CHAPTER 3 REFLECTION Discovering... not just knowing facts

Chapter 3 really made me start thinking about how important it is to engage students minds in science. Allow them to make predictions and never make them feel silly for those predictions, instead help them investigate if what they are thinking i true. Among making discoveries within the class it is important for students to build on the knowledge by having them write stories that reflect what they had just learned. This is essential in building that knowledge and comprehension, but to be able to put that knowledge to use in the real world. Along with showing comprehension, this chapter really shows how to build that understanding. Being able to to just answer questions on a test does not show that the child understands anything, they memorized facts and can just throw them out of their memory once the test is over. Keeping those concepts and facts in their mind by building an understanding is important. The constructivist belief is that we must engage students in activities so that they can understand and really internalize what is being taught. This engagement starts at the beginning of a lesson when trying to activate prior knowledge, then asking students what they think is occurring within the initial demonstration. Getting their minds thinking and interesting in trying to figure it out is very important in engaging students. When they build questions and want to figure out the answers, they in turn want to learn and explore. These initial ideas and thought are also important because it gives the teacher an idea of where the students thought are, no answer is wrong because  this alternative conception of what is happening is stemming from their prior experience.

The following picture show a huge difference in testing and exploring. I feel as though it is a good representation of how much students are gathering from their journeys in school. When they take a test do they truly understand and in the other picture you see the faces of the students and how they seem t o be internalizing the information.

Versus

A huge part of the teachers duty isn't to just tell students the correct answer, instead they need to become mediators and guide their understanding so that they make discoveries.

Within the icicle story i enjoyed that the teacher allowed the students to make their own inferences which built there own questions about things they want to explore. I think this is a great idea for teachers to do in the classroom. I know that sometimes specific things need to be learned and questioned, but maybe finding a way to guide students to those questions on their own will make the process more meaningful because it holds ownership to them. Also, I really thought a crucial teacher tip was embedded in this experiment which is to allow the students the opportunity to make mistakes. Mistakes are actually very beneficial and can only help them build the knowledge and understanding of how to fix those issues they face.

Also bringing the ice into the classroom from outside is a perfect way for teachers to show the connection between the world around us and the activities within the classroom.