Help! I’m Back in Middle School!

I am now “officially” taking a sixth grade science course through a virtual school. What an interesting experience, and certainly much better than I remember my sixth grade science being. I also teach two different sixth grade science lab courses (separate from the students’ regular sixth grade science courses), so I am familiar with the age group and the standard curriculum.

The course is themed around Extreme Games (not the real name) and is divided into 8 modules, designed to be completed in one school year. I have begun the first module which is the introductory module. In this module, a student receives information on their yearly agenda, chooses their pace (regular or accelerated-finish in one semester), and their level (standard or advanced-shows up as advanced on final transcript). This is also where the parents receive, sign, and fax in the safety contract, assuring the school that all at-home laboratories will be properly supervised.

Students are introduced to scientific processes, inferences and observations, the scientific method, what is science and what is a scientist. I have completed most of the assignments for module 1. Some of the assignments are graded instantly, such as questions that have multiple choice answers. The student clicks on the answer and submits the page. Some assignments require short answers, which the teacher has to grade. I can access my own grade book at any time, and track my progress. Some assignments can be corrected and resubmitted.

Here are some of my thoughts regarding my first experiences as a sixth grade on-line science student. First, I thought the experience was fun, easy, and worked well. The theme of the course is age-appropriate and not old-fashioned or out of date. The lessons covered in this unit were comparable to the sixth grade lessons we use at my school. The level seems appropriate and the content reflective of current sixth grade state science standards (The Nature of Science). If I were a sixth grader, I might have felt a little intimidated submitting my first assignment (I remember feeling intimidated submitting my first paper online in graduate school). I think the student would quickly become comfortable with the format, finding it easy to use. The web pages are clean, easy to read, and easy to follow. I would recommend that a student use high speed internet over dial up for the virtual school.

There are two recommendations I have for this module. Since the students are not meeting face to face with the teacher or their peers, they do not have the opportunity to discuss the concepts learned in the module. Perhaps there is or could be an online session where the students and teachers can IM discussions with each other. I would also recommend the students try an experiment at home that applies the use of the scientific method (if there is one, I did not find it). Here is an experiment our sixth grade science students do in class that could easily be done at home (please forgive the formatting-it was copied and pasted from a curriculum map attachment):



Name______________________________ Class____________ Section_______ Date________

THE GREAT PAPER TOWEL RACE

Determine Group Roles: Place a checkmark beside your role.
_____ Leader- Direct the sequence of steps for the lab; make sure everyone in the group is participating, keep the group on task.
_____ Supplier- Get all the supplies/materials for the lab; clean up after lab
_____ Recorder- Act as a scribe for your group
_____ Quiet captain-Keep your group’s volume down
_____ EVERYONE- Conduct the experiment, record data, and help one another

Problem: Is there a difference in the wet strength of various brands of paper towels?

Research: Questions to consider: What brand of paper towels do you use at home? What kind of paper towel commercials have you seen?

Hypothesis: Which paper towel brand will be the strongest? (If… then…)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Experiment:
Materials: Three different brands of paper towels, large paper clips, masking tape, scissors, droppers, water, washers of equal weight
Procedures:
1. Tape one end of each paper towel strip to the edge of a table.
2. Place a piece of masking tape at the bottom of each paper towel strip.
3. Bend a large paper clip into a hook and poke it through the masking tape at the bottom of each paper towel strip.
4. Lift the strip and hold it parallel to the floor as you place 10 drops of water on the center of the strip.
5. Allow the strip to hang from the table and place a washer on the hook.
6. Continue adding washers until the strip breaks.
7. Record the number of washers that the strip supported BEFORE breaking at the wet area.
8. Repeat this process until you have done this for each paper towel strip.
9. Repeat the entire process for scientific results.

Data:
Paper Towel Brand # of Washers
(Trial 1) # of Washers
(Trial 2) Average # of Washers


(there should be a table here)



Analysis: (answer with complete sentences)
1. What brand of paper towels held the most amount of washers? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What brand of paper towels held the least amount of washers?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What was the average number of washers supported by ALL the brands of paper towels? _____________________________________________________

Conclusion: (answer with complete sentences)
1. Do you accept or reject your hypothesis? Why? ________________________ ________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

Evaluation: (answer with complete sentences)
1. Why do you think this lab required you to conduct two trials for each brand of paper towel? _____________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What are some factors that could have altered the results of your experiment?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. If you were repeating this experiment, what changes would you make?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In conclusion, I found my first experiences in the virtual science classroom to be very engaging, interesting, and fun. I am looking forward to continuing my role as a sixth grade science student.