My students need a butterfly nursery, life cycle posters, life cycle wheels, insect posters, x-rays, and picture cards, and 30 binders for science journals.
Emerson said, "Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science." He very well could have been speaking of 2nd graders. I need materials that will capitalize on their sense of wonder, and help them love to learn about science.
We are an elementary school of about 600 students, located in a small city in California.
Our students are very diverse in ethnicity, experiences, abilities, languages, and socioeconomic background. We have high expectations for our students, but they know they can meet them. Like most children, they love to learn about the world around them and to have hands-on experiences. Those are especially valuable for English language learners, and there are many of them in my school.
My Project
The posters and picture cards will give my students photographic examples of things we can't actually have in the classroom. The x-ray card will give students a look inside living things they are already familiar with from the outside. The magnifiers and bug view jars will provide an opportunity to look at life up close. The windmill generator and force & motion tub will enable students to learn by doing things themselves and experiencing the results. I know how excited my students would be to see the process of metamorphosis with the butterfly nursery. In addition to science learning, these experiences will provide wonderful writing opportunities and hopefully encourage further reading on the topics.
This project will make a huge difference in my students' science learning by adding another dimension to the basic science curriculum.
It will bring to life the things that they just read about in the science text, and will make them feel like actual scientists. Who knows what early positive, engaging science experiences will produce later on? Perhaps those experiences could help create the next great scientist!
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