Cal Poly Pomona

SCI 212: Earth Sciences - Service Learning

Practical Teaching Experience

Dr. Jeff Marshall

Requirement: The Science 212 Practical Teaching Experience is a Service Learning Activity in which you will develop real-world teaching experience. All students are required to participate. This will count for 20% of your total course grade. The Practical Teaching Experience will also serve as an “Anchor Assignment” for the Cal Poly Pomona Blended Teaching Credential Program.

Assignment: For the Practical Teaching Experience, we will visit a sixth grade class at Redwood Elementary School in Fontana. You will work in a team with 1 or 2 other students (no teams larger than 3 members please!). Each team will conduct a hands-on learning activity with the elementary school students illustrating a basic Earth Science concept. The team members are expected to work together in advance of the school visit to plan, design, and practice their classroom activity. Each team will submit a Team Learning Activity Proposal before the school visit, and a Practical Teaching Experience Final Report following the visit.

Logistics: The Practical Teaching Experience will take place on a weekday, near the end of the quarter, during regular public school hours. All students are responsible for their own transportation and for bringing all needed materials to the school site in Fontana. Directions will be provided. Please allow plenty of time to get to there and back!

Important Dates (To be announced in class):

Orientation session with Teacher Ann Marie Katze

Team Learning Activity Proposal Due

Practical Teaching Experience at Redwood School

Final Report Due

Team Learning Activity Proposal: Prior to the classroom visit, each team must submit a brief (one page) outline explaining their plan for the classroom visit and design for the learning activity. Be sure to reference any sources you have consulted for ideas (e.g., books, journals, web sites, etc.)

Learning Activity: The learning activities should be simple and easy to understand. They should be interactive and involve hands-on participation by the students in the classroom. The activities should last no more than about 15-20 minutes. Each team member is responsible for contributing an equal amount of effort to this assignment. A list of web sites with possible project ideas is provided on the following page.

Final Report: After completing the school visit, each team will write a final report (5-6 pages) including a description of the school visit, a detailed lesson plan for the teaching activity, a discussion of what you learned from the experience, and an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of your learning activity. This report should include the following sections:

1) Introduction - Overview of the visit: who, when, where, why

2) Lesson Plan - Describe the learning activity that you carried out (See attached outline)

3) Discussion and evaluation - What did you learn from the school visit? Write a critique your activity: How did the students respond? What were the strengths of the activity? What changes would you make if you did this activity again?

Useful web sites for Earth Science classroom activities:

Discovery.com Lesson Plans for Teachers

http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/index.html

PBS Teacher Source

http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/

Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)

http://www.askeric.org/

Education Virtual Library

http://www.csu.edu.au/education/library.html

Enchanted Learning.com

http://www.EnchantedLearning.com/Home.html

U.S. Geological Survey: The Learning Web

http://www.usgs.gov/education/

U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program: "For Kids Only"

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/4kids/

American Geological Institute: Earth Science Week

http://www.earthsciweek.org

American Geological Institute (AGI): Educational Resources

http://www.agiweb.org/education/

Geological Society of America: Resources for K-12 Earth Science Educators

http://www.geosociety.org/educate/resources.htm

EarthNet: Virtual Resource Centre for Earth Science Educators

http://earthnet.bio.ns.ca/english/index.html

U.C. Berkeley Museum of Paleontology

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/

Smithsonian Institute Global Volcanism Program

http://www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/

NOAA National Geophysical Data Center

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/hazard/

National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT)

http://www.nagt.org/

Journal of Geoscience Education

http://www.nagt.org/jge.html

Glacier National Park: Lesson Plans

http://www.sd5.k12.mt.us/glaciereft/lessons.htm

Franklin Institute Online

http://www.fi.edu/tfi/activity/act-summ.html

Cal Poly Pomona

College of Education & Integrative Studies

Liberal Studies Program

Anchor Assignment Overview

As a teacher of science your role will be to create a supportive environment in which all children have the opportunity to engage in science. That is, to explore and construct ideas and explanations of the natural world. In designing lessons, you must make decisions related to four generic lesson components: science content, instructional objectives, learning activities, and assessment procedures.

In completing this assignment, you need to design a lesson that is hands-on for the students. It may be discovery or inquiry based (open or guided). It should facilitate student learning by providing opportunities for students to connect their developing scientific understandings with concepts of the Earth Science discipline. You may include a variety of teaching and learning approaches to foster understanding. In your report, please describe all materials used in this activity and if possible, provide examples and/or photographs.

Your lesson should also consider differentiated instruction for an English language learner. Identify specific elements of your lesson that are adaptations intended for English language learners or for the student with a particular deficit. Explain how each of these elements is intended to facilitate learning for your English language learner.

Another central component of lesson designing is determining the grouping of students. The way you group students in science is critical to the effectiveness of instruction and learning and in building communities of active learners. Please indicate in your lesson if students will work in cooperative groups, pair structure, individually, etc. Also include your plan for disseminating materials.

Teaching Performance Expectations

This assignment reflects the components associated with TPE’s 1A (Teaching Science in a Multiple Subject Assignment), 7 (Teaching English Learners), and 9 (Instructional Planning).

TPE 1A: Teaching Science in a Multiple Subject Assignment

To what extent did I…

· align the content standard and the activity

· balance the focus of instruction between science information, concepts, and investigations

· illustrate the content through the activities, explanations and/or experimentations

TPE 7: Teaching English Learners

To what extent did I…

· assess students’ prior knowledge

· use instructional strategies to make grade appropriate or advanced content comprehensible to English language learners

· make learning strategies explicit

· use effective questioning strategies and model English constructs

TPE 9: Instructional Planning

To what extent did I…

· establish objectives based on state academic content standards

· use a variety of explicit teaching methods

· use experience and reflection to improve implementation of instructional strategies

· sequence instruction appropriately, using effective strategies and instructional materials

· connect academic content with student’s backgrounds, interests, and needs

· differentiate instruction to accommodate student’s needs

Anchor Assignment - Lesson Plan Outline

Lesson Title and Grade Level

Objective(s) What am I hoping the students will get out of this science experience? (include process skills: measure, calculate, identify, demonstrate, classify, predict, compare, contrast, infer, etc.)

Standard(s) State the science content standards this activity meets. State the investigation and experimentation standards this activity meets.

Background What is the science involved in this activity? (be specific and accurate)

Materials What materials are required for the activity? How do they need to be grouped? How will the materials be dispersed to teams or individuals?

Introduction How will I introduce the activity to the students? What questions will I ask to engage the students? What connections will I make to life? How will I assess students’ prior knowledge?

Exploration Describe in detail, with clear directions, the activity or investigation students will pursue. Describe the path of inquiry or process of discovery to be followed. What questions will you ask, be specific and list them. What kinds of observations or records should the students keep? Prepare and include student hand-out(s).

Explanation What am I going to do to facilitate the science experience? How will I help the students organize their thinking and pull the lesson together? How can I guide the students and refrain from telling them what they should have found, even if their understanding is incomplete? How can I help them use their information to construct the concept correctly?

Application What will students do independently to practice the skill or content learned? How can the student apply what was learned in the experience? How can the value of this lesson be made relevant in their lives? How can interest be extended? What is a good follow-up activity to reinforce concepts learned? Provide relevant homework, classwork, parent-involvement activity, research assignment, etc.

Assessment How will I know what the students learned? (checking for understanding)

Differentiated How will I adapt the lesson to meet the needs of an English language

Instruction learner?