Moving Beyond the Science Kit: Explorations of Electricity and Atoms

When I first started reading Ms. Stone section I was bored out of my mind.  I wanted to tell her that these are fourth-graders and don't need the labels to figure out how the wires should go, if students were truly having a problem with this she could give helpful hints.  As the teacher she should challenge her students to figure out how to construct a circuit or if she likes giving step by step instructions she should have at least let her students guess what circuit they made by the definitions on the board.  Not all students were engaged in this activity since there were not enough supplies for them to work in groups smaller than four.

Ms. Travis used an engaging question to discover her students’ misconceptions about the topic of electricity.  During this questioning time she is asking the students to give reasoning and proof from their thinking process instead of just accepting their answer.  Doing this requires students to think about their thinking.  She also used an attention getting, hands on activity on the first day that allowed the students to explore.  Their homework was based off of what they encountered and making rules to fix what they saw.  Their homework also prepared them who the next day. I really liked that Ms. Travis didn’t use the kit on the, I feel that when using the kits most people take the easy way out like Ms. Stone did. They do exactly what the instructions say instead of pushing the students to discover for themselves by posing questions to guide the students exploration. I really liked that Ms. Travis did extended lessons off of the kit that would make it more relevant for her students’ lives. She kept the students engaged throughout the days of learning about electricity and all of the activities that went along with it.  This article really showed how far a teacher may have to go to make sure their students are in a rich learning environment.  Ms. Stone requested that flashlights be bought so that the students could take them apart and manipulate them to explore the fine details of a light bulb.  By doing this it lead the students to ask more questions and really become involved in the learning process instead of sitting on the sidelines and being instructed on what to do. 

It was very interesting to see a teacher use the kits in a more inquiry-based way instead of teaching straight from the instructions.  I am going to use this as references to model my teaching after because it shows it is okay to use kits if you use them in the right way.