Science Talk

Field #6
February 26, 2008


Today I did my science talk with the whole class during science time. Overall, it went pretty well and students generated some concepts and ideas that we will definitely touch on in our three lessons. My particular lesson ties Christina’s and Carly’s lessons together. Christina’s lesson is on parts of a plant, Carly’s lesson is on what plants need, and mine will be on how plants grow and change. During the science talk, we asked students the question, “How do you think plants grow?” We had hoped students would mention parts of the plant (i.e. Starts as a seed), what it needs in order to grow (i.e. Sunlight, water, etc) and how it changes (grows a stem, and then leaves, etc) all by answering this one question. Students did a good job explaining what they already know, even though some were misconceptions. One student thought that you needed to plant an apple seed and give it apple juice in order for it to grow into an apple tree. Many other students agreed with this. Carly will have to address this in her lesson on what plants need. This science talk was a useful activity to do so that now we, as teachers, know what needs to be addressed more in our lessons. I never thought about doing this before, and probably wouldn’t have if it weren’t an assignment for this class. After doing a science talk and experiencing how easy and informal something can be as a pre-assessment, I plan on doing this in the future when I have a classroom in order to better address what exactly my students need to know about a topic based on what they already know.