Скачать или смотреть Engagement Strategies: Science Classroom

Transcript and References:
Hello, my name is Alexis Hartung and I’m going to discuss strategies to engage students in the science classroom. The strategies I share today will be geared toward Kindergarten through third grade students.
When instructing science for any grade, a teacher should aspire to engage their students through active inquiry. This means that your instruction provides an opportunity for students to develop a curious attitude toward the science content, a desire to ask questions, and learn how to seek and find the answers to those questions (“Active Inquiry”, n.d.). The point is for students to feel a desire to learn science content from within, rather than just forcing the content on them.
To promote active inquiry a teacher can introduce the students to a topic, then complete a KWL chart. K stands for “know”, W stands for “want to know”, and L stands for “learned”. By beginning the lesson with the K & W portions, teachers are promoting active inquiry. They can make connections with what they know, but they also have an opportunity to think of questions about the subject that are still a mystery to them. For example, they may know that rain comes from clouds, but they may want to learn how it is formed in clouds. After the lesson, students can then reflect on the knew knowledge by filling out the L portion.
Teachers also need to consider strategies for collaboration and interaction in the science classroom. It allows for a variety of experiences and viewpoints to come together. A good strategy for collaboration and interaction is to give roles to each student in the group. This helps ensure each person is involved and no one dominates or takes a free ride. Accountability and inclusion are a must during collaborative group time! Some examples of roles are: recorder, focus leader, and material monitor. The roles should be meaningful and engaging to ensure active participation (Burns, 2016).
Sometimes it can be easy to just lecture at students or assign readings from the textbook, but realistically this will not hold their attention. Teachers should consider incorporating the three learning styles into their lessons: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Creating interactive slides to accompany you lectures are an excellent way to achieve this. Create “games” for students to interact with during your lesson. Students can hear you explain the content, they can see pictures/charts/words to accompany the content, and they can interact with their learning as the help you move icons around the page.
A great resource for this is Google Slides. You can create your lecture slides before class, having some with just content and others as “games” for the content you taught. For example, a lesson about weather could include an interactive moment where you call students up to move pictures of weather in the category of cold/hot, nice/bad, dangerous/safe. The point is that they have a chance to hear, see, and interact with the lecture instead of just sitting there.
Another technological source is virtual field trips. These can be found on YouTube or by setting up a video chat with an organization. The wonderful thing about these is that students get to experience science outside of the classroom without being hindered by location or money. They are customizable to fit the educational goals a teacher wants to meet and can even be customized to match the student (“Virtual Field Trips”, n.d.). Teachers can set up stations for students to visit places they are more interested in, or they can go as a class.
Science is a subject many students look forward to, but it can be daunting for some as well. When teachers drive the desire to learn in their students, they have more success in engagement and motivation.
References:
Burns, M. (November 22, 2016). “5 Strategies to Deepen Student Collaboration”. Retrieved from: https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-st...

“Active Inquiry”. (n.d.). Venture Academy. Retrieved from: https://www.venturelearning.org/high_....

“Virtual Field Trips”. (n.d.) Scholastic. Retrieved from: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/a...