Grade 3-5 Alignment to Utah Core Crriclm Learning Otcome Skills Yo ll Use Inference Observation Recording Wondering Intended Learning Otcomes (ILO s): There are many ways to record and organize 1. Use science process and thinking skills. data and observations, 2. Manifest scientific attitdes and interests. bt all need to be done with detail and accracy. 3. Understand science concepts and principles. 4. Commnicate effectively sing science langage and reasoning. Activity Length 60-75 mintes Materials Needed At least 10 different objects (se specimens from a teaching toolbox, treasres from natre that the stdents have broght, or items yo have collected with obvios and notso-obvios details). A pictre or painting with many parts/details/ events that may be nfamiliar to the stdents. Use one of yor favorite artists, check ot a poster, or find something online. Great artists to look at are Chagall, Ucello, Miro, Matisse. Yo cold se a poster, an overhead, or image from the internet projected onto a smart board or white board. The Utah Msem of Fine Arts lends prints to edcators, and yo can ask them for sggestions. Paper or science jornal for each stdent. Markers, colored pencils, crayons, pencils, pens for each stdent. Backgrond One of the most important skills for stdents and scientists alike is learning how to record and share information they are gathering in meaningfl and accrate ways. Here are some things to think abot to help yo facilitate meaningfl recording. Prpose - it is important to have a clear prpose for stdent recording. Do yo have a discrete skill yo wold like stdents to implement in their recording? Or is yor prpose to have stdents figre ot how to organize and record data on their own? Sper Modeling - everyone knows Sper Models and Recording Stars hang ot together. If yo have specific skills or expectations abot how yo wold like the stdents to record, make sre to model it for them. Demonstrate the method, practice the method as a large grop, and then let the stdents try the method by themselves. Transfer if yo want stdents to organize and record data on their own, remember they already possess discrete skills, bt observing and handling specimens is a new and demanding task. Before yo start, review ways they can record data: Contined
Graphic Organizers - be it T-charts, Venn Diagrams, Webs, Graphs, Tallies or Trees, all of yor stdents have learned or are learning abot graphic organizers. Emphasize that these are sefl tools in science as well as math and langage arts. Remind them of the importance of labeling the organizer accrately. Discss when certain charts may be most sefl. Descriptive langage - not jst for poetry and scary stories! It is important to describe specimens, artifacts, locations and conditions accrately. Descriptive langage is key- se it for labeling diagrams and drawings, in graphic organizers, lists, and complete sentences. Drawing - yes, drawing. A favorite past time of most children is an indispensable recording tool! Drawing helps stdents focs and observe more closely; it also allows for a lot of information to be recorded rather qickly. Any stdent can draw, even if they don t have the langage or writing skills necessary for recording in other ways. Activity Divide the stdents into 5 grops. Explain that yo are going to show a pictre for one minte. The stdents are to observe the pictre and remember as mch detail as they can. If they wold like, they can discss what they are seeing with each other. Show the pictre for one minte, then trn the pictre arond if it is a poster, or trn it off if it is a projected image. Write on the board What we remember Ask the stdents how mch detail they can remember abot the pictre. Record what the stdents say as they share what they remember abot the piece of art. Probe the stdents abot the color, shape, size, placement on the canvas, proximity to other parts. Show the piece of art again. Discss how well they remembered the details. What did they miss? What did they remember? How accrately did they remember things like color, shape, size, placement on the canvas, what was near to the parts they remembered. Ask them what they cold do to better remember the details they observed. Write down ideas to remember on the board- discss the importance of writing, drawing, labeling, measring, inclding details sch as color, shape, size, location, etc. Explain that one of the most important parts of science is to record their observations, qestions, inferences and conclsions accrately and with detail in ways others can nderstand. Scientists do this in similar ways yo have discssed, by writing, drawing, labeling, measring, sing charts, graphs and diagrams and descriptive langage. Recording is the science skill they are going to be focsing on practicing today. Explain that there are some things that scientists record to make sre their information is accrate. Explain that there are some things that scientists always need to record to make sre their information is accrate. Contined
Write on the board the information the stdents mst have when recording scientific data: Name of Scientists Date Time of day Location Have the stdents record that information on their paper or in their jornals. Distribte 2 objects to each of the grops while they are recording the date, time of day, etc.. Model and Practice Explain that it is important to be as accrate as possible in recording what yo see. Stdents will warm p their brain and hand, and start training them to work together by doing a blind contor drawing. In this type of drawing stdents mst only look at the object, never their paper. Their pencil or pen shold stay in contact with the paper at all times. They shold try and have their hand follow the shapes and directions that they see in the object that they are drawing. Model a blind contor drawing for the stdents. Hold an object in front of yo and draw on the board behind. Discss what yo are observing and drawing so the kids have a sense of trying to follow the otlines and shapes that they are observing. Tell the stdents to select one of the objects at their table. They will have one minte to practice the blind contor drawing with the object. Explain now they will have five mintes to draw the same object. They can look at their papers while they are drawing bt they still need to follow the contors or lines of the object, and shold look for details. Ask the stdents to look at their drawings and the object and identify at least two details that they are missing. They can discss with others the details they have noticed. Tell the stdents they will have 3-5 more mintes to add the details to their drawings. Explain that part of recording accrately is recording color. Distribte the tools yo want the stdents to se for this portion of the activity. Model adding color. Yo can do this in many ways- first determine if yo want to have stdents add color to the whole drawing, or if yo want them to jst add color to part of the drawing. Then yo can se- colored pencils, crayons, paint, markers. There are many ways to se these tools, bt it is really fn to paint with markers and pens. To paint with a marker or pen yo jst need to otline the drawing with the color of the object, then take a little water with a brsh or yor finger and gently wipe it over the mark, the color will bleed into the drawing with nice effect. The same will happen of yo apply water to a pen that will rn (gel roller pens are best for this). Distribte the tools yo want the stdents to se for this portion of the activity and allow the stdents a few mintes to add color to their drawings. Contined
A Science Packed Day Field at the Trip Natral Lesson History Plan Msem of Utah Explain that now the stdents are going to label their drawings. When they label they shold record: descriptive words to draw attention to specific details details that they can not record throgh drawing (smell, sond, textre, etc) inferences (gesses) they have abot an object descriptions of what the object reminds them of measrements they take (weight, length, height) Model labeling a pictre. Write down a wonder, an observation, an inference, a measrement. Discss with yor stdents the standard yo will se for measrement. Distribte any tools yo will have yor stdents se for measring. Give stdents time to label, measre etc. Explain that there are many other ways scientists record, they se charts, graphs, maps and diagrams. Yo are going to practice jst one more. Yo are going to se a Venn Diagram. It is a really good tool for comparing similarities and differences between two objects or two grops of objects. Model how to draw and se a Venn Diagram. Yo can pick two objects that have really distinct similarities and differences and have the class help yo identify what is the same and different abot each object. Record their ideas on the board. Give stdents time to discss what is similar and what is different abot the two items at their table and create a Venn Diagram based on their discssion. Discss Give stdents time to share and ask qestions with the class or in small grops- reconfigre the five grops so that at least one representative from the first grops are part of the new grop. Then have the stdents share what they recorded abot the objects at their table. Learning Extensions Otdoors Start a natre jornal. Take stdents otside and have them practice their recording skills. Explain that there is additional information that is important to inclde in their jornals when working otside: temperatre, weather, location of sn in the sky or on the horizon, the phase of the moon and its location in the sky (if visible), if there is wind- the direction that the wind is coming from, as well as any noises or sonds that the stdents hear (this incldes man made sonds). Indoors Use the drawing and observations as a springboard for natralist poetry or fiction or non-fiction writing. Contined
A Science Packed Day at the Natral History Msem of Utah Formative Assessment Strategies 1. When the stdents are recording, walk arond the class and notice what sort of labeling and inferences the stdents are making. This will give yo insight into their backgrond knowledge abot certain objects as well as their se of science vocablary. It will also give yo insight into how they make inferences- are they based on their observations or are they wild gesses? This will help yo know how to best spport them in making inferences. 2. When stdents are discssing and collaborating, walk arond and observe how they interact, who is leading discssions, who is participating in discssions, who is being an active listener. This will help yo nderstand how grop stdents or address stdent collaboration so that all stdents are best able to participate and share their ideas. Object 1 Object 2