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What ways other then children science literature can teachers use to engage students on a science lesson?
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Hey! I think doing an activity with the class that intrigues them or gets students thinking and curious is a good way to engage the class. I also just read about a season lesson where the teacher dressed up and showed different props and clothing that would be used for different seasons. She then had her class guess what season she would use the clothes and props for. That was a fun little game that got student's attention and got them excited for the lesson. :)
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I find that students always enjoy BrainPop Videos as a means of introducing a new topic. It gets them excited and the videos also give them an introductory amount of factual information I also often utilize the many videos available on Youtube. I'm sure if you search you will be able to find a song or a cartoon about the topic your lesson is about.
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I have found that kids really enjoy hands on activities in lessons rather than traditional paper and pencil. Kids tend to be more engaged when they are doing things up out of their seats. It plays into the different multiple intelligence and gets them working socially with others.
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To make your science lessons engaging from the start, I think young children need hands on activities. Activities that will require them to move around, use manipulative, and make connections to the outside world.
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I have found that students love to act things out. Have them get up and move, they love it! Acting things out or using tools that provide a hands-on experience.
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I have found that reading a really interesting book as an engagement for a lesson really works too, especially if the kids are involved with reading the book! Students really latch on to hands-on activities too!
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This is so true! For teaching matter, it is really fun to have to students read Oobleck, and then get to explore oobleck's properties later in the lesson.
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Hi Lorena! I think grabbing their attention by showing them what the lesson will be about can be a good engagement, for example, I recently did a lesson on soil, i showed my students the three different types of soil for them to see and feel.
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I recently did a lesson on the movement and phases of the moon in class and our engage was great! We had all of the students stand up and take turns being the sun, moon, and earth in front of the class. We would go over the movement and importance each plays in the overall process and everyone was enjoying it! This being said, any activity that can get the kids up and understanding the topic in a different way is great!
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I agree! That sounds like a really wonderful, fun, and engaging lesson on the phases of the moon. Another great idea for helping them to understand those concepts, is to turn off the lights in the classroom, and only provide one bright source of light that represents the sun. Have the students hold balls or foam balls in one hand to represent the moon. The students hold their moons at about face level. Their heads serve as the "Earth". Have them rotate in small groups in front of the light source. Assess if they understand what phase the moon is in, based on the shadow castes from the "earth".
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I think someone else mentioned this already, but BrainPop videos are great. They have lessons, activities, and assessments to help a teacher through a lesson. I think that YouTube has some great videos as well, but need to be researched by the teacher in advance. I also think that doing some of the activities that are in the students' science books is a great way to create text-to-self connections. There are usually many simple activities that are scattered around the textbook that the teacher can do in class.
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I like using BrainPop as well! I find many great activity ideas on Teachingchannel.org. Teachers post really great resources and videos of their lessons on that website.
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I agree that presenting students with some form of technology, in this case an educational credible video, is quite engaging. I have showed students videos in the engaging part of previous lessons and they have focused throughout the entire video which has lead to their overall engagement of the complete lesson. Thus, it's all about students' likes and interests!
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I agree, using technology can be a great resource to get students attention. I noticed that when my students know that they are going to watch a video they get excited to be moving out of their seats.
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Take them outside to see science in the real world. Field observations are engaging and help children make connections to science when they are outdoors beyond class time.
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I couldn't agree more! Being outside helps students to learn and engage with material they could not otherwise grasp as well, from within the classroom. Many science lessons just make more sense outdoors. This helps build connections by learning from real world examples and gets them more excited about the lesson.
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One way that teachers can get their students to engage in a science lesson is by having them be physically involved during the lesson. For example, during a lesson about force and motion, the teacher could have the students come up with a way to get an object moving. During this time the teacher would have each student that comes up with an idea, come up to the front of the classroom to see if their idea will get the object to move. By having the students phyically come up to the front of the classroom and test an idea that they have, the teacher is using a portion of Howard Gardner's multipule inteligences theory.
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You can engage students with fun activities like puzzles and scavenger hunts about the topic that you are about to teach. The students will be excited and they will be getting an idea on the topic that they are about to learn about.
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Hands on activities are definitely the way to go! My students absolutely love it!
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I could not agree more, having students actively involved I believe creates a deeper meaning and learning experience.
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I like using videos from Flocabulary. They have videos for all the content areas as well as for the different grade levels. The only thing is that you have to pay; however, they have free trials. I think it is a great resource for engaging students.
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I have never heard of Flocabulary. It is nice to see that they have the videos separated by content areas along with the different grade levels. This makes it seem like it will be easy to navigate. It crushes me when good resources have to be bought in order to use. Hopefully the school I am in would be willing to purchase a subscription in order to better benefit the teachers and the students.
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