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Rabbiea Manzoor Dr. Mckenzie EDUC 424 2 February 2014 Ms.

Maxeys presentation on Tuesday presented a lot of great teaching strategies. She included guided inquiry, student-centered learning, and learning through experiences in her lesson plans. We were able to touch her materials and play in her dirt box and get interactive with our learning. I think the dirt box activity would be harder if there were 20 students in my class, but it would still work in small groups or if each person got one thing out of the box and then got into small groups to share their findings. The dirt box lesson would take preparation so that the box would be ready to go with the appropriate things in the box, but once it was made once it could be reused over and over again. The shower curtain activity was an interesting use of materials. I would make sure to put the magnets at the top of the map so that I could hang it up using them if needed. Ms. Maxey made a good point that some of the pictures we used in the first activity were easily identifiable, but others would be too difficult for young students. She was prepared with easier pictures of the same thing in case of this, but she also let us discuss what we thought the picture was of and use process of elimination to try to figure it out on our own. Most of Ms. Maxeys teaching was student-focused. We did all of the thinking and helped each other come up with ideas on our own. Ms. Maxey also left some aspects of her lesson open for the students to decide. For example, she knew that we would

sort the items from the dirt box into groups, but she left it up to us instead. I hope that my future classroom is as fun and effective as Ms. Maxeys. On Thursday Dr. Mckenzie presented a discrepant event with the clay. First the students got to use estimation and proportions to try to guess how big one gram and one cubic inch were. We discussed it with one another and used rulers and balances to try to figure it out. Next, we tried to figure out how Dr. Mckenzies ball of clay could float. Our curiosity made for a nice competition. So, next he let us work in pairs to make a boat out of clay that could float on water. We kept trying to see who could put the most bears in their boat and we reasoned with each other about what was better for the boats and what made them float. In the end we learned that the boats floated best with thin walls and if they were long to distribute the weight. If I were going to explain why things float to my students, I would say that an object floats when it is lighter than the water it displaces. So, if we could take the water that is moved from its original place when we put the boat in, and put it on one side of a scale and put the boat on the other, then we would know that they boat can float if the boat weighs less. This would be an easy discrepancy to have in my classroom because I would just have to set up the oceans before class and provide the students with clay during class. It is a student-focused lesson, so the teacher is able to sit back and relax. I think the clay boat experiment would be taught in first grade. Here is the SOL:

1.1 The student will conduct investigations in which

1. 2. 3. 4.

a) differences in physical properties are observed using the senses; b) simple tools are used to enhance observations; c) objects or events are classified and arranged according to attributes or properties; d) observations and data are communicated orally and with simple graphs, pictures, written statements, and numbers;

5. 6. 7. 8.

e) length, mass, and volume are measured using standard and nonstandard units; f) predictions are based on patterns of observation rather than random guesses; g) simple experiments are conducted to answer questions; and h) inferences are made and conclusions are drawn about familiar objects and events.