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Hello! I am a preservice teacher in a rural community. While preparing lessons for my students, I have found it difficult to find and teach lessons that will keep them engaged. They have such different interests and lifestyles than kids in other schools I have been in. If anyone has any tips or tricks to relate the science curriculum to things these students may be more engaged with I would appreciate it greatly! 

Hi Alexandra! 

Thank you for sharing this post about student engagement! You are not alone when it comes to keeping students motivated and on task, as this is something I often struggle with as well. 

I am a fourth year Elementary Education major at Wartburg College in Waverly, IA. Recently, we had the opportunity to engage in a professional development opportunity about phenomena and its relation to science. We were exposed to this website https://phenomena.iowapbs.org/ which contains a variety of stories, videos, and pictures about many different places in Iowa. This site provides driving/probing questions, classroom suggestions, and additional resources. I have noticed students are much more engaged in science when they are addressing real world problems which are happening in their backyard. One suggestion I have, would be to see if your state or area has a similar website. If not, I would suggest looking into stories and issues in relation to your community to help students build connections with the real world. Of course, another suggestion I have would be to give students as many hands-on experiences as you can. 

I hope this helps!