EExperimental design is something that many middle school students have trouble doing independently. For years I have done the same lab to teach this concept to my students. The students love the lab, but I don’t love the results. This year I decided to try teaching experimental design with a virtual lab. My students chose to do the sound advice lab from Discovery science. Their mission was to find out if listening to rock music on an MP3 player causes hearing damage. My students used the explore section to research sounds and to learn what decibel levels are. They learned how to read and graphs that demonstrated what level of sound decibels can damage hearing.. Then the students set out to design an experiment to test their hypothesis about the damage that MP3 players can cause if played at a loud volume.
The lab was relevant to their world. The virtual lab made it easy for me to have 80 students researching, testing and writing at the same time. When the students finished writing up their experimental design plan they turned it for me to critique. In the past I wrot notes to my students about what they did right or wrong on their experimental design plan. This year I used my Ipod touch to give each student an individual critique. Using garage band I made a simple podcast file of what the student did right and wrong on the design write up. I emailed the podcast file to my students. They listened to their crtique in class and then fixed any parts of the design that was incorrect.The students did the best job they have ever done on designing an experiment. Many of them told me that this method of conferencing helped them know how to fix their writing mistakes or design flaws. I haven’t felt this good about teaching scientific writing in a long time. Try a virtual lab this year and you’ll say why I say: “Virtual lab to to the rescue.
Experimental design is something that many middle school students have trouble doing independently. For years I have done the same lab to teach this concept to my students. The students love the lab, but I don’t love the results. This year I decided to try teaching experimental design with a virtual lab. My students chose to do the sound advice lab from Discovery science. Their mission was to find out if listening to rock music on an MP3 player causes hearing damage. My students used the explore section to research sounds and to learn what decibel levels are. They learned how to read and graphs that demonstrated what level of sound decibels can damage hearing.. Then the students set out to design an experiment to test their hypothesis about the damage that MP3 players can cause if played at a loud volume.The lab was relevant to their world. The virtual lab made it easy for me to have 80 students researching, testing and writing at the same time. When the students finished writing up their experimental design plan they turned it for me to critique. In the past I wrot notes to my students about what they did right or wrong on their experimental design plan. This year I used my Ipod touch to give each student an individual critique. Using garage band I made a simple podcast file of what the student did right and wrong on the design write up. I emailed the podcast file to my students. They listened to their crtique in class and then fixed any parts of the design that was incorrect.The students did the best job they have ever done on designing an experiment. Many of them told me that this method of conferencing helped them know how to fix their writing mistakes or design flaws. I haven’t felt this good about teaching scientific writing in a long time. Try a virtual lab this year and you’ll say why I say: “Virtual lab to to the rescue.
Wow! The beginning of school was stressful for me this year. How about you? I was so busy that I thought when am I ever going to have time to start using Science Connection with my students? However,I took the plunge and I am glad that I stopped procrastinating, and set up my science class to be able to utilize the videos, articles and all the other media opportunities.
When I started planning what was the best way to incorporate Science Connection into my classroom, it dawned on me that this was the perfect tool to help me with two age old problems. The first problem is how do I make my homework more motivating: Answer: Use Science Connection and assignment builder as a way to make my science homework more fun and exciting. If I build a homework assignment using science connection. The student can watch a video, or do a virtual lab instead of traditional science homework. My students have since told me that they not only enjoy homework more, but they like being able to watch a film clip because it helps clarify what we learn in class.
The other problem that Science Connection has helped me with is: How do I help the student who has been absent all week?
Simple answer : Assignment builder.
Last week, a student ended up in the hospital, so I simply made an assignment that included what we did in our book, plus two video segments on classification from science connection, and an article to read on how living things are classified. In addition, I made a review quiz using assessment builder. The whole thing took me less then 20 minutes. I emailed my student the assignment link, and he did the assignment in the hospital. His parents were impressed and said he loved doing his make up work this way.
The assignment I made for my absent student then did double duty as a test review assignment for my whole class. Several children in the class stated that they loved having something visual to help them review and they felt it helped improve their test scores.
I know all of you are as busy as I am, so I hope this post will help you lighten your work load. I am hoping there will be some responses to this post from people who have thought of some interesting ways to utilize science connection. If we help each other then all of us will benefit even more from the Science Connection as a classroom tool.
