Integrating Online Sites and Apps

I think online resources can help enhance the science experience. My teacher uses Youtubekids videos for everything. She will sometimes use them for science to help explain a concept. She also uses computer games for mathematics in her classroom.

I think the science experiments could not be duplicated on the computer. You could watch a video of the science experiment, you could even do an online version of the science experiment, however you cannot get the genuine experiment of being able to walk through the experiment process. 

I think something that can be done with the computer is you could go on virtual field trips that you would never be able to take your students on in real life due to money or distance from you. For instance, on a unit on space you could have a virtual field trip where students explore NASA and watch a rocket launch.


I also think the computer could be used to replicate some experiments.  For instance, a lot of students get squirmy at the thought of dissection.  Dissection is also expensive for schools.  Therefore, you could have students perform a frog dissection on the computer.

Students could be given time to play science games which could help them study for upcoming tests. It could also enhance what they are already learning. 

I think the computer is a great resource to be used when it comes to enhancing learning. It can enhance learning and help give students new experiences they would otherwise not get to have.

Picture from:
Wall, M. (2018, March 23). SpaceX Rocket Launch Created Shock Wave 4 Times Larger Than California. Retrieved October 14, 2018, from https://www.space.com/40063-spacex-rocket-launch-shock-wave.html

Content Vocabulary

My classroom has only done one science experiment while I have been there. During this lesson she did not cover vocabulary. She set up a science experiment and said they would come back to it. Therefore, I am going to talk about strategies she uses in Language Arts.

My teacher regularly uses matching pairs. She will regularly give them a sheet where they cut out the vocabulary terms that are from their book of the week and have to glue it down beside the vocabulary term. The students like doing this and try to race each other as to who can do it first. During these races, they usually end up doing the vocabulary correctly so it does feel like they are learning using this method.

My teacher also regularly uses word of the day. Each day, the students learn a new vocabulary term. The teacher leads them through figuring it out based on the words pieces. They put these terms into their word journal which they can regularly look at if they forget a definition.

My teacher needs to be more consistent in using different models. The students will just write down one word in their journal that can be used as a definition of the word. I think it would be more beneficial if they were using a frayer model. I think this would help the students better understand the word because you can tell that the students are sometimes still confused about the words that they are learning for word of the day. I think a frayer model would work better because they have to do the definition and do examples and non-examples.

I think Realia would also be nice for my teacher to use because she has many English Language Learners and this is supposed to be very helpful for English Language Learners. It would be cool for her to incorporate this strategy into her lesson.