Forums

My district has a 'hole' in the curriculum regarding Earth & Space Science and we are looking to supplement the third or fourth grade curriculum to cover this topic. The state science assessment is given in March of the fourth-grade year.
After completing the Earth,Sun, & Moon scipak, I have real reservations about introducing this topic in the third grade. According to the scipak,An extensive review of research over the past 30 years has shown that the spherical earth concept does not come easily and that any attempts to teach it below fourth grade are not likely to succeed.Fourth or fifth grade, however, is an excellent time to focus instruction on this important idea, since most students are sufficiently mature to fully engage in thinking about the implications of a ball-shaped Earth, so that learning can be both deep and meaningful.
One option that has been discussed is to begin teaching the content at the end of third grade and then continuing into 4th grade. As I stated earlier, I have real reservations about introducing this content in third grade.
I am looking for your thoughts and expertise regarding this decision.

Hi Donna, What do the 4th grade teachers need to cover in the same content area? That may help you to know how to narrow it down to the most important concept(s). Perhaps all you will need to cover are some basic vocabulary terms like orbit, revolution, rotation, etc. Also, do the 3rd grade teachers have specific Earth science content that they are suppose to cover to prepare the students for 3rd grade? In my school district this is what the 3rd grade curriculum looks like for Earth Science: [i]• Earth Science Apply scientific inquiries to document the natural cycles and patterns of the Solar System.[/i] In 4th grade students learn about weathering and erosion. In 2nd grade they talk about weather. So for third grade (if I were the teacher), I would discuss the bigger ideas that relate to natural cycles like day and night or how shadows form and change throughout the day, the moon phases, etc. That way students would hopefully be making connections from grade to grade about naturally occurring cycles on earth, in earth, and around earth. I hope this helps. What are others' ideas?

Hi Donna, I found this research article that you might find interesting : http://www.cs.phs.uoa.gr/en/staff/20.pdf It talks about the implications for curriculum design regarding children's 3 concept models of the shape of the Earth. Here's an excerpt: For example, in the case of the earth, my colleagues and I have shown that many elementary-school children hold one of the six mental models sliown in figure 1 (see Vosniadou and Brewer submitted, Vosniadou, Archodidou, and Kalogiannidou in preparation). Some children think that the earth is shaped like a rectangle. Others think that the earth is circular but flat like a disc. A few children think that there are two earths: a flat one on which people live, and a round one which is up in the sky. Others believe that the earth is a hollow sphere and that people live on flat ground inside it. Finally, some children think that the earth is flattened at the top and bottom where people live. I think it will help you to decide how to proceed.

My district has a 'hole' in the curriculum regarding Earth & Space Science and we are looking to supplement the third or fourth grade curriculum to cover this topic. The state science assessment is given in March of the fourth-grade year.

Greetings Donna-It would be helpful to know what specific indicators you would be teaching your third grade students. There are many Earth/ Space concepts that students can access at third grade without having a firm foundation of the Earth as a spherical object, so I wouldn't let that be the deciding factor! I did graduate research focused on understanding young children's perceptions of the shape of the Earth- and read a lot of Vosniadou's work, but it was my understanding that most of her research dealt with kindergarten and first grade children. A wonderful resource to help determine what content is developmentally appropriate for students is the American Association for Scientific Literacy's Benchmarks.http://www.project2061.org/publications/bsl/online/index.php?chapter=4#A2

Most states use these benchmarks to guide them as they develop curriculum at the state level.

What indicators do you find there that align with what you want students to know to be successful on the 4th grade assessment?

Children of this age are very interested in shadows and readily investigate shapes of shadows using a bright lamp, a screen or wall, objects to create shadows. Investigating the shape of shadows leads into eclipses and the shapes of shadows formed during lunar eclipses. In explaining what they see, students may realize that an eclipse is evidence for the earth being spherical in shape. I would also have the great photo of the earth in space taken by NASA - for some of us this photo was visually stunning evidence that the earth is spherical in shape. There are a few resources from the Learning Center that I will attach to a second email. ~ patty

Here is a great article that you may wish to review if you pursue the idea of using shadows and eclipses to enable students to consider the conical shape of the earth. The NASA sites are great since they offer both content background and lesson plans that may be adapted for your classroom use. External Resource: Lunar Eclipses for Beginners an independent site: http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/LEprimer.html ~ patty

Attachments

Scope on the Skies: The real shape of the Moon's orbit (Journal Article)

Visualizing the Earth and Moon Relationship via Scaled Drawings (Journal Article)

The Benchmarks for Grades 3 through 5 that are related to Astronomy are as follows: [i]"Grades 3 through 5 Students should begin to develop an inventory of the variety of things in the universe. Planets can be shown to be different from stars in two essential ways—their appearance and their motion. When a modest telescope or pair of binoculars is used instead of the naked eyes, stars only look brighter—and more of them can be seen. The brighter planets, however, clearly are disks. (Not very large disks except in good-sized telescopes, but impressive enough after seeing a lot of stars.) The fixed patterns of stars should be made more explicit, although learning the constellation names is not important in itself. When students know that the star patterns stay the same as they move across the sky (and gradually shift with the seasons), they can then observe that the planets change their position against the pattern of stars. Once students have looked directly at the stars, moon, and planets, use can be made of photographs of planets and their moons and of various collections of stars to point out their variety of size, appearance, and motion. No particular educational value comes from memorizing their names or counting them, although some students will enjoy doing so. Nor should students invest much time in trying to get the scale of distances firmly in mind. As to numbers of stars in the universe, few children will have much of an idea of what a billion is; thousands are enough of a challenge. (At this stage, a billion means more than a person could ever count one-at-a-time in an entire lifetime.) Students' grasp of many of the ideas of the composition and magnitude of the universe has to grow slowly over time. Moreover, in spite of its common depiction, the sun-centered system seriously conflicts with common intuition. Students may need compelling reasons to really abandon their earth-centered views. Unfortunately, some of the best reasons are subtle and make sense only at a fairly high level of sophistication. Some ideas about light and sight are prerequisite to understanding astronomical phenomena. Children should learn early that a large light source at a great distance looks like a small light source that is much closer. This phenomenon should be observed directly (and, if possible, photographically) outside at night. How things are seen by their reflected light is a difficult concept for children at this age, but is probably necessary for them to learn before phases of the moon will make sense.[/i] I think this gives you are very good jumping off point to begin to plan and implement astronomy curriculum that is relevant and meaningful to upper elementary school students. The next step might be to do a search on the Learning Center for information and resources related to the topic areas that you select based on the AAAS Benchmarks. There are so many fabulous resources and activities that you will find once you have determined what you are looking for! I would be very interested to hear how your curriculum development goes and what you decide to focus on. To Infinity and Beyond!! Third grade students absolutely love learning about Space!