Newton’s Second Law is taught in high school physics classes around the world.
Mahomet Seymour elementary student, Charlie Hawley, learned the concept last week after his science group was given a ball and a measuring stick.
“All we did,” explained Margaret Miller’s fourth grade student “is hit the ball with the ruler like a golf ball. The energy from our arm transferred to the stick and then to the ball after it was hit. When we used a lot of energy, the ball went farther than when we used a little energy.”
Miller said she created this lesson to answer the overall question: How does distance relate to the amount of energy an object has.
Hands on science lessons like this are becoming the norm as Mahomet Seymour teachers and students move toward the Next Generation Science Standards, a mandate adopted by the State of Illinois last March.
Next Generation Science Standards, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s web site (www.isbe.net/nils/science), aim to move students beyond rote memorization of facts to an understanding of concepts and how they relate to each other. ISBE goes on to say the standards were developed by an international committee that included members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Research Council and the National Science Teachers Association.
Locally, MS high school science teacher Jeremy Davis was trained by ISBE and two of the standard’s authors to help schools implement the new standards.
“I spent 75 to 100 hours working with the authors to learn about the standards and how design model units,” Davis said. And he was able to bring that expertise back to colleagues at MS schools.
He said last school year, the high school and junior high staff took a look at their science curriculum, reworked some labs, and shifted some ways course content was delivered.
This summer, it was the elementary level teachers’ turn. According to Davis, one group of teachers was trained over the summer. The next two groups of teachers will be trained this fall.
Miller said Davis trained the elementary teachers like they will teach their students, by not giving them the answers, but leading them down a path of discovery.
“It was really eye opening,” Miller commented. “Students are used to being given the information,” she added. “Mr. Davis wanted us instead to discover. We’re not used to having to inquire, but that’s the whole point of science. That’s why scientists experiment, to discover.”
At times, Miller said she and her fellow teachers found it frustrating they were not being given the answers to questions.
“We wanted to know the answer,” she said. But by being taught to discover the answer on their own, it lead to more questions and a deeper learning of the material.
Miller said her fellow teachers were given the task to develop one lesson per grade level they could use during the school year to teach students. Excitement for the curriculum caught on among the fourth and fifth grade teachers and these two grade levels developed their curricula for the entire school year.
“Fourth and fifth grade teachers are implementing the new units this school year, “ said Mary Weaver, Director of Instruction for Mahomet Seymour schools. “They are pilot units. They will keep some, others they will need to make changes to.”
Miller said what they are teaching is aligned to the Illinois State Learning Standards. In this summer’s training, each teacher’s task was to take a standard and develop a unit to teach. “Mine was collision and speed,” she said.
Miller said the class talked about when collision and speed are a factor, like in a car crash. She then took the lesson outside where she gave students a ball and a ruler. Groups came up with various ways to answer the lesson’s question about how speed relates to the amount of energy in an object and how that energy transfers to another object.
While Hawley’s group came up with the golf ball concept, other groups experimented with their non-dominant hand. “They could put more energy into the ball with one hand versus the other. The more energy put into the ball, the farther it went,” Miller summarized.
As a teacher, Miller said one part of the curriculum that is a challenge for her is to not provide a lot of instruction during the experiments.”
“We want them to test out the theory and come up with the answer on their own. It is incredible what they can come up with,” she added.
Many fourth graders have completed two of the seven developed units. Miller said she surveyed her class and most of her students say they enjoy the more hands on approach this year as opposed to last year. One student said in her survey “Last year we just did reading about science. I really like doing the hands on activities (this year).”
The first unit completed was also about Energy, said Miller. Students built solar ovens to make s’mores.
Another difference from the curriculum last year is the scope.
The overall curriculum looks different, Davis said. “It has less breadth, more depth.”
“This year’s curriculum is a lot more inquiry based,” Miller said. “It is more hands on; more kids talking rather than the teacher talking.”
Scientific concepts, such as energy, will be covered in depth throughout the years for MS students, Davis said. Teachers will tailor the topic to the learning abilities of their students, he added.
“One analogy for this is soccer,” Davis said. “When the high school boys’ team plays soccer, it looks a lot different than when a first grader plays. The first graders are not playing the game as in depth as the high schoolers. It looks different, but the ideas are still there. They still are playing soccer.”
Davis said the curriculum’s content will build over the years, from the introduction of energy in elementary school, all the way to higher level physics in high school. And by implementing the Next Generation Science Standards, Davis said he hopes it will push students to have a true understanding of the material.
“We start simple and add to it. We are constantly expanding and pushing students.”
One of the best parts of the new curriculum, according to Miller, is how much her students seem to enjoy the hands on activities.
“The students say ‘do we get to do science today?’ and that’s fun. Fun for students and fun for teachers too.”
