• Rediscover and nuture a sense of wonder in yourself about the world aroundyou, and be able to nuture a sense of wonder in your students.
• Integrate science throughout the elementary curriculum, within a constructivist approach.
• Effectively teach science using both indoor and outdoor environments, and a variety of methods.
• Locate and use a variety of resources to teach science.
• Recognize, assess, and use differences in children's thinking and cultural backgrounds to more effectively teach science.

Reflections on Course:

I felt that the Five E's were very important when learning and teaching science subjects.  The Biological Science Curriculum Study (http://www.BSCS.org/) developed curricula that allow students to learn science by doing science, and is recognized for its leadership in the development of science programs at the secondary level that have an enduring effect on the teaching of biology.  Many of the programs developed by BSCS use an instructional model characterized by the 5 E's:  engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate.  Each E represents part of the process of helping students sequence their learning experiences to construct their understanding of concepts.  Using the 5 E's in my science helped me understand what scientists have to do in their research.  Engage: first, students are engaged by an event or question related to the concept.  Asking a question, defining a problem are ways to engage student and focus on the task.  Explore:  In this area, students are to participate in one or activities to explore the concept.  This is the time to get directly involved with phenomena and materials.  This area the student get to experiment and try to find answers to their question.  Explain: In this area, the student can put their exploratory experiences into a communicable form or tell about their experiments.  Elaborate: The student will elaborate and build their understanding of the concept by applying it to new situations and making connections to other related concepts.  These investigations can lead to further inquiry and new understandings.  Evaluate:  Finally, the student complete activities that will help them evaluate their understanding of the concept.  My science project was determining which shampoo made the most lather while shampooing hair.  Using the 5 E's helped me understand what I was looking for with the question that I posed.  The 5 E's helped me research with types of shampoo and their ingredients. 

Along side the 5 E's, there various hands-on activities that could be used in the classroom.  As in any class, I kept a science journal with reflective thoughts on activities.  Along with a journal, there was a binder with class notes, science journal, handouts, and resources. The most challenging assignment was writing a thematic unit that was to be centered on a state standard/benchmakr.  It was suppose to incluce a two week plan which included at least 6 designated science lesson plans.  It was to incluce 5 E's approach and included the following: state standards, contents, and process skill covered in the unit, objectives, materials, procedures for each day's lesson, integration activities into reading, math, language arts, and social studies, science extention activities for homeowrk or extra class time, resources and references and other parent letters, bullentin board ideas, etc.  This planning took a lot of time and research, but it was a great learning process. 

Practicum Experiences:

I observed five classrooms:  elementary,  middle school, high school and one classroom of my choice.  I did not understand the 5 E's yet.  I was to look for the 5 E's in the classroom observations.  After understanding the 5 E's, I understood what I missed in the classroom observations.  Also I did a learning center presentation where there was a theme, standards/benchmarks that is being addressed, content and process skills exemplified in the activities, how the center fits into the science unit, materials needed and a simple sketch, and how it can be managed in the classroom and resources and references.  My unit was on constellations and students were engaged in making a constellations.