This is an inquiry activity that relies of pervious understanding of balancing and weighing to introduce a properties of air.
Assessment, like instruction, needs to be geared toward various learning styles, and teachers can create rubrics for ongoing assessment that keep a formal daily record of what students are learning. Traditional styles of teaching focus almost exclusively on auditory presentation of material to students — in other words, lecturing. K–12 education is moving away from that traditional model towards methods of teaching that address children’s multiple intelligences and are appropriate to different types of learners, not only auditory learners. But although we’ve come a long way in how we teach students, we haven’t always made great strides in how we assess them. Most assessment still takes the form of quizzes, tests, and written homework, which work best for students who are the strongest verbal thinkers. Portfolios play only a small role, and even they only begin to address the various learning styles. If we’re going to teach in a way that addresses all learning styles, shouldn’t we also assess that way?
Students compare and contrast birds' bills and compare them to household items.
This activity is a guided discovery where students gather information on how to add a seat belt to a clay figure that is sitting on top of a toy car. The clay figure should stay in place when it hits a speed bump placed after a ramp.
This activity consists of classroom lessons where children observe tree leaves and compare and contrast those leaves leading to an understanding of the terms deciduous and evergreen (and also coniferous). They then use that learning to help them identify the kind of tree based on samples on a chart.
This is an inquiry where students will be comparing and contrasting two different types of leaves with a partner.
Used for students receiving Advanced Placement credit and transfer credit. Program of study or research to be arranged with a Department faculty member. Written report required. Permission of Department required. Do you like teaching, but find yourself frustrated by how little students seem to learn? Would you like to try teaching, but are nervous about whether you will be any good at it? Are you interested in new research on science education? Research in science education shows that the greatest obstacle to student learning is the failure to identify and confront the misconceptions with which the students enter the class or those that they acquire during their studies. This weekly seminar course focuses on developing the participants' ability to uncover and confront student misconceptions and to foster student understanding and retention of key concepts. Participants read primary literature on science education, uncover basic concepts often overlooked when teaching biology, and lead a small weekly discussion session for students currently enrolled in introductory biology classes. The instructor for this course, Dr. Julia Khodor, is a member of the HHMI Education Group.
Used for students receiving Advanced Placement credit and transfer credit. Program of study or research to be arranged with a Department faculty member. Written report required. Permission of Department required.
Successful completion of this cooperative learning activity requires the active involvement of the individual, the small group and the entire classroom (collaboration). The goal is to make a simple task as complicated as possible by constructing a single complex machine.
This activity will help students learn about Minnesota animals and characteristics that distinguish them from one another.
This is an inquiry-based activity in which students will need to work together as a class to solve the following problem: they must construct a "boat" entirely out of modeling clay that is capable of supporting 150 grams of cargo without sinking.
In this jigsaw, students will graph various Bald Eagle population numbers and determine the impact humans have had on the eagle. Specifically, they will investigate why the Bald Eagle was listed as endangered, the affects of DDT on eagles, and the affects of lead. Based on an original activity titled "Bald Eagle Population Graphing" from The Raptor Center, University of Minnesota http://www.cvm.umn.edu/raptor/prod/groups/cvm/@pub/@cvm/documents/asset/cvm_66866.pdf
This is a lab activity to determine the amount of calories in different foods.
This site consists of three lessons examining George Washington's leadership in the French and Indian War, at the Federal Convention, and as chief executive. They are based on primary source documents from the George Washington Papers, 1741-1799. The lessons are intended for secondary students, grades 8-12. The documents from Washington's Letterbooks include focus questions that may be used in Socratic seminars and in cooperative learning groups.
This game employs the cooperative learning group format to review thoroughly Chaucer's Prologue to "The Canterbury Tales" and "The Pardoner's Tale" and "The Nun's Priest's Tale."
These strategies support active student participation in math lessons and allow teachers to assess the developing proficiency levels of all students in the class by walking around to monitor student responses. These strategies are especially effective during the Mental Math part of an Everyday Mathematics lesson.
An elementary introduction to chemistry vocabulary, tools and concepts used in science curriculum.
In this inquiry investigation, students will observe unknown tissue samples and draw them in their science notebooks. They will work in groups to present and defend a classification scheme for the unknown tissues to the class, and then use textbooks as a reference to compare their scheme to the accepted classification system.
This activity is a group lab activity where students explore beginning electrical circuits.
The students will be able to define solids and liquids from their prior knowledge. The students will be able to verbalize the differences between solids and liquids? Observe, communicate and question when things aren't what they appear to be. Is Oobleck a solid or liquid? The answer is that it is both. Have the students come up with their own answers and to communicate their findings. The students will understand the difference between a non-Newtonian fluid and a liquid or a solid.
