KLEIN's
GUIDE TO
SCIENCE EDUCATION
PHOTO CREDIT: Nadene Klein at Tuolumne Meadows Yosemite National Park
Perhaps you've heard of culturally responsive teaching or teaching with cultural sensitivity. There are many layers to this practice in the classroom. I want to take it step further and actually integrate the culture of my students in our science lessons. Connecting to the real world, is a common prompt in my classroom.
At a recent conference that I attended, a presenter shared strategies and the importance of teaching from culture. He contended that the teacher should enact the role of an elder of the community when teaching students. The other clever twist to his presentation was the notion that culture can come from the community, heritage, history, or even the school itself. I clicked into that last idea. My school has a strong culture of its own that all students and staff are a part of. While still in this conference session I began lesson planning. I was returning to school after the conference to start 4th quarter. I developed an opening activity for each of my classes inspired by this presenter. The cairn (a trail marker formed by stacking rocks), is the emblem of our school. It tells students that they are in the right place; that they are on track. I put two cairns, the ones pictured above, on each table before class began. On the first day of the quarter we welcome back veteran students as well as students new to our school. This is a half day of school with 25 minute classes. Immediately students were curious about the "rocks on the table." For my Astronomy class, I asked them to choose a rock from the pile to examine and share what they can determine about that rock and where it may have come from. From there we discussed how we do this is same process with samples from the moon and Mars. Luckily moon rocks were in the headlines of science news sources and we discussed this article: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-studies-new-50-year-old-lunar-sample-to-prep-for-return-to-moon. This served as our introduction to the space exploration unit. For my Earth and Environmental Science class, I asked them to identify which rocks in the cairn were igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. This served as a review of the rock cycle which we studied earlier in the school year. For my Physics class, I asked students to work in small groups of 2-3 to rearrange the order of the rocks in their cairn getting to balance in a different formation. Then I asked them to identify which forces were at work during the process sharing specific examples/details. This also was a review of topics we studied earlier in the school year. Although not a natural science, I also teach Psychology, In this class, I asked the table groups (teams of 4-5) to merge the two cairns into one larger cairn. Then we identified behaviors and the process of collaboration and cooperation. With each class, the cairn served as an ice breaker. I was able to share the story of the cairn to make sure all students know the culture of the school they have joined and how it became our emblem. From comments made by students, I learned that this was a more interesting way to start the quarter for each of my classes than what I have done in the past. Even old teachers like me can learn new tricks!
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AuthorNadene Klein, M.Ed. has been an educator for over 25 years. She brings a passion and love for science to the classroom and through this blog to you. Archives
March 2024
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