Anchor Charts

Anchor charts are a tool used for whole group instruction. They are made during a lesson to create a visual representation of what is being taught during the lesson. These charts are then left out so that students can regularly reference them. 

Anchor charts allow students to help join in the lesson. Students are allowed to interact with the teacher as they move through a lesson. Students help the teacher create the chart. Anchor charts are very helpful because they allow students to understand the vocabulary and be able to use it, it allows students to have a visual that they can regularly reference in the classroom and it helps students in being able to synthesize the vast amounts of information they have learned. This can be useful for science because a lot of times students will read about something but not be able to explain it. Through the use of anchor charts students can demonstrate to the teacher that they do know what they are talking about when it comes to a science concept. The creation of this chart can help them better understand the concept because they are building the chart with the teacher. They have to consolidate their thinking into a chart and when they get stuck the teacher can guide them along since she knows the content well. They are also left on the wall as a visual. Science concepts can involve many parts, for example parts of the cell or the water system. Through the use of an anchor chart left on the wall, students could have regular exposure to the material. This can help them better retain the information.

I will use anchor charts in my science instruction. I think they are a valuable tool. The students get to help you build the visual cues that they need. They are then in a place that the students can see everyday. I think they have many valuable positives that outweigh any negatives. I feel I will most often use anchor charts in science and math. In science I think they will be super helpful when it comes to bigger science concepts with many parts. I wish my biology teacher would have made one of these when we were learning about how cells make energy. This would have been very helpful. I will definitely be using anchor charts in my future classroom.

Work Cited:

M. (2015, August 18). THE BEST ANCHOR CHART PAPER EVER & A GIVEAWAY! [Web log post]. Retrieved September 29, 2018, from http://www.teachingwithamountainview.com/2015/08/the-best-anchor-chart-paper-ever.html

Moses, E., & Lee, H. (2014). Imitate and Innovate Anchor Charts. International Reading Associations Essentials,1-15. Retrieved September 30, 2018, from http://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/member-benefits/e-ssentials/ila-e-ssentials-8065.pdf

States of matter science anchor chart for kindergarten. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2018, from http://indulgy.com/post/2gzbEKp4b2/states-of-matter-science-anchor-chart-fo

Scientific Method vs Engineering Design Process

The scientific method is a time tested way of learning to do experiments in the classroom. The engineering design process is a different method that I had never heard of before today.

The scientific method is a series of steps that can be followed to answer a question. This process begins with a question. The user researches the question and comes up with a hypothesis. The user then experiments to test their hypothesis. The user than analyzes that data to come up with conclusions. 

In the engineering design process, the user is striving to solve a problem. They research that problem, and they along with their team, come up with all possible solutions to that problem. It is then narrowed to the best solution. A prototype is then built and tested. The user than works to improve the prototype until they feel they have the best possible solution.

In the classroom, the scientific method is most often used. Students are given the experiment by their teacher, told to come up with a hypothesis. They then follow the steps of the scientific method until they come up with a conclusion. This is very teacher led and the students are more or less following a template.  I imagine that in the classroom, you would begin the engineering design process by putting the students into groups. You would then present them with a problem and the students would follow the engineering design process until they came up with the best prototype. They would then build that prototype and keep working on it until they have almost perfected it. In this classroom, the teacher is playing more of a boss role and the students are playing engineers. The teacher assigns them a task that she needs done and ultimately it is up with the students and their creativity to solve the problem.

I think teachers should use the engineering design process.  I remember in middle school I had one teacher, in a robotics class, who used the engineering design process. I, at the time did not know this was what he was using. However, he told us we needed to build something that could move our pencil from our side of the table to the other side of the table We then were broken up into groups and had to come up with something. My group ultimately built a robot. When it failed to get the pencil to the other side of the table we kept working until it could.  I remember this being so fun and unlike anything else I had ever done before. Our teacher did not give us solid help. He would ask questions that guided our thought, but he would not give us any hints. We learned a lot that day. I feel I learned more that day then I have in any science class following the scientific method. That is why I believe the engineering design process is the way to go in our classrooms.

The scientific method has its strengths. For instance, it helps students follow the process and ultimately get the experiment done. It was never a big deal if your hypothesis turned out incorrect, you could just make a new one and try the experiment again. This gets students into the science process and helps them become actively engaged in it. I think a weakness is that it is very teacher led.  The teacher is still doing a lot of the leading. Often times the teacher will show them the experiment that they have to do. It takes away a lot of creativity.

The engineering design process has a strength of letting the children's imagination run wild.  They ultimately have to constrain themselves to work with the resources that they have.  A weakness of the engineering design process is that it could require more resources than the scientific method because students have to be able to build their prototype that they feel will best solve the problem. It can also be more time consuming because they have to spend a lot of time thinking about what prototype will work best before building it instead of following a previously designed experiment.

Overall, I feel that both the scientific method and the engineering design process have their place in today's classrooms.  However, if you have the resources and the extra time, I feel the engineering design process is the way to go.

Citations:
[Jessica Maxwell]. (2016, August 25). Design Process vs. Scientific Method [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrlswrq5aIs

The Scientific Method. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.bscsd.org/Page/991

TeachEngineering. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.teachengineering.org/k12engineering/designprocess