A Drop in the Ocean, A Change in the Weather
The ocean is a place where nothing stays the same. There is constant motion, bursting life, rushing tides, and much more. These bodies of water that make up a majority of our planet contain things that we know of, and others that we never could have imagined. The ocean holds secrets within its nooks and crannies that have never been told. Mystery calls our name from the bottom of the ocean floor.
“There was a magic about the sea. People were drawn to it. People wanted to love by it, swim in it, play in it, look at it. It was a living thing that was as unpredictable as a great stage actor.."-Cecelia Ahern
The ocean is a wonderful representation of what science is. Science is ever-changing like an ocean's tide. Everything a child experiences will never be the same twice. The mystery behind science calls us to want to know more. I want for my students to have this mindset not just about science, but about every subject.
I want my students to think. Inquiry is something that has been lost over the years in teaching and I am so excited that Common Core is beginning to once again bring critical thinking and questioning back into the curriculum.
While reading Koch I found that there were several pointers I would like to implement in my future classroom. I really enjoyed reading about process skills. I think it is a wonderful idea to have journals and circus centers in a classroom; the journals allow students to write down and remember their findings that they will experience within the circus centers of different experiments. I also LOVED the advice of never discrediting what a child already knows. A child should build off their prior knowledge and encouraging them to explore (even if they make mistakes) is beneficial because it allows them to grow as a thinker. Why did this experiment turn out the way it did? Why wasn't it the same as last time? How can I change the outcome? If a student never asks why, then what is the point of learning?
In class we had to draw upon (literally) our prior knowledge of what a sand-dollar was.
Once we had our drawings we were able to explore our sand-dollars, fix our initial thoughts, and pose questions about what we didn't know about the specimen. We were introduced to technology called a proscope. I think they are pretty cool! It's a microscope with a light that hooks up to your computer and allows you to display your findings on the screen.
After viewing our sand-dollar on the screen and with our eyes we researched the questions we had come up with. The most pressing one for me is how does a sand dollar move.
Click the link below to see what we found out!
Next we got the lovely experience of dissecting a squid. Normally I don't have a problem with dissections, but today the smell was too awful for me so it was nice to have the option to stand back with a partner who could do the more hands on part of the experiment. As you can see, my partner was quite excited to dig into our little squid ward.
Again we were able to record our questions in our journal as well as our findings about squid.
Did you know that squid have beaks?
That little black thing in the center is its beak.
I had NO idea.
Our squid was a girl.
She had little eggs in her when we cut her open.
I also discovered that squid have cartilage.
It looks like a clear plastic knife, but it is actually the cartilage from inside the squid's body.
And of course, I did know that squid have ink to use for protection.
We, on the other hand, used it to write our initials.
All in all, it was a great experience to explore wildlife from our surroundings. It made me never want to eat calamari, but I am 100% ok with that.
If the ocean is this much fun, I wonder what will happen in town!
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