Module 4 Reflection Blog (ED 640)

Over the past week, two of our eighth grade science classes have been working with a unit focused on potential and kinetic energy. To allow students to fully explore concepts related to the unit, they are currently embarked in an activity of building “roller coasters” and using a marble as their cart. Using materials such as cardboard, newspaper, popsicle sticks, and straws students must create a coaster in which the marble travels for a minimum of eight seconds. In this experience there is a vast amount of personal exploration and inquiry as students work in pairs of two. During this construction period, there is a lot of opportunity for formative assessment and scaffolding to help students achieve their objectives. It is in this time I have been able to get some first-hand experience and valuable teaching knowledge.

It was easy to see how quickly some of the students were able to express creativity and their engineering-type mindsets with their designs. As with any material, some students had an upper hand compared to others. While walking around and helping, it was easy to get caught up with the groups who had a ton of ideas and wanted to share their enjoyment for their thoughts on the best designs they could build. As the period flew by, I was almost shocked to see how far some groups had gotten and how little others had done. Rather than put the so-called blame on these groups who were behind, I realized that I had spent more time with the groups who had a better sense of how to get started. If I had focused on those who needed a little more scaffolding than everyone could have achieved an equal workload for that day.

This example is something I believe all new teachers have to fully experience before mastering. It may take a while to learn the strengths and weaknesses of students, and this can vary from class to class, unit to unit. After some time, you can scaffold lessons and differentiate them where needed to help all students conquer objectives. Teaching in such a way is exactly what students are entitled to and what they ultimately should expect from us teachers. Over the next few days I made sure to keep this important observation in mind, and by the end of the week all students had completed designs and met their criteria for the assignment. 

This activity in itself allowed students to pursue knowledge of their own interests. Prior to starting the builds, we discussed our own experiences with roller coasters and amusement rides and what students preferred. It was interesting to see students take their own background on the subject and be enthusiastic and how to incorporate that in to their own designs. One student who considered himself a “daredevil”, as he put it, made sure that he had jumps, steep drops, and loops in his model. Two of the girls in the class who were not huge fans of amusement rides chose a more casual approach and created a long gradual twisting model in which the marble slowly made its way down. The best part was seeing how my mentor teacher encouraged this process and made sure to highlight the differences among the groups. Allowing freedom to incorporate their own predispositions in to the model helped make the project more personal as they explored potential and kinetic energy within their coasters.