My Fieldwork Experience 🤓🧪

Hello and welcome back to my blog!

Today I am going to discuss my overall experience with fieldwork. My colleagues and I worked with  the fourth grade class from Bishop Dunn for about 2 months. Our unit of focus was energy, and there were 5 different groups. Each group created two lessons on different concepts relating to energy and we each had two days to present both our lessons to the class.

I really enjoyed this fieldwork experience. I was in group 5 and we are called "Science Buddies" and our motto is "All experiments, successful or failed, are proof that you are trying". I had the privilege of working with Ryley, Valerie, and Britany, and I just want to say thank you to them for being so cooperative and for communicating so well.Throughout all the lessons, students were able to participate in discussions, interactive activities, and independent practices. It was amazing to see how each group had different topics to present, but we all managed to build off of each others lessons. We were all to give feedback to each other, and that helped each group to see what we can improve on or what everyone liked. I really enjoyed giving and receiving feedback I feel like it really did help the way my group and I to decide what worked for us and what didn't. 

One thing I learned about myself during this fieldwork experience is that I can learn to navigate/use a technology tool fairly quickly. I really enjoyed learning that about myself because now I can use other technology tools given or suggested to me, and I know I can figure out how to use it. Some things I learned about the 4th grade class is they are all very active and very curious. Some students in classes are not like that, but this class was great to work with it was never a silent class with them and I really appreciate that especially since we are online. I also learned that the students grasped what we were teaching more if the activities or independent practices were interactive. They responded well to creating Flipgrid videos, drawing activities, and simulations. I feel like worksheets they did not really enjoy as much, but they still did them which is great. Honestly, I feel like the students each independently engaged in active learning throughout all of the lessons. My groups lessons were created on Nearpod and I will say that helped to keep everyone in one place and engaged together. 

 

Another tool I was introduced to was Mystery Science. It is a science based website that helped all the groups base the energy lessons on the specific topics we were assigned. Mystery Science provides us with videos, photos, lessons and activities for the students. In the first lesson that my group created we included a Mystery Science video based on how heat has successfully improved the ways of energy transfer. It provided the students with plenty of useful information and afterwards we had a discussion about it, which the students were actively participating in. In our second lesson, we used another Mystery Science video, and we used a worksheet provided  as the independent practice. These two sources discussed the city of Boulderville and the students had to create an energy plan to keep it running. They had to decide what renewable energy/ natural resources were going to help make the town run. The students actually brought up the idea of creating their responses in a Flipgrid video, and if that does not prove to you how engaged they were in active learning then I don't know what will. I believe it is important to teach with NGSS because science is a crucial part of our lives, and Mystery Science helped me to realize that. NGSS helps build wonder for students, which promotes more learning in the classroom. Students should be able to wonder about different things and not be limited to one idea or thought. Mystery Science helped our lessons be more engaging and it resulted in the students participation, which was amazing and greatly appreciated!

All of the lessons presented by all groups were based on the 5 Es cycle which includes Engage, Explore, Explain, Evaluate, and Elaborate. The 5 E model can help teachers to ask questions and pose problems to students, which is what all of our lessons did. In the engage phase students should be making connections or thinking about things they already know, in other words assessing their prior knowledge. An example that my group did is the draw it activity in which we asked students to draw examples of energy transfer/ heat energy so we can determine where their thought process is at. Students are provided with resources and materials needed to explore the lessons they are being taught to promote their active learning. My group used simulations that helped students explore the topic of the lesson we were teaching. In the explain phase, students are to explain new insights that they formed throughout the lesson. At the end of our lessons, the students were given an evaluation  based on all the lessons that were taught, and through this we are able to determine what they learned.  The elaborate phase is when the students take the new insights they gained in order to complete the independent practices given to them. For example, my group had the students make heat spinners and in the videos they elaborated on what the project was.

This fieldwork experience served as an opportunity to help me explore new technology tools and to learn how to utilize them. It gave me a new view towards science, and I realized that the more interactive and engaging the lesson the more the students are willing to participate and be engaged. I had an amazing experience overall and if I could do it again I definitely would! Thank you to all my colleagues!

That is all for today folks come again soon!