science

Students Teaching Students

For the final project in our landforms unit, I have my fifth grade students teach our book buddies class (Melody’s 2nd grade class) about volcanoes. The students are expected to teach the second graders what they learned about volcanoes. This is fun to see them take on the role of a teacher. Not only do they realize how hard it is, but it helps them make sure they really learned and understood what we studied.

One of the requirements for this project is that they integrate technology. In the past, I used to require them to make a power point or use a specific type of technology. However, something our I.T. specialist has encouraged me to do is to leave it more open, so the students can choose how they will use technology. So for this project, I let them decide how to incorporate technology.  Many of them created I-movies, Powerpoint, Glogster, and used  iPads. The students also have to create an assessment to see if the students learned what they taught. For the first day, my students went in to teach about volcanoes, and the next day they will give them the quiz!  The final part of the project is to erupt volcanoes with them.

One of the groups came up with a fun board game!


Here’s a link to one of the glogster’s they created!

http://www.glogster.com/glog/6ln37kntlmlruq3b9iahla0

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Field Trips in Korea!

Everywhere I went in Paris, I saw students! I saw students on field trips in the Louvre, on our night river cruise, Versailles, on the streets of Champs Elysees, and even on our airplane. At times, I was glad that I was on break and didn’t have to travel to other countries with my students. It was pretty cool to think that the students in France could easily go to see the Mona Lisa on a field trip. I wonder if they even know how lucky they truly are to be living in a city with such amazing and significant pieces of art all around.

This reminded me of my students and the fun we have going on field trips here in Korea. Here are some of the fun places I’ve been to with my students within these past 4 years.

  • Seoul Tower near Myeong Dong
  • Seoul Museum of Art
  • The National Museum of Korea in Yongsan
  • Gwacheon National Science Museum
  • The Korean War Memorial Museum in Yongsan
  • Seoul Zoo in Gwacheon
  • The 63 Building in Yeoido
  • Dreamland Forest
  • Everland Amusement Park
  • EGG Hall in Jongno
  • What the Book Store in Itaewon
  • Lunch at Petra’s in Itaewon
  • Native American Art exhibit at Sejong Museum of Art in Jongno
  • Ice Skating at local ice rink
  • Ski Resort
  • Nature walks- Local mountain behind our school
  • River walks- Local river next to our school
  • Gyeong Bok Palace- Folk Museum??
  • Live Shows- The Snowman Musical
  • Pottery Making at the National Museum of Korea

Some other possible places for field trips:

  • DMZ
  • Korean Traditional Palaces
  • Blue House/Museum near there
  • Local farms
  • Animal Shelter

What is your favorite field trip?

Are there any other good places you recommend for field trips in Korea?

Simple, but effective. A craft for several activities!

Last month I wrote a post about integrating technology into a science lesson by printing out pictures for a cloud booklet. Since then, I have discovered (from my awesome teaching partner) a new way to make a cute booklet. It. Is. So. Simple. And I yet, I didn’t know how to do it until someone taught me (crazy how that works!).

Step One: Decide how many pages you want your booklet to be (including the cover). I want my booklet to be six pages, therefore I need three pieces of paper. Lay the three pieces of paper on top of each other as shown in the picture:

Step 2: Fold the paper, so that the three overlapped tabs on the other side are on top of these three tabs. As shown in the picture:

Step three: Staple, and you are done! SO EASY (I apologize this isn’t stapled):

Here is what one of my student’s completed cloud booklet looked like:

You can use this kind of booklet for so many activities. Writing about different scenes in a book, or different characters in a story, are just two examples.

What would you use this booklet for? Share your ideas!

Student Made Props Rocks!

It’s finally showtime for my fifth grade students! Today, we had our performance of Geology Rocks for the whole elementary school and besides a few small technology glitches it went pretty smoothly. I think the teachers had more fun enjoying some of the humor from the lines and songs! Tomorrow, we have the performance for the parents. 🙂

The props for the musical were all made by the students. We had the students make signs that said the name of the part and a picture of it. We worked with the art teacher, Rachel. She had them make the signs and our one big prop (a mountain) for the stage.

The art teacher had them use different mediums for the signs. Some were done with water colors, color pencils or thick crayons. The students then used black paper to cut out the words and glued them on top. Afterwards, I laminated them and hole-punched them on the top and put a string through it. Now, the students could hang them around their necks during the show.

For the rocks (igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary), they cut out signs in the shape of rocks and colored them. They came out really well too!

Thank you Ms. Rachel for all your help! We couldn’t have done it without you. We ❤ art.

Summer Technology Opportunity for Teachers

Last summer, I had a chance to go to the ISTE 2011 conference in Philadelphia. This was amazing as I heard great keynote speakers including John Medina, the author of Brain Rules, and Chris Lehman, the principal of Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. Plus, it was a great opportunity for networking and hearing about the latest trends and updates in technology.

This conference happens every year, and this year it takes place in sunny San Diego from June 24-27th, 2012.

ISTE 2012

Here’s a brief description from it’s website:

“Now in its 33rd year, ISTE’s annual conference and exposition features an amazing array of professional learning and collaborative networking opportunities. As part of your conference registration, you can choose from three inspirational keynotes and more than 700 concurrent sessions including: lecture, panel, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), model lesson, research paper, poster, student showcase, and Birds of a Feather discussion formats. Also be sure to check out our special focus playgrounds and networking lounges for even more hands-on exploration and one-to-one connecting.”

Even if you are not officially an I.T. teacher, it is beneficial for all. I do wish I could go again this year,  but things are going to be a bit busy for me this summer. Hopefully, I can go in 2013!

Science: An Easy Way to Integrate Technology

As I was teaching my science unit on the water cycle and clouds last year, I had the urge to integrate technology (I may have been slacking in that department in the fall…and my new year’s resolutions were kicking into high gear). I started looking for a website that I could send my students to in the computer lab. I had this vision of them looking at the different kinds of clouds we were learning about, picking a picture to print, and then creating a booklet with their printed pictures.

I searched and searched, and found nothing. nada. zilch. I began to deflate, when suddenly… it hit me. I could just make my own! I gathered pictures I liked and created a blog:

cloudsforscience.blogspot.com

I had the site bookmarked on the computers in the lab and gave my students simple instructions. They had to read about each cloud and pick one picture (out of three choices) to print. Before we went to the lab we had already learned about these different types of clouds, so this was a good review for them.

This experience made me realize that if you can’t find something you like (I have become very accustomed to borrowing everyone’s great ideas, I guess it’s time for me to share^^), you can create it!

Feel free to use the site (it is designed for second grade), and if have made your own sites, please share them. It’s only polite 🙂

Here are some examples of the booklets my students made last year (sorry for the quality, I took them just now with my phone!):

Fifth Grade Musical: Geology Rocks!

“Musical plays for the musically timid teacher…” Yes, that is the tag line for Bad Wolf Press that Melody discovered last year. Her class performed,  “The Turkeys Go On Strike”, which was a huge success. They have a wide arrange of musicals for the different grade levels and subject areas.  You do have to pay to order the musical, but it was definitely worth it.  It comes with a  copy of the script and a CD with all the songs and instrumentals versions as well. I can definitely say I am a musically timid teacher, but Bad Wolf Press makes it easy to do and fun for the kids.

This year, both fifth grade classes will putting on the musical, Geology Rocks! It is a mystery where Sherlock Holmes and Watson are trying to figure out what happened to Professor Rock. It goes along nicely with our science unit on landforms that we are currently studying. In the book, they give great tips on how to practice, rehearse and perform the musical. They give you a four week plan. So this week, we are on week 2, where students have been listening and singing the songs. There are 10 songs that are in the musical. The students don’t necessarily sing all of the songs. I have to admit, last night as I was trying to fall asleep, the chorus to the main song in the musical was stuck in my head…He loves, he loves, volcanoes…

Next week, the students will be reading the script and choosing parts. I hope to post more on the process and final production of our first ever fifth grade musical!

P.S. We ❤ comments! Let us know that you were here.

Geology ROCKS!

The Cast