions were grade level appropriate, and we were confident that we would be able to teach the probes effectively. Our group felt that this book will be an important resource to have in the classroom.

I found an Aims curriculum book titled, Cycles of Growing and Knowing. Within this book there are many lessons that encompass the ideas of plant cycles and also human cycles of growth. All of the lessons not only integrate math and science but rely on math to accomplish the collection of data or data analysis. Similar to the jet toy lesson the pumpkin lesson also involved the processes of observing, collecting and recording data, and comparing and contrasting. But since the science of this lesson was life science and the jet toy challenge was about physics, the two are very different challenges. Both of the lessons relied on observation, predictions and class discussion as components of their success.

Week #4 Critique Integrated Curriculum

You have seen how integrated math and science are with the SAE curriculum (Jet Toy). Now compare with AIMS or GEMS. Click on the grade level to see more.