Science Center Inquiry

My Students

For most kids, Science is the fun subject. The one where kids get to experiment and make discoveries on their own. In my 17 years experience, I have seen kids gravitate to books about science and things in the world like volcanoes and animals and space. They have an innate eagerness to learn.

My students are economically disadvantaged and most are English language learners.

Our school is a Title I school located in Nashville, Tennessee. These students are eager learners who bring their own unique experiences to the learning process. They like to get involved in the learning with their minds and their bodies. When these students can perform experiments and then read about a related topic and make the connection of how they are related, then their excitement can hardly be contained. Our school believes in trying to provide these experiences to our students as frequently as possible because these are the memorable learning experiences that form the foundations for future learning.

My Project

Science in my classroom is an inquiry based experience where students get involved first, then they begin making sense of the learning and the process. Students will read about the topic to learn more and research to answer questions and create presentations. My role is as a facilitator and an observer as they work to make sense of the information and the learning target. I also see these material as being something students can use on their on own, when they just want to read about a topic. The materials requested match the standards provided by the state for 4th grade so they are necessary and appropriate.

Donations to this project will improve my classroom because it will give us a Science Center that we currently do not have.

This center will enrich our curriculum in a major way. Students will be excited to choose an activity to do or a set of books to read. Each set of books requested focuses on a topic using several leveled books so all students will have access to them and be able to read about the topic. This is a huge bonus and extremely important in any class.