Science Methods and Implications for my Teaching

This week I was really reflecting on the science my students are experiencing in my placement. My students come to school equipped with knowledge of the natural world and with a model for inquiry. I think it's so important to use what students know and to build on it to push their thinking even further. I keep thinking of the possibilities for my kindergarteners. 

In our science methods course, we did a little self-documentation this week where we included pictures of science in our everyday lives. We also included pictures of culture in our everyday lives, and pictures of what we are experts at. What my self-documented practices really illuminated for me was that I see and experience science in my everyday life. 

One of my self documentation pictures showing science (weather/ the environment) in my everyday life.

My pictures regarding science in my everyday life predominantly included cooking and the environment. I see how greatly my culture is reflected here and I believe that there are some opportunities in this as I think they could be easily incorporated into my teaching. 

On Fridays, we have parent helpers come into our classroom to have a cooking lesson with groups of students. Students are already experiencing science in cooking- and I think we need to put a name to it! I think we need to be more explicit about how science is related to cooking and it would be so easy to include this in something we're already doing. 

Another topic I included often in my self-documented practices is the environment. After our workshop this quarter, I feel a real responsibility to my students to help them foster a love for our environment early on. I think there are some things that I could do in our class every day, and one of those things could be to incorporate a compost bin. Unfortunately my students throw away their vegetables frequently and those things could be going into a classroom compost bin. We also have a school garden that we have not visited thus far, and I think we could easily use our compost bin as even more of an excuse to make a trip over to the garden! Before we can teach children how they can save the world, they must first come to love the world (so said our groovy workshop lecturer)!