Science, Science, Science
During college, students have to take required courses that don’t relate to his or her major and courses that do relate to his or her major. As an elementary education major at High Point University, you need to take three required sciences; Biology, Earth Science and Physical Science. They are core courses but they don’t relate to anything to education. I think that it would be more beneficial to the future teachers and the School of Education to have students take science courses throughout the four years and give us in depth content on ways to make science relatable and engaging for our future students. For example, the class 3210, Principle of Integration in Math and Science, is a great class teaching us how to make science fun for kids, but I think we should have more classes of it. I want examples of science experiments, hands on activities, and ways technology can be more effective. Schools of education want the future teachers leaving their programs to be effective teachers in the field. In order to be efficient as a teacher I think we should change having to take the 3 core sciences, and change it to 3 courses on how to integrate science in a classroom. According to “The Bayer Facts of Science Education,” survey undertaken in cooperation with the National Science Foundation’s National Science and Technology Week, gauged the views of 1,000 parents and 1,000 elementary school teachers on how well they believe science is being taught in the nation’s elementary schools. Most of our nation’s elementary school teachers do not consider themselves to be scientifically literate – and most ranked science as the subject they felt least qualified to teach” (Making Science Make Sense). I think it is important to understand “in depth” content of science topics because how will your future students understand science if you don’t.
“Science is supposed to be a hands on subject. The fact that schools are creating lesson plans ore around bookwork doesn’t help students fully understand the capabilities that science careers have to offer”(Hawke, 2011). Children are naturally curious and that curiosity can be channeled into wholesome science experience. It seems that they lose interest in science at such a young age because the teacher teaches science unengaging, straight from the text book, and a lot of memorizing. Sally Ride, the first woman and the youngest American to fly into space, says, “Scientists don’t memorize the periodic table. Scientists solve problems” (Washington Post, 2011). Children’s curiosity motivates them to discover new ways to unlock the mysteries of their world, make meaning from direct experiences, and find personal fulfillment and value the “discoveries” they make. Teachers should use their student’s curiosity and motivation and use it towards science. “Effective teachers are teachers that are constantly going out of their way to go above and beyond for their students” (Hawke, 2011). Teachers need to have lots and lots of hands on experiments, that’s how children learn. Just doing science in a workbook or textbook doesn’t teach them science; it turns them off of science. “When the teachers integrate the technology into the labs, students are amazing at how much more they can learn and track by having access to the science technology” (Hawke, 2011). When students are asked to remember, what do you remember about science in your classroom, their answer will most likely always be the experiments that they did because those are most effective teaching and learning experience. Science is about being creative and using that creativeness and motivation to find new answers. Science is FUN and teachers need to make their students see that the best they can by having interactive, exciting science activities.
References
“First woman in space wants science classes to be more interesting to kids.” The Washington Post. February 9, 2011. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2011/02/08/AR2011020805347.html
Hawke, Patricia. “Science Teachers Use New Technology to Make Science Fun.” Ezine Articles. January 14, 2011. http://ezinearticles.com/?Science-Teachers-Use-New-Technology-to-Make-Science-Fun&id=5723342
Making Science Make Sense. “Teachers Feel Unqualified And Unprepared To Teach Science.” Bayer Corporation. http://www.bayerus.com/msms/msms_education_resources_activities/ResourcesSTP/Survey/survey95.aspx
Math, Science and Technology
Bill Gates said, “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.” Teachers play such an important role in children lives. Teachers are the pathways to children learning, and the way teacher’s teach decides what path the student is going to be on. Technology should be an outlet teacher’s use to help their students relate and understand what is being taught. Even though technology is a great tool, teachers shouldn’t only use or only rely on it. “Instead of resisting technology, the goal should be to harness the technological energy in students and become a guide for the best ways to use technology to learn” (D. Wetzel, Teach Sceince and Math).
We are in the 21st century and that calls for 21st century teaching. Being in the school of education at High Point University, were are learning how important it is to integrate technology while teaching. But when we go out into the field, we don’t see teaching with technology; I don’t see much technology in the classroom at all. It’s hard to see classes that have very little technology after learning how important it is to use technology in the classroom. “Students today are more technologically literate than many of their teachers. Today’s students have grown up in the digital age” (D. Wetzel, Teach Math and Science). Even if the school doesn’t have a lot of technology resources, that doesn’t give an excuse to the teacher to not use technology in the classroom; they can improvise.
Students need teachers to teach, they don’t need technology to teach them. In order to use technology, teachers have to use it effectively. Because “technology has tremendous power to help students obtain, organize, manipulate, and display information” (D. Wetzel, Teach math and Science). Since our students were brought up in the digital age, teachers have an idea what there students relate to in real life circumstances. “Using technology for meaningful activities also helps integrate a variety of disciplines, more closely resembling activities that people undertake in the world beyond the classroom” (D. Wetzel, Teach Math and Science). For example, word processing is a real-world technology that can help students develop better writing and thinking skills. Another example on how “technology jump-starts algebraic thinking for middle school students is SimCalc, a program that uses computer-based graphs, animation, symbols, and tables to make difficult concepts, such as mathematical rates of change and accumulation, easier for students to learn” (L. Smith, 2008). Using technology in science and math class promotes learning activities in which students work in small groups rather than by themselves or as a whole class demonstrations.
When I become a teacher, I will try my hardest to incorporate effective integrated technology lessons. By incorporating technology in my lessons I can increase engagement and learning. For example, creating virtual fieldtrips to places that we can’t go to, as a class will create excitement and my students wanting to learn more. Different tools like class press, glogster, animoto and others are another way I will effectively use technology. By letting my students have a choice in a topic or expression will make them appreciate what their learning and other classmates voices. Teachers don’t have to stand up in the front of the classroom all day teaching, students can work in pairs, groups or individually. The more a teacher lets the students have different ways to obtain information, the more they can learn.
Technology is a very strong and powerful product. It can be either overused or underused. In my opinion, I will use technology to enhance my teaching, not over power it. I want to teach my students the best I can while using different strategies and tools like technology. Math and science are two very important key subjects that students will learn throughout their life. Even though many students dislike math and science, I hope that I will let them see the great meaning it has and how they can relate it to their everyday life. ‘The technologies used in the classroom are not those designed explicitly to teach basic skills, but rather are real-world applications that support research, design, analysis, composition, and communication” (L. Smith, 2008).
References
Smith, Lauren.”Winning Equation: How Technology Can Help Save Math Education”. May 22, 2008. http://www.edutopia.org/technology-math-education
Wetzel, David R.” Why Use Technology to Teach Science and Math?“. http://www.teachscienceandmath.com/2010/02/12/why-use-technology-to-teach-science-and-math/
