My lesson plan on circuits: Part I. Best Laid Plans.

My lesson plan has changed dramatically since my cooperating teacher gave me 2 these two things to work with:

a little kit of circuits

a basic, boring explanation of how they work with a "3b" question

My cooperating teacher told me I could do something involving electricity and I initially thought I would be doing something about static electricity since it is very observable. Then she gave me this kit and when I started experimenting with the circuits in the kit, I was inspired to write my lesson including the pulse game (where students join hands and wait to feel their neighbor squeeze their hand as a signal to squeeze the hand of their other neighbor) as an introduction to the concept of a circuit.  

I was concerned when I looked on the NSDL Science Literacy Maps for electricity and magnetism, and found that appropriate content for K-2 is basic magnets and forces. However, I also found at Dr. Kruse's suggestion, that I could connect my electricity content to the idea of cycles and patterns...  

People can keep track of some things, seeing where they come from and where they go.      Found in the Forms of Energy map. (The National science digital library, 2007)

I wanted to consult the NSDL resources because they were a good way for me to connect my lesson to concepts that were appropriate for my students.  This draws on the developmental learning theory that states that students' developmental level/age affects their understandings of abstract concepts (Kruse, 2009). So I used the decontextualized approach of the game outlined below to introduce the concept that we can keep track of things and observe where they originate and where they go...

The pulse game: Ask students to stand in a circle and join hands.  Explain that I will squeeze the hand of one of the two people standing on my side.  If someone feels  a squeeze, they need to squeeze the hand of the person on the opposite side.   This is called a pulse.  Do this a few times until students get the hang of it.  As the pulse goes around, I will encourage students to observe and vocalize their observations.

Tell students that when the pulse reaches me, I am going to make a “beep”, but I’ll be the only one who beeps. Continue until  the pulse goes around the circle a few times.  

Then we will stop for a moment to talk.

I added the beep to introduce build a bridge that could lead us to the circuit.  That when the pulse travels, it is the cause of the beep.

Next, I focused my lesson on connecting the pulse game through strategic questioning that would allow students to think about the observable origin of the pulse and its effects on the circle of students.  When students are thinking and answering questions about what happened in the game, they are actively engaged, a component of the constructivist learning theory. 

What happened after I squeezed(name of the person next to me) hand?  
What do you think would happen to the pulse if we dropped hands?
Why do you think that?
What might happen if we stood in a line?

Based on the last question, what would happen if we dropped hands/stood in a line, the next step was to try this and compare our results.  This presented an opportunity to explore an idea that gets at some Nature of Science content such as the ideas that science is creative,  that scientists  come up with ideas and design tests.  Also that science is observational and experimental.

So we will try dropping hands followed by more questioning:

What was different about sending the pulse around the circle than in a line?
How did you know it was your turn to squeeze your neighbor’s hand?  
Why did or didn’t the pulse/squeeze stop?
What happened when we changed from a circle to a line?

What makes a circle different than a straight line?
Do other things in our world move around in circles?

Then I will explain how our pulse game and circuits are connected. 

Many things move in circles.  Electricity moves through wires in a shape like our circle.  We call that a circuit. A circuit is basically the same shape as our circle. It works in a similar way to when we sent the pulse around.   When electricity moves through the wires in a circuit, something happens.

I will introduce two objects from the kit. 

Hold up piece with battery pack and other circuit piece with light bulb. Hold them up in such a way as they are obvious half circles.

Ask students, what are these things?

I want you to think for a moment about how our pulse traveled, and what happened. How might these things behave like our circle?

Instead of telling the students what the things are, I want to gauge what their previous knowledge might be about each object.  This will let me know what I need to explain, if anything.

Next was the question that I hope will tie up the entire lesson in a bow.  I hope that everything leading up to this point would lead students to make a connection to the pulse game and these objects.  

How does this thing work?  

 And if students were not able to arrive at the answer on their own... 

What do you think will happen  when the wires touch the batteries?

I decided that I would be the one to try connecting the devices to make the light bulb work since there was only one battery pack.  From a classroom management perspective, I didn't want the students to lose focus on the task at hand and instead be concerned with who was going to get to experiment with the really cool science stuff.  I wanted to afford students with hands on time because then they can have the concrete experience of seeing the circuit work to build a more strong understanding.  However, since this is a Montessori classroom (and this could work in any other classroom if the teacher planned time for student to share and experiment with the device in a center or during free time) I had a hunch that the teacher would set the circuit out as  "work" that they would be able to handle during their open work time.  

Resources: 

The National science digital library. (2007). Nsdl science literacy maps. Retrieved from http://strandmaps.nsdl.org/ 

Kruse, J. (2009). Learning theories: Pillars of teacher decision-making. Iowa Science Teachers Journal, 36(2), 01-07. 

Kruse, J. (2012). Spring 2012-125 & 225 student created class notes. [Google Document]. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eQJcPelt81LVsC66_NeCNxMytX7sMEMzlcczo9scVTM/edit.

observations, experiments, and practicing

The things we talk about in class are changing the way I interact with learners.  I have been thinking about how I can do things differently in order to help students reach the class goals we created.  I have also noticed that I want students to understand the nature of science.  I leave class on Thursday and go to work that afternoon where I  get to try out ideas I had during class. Here are a couple of examples.

I was presenting a program on the human body the other day and asked what our stomach does with food.  The child in the front row told me, "it digests the food" or "digestion" something with vocabulary that didn't tell me whether the kid really knew what it meant.  Previously, I would have said, yes, good, and moved on.  However, thinking about how we can encourage students to be more reflective, be better communicators and demonstrate their understanding of content I asked the kid what "digestion" meant.  In his own words, he essentially said that the stomach made the food into tiny pieces, breaking it down.  To which I then said, ok, I understand, and moved on. Asking the kid to elaborate, provided me with more information about what he knew, and provided him with an opportunity to more effectively explain himself and demonstrate his level of understanding.  In a classroom setting I could have evaluated that response and decided whether I needed to move on or do more on the topic.  I have definitely noticed my presentations shifting from me talking a lot to me asking more questions and having the group help me to communicate my message, whether on digestion or reptiles.

I also notice myself sneaking in ideas about the nature of science to my interactions.  I do this because I now understand and believe that it's important to teach students what science is, what scientists do and how they too can participate in the process. I think that understanding the nature of science will pave a way for students to be interested in science... which I think is extremely important.  I spent Friday morning with first graders facilitating a chemistry lab.  While most of the content was developmentally over their heads (though I have not checked the sources on that yet...) I focused a lot on telling them what they could do to "be scientists".  I asked them to make a lot of predictions and observations. I explained in simple language my demonstrations and their activities, they may not have fully understood why certain reactions were happening. Even though I wasn't focusing solely on the science content, I believe they were engaged and learning about science, because they got to participate in hands on experiments and they were mentally engaged with making predictions and observations.  I validated every kind of observation and prediction that came my way. The most popular prediction being "It might blow up!".  :)  
I demonstrated a reaction that yielded a glow in the dark reaction, and on the next two experiments students did at their tables, they asked me if I could turn off the lights to see if the reaction was glowing (this had never happened before in all my times of leading this lab!).  I was thrilled by their demonstration of curiosity and research and I definitely obliged.  While no other reaction glowed, I told them that it was great that we can only find out answers to our questions like this if we try it! Experimenting! 

I am happy that I am growing as a teacher.  It is extremely rewarding when I see effects of the things (things that I believe to be effective and fun teaching practices ) I am learning in what my students do.   

Observing Morning, Noon, and (almost) Night

What follows is a lesson that contains both the nature of science and science content.

Students will go outside to make observations.  Before we head outside, we will brainstorm about what we expect to observe outside. If students don't get there on their own, I will lead them to certain key points of observation that will be relevant later on... such as what animals do you see/hear?  What is the weather like?  Is it light, bright, or cloudy outside?  Etc. 

We will make observations at different times across a few days.  First thing in the morning, noon, and late afternoon before students head home.  We will also talk about our observations in a large or small group formats after each observation period. At this time we can ask questions, revisit ideas and discuss our findings.

The observation and discussion experience opens the opportunity to teach students a lot about the nature of science. Students will be collecting evidence and making observations.  They will probably experience repetition in nature and repetition in our discussions and observations.  We are not using "the scientific method"... they are participating in science in many other methods. Through discussion students learn that our ideas are open to revision because we discuss them before and after our observations.  Students will also experience science as a social and collaborative activity as we discuss and share our observations. 

After all of our observation periods are over, we will read  Morning, Noon, and Night  by Jean Craighead George.


This is a book about what kind of animals appear during different times of day.  The text and artwork paint a realistic picture of what the sky might look like during different times of day and what animals are doing.  This book would be a great way to teach about habitats, animals, or even the earth's rotation.  While this book delivers great content, it also reinforces ideas of the nature of science.  Since this is a non-fiction book, I could ask students how they think the information was collected.  This would hopefully lead them to connect that someone (a scientist!)  has to make observations to find out this information found in the book.