http://lablearner.com/blog_videos/blog001-desktop2.flv
How can teachers communicate to parents what their students have learned during a hands-on science experiment?
Many teachers can attest to the enormous value of hands-on science because they witness how students learn and solve problems during hands-on experiments. There can be moments in a group experiment where students turn to their peers to formulate an idea or prediction only to alter their thinking on the spot as they perform the experiment. Teachers observe students challenging themselves and their peers. Teachers have even observed how scientific hands-on problem solving augments students’ critical thinking skills outside the science classroom.
However, it is sometimes difficult for parents to gain an understanding of hands-on science learning because they have not had the opportunity to learn science in this manner or to watch their students in this setting. How can teachers communicate their observations to parents? Also, how can parents probe and question their students to find out what they have learned in laboratory experiments? And finally, how can the family learn science together at home – even during supper at the kitchen table?
In this first LabLearner blog, Dr. Keith Verner, the founder of LabLearner, visits a class of 8th grade students investigating a LabLearner hands-on unit on heat transfer and the conservation of energy. Dr. Verner extends the concept with an ice cube experiment that can be discussed at the kitchen table.
Teachers:
Please comment on your experiences regarding how you communicate to parents how their students are developing scientific skills, science content knowledge, and critical thinking skills while doing hands-on experiments.
Parents:
Please comment on your experiences regarding how you engage your children to help them learn and understand science, particularly when they are participating in a hands-on science curriculum like LabLearner.
I think as parents many of us feel comfortable helping our children with reading or sharing geography or history. For some reason we think science is better left to the professionals, believing we are not scientifically savvy enough to properly impart knowledge on our children. What we fail to realize is, as humans, we “do” science everyday, and preform scientific experiments daily that can be shared with our children. When you take chicken out of the freezer to defrost…science. When you check the news for today’s weather…science. When you start tomato seeds indoors…science. And when you turn on a light…science.
As parents we need to realize we don’t need to have all the answers when we talk science with our children. More important than supplying all the answers, we need to help our children learn to ask all the questions. And what could be healthier for a family than investigating the answers together?
LabLearner is all about questions and I applaud your efforts, Dr. Verner, to help parents understand that we too can apply your methods in our homes. How to I engage my children, well, now my grandchildren, in understanding science? I teach them to ask why, then stand back and give them space to begin to answer the question.
As a 5th and 6th grade LabLearner teacher, I can attest to the success of this program. Our children are beginning to make “real-world” connections in the lab. As in all learning, it shouldn’t be isolated, hence cross-curricular instruction. Why should science be any different?
The hands-on component gives the students a personal science experience enabling them to realize the presence of science in their own daily lives. This then can be brought to the “kitchen table” for discussion. At the end of the day, parents appreciate hearing about what their child learned and hopefully, because of LabLearner, we will hear “NOTHING” no longer!
As an educator, I am constantly trying to encourage students’ minds to burst into action. LabLearner aids in the preliminary part of this crusade by counteracting the boring and inefficient approaches of science instruction. The next hurdle, however, is the communication of concepts. Students must be able to convey the information they gain in lab in an accurate, attractive, imaginative and memorable way. The strategies I use to accomplish this are as follows: student generated stories, comics, skits, rap songs, poetry, powerpoint presentations, and photo-journaling.
Whether these projects are presented formally, shared as attachments to emails, posted along the walls of the lab, or sent home to be enjoyed, they all encourage students and interested bystanders (parents included), to connect to what we are doing at a variety of levels.
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Dr. Verner, have you thought about adding interactive, self-check quizzes for students onto your webpage? It would be a stimulating way for students to review information that has been taught in the lab, allow for parents to “see” progress, and connect families to your program.
In addition, your program does a wonderful job of encouraging students to think like scientists, right down to the lab coats. I would love to see lab packets refer to compounds such as vinegar and baking soda by their scientific names and chemical formulas beginning at the elementary level. Instead of students using everyday groceries, they would now view the materials as “scientific” and refer to them as such. Not only would this expose them to a higher-level of scientific thinking, it would excite them. And just think of the reaction from parents. There would be a resounding “Wow!” when they find out their son/daughter used acetic acid and sodium bicarbonate in lab!
As a former teacher and a current school administrator, I see the benefits of hands-on programs on a daily basis. Our district does not use LabLearner but we do have another completely hands-on explorative program. These types of programs help all levels of learners to become actively engaged. The students are communicating about their experiments and experiences which assists them in processing what they are doing at a higher level and connecting it to the real world. It also is a huge benefit for our increasing Second Language Learner population. These students may not always be able to easily communicate what they have learned to their teachers but hands-on programs allow them to show what they have learned. Also, by collaborating with their peers, they are involved in conversation that can assist them in obtaining academic language.
When thinking about communicating to parents what students are doing, I understand that it is a difficult task. We have newsletters in multiple languages that accompany the unit that the students are working on to inform the parents. I feel that since the students are communicating while they are working in school, they are more able to communicate what they have done to their parents. We as educators need to continue to encourage the ‘talking around the kitchen table’ and encourage the students to share what they know. Hands-on programs help to create independent and confident learners which will hopefully lend it self to creating expressive communicators.
I applaud LabLearner for its success in creating a program that takes science off of the dusty boring pages and into the hands of the students!