Earth Science

 Concept Maps     One thing that I will be sure to do with my future class is to emphasize the importance of making connections. There are many important connections a student should make, such as connections to alternative topics within the same unit, or even other units, connections to different classes, connections to the real world, etc. A concept map is a great way to document these connections. Another benefit is that a concept map is ongoing, and can be added to whenever a new concept is mastered. Not to mention, it allows the student to not only document the things that they know, but also the things that they don't know. With that being said, concept maps make areas that need improvement very clear.     In terms of concept map formatting, it can be done in many ways. I have personally done both digital and handmade concept maps. Either is effective when done correctly, but the most important thing is that it is easy for the student to understand and eas...

Measuring the Solar System      As a teacher, it is very important to provide students with visuals. Especially things that can potentially be hard to grasp, such as the vastness of the solar system. Obviously, most science students are aware that the solar system is really, really big. However, do they know exactly how big? Or even about how big?     In an activity we did in class, we addressed this idea. I was one of those people that knew the solar system was big, but I certainly did not have a good idea as to exactly how big. To do this activity, we first divided everyone up and gave each person a planet to research. The first important piece of information to research was the distance of the given planet to the sun. Obviously, there is not nearly enough room to measure out the actual distance between these planets, so we converted these large numbers into meters, which made them a lot more manageable. After we converted all of our numbers, we also found so...

Lunar Observations      After the fifth grade, I never thought I would be making a moon journal ever again, but here I am! Honestly, I think I enjoyed it more in college than I did in elementary school. However, I was very disappointed because of course, it was cloudy every single day this week.      Despite this, I think this is a very beneficial activity for elementary schoolers. Even as a college student, I was forced to look closer at my surroundings and make deeper observations about them. It is important for students to be able to observe the world around them outside the classroom. Not to mention, as an elementary student I felt very accomplished when I observed and identified the correct phase of the moon!     A teacher can construct their class's moon journal however they would like. However, it is important to make the journal for a long enough time span, so that students are able to see the different moon phases. It is also important to...