Fall 2004

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Teaching Science—PLAN AHEAD

by Bill Cowan

For many teachers the process of preparing a science unit for their students is an overwhelming experience. They are faced with a diverse range of tasks—planning classroom experiences to address prescribed learning outcomes, identifying key science concepts to be taught, collecting background reading material, designing experiments, gathering equipment and materials for experiments, choosing assessment tools and strategies.

One way to get started is to search out professionally prepared curriculum units that contain relevant content and pre-planned activities. Even so, work needs to be done to customize the unit for each particular group of students with their unique needs, skill level and interests. Being prepared in advance with a well developed unit will make teaching science fun, and provide opportunities for your students to learn from one another. Once you have developed a science unit that matches your teaching style, and that your students enjoy, it will be a relatively easy task to refine and adjust the unit for another year’s class. Here are some strategies to help make the planning process systematic and manageable.

• Begin by consulting the provincial curriculum guide and recording the learning outcomes you plan to address in the unit.
  
• Try to integrate learning outcomes from other curriculum areas to allow for more classroom time and a more in-depth study of the topic.
  
• Search out pre-planned units, and choose materials and activities that will help meet your objectives.
  
• Collect relevant print, audio, video and on-line resources from the school library, district resource centre and any other sources of information available to you.
  Plan the entire unit in advance, including how you will assess students’ progress.
  
• Collect and organize the materials needed for the experiments to be conducted. Many professionally developed units contain an “Experiment Equipment List” which can be used to accomplish this task.
  
• Plan to introduce potentially unfamiliar words and concepts at the beginning of the unit, drawing out what your students already know.
  
• Plan an introductory activity that will engage your students’ interest and raise questions that they will want to try to answer.
  
• Allow for different reading abilities among your students by planning to read background information together or adapting material to suit individuals or small groups. Make sure success in science isn’t dependent on reading skill.
  
• As you introduce activities requiring written responses, model the kind of response you’re expecting before students begin working independently—plan for their success.
  
• Plan for hands-on participation whenever feasible and safe. Experiments can be done individually, in pairs or in groups. Some experiments, such as those that require more equipment than is available or that involve safety issues, are better done by the classroom teacher with the assistance of one or two students. The rest of the class can watch, make predictions, ask questions and record their observations.
  
• Allow for investigations of the students’ questions—ensure they are engaged in the scientific processes of enquiry and experimentation even if the unit diverges from your stated objectives. After students have completed the assigned part of an experiment, encourage them, when safety permits, to repeat the experiment in a different way to see if they get a different set of results.
  
• Since students often learn best when they can connect new information with the real world, it is important to promote discussion of the possible practical applications of the scientific findings of your students.

When you are well-prepared and confident with a science topic, you are better able to create a comfortable and dynamic learning experience for your students.

Bill was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He received an Honours Degree in Psychology in 1976. He worked in business until 1990, when he returned to school and obtained a Bachelor of Education Degree from Brock University. He has been an elementary school teacher in the Hamilton area for the past 12 years. Bill’s interest in writing grew out of his teaching experiences. He enjoyed developing classroom materials for his students. Magnetic and Charged Materials (see page 15) is Bill’s fourth curriculum publication.The book won the Ontario Elementary Teacher’s Federation Writer’s Award in 2002.