Jang's+RL-Connection+page

1. During my internship at Fayerweather Street School, the classroom I worked with focused on the curriculum theme of birds. One of the many bird-related activities they did was to introduce students to creating bird pictures that were drawn to scale. The students would research the measurements, shape, and color of their chosen bird and then get an appropriate-sized canvas or paper to work with. They did this to introduce real-scaling and also to have students develop an appreciation for the sheer size of some of the birds, such as the albatross. I was struck by how meticulously the students worked on their pictures during free time; some of the pictures took weeks to finish.

Materials: Bird books, paint, paintbrushes, canvas, lots of patience

2. During one pleasant Spring morning, the class went out to Fresh Pond to collect and catalogue seeds and different plants. The students were interested in seeing what the seeds looked like, and also amazed by what kind of plants grew from the seeds. We grew some of these plants later at Fayerweather so that they could see the growing process as the days went on.

Materials: Field trip to a natural area, seeds, plastic bags, tolerance for getting seeds all over your body

3. One of the primary goals I had during my time at Fayerweather was to introduce my class to the Engineering Design Process (EDP) through introduction to various science and engineering-themed projects. One of the lessons we did involved having students create paper airplanes and modifying weight distribution (I.E. Placing a paper clip on the front, center, or rear of the plane) to see how it would impact the plane's flight performance. Some of the demonstrations were dramatic and a few students ended up becoming interested in making paper airplanes during morning time.

Materials: Paper, paper airplane books, paper clips, a big room

4. My students created bird feeders to attract different birds during the Fall and Spring. The teachers and students would document what kind of birds they saw through pictures and observation, and also draw connections to the birds they've read up on during their time in the classroom. What kind of birds did they see during the different seasons?

Materials: Bird feeds, lots of birds (Preferably a wide variety)

5. Another EDP lesson we did was based on creating and testing small boats using various material kits. This included many of the steps of the EDP such as Ask - Imagine - Plan - Create - Improve. During the imagine and plan stages, the students were introduced to the wide variety of materials and we spent some time predicting which materials would work well in their boat construction, as well as creating blueprints that then needed to be approved by the teachers before construction began. Why is it important for engineers to have a plan before creating?

Materials: A way to represent the EDP steps (I used actual steps made out of paper with pictures + captions), material kits (Variety of materials such as wood, felt, straw, plastic, etc), imagination is good too

6. During the actual creation and implementation of the small boats, we ran into problems with the testing site; the wind was blowing so hard that the initial goal of racing the boats was rendered impossible. Some of the boats capsized as well. We ended up adjusting the lesson to test different boats' construction and subsequent ability to stay afloat during inclement weather. Talk about how this could apply to real boats.

Materials: A small pool or place to test the boats, water, the students' boats, unresponsive weather

7. One day, during my internship at Lesley-Ellis, I noticed a group of students digging up worms in a dark, muddy section of the play area. I believe one student commented that there were a lot of worms in that one area. A lesson that could be done is to talk about why worms, and different creatures for that matter, can only be found in specific areas and conditions but not in others.

Materials: Outside play area, a place where students can find worms, poor worms

8. Some of the students in Fayerweather were extremely interested in Star Wars. They were interested in the different ships that appeared in the movies, and wondered what made them work. While the actual physics of space travel might be a bit esoteric to go into depth with 1st-2nd graders, we could certainly talk about ideas such as why, in real life, you wouldn't actually hear a spaceship if you were outside of it (Sound is vibrations in the air, and air does not exist in space).

Materials: Star Wars, probably an educational video or site that demonstrated why sound couldn't travel in space, George Lucas (He actually doesn't need to be there)

9. One day some students were doing a ball rolling exercise that involved ramps and blocks to increase/decrease the height of the ramp. The students predicted how far their balls would go when released from a ramp and then recorded the distances their balls traveled from the different heights You could also explore how a ball would travel different lengths on different surfaces.

Materials: Ramps, balls, predictions

10. I remember speaking to Professor Mary Eisenberg about different activities done with water tables. One of the ones she told me about involved an elaborate set-up where students could control and manipulate water flow through different configurations of tubes. She noted that one student tried to configure the tubes so that the water would slope downward, then go up a tube, but couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. This would be a good time to talk about why water couldn't flow upwards given that particular scenario.

Materials: Water table, elaborate tube construction, inquisitive child